'Reunion on the Water' is a twice-monthly blog series where those who have participated in past trips to Malawi share their stories and experiences. Our mission is to provide clean water to rural schools in the country.
Return from Malawi
On an August evening in Wisconsin, one of the many lakes in the state that residents spend their summer months on is sparkling and blue in the slowing fading sun; gentle waves push against the shore and a few boats pass by, trailing a wake behind them. As I arrive and greet the lovely people at Elkhart Lake, I am offered a selection of cold drinks sitting on ice in coolers near the back door. As cosmic irony would have it, my purpose in visiting with the present company all stems from a lack of what I am conveniently able to reach for: water.
Only about a month and a half ago, Shannon Bullard, her daughters Bridget and Charlotte, and her father Steve Hamer, returned from their trip to Malawi, Africa. This evening, I am visiting with them and the rest of their traveling party to get a snapshot of what their time in Africa was like. All I have heard so far, since their return, has been – “don’t ask me now! If I start talking, I’ll never stop. We’ll find time to sit down and chat.” Bridget Bullard, my best friend and one of my fellow GRO co-founders, came to see me the day she stepped off her flight from Malawi. When I asked her about the trip, she took a deep breath and got this sparkle in her eye. “It changed my entire perspective,” she said, about GRO, fundraising for borehole wells, and Malawi in general. “We’ll have to talk another time,” she assured me, because she could only stay for a short while, “there’s just so much to talk about.”
Soon after I arrived, the other travelers began to show up – father and daughter Paul and Emily Treffert, and father and daughter Tom and Alyssa Lawry. Ethan Kapelka is also in attendance as WASH for Life’s website designer and technology extraordinaire. Steve Hamer represents the WASH contingent as the foundation’s director and founder, and the Bullard girls represent the GRO faction, as members of both the first and second generations of the non-profit (Shannon has been a mentor for both!). Kapelka traveled with Paul and Steve to Malawi in 2023, along with Dillon Hamer, who traveled on behalf of St. John’s Northwestern and their borehole efforts. Steve Hamer has now been to Africa three times, the most of anyone in the group. The connecting point between the members of the group is Sheboygan Senior Community (SSC), where Paul Treffert is director and CEO; Tom Lawry is the Health Unit Coordinator and his daughter, Alyssa, is a CNA and nursing student. Steve is an active volunteer at SCC, and in recent years Paul, Tom, and their daughters have added their efforts to fundraising for boreholes and spreading awareness about the clean water crisis. Emily, who is a junior at UW Madison, and Alyssa both gave incredible, informative presentations at SSC prior to the trip. This was the same event where GRO’s had their most recent presentation before the trip, and the community at SSC has become invested in the progress of the group as a whole. It seems SSC was bound to be a strong and enthusiastic partner of GRO and WASH from the beginning, and the passion of their representation truly rounded out the group going to Malawi.
First image: Charlotte Bullard (right) and I, two generations of GRO!
Second image: Steve Hamer (left) and Ethan Kapelka (right) on Elkhart Lake.
Almost immediately as we sit down for dinner, the view of the lake glittering behind us, memories of the trip begin to arise. This is the first time since June that the group (with the exception of Bridget) has been together, and their explicit purpose today is to revisit their experience and discuss their takeaways and reflections. It is an exciting conversation to be a part of; as someone who has not been to Malawi, but has many ties to the place and the people in conversation, I am an invested fly on the wall, armed with an empty notebook and a trusty pen. The first wonderful thing I noticed about this group is that there was no need to prompt conversation. You can tell they have traveled together and been fundamentally changed together, simply by way of how easy the discussion is, how enthusiastic they all are, and how memories emerge without needing much coaxing. There is something very palpable about the energy in the room, because I can understand now that this is the first time many people in this group have been able to talk about their experience in retrospect, knowing that there will be mutual understanding. As Emily Treffert expressed during the evening, since returning from Malawi, it’s been difficult for her and many of the travelers to explain their experience to people who cannot grasp the value or enormity of it, and having nothing change about their day-to-day lives when they get back to America can be frustrating. For such a monumental shift in perspective, coming back to certain aspects of American culture is tough to reckon with, especially when the critical essence of the trip is even more difficult to capture and relay to people who have never been before. As one of those people, even with the context of GRO, WASH, and the people in Malawi, I have to rely on my ability to draw thematic takeaways and read the overwhelm of different emotions to even scratch the surface of understanding what a trip like this did to change lives – and it all starts with the stories.
The table of storytellers… From right: Paul Treffert, Steve Hamer, Charlotte Bullard, Tom Lawry, Alyssa Lawry, Emily Treffert, Ethan Kapelka, and author Marcella Senti; Not pictured, Shannon Bullard (behind camera)
To Be Continued... Read Part 2 Here
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