One of the sweetest people we met in Malawi was an old man in his eighties, living by himself. When we visited, he was surrounded by local children who clearly loved him. I don’t know how to spell his name, so we’ll call him M. As it turns out, M is pretty popular. He’s an […]

Over the past several weeks, we’ve taken a closer look at the on-the-ground work in Zomba and Thyolo. It’s hard to sum everything up into concise paragraphs, and it’s even harder to tie everything into a nice bow. But I have saved my very favorite Malawi Snapshot for this—the last blog. With projects like clothing […]

The day I met Tia , she was wearing a bright yellow sundress—and absolutely smoking me in a game of keepaway. When I picture her now, I cannot envision her without a smile. She was joy embodied. Later (after she soundly beat me in keepaway and showed off some of her dance moves), I sat down […]

The first text we got from James when we landed in Malawi said, “We’re excited to show you the warm heart of Africa.” I wrote the phrase down immediately—because what a picture, right? According to my cursory Google search (very professional), Malawi is known as the “Warm Heart of Africa” because of the kindness of […]

We drove along the dirt roads of rural Zomba with about 20 boxes jostling in the back seat of our little bus. Three of us stood in the aisle, putting all our weight against the boxes to keep them from toppling as the vehicle rolled down a hill. It was—to say the least—a makeshift transport. […]

When I was little, my mom told me the story of a man walking along a beach. (No, this isn’t the Footprints poem—and yes, I promise it will tie into Malawi; stick with me.) In the story, the man found thousands of star fish scattered and dying on the sand because the tide was low, […]

How many times do you turn on a faucet in a given day? Have you ever counted? Every morning when I get up, I turn on the shower, letting it run until the water turns hot. I flush my toilet. I brush my teeth over the sink. I make a pot of coffee. I do […]

Hello. Bonjour. Hola. Nǐn hǎo. Konnichiwa. Shikamoo. Selamat siang. Shalom. There are thousands of words we use to greet each other. Language is fascinating that way—that so many different words can mean the exact same thing. When we step into the unknown, though, we realize how important our greetings are. We have the power to […]