At first, I thought that I had arrived at a real old African village of round houses, mud walls and thatched roofs. But things are changing with homes built with bricks and corrugated tin roofs. Both types have a surrounding verrandah on which the traditional African outdoor existence is lived. Houses are almost entirely for sleeping in only. Family compounds allow community life to continue in the time-honoured African way. One of the many joys was being able to see and experience just some of this lifestyle during visits to the village.

The other thing to say is that it is all breathtakingly beautiful – the landscapes, the sunsets and the night skies unspoiled by light pollution. You are living and working right in the heart of the African Bush.

Our first task on the project was to fill wheelbarrows with soil and move it offsite. Very rapidly, we were joined by a crowd of young boys from the village who wanted to help. They were hugely enthusiastic, particularly with the wheeling and tipping of the heavy barrows. Another amazing exhibition of strength and commitment was a small team of skilled men who were engaged in creating gravel for the concreting. This involved lighting fires on large boulders to crack them then breaking them into manageable rocks. The rocks were then chipped by hand, using club hammers, until they were broken down into the required gravel. Both boys and men showed impressive strength and stamina. They really deserve their school.
Because our team arrived in August, we were soon made aware of the fact that we were in a Muslim area of Malawi. It was the time of Ramadan and this required the local people to rise early in the morning to prepare for the day. This involved a team going round the village banging pots and pans to wake everyone from their slumber. As this occurred before sunrise, at about three in the morning, it allowed the members of our team to get back to sleep again before it was our turn to get up.

As the days passed, I was increasingly impressed with the huge amount of physical effort that had already gone into the project. The scrub clearance, pressing and firing the hand-made bricks and digging trenches into sloping ground for the foundations must all have required lots of careful planning and organisation as well as many man-hours. As all of this has been done by men and women from the village it indicates thier eagerness to see a school built for their children. This is further reinforced by news from the site that another huge soil-shifting effort has gone into preparation for laying the floors now that the foundations have been completed.

Fabulous fun and "mateship" with members of the team (all much, much younger than me), superb food, wonderful sunrises, beautiful mountains, village life and people, informal worship on top of a mountain, gigantic Baobab trees.........
These vivid impressions I took away with me, but what we left behind was more important; the people. I have given a hint of the commitment of the local people but what was so encouraging was the quality of skill, sensitivity and insight of the missionary team from South Africa who will continue to supervise the project. It was a delight to work with them and especially to learn from them. They will see this project to its completion; we have just been privileged to do a bit towards it.

For anyone that really wants to leave the West behind and immerse themselves in a totally different culture this will be a real adventure. The village is a two hour drive off of sealed roads. This is an outstanding opportunity to contribute to a remote people group, many of whom have little contact with the outside world.

You must be ready to roll up your sleeves and get down to some hard work; we will be working fairly solidly on building the school rather than visiting other projects. This is a trip for over 18s, preferably with some experience of developing countries. If you are in search of ‘something completely different’ this will be a real adventure.