'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. Read Part 1 Here
The Stories Emerge
When discussion started, the first recounting of the trip I heard was purely anecdotal – and really, there is no better way to capture the essence of a people or place than to simply hear stories of everyday experiences. Over our barbeque pork, crudités, and All-American mac and cheese, the first story I hear is of a dinner the group had in Malawi, where they were invited into the home of our friend and business liaison Patrick Tembwe. Patrick has been our great partner since the early days of GRO back in 2013, and his wife Gloria cooked a wonderful meal for the group in their home. The girls – Emily, Alyssa, Bridget, and Charlotte – were invited to help prepare the meal, which involved catching, butchering, and defeathering the chickens for dinner. As the first very stark and observable cultural difference, the consensus of the group was an admiration both for the down-to-earth nature of the culinary experience and for the practice of truly using the whole animal and all of its resources. Charlotte recalls Bridget finding the head of the chicken in her serving, which Patrick’s nieces expressed was an exciting portion of the meal to receive. Hearing this story, I couldn’t help but look down at my meal and wonder how many times I’d prepared and eaten dinner without thinking of where the food came from or what got wasted for the sake of familiarity and consumer comfort. The travelers recall observing incredible gardens at some of their host’s homes: native plants and garden staples in large, rustic but manicured plots. Patrick also had around 35 pigs! Across their trip, the group was invited to dine with several of their hosts, and being able to share a meal with these communities was incredibly important to sharing gratitude and to having a “cultural experience without boundaries”, as Shannon put it.
(First Image) Alyssa Lawry and Emily Treffert at dinner with the Tembwe Family.
(Second Image) Sisters Bridget and Charlotte Bullard representing two generations of Girls Reaching Out.
The trip, the group agrees, is not for everyone. Traveling across the Malawian countryside is not like driving cross-country in the United States. Visiting multiple well sites and their communities required long hours in a van across rural dirt roads, sometimes 6-7 hours or more a day. The time passed very fast, but it required taking naps during the bumpy drive, navigating through the rural landscape, and finding the energy for driving to and from Lilongwe all within the course of a day. Their energy was always saved for engaging with the people they met in various communities – and because “each school had a different personality”, there was always a new way to engage and interact with the communities that hosted them. The group noted that having a local driver and friends like Patrick to help with navigation and communication made an enormous difference, even when they had to look up the way on Google Maps with poor service. Despite the lack of road signs and facing a flat tire in a remote spot, the group expressed that “every single surprise worked out” and “they always made it back”.
(First Image) Alyssa and Tom Lawry outside the Agape Orphanage.
(Second Image) Charlotte Bullard, Timothy Tembwe (Patrick’s son) and Bridget Bullard pose together in the trees.
With all the normal anxieties of international travel, especially in countries with vastly different language, culture, and landscapes, it was wonderful to be amongst the Malawian people, who were so kind, helpful, and gracious, and alway treated the members of the group like family. Alyssa, Emily, Paul, and Tom, who had visited a friend, Mahari, in Ethiopia before coming to Malawi, recounted a very similar experience during their time there as well. Whenever the group visited a school, Patrick introduced the members based on their relationship to each other, because it was all groups of families traveling together; it was a way of expressing, “Our families are here to help your family”. Relating to each other this way, it certainly seemed to me, built the network of our collective global family. There were even stories about the celebration of family, as the trip occurred over Father’s day, and all the girls on the trip were there with a father figure. While in Malawi over the holiday, everyone sat at a long table and took turns standing to say something they admired and loved about their father or grandfather. Tom explained that when he saw the girls at the school, he hoped it would inspire them to see that all the men in their traveling group were there with their daughters/granddaughters – and that they could travel like that too. For both the American group and their Malawian hosts, family was an exceptionally special theme during the trip and the most important value to cultivate. Seeing the families come back to Wisconsin and connect over the stories of their adventures, I can certainly tell that relationships around the table have strengthened and grown.
(First Image) Patrick introduces Emily and Paul Treffert to a school community.
(Second Image) Shannon Bullard learns how to carry a water bucket on her head like the Malawian women.
(First Image) Bridget Bullard, grandfather Steve Hamer, and Charlotte Bullard stand in front of the Ndonda School Borehole.
(Second Image) “The Men”: Tom Lawry, Patrick Tembwe, Steve Hammer, and Paul Treffert.
After listening to the stories that came up around the table at Elkhart Lake, I was eager to hear more not just about the anecdotes, but about what the trip meant to each person. The biggest question I had come to answer during my time with the group was both very simple and deeply complicated: how has this experience changed you? It was clear by the time the group reunited that there was some kind of magic that occurred on this trip. When I started to ask about these more abstract notions of meaning and purpose, the storytelling dynamic only flourished more. Everyone had something special they took away, both individually and as a group. Just as I had been told when they first arrived home from Malawi, the reflections were plentiful – more than enough to fill another installment!
To Be Continued... Read Part 3 Here
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