Day 3 – The Painting Begins

Today we finally started painting, We spilt up into two teams so that we could work on both schools at the same time. Here are the stories from both teams.

Nansato – Iain

After an early start the A Team drove out to Nansato school and set up the equipment that we would need for the day. Mr A made a plan with the builders and soon we were at work with the whitewash to begin with. In the morning we focused on three classrooms including one where the whole room needed to be whitewashed. This was hard work as the lime was not very easy to work with. The state of the classrooms was shocking as they lay bare and crumbling. It was clear how much hard work had been done to the windows and floors before we arrived. The classroom was nice and cool and well ventilated with the new windows. We could see the scale of the task in front of us. The painting was actually quite enjoyable and we had a chat as we worked. This included some interactions with the local school kids who crowded the windows to watch us curiously until the Head teacher arrived at which point they all scarpered (for a minute). They were good at asking what our names and ages were.

We had made packed lunches before leaving the house which consisted of mainly peanut butter sandwiches although there were boiled eggs on offer too. Eating these packed lunches discretely was possibly the most difficult part of the day as we knew the children had nothing. We sat in a classroom and had a chat before getting to work again.

In total today we started work on 5 classrooms: one of them is still getting windows fitted. The work was tough but we feel we achieved a lot on the first day. We headed back up to the lodge to clean up the large quantity of paint we were wearing. I decided to go for another run with a staff member called Moses. Unfortunately, as I was jogging around waiting for Moses to arrive, I tripped and decked it onto a big rock scraping my hands and knees. Fortunately, our bus driver is trained in First Aid and one of the Belfast ladies is a doctor and I was diagnosed with a sore wrist. I will be thinking twice before running on the paths again.

Apart from this painful adventure, the day has been an extremely worthwhile start to our project and it is now clear the great amount of benefit we are bringing to the children of Likhubula.

Pasani – Ross

The actual work involved with the first day of painting was not the highlight of my day.  The real enjoyment came from talking with the children and staff in Pasani.  After lunch Euan and I went to sit on a step to enjoy some of the African heat. As we expected, we were joined by many enthusiastic children.  All of them were so good at speaking English which made us think that we should try and pick up some Chichewa.  A member of staff started to help us by teaching us basic speech like “How are you?” and “Thank you”.  Not long after that we had more than a dozen children gathered around us trying to teach us to speak like them!  They seemed to find it very amusing that we struggled to pronounce everything!  Although we did forget most of the words that they taught us, I’m certain the feeling of being made to feel a part of the community will remain with us forever.  Today was such an important day because it was the first day that I really felt a connection with the people in Likhubula.  I hope every day shares the same positivity as today.