We woke up at 7am. TODAY WAS THE DAY. This was the morning
Daniel took us five and our translator, Jarvis, to Kumponda to meet with the
committee especially made to advise and help us achieve our dream of creating a
bicycle powered maize mill in their community.
As we drove out of the depths of the city, our surroundings gradually
changed from local stores and milling people to farm land and frolicking
children.
As our car bumbled down the bumpy roads to Kumponda, we were met with waves and smiles from everyone, especially the children. One boy with his school backpack chased us all the way down the road, not stopping his smile for one second.
Once we got in front of the chief’s house for the meeting,
we discovered some interesting playground equipment. Definitely missed the
seesaw back home!
After a few playground shenanigans, the committee members started to arrive and warmly welcomed us in Chichewa. Not all of the committee members were able to attend the meeting due to being busy in the community, but we met five out of the ten members! Their names were James, the committee chairman, Erissy, Agnes, Flone, and Alice. It warmed my heart to see such a representation of women as well, seeing as other places in the world are still working towards equal representation in their leadership, including our own!
During our meeting, we discussed the goals of our trip and
how we want to work together with the community. Our goals are to build one sustainable
bicycle powered maize mill, learn more about the community and their
agricultural practices through surveying, continue to build a relationship with
the community, and build a map with the community members to better understand
Kumponda as a whole. The committee
members were very supportive, excited, and asked many questions to understand
the project! It went incredibly wonderful, and in Daniel’s words, the project
is a “dream come true” or “maloto akukwaniri tsidwa”. We ended the meeting with some cold Coca
Colas :)
After the meeting, we saw some local Kumpondan children
along with path smiling and looking our way.
I asked them if I could take their picture, and as you can see, they
enjoyed seeing the results!
Their beautiful smiles couldn’t even truly be captured by
the pictures taken :)
When we said goodbye, we waved out the window to each other
as the car drove away. This made us even
more excited for the next visit to the community!
We then headed to various mechanical, hardware, and agricultural stores to start our hunt of materials. For the next few hours, we found many of the materials we needed to begin the construction of the maize mill. A successful day indeed!
Big love to the other EWB teams, India, Nicaragua, and Thailand as they are on their trips! They are doing big things and deserve lots of support :) Thank you for everyone supporting us back home, hope you are all having a majestic break!
We then headed to various mechanical, hardware, and agricultural stores to start our hunt of materials. For the next few hours, we found many of the materials we needed to begin the construction of the maize mill. A successful day indeed!
Big love to the other EWB teams, India, Nicaragua, and Thailand as they are on their trips! They are doing big things and deserve lots of support :) Thank you for everyone supporting us back home, hope you are all having a majestic break!
-Jennifer
Great post and great pictures, Jennifer. Keep it up! -Dave (Cate's dad)
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