Bleary-eyed, and half asleep, we all met at 5:45a.m. to watch the sunrise together.  To see all of the beautiful reds, purples, pinks, yellows and oranges spreading across the African sky was truly a sight to behold and well worth the early start.  As predicted by Lewis and Kieran the sun appeared at exactly 6:07 and had fully risen by 6:24, perhaps we will see them on BBC sometime soon! Kieran has also asked if Mr. Millar could politely refrain from using hashtags on posts as he is mortified! We then went on safari in the afternoon and again it was a fantastic experience.  We managed to catch a glimpse of some crocodiles, baboons and a range of birds; however we didn’t catch a glimpse of any elephants.  In the morning we will travel back to Katete to see the boys and the children from the community, who we have all missed terribly.

Monday Goodbye

Today we left early to head back to Katete and had another long bus journey.  After arriving back in Katete we were hosted at an official goodbye ceremony in the school.  The head teacher spoke very kindly and graciously about our partnership with their school and highlighted the types of things they have been able to do with the kindness and support from Our Lady’s High School and the community of Cumbernauld.  Mrs Forrester spoke on behalf of our group and thanked the Bosco boys for their warm welcome and interactions over the course of the trip.  We were given some beautiful gifts from the head teacher; shirts for the boys and dresses for the girls which were handmade locally and we were all very grateful for the beautiful gifts.  We are very sad about the prospect of leaving this unbelievable place, and thank God for this fantastic opportunity.  After being hosted by the Parish Priest for dinner this evening, we will pack our bags in preparation for our departure tomorrow.  See you all soon.

Although we were sad to be leaving the bay, we were looking forward to the next chapter in our adventure.  We had met some fantastic  characters at the Njaya Lodge; Lovely Jubbly, Cheese on Toast and Happy Coconut, to name but a few.   After a long, tiring four hour journey we reached Nkhota Khota Beach.  As the teachers talked about organising the next part of the trip, all we could hear were screams from the girls’ rooms.  This time though it wasn’t because Ada had seen an insect, it was screams of joy at the hot water in the showers!  In the evening we were treated to live music from five local men, who played some local music as well as some classic hits such as ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ and ‘Let it Be’, much to the delight of Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Dickson who sang the whole night through!  We plan to get up at 5:45 tomorrow morning to watch the sunrise which is supposed to be a truly remarkable sight.

Yesterday we had another amazing day on the Lake.  In the morning we had our breakfast and then headed down into the local town.  We spent some time wandering around, conversing with the locals and bartering for deals on the local goods.  The pupils bought a range of things to take back home and eventually became quite good at driving a hard bargain.  In the afternoon we had a small boat trip around the coast to watch sea eagle fishing.  It was an amazing sight to behold.  The boat then took us to a small private beach where the boys and Mr. Maxwell challenged the local village boys to a game of football.  Although they tried to explain that the game was supposed to be 6-a-side I think it was actually about 6 versus 25!  We still came out on top with a 10-7 victory.  After dinner we sat around a large fire with St. Maurice’s and were entertained by a few of the pupils giving us some songs on the guitar.  Today we will drive to our second lodge at the Pottery Barn and enter the Wildlife Reserve, we are all excited and looking forward to the next part of our adventure.

After four hours on the world’s smallest minibus we arrived in Njaya Bay.  The scenery is incredible!  We have our own private beach and the people here are treating us incredibly well.  The girls have beautiful lodges and the boys have a beach front cottage.  Much to the delight of the group the lodge has Wi-Fi and everyone has been ‘WhatsApping’ as if their lives depended on it.  Although we are all delighted to be here some of the group are missing the boys from John Bosco already, which is testament to how hard they have been working and how well the trip has gone so far.  We have just had a beautiful lunch and tonight we are having a sunset barbecue.  Thank you for all of the lovely comments and messages of support, the thought of coming home within the next week is giving everyone ‘the fear’.  We will try and get more photos on tomorrow.  Hope all is well back home.

Today we were invited to be special guests at the form 4 (fourth year) graduation.  The boys have completed their education now at Bosco and are preparing for their exams next week.  An Our Lady’s favourite Donex received many awards for his excellent efforts over the last four years.  We were delighted to see how far he and the other boys have come since our first visit in 2013.  We wish them all the very best of luck for their exams.  During the ceremony the boys showcased their many talents ranging from singing, to dancing, to poetry and even to comedy sketches!  Mr. Dickson delivered a very moving vote of thanks, and then we met for a huge banquet-styled lunch with the boys and invited guests.  In the afternoon the boys and the teachers played in a staff versus pupils game of football.  Ryan, Lewis, Kieran and Ross played well however Mr. Dickson and Mr. Maxwell (who has been nicknamed ‘White Drogba’) struggled to keep up with the pace and strength of the Bosco boys.  It was great to see the pupils dressed in their strips which Our Lady’s High School donated last time we were here, and the staff played in a fabulous array of Celtic hoops!  This evening we will have an early night as we leave at 9a.m. for Lake Malawi.

Today was our first day in classes.  We set our alarms for 6a.m. as school starts with an assembly at 7am.  Mrs Forrester was teaching the boys about globalisation, Mr. Dickson (with his hat finally off) was teaching Geography and Mr. Maxwell was teaching some Scottish History.  The boys at Bosco are so eager to learn that they drank in everything with great enthusiasm.  The pupils from Our Lady’s High School were in classes supporting the teachers, as well as going into some classes to see what the learning environment is like here.  It was a fantastic experience!  We also made our first visits to the local primary schools and handed over some donations which were very gratefully received.  The Katete boys’ primary school have used the previous donations from our local feeder primary schools to build a library.  They have made great progress and it is nearly completed.  In the afternoon we continued to interact with the boys and the staff here, and built upon our already great relationships and friendships.  The pupils from Our Lady’s High School will host the boys in specialised classes this afternoon, teaching them about music, basketball, art and football.

It’s a long way to Lilongwe…

We are here!  We left the school at 10am on Thursday 9^th of June.  After roughly 32 hours of travel we arrived safely in Katete.  Everyone is absolutely exhausted but very excited to meet our hosts.  Ryan is keeping us entertained with his fantastic understanding of the English language and Mr. Dickson’s magic hat has provided great banter too!  We look forward to a long sleep and meeting the boys tomorrow.

The Warm Heart of Africa

Today we had breakfast in the newly built teachers’ house where the girls and Mrs Forrester are staying.  The house is excellent.  The boys are staying with Mr.  Dickson and ‘The Maxwell’.  Today we saw the work which all of our donations have went towards, as we saw the full workings of the water system.  We cannot describe the impact which this is having on the school and the local community.  John Bosco have also invested in livestock and crops in an attempt to become fully self sufficient, and are now farming to help supplement their school budget as well as feed their boys.  Tonight we will be interacting with the boys and people from the local community.

Sunday – A Day of Rest

Good morning!  We are preparing to get ready for mass.  We are struggling to come to terms with the friendship and love which we have been shown from our friends here in Malawi.  Today we will attend mass and then have some free time to organise our donations, so that we can make sure it all goes to the right place.  Sunday should be a day of rest, however we are enjoying ourselves too much to even consider resting.  We hope all is well back home, everyone sends their love.

All of the generous donations have now been collected in and organised. And as you can see, staff and pupils have been hard at work packing all of the clothes, stationary and other goodies into cases.  We will make sure that all of the donations go straight to the people in the local community who need it most.  2 more sleeps…

And so the long awaited trip gets ever nearer.  In almost exactly four weeks, we will all be at the airport, excited, nervous and full of anticipation.

Our preparations in school are well under way and we are continuing the drive for stationary and goods, which we will take to Malawi to share with the school and their local community.

Thank you to all who have supported us so far with donations and encouragement.