Sunday 14 October 2012

Monday 1st October- Lirangwe- Friends of NeverSeconds

I didn’t sleep well because the fan in my room is noisy. It is nice to be cool but I may turn the fan off because it kept me awake. I was very nervous in the van going to Lirangwe. I was shaking with nerves. When we got there all the children were lined up singing and I could hear them over the sound of the van engine.


When we got out and stood in front of them you could feel the song in your chest. Dad, Mum and Grandpa all had wet eyes and I had to squeeze dad’s hand. It was a nice song and I went down to the children to thank them. I said ‘Muli bwanji’ which means ‘hello how are you’ and ‘Zikomo kwambiri’ which means ‘thank you’. After we had said hello properly we went to the headmistress’s office. Joe spotted a wad of papers pinned to the wall. It was the school Death Record and it was very thick.

Next we went to the kitchen to meet the ladies making the likuni phala. They were very happy and danced.


There were 6 massive pots of porridge being cooked and the ladies were singing as they stirred it. One lady had her baby strapped to her back but he didn’t wake up. I had a go at stirring but I got smoke in my eyes from the wood fire because I am short. The pots were massive and I think I could have had a bath in one. The sign had been left for me to complete and there was a sand pile for me to stand on.


I liked the colour of blue I used to finish the sign. It’s my favourite. I was very careful about doing it and I almost used too much but the artist helped me. I hope you like our sign. I tried my best and Joe and Polly helped.


I helped serve out the phala to the children. I used a jug to give everyone the same.


Some children didn’t eat all their porridge so they could take it home to their family to share. I find it hard not to eat when I am hungry and it is one of the bravest things I have ever seen.
I had some phala with an older class. One boy in the class was called Gilbert and he had sent me a message through Mary’s Meals. Gilbert’s an orphan. His dad was eaten by a crocodile and Gilbert lives in the market at night on his own.


Gilbert wants to be president when he grows up and he said he would make sure no child will be hungry in Malawi. Gilbert for president!
We all made lots of friends. Here is Polly’s friend. They stayed together all day.


Everyone is very proud of the kitchen at the school and so am I.

20 comments:

  1. Absolutely amazing to see what you have achieved - you should be so proud of yourself and the Friends of NeverSeconds.

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  2. Fantastic blog entries - congratulations VEG - we will show this to the children in Ysgol Kingsland next week. We hope to send more money to your http://www.justgiving.com/neverseconds page the following week - BLOD is going to send you an email to explain what's been going on here. Congratulations again and good luck this week with all the media!!!

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  3. And we are all very proud of you! I have to admit I got wet eyes myself just reading what you wrote and seeing the pictures. Absolutely, positively well done! Rock on Veg and Mary's Meals!
    Bill in Nova Scotia

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  4. I am very grateful that you are sharing this story with us all. I had "wet eyes" myself after reading this post!

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  5. And boy, I am proud of you!

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  6. Dear Martha, you are doing a brilliant job with your blog, and Mary's Meals, and of course the kitchen! You're making a lot of people more aware of what life is like for children in countries like Africa, which is a very good thing to do as you know, and your blog is also always really interesting to read. I like to show it to my daughter who is also called Martha (but she's only 6!), and she thinks it's great too. I'm so happy to see how your trip went. Keep up the superb work!

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  8. What an achievement :-) Thank you for introducing us to Mary's Meals! If it wasn't for you we would have never donated x

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  9. You should be proud. It's a wonderful achievement.

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  10. I had tears in my eyes reading this - what an inspiration you are xo

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  11. This is amazing Martha ! To see where the money has gone and to meet the people you've helped is so amazing. I'm sitting here at work with tears rolling down my face.

    Thanks for being such an inspiration !

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  12. "I find it hard not to eat when I am hungry and it is one of the bravest things I have ever seen." - That really touched my heart! All the posts are amazing and I hope to see more.

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  13. I think you did more with this blog than Malawi's president...

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  14. This is so amazing. I'm glad you were there to help finish up the kitchen sign.

    It is great to see where all of the donations have gone to and that so many people around the world have been able to help these children out.

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  15. Martha, what an amazing thing you've accomplished, you deserve to be proud of it!! I am proud to be a small droplet of water in this enormous ocean of goodness and generosity! I have too tears when reading your posts... Thanks for your generosity and enthousiasm Martha, you made that "dream" possible for those kids in Mallawi! from a very proud "friend of NeverSeconds", Veronique

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  16. Thanks for your enthousiam and generosity, Martha!! Thank you for sharing such an amaizing adventure, what an accomplishment! I, too, had tears when reading your post. Great way to go Martha!! From a very proud "friend of NeverSecond", Veronique

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  17. An inspiration and very well written. Me too, tears in my eyes when I read.

    I like how they piled up sand for you to reach the sign.

    - Martha, Meals and Malawi

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  18. Very impressed you took the trouble to learn some of the local language so you could greet people.

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