becca HoH

So I write to you from Blantyre… the cultural capital of the country.. but im going to write about our time at the Home of Hope Orphanage about 6 hours away from here on the border of Zambia, in the foothills of a small cluster of mountains. It is a beautiful beautiful place… inside and out. We spent our days playing with the little kids, talking to the older ones after school, and learning from teachers. We decided that since we were in a pretty religious environment where we had to attend devotion services at half five and half three every day, wear chitenges (wraps) over our pants, and stay separate from boys, etc that we would make it into a little retreat for ourselves. We tried to only say positive things, to be proactive and to not talk bad about anyone. In addition we did a rose and thorn every night (the best and worst part about your day). The retreat aspect wasn’t the most successful, but it was still important for us to do and we are still doing rose and thorns everyday.

We met some amazing people at HoH… not only the family that started it, but the kids, and other volunteers. We sat and talked to some teenage girls who had some questions for us and we had questions for them. I think they were happy to have some visitors that were just there to get to know and understand them… not try to impose things on them. Another volunteer who we only spent one day with is there for a month tutoring. He was a very interesting guy who has spent the past year traveling all over the world. And he is only returning home to Canada when he runs out of money. So he is saving every kwacha he can. Another group of volunteers was an interesting mix of people from new york and LA…. They were doing some sports program… going to different schools and stuff to introduce kids to new sports, because they mostly just play futbol (soccer). They meant well, but I’m not going to lie that it was pretty entertaining to watch them teach baseball…

We concluded that this is how cricket was spread around the world to every british colony. A group of white people went somewhere. Taught the rules. And then the people went with it from there. Perhaps that is the hope with teaching baseball… who knows. But anyway… that was an interesting experience. And I know they meant well… at least they didn’t teach American football… and we got a good laugh out of it.

So again, HoH is a few km from the main town so it is fair to say that this self sustaining village of 654 children, teachers, caregivers, workers, and administration is in the middle of nowhere. It gets dark around 5:30 pm, so one night we had a meeting at another house in the village later in the evening. On our way we looked up into the sky and could see just about every star and planet in the universe. It was an incredible moment. I remember before I came here I was excited to see stars… and we finally did. It looked like a planetarium.. it was unreal…….

Then one morning we decided to go on a hike to the top of the Mchingi hill right outside the village. So 2 high school boys who regularly climb this hill guided the way. We left just after sunrise at 6 am and made it to the top around 8. We stayed up there for a little while and then returned by 9:30. It was not until we came back down that I was astounded that we climbed this mass. It was a beautiful view from the top, but I could only appreciate the vastness back at the village. Shohini kept saying “Did we really climb that one? Are you sure its THAT one? Not this smaller one?”
It was a great moment and even though going up and down were equally a struggle, we were glad we did it. (pictures to come. I am scared my computer will explode if I upload anymore)

We arrived to HoH on Tuesday, and did the hike on Thursday. After the hike we realized we couldn’t avoid showers any more so we each took turns standing in an ice cold shower quickly trying to removed the dirt from our legs and arms. It was a partial success.. but oh well… we’re used to being dirty at this point. we are counting the days until we have real showers again... but thas okay... We had made a promise that we would shower when we got to blantyre. And that we did. Friday morning we left for Lilongwe to catch a bus to blantyre. We were SO excited to be venturing off to the cultural capital. We heard there is a movie theater and actual things to do… so we spent 6 hours traveling here through beautiful terrain having good conversation and seeing our first bribe at the checkpoints. Yes, this country has checkpoints when you go into a new district? Why? I don’t know. It’s the most peaceful country on the continent. What theyre looking for? I don’t know. Maybe its just a means of employment… it gives the military something to do. cheers!

Anyway, so we arrived in blantyre, more excited than ever. And we made the trek to our lodge, lugging all our suitcases. Once again, we stuck out like sore thumbs. But more on blantyre next time! stay tuned.