Hi we’re back! AND the power is back!!!!

The Malawi EWB team has spent the past two days beginning the next phase of the trip. In June 2014, when EWB-UD partnered with VIP and villages in the Sakata region of Malawi, the Malawi project partnered with 5 villages. After assessing all 5 villages, EWB-UD decided to focus on a single village at a time, beginning with Mphero. On this implementation trip the Malawi project has successfully provided potable water to the 500 residents of Mphero, which means the potable water project in Mphero now enters the monitoring and evaluation phase.

In the meantime, our Malawi EWB team has begun to look towards the future. The team has spent the past two days visiting the other 4 villages from our original partnership to help decide where to begin our next project. So far we have visited Nkagula, Chilimani, and Kanyenda, and tomorrow we visit Liti. It has been so incredible to be greeted so warmly by all of the communities. It is exciting to meet new people and hear about how they live. Sadly, what we have heard is that many of the people in these communities are facing very serious challenges with potable water supply, irrigation and harvest, and these problems only seem to get getting worse with the changing climate.

For the past year I have experienced these four other villages as facts in the history of our EWB Malawi Potable Water project. It has been an amazing experience to finally meet the people of Nkagula, Kanyenda and Chilimani. They are so open in sharing with us their challenges as well as their joy, singing, dancing, and laughing.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to visiting our last and largest partner village, Liti, as well as returning to Mphero to pump our finished well and say goodbye to our friends there. It has been an incredible trip and I am sad to go, but know that my sadness comes from having to say goodbye (for now) to people that we have grown to love and care about.