safe and sound

After traveling for 48+ hours, Dustin has arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi safe and sound. Our partner Margaret's family greeted him at the airport, whisked him away to register at the American Embassy, took him cell phone shopping, and filled him with Malawian food.

He'll be boarding a "Shire" bus - a cheap, long, cramped ride to Balaka, where he'll settle in at a motel for a few nights before finding permanent housing.

Though he's completely exhausted from the flights, and isn't too keen on the humidity, Dustin's in great spirits. He'll start posting his experiences on this blog after he arrives in Balaka.

~Cara

getting ready to go

These last few weeks have been both incredibly exhausting and rewarding. Before heading out to Malawi, Dustin and I have been sitting down with individuals in the Bay Area to personally share the stories of our Malawian friends affected by HIV. Growing numbers of people here in America are realizing how widespread HIV is, and its devastating effects on families (including babies), communities, and entire economies. Though it's hard to daily recount the stories of our friends' suffering, we feel blessed to encourage both understanding and compassion towards the people of Africa.

And the results of our meetings have been incredibly fruitful. Upon hearing the needs of Malawian people, and in turn - our organization's goals to meet these needs - 15 new families (so far) have chosen to give on a monthly basis to Bola Moyo's programs, resulting in over 30 families strongly dedicated to our work.

These next two days, we'll be busy packing (one small suitcase and a guitar, of course) and getting Dustin ready to board that plane to Malawi. The flight will be long and grueling (San Fran to New York to Johannesburg, South Africa to Malawi - including one 16 hour layover and a few smaller ones) before Dustin meets our partner Margaret in Lilongwe.

Dustin's first "order of business" is to accompany our 16 sponsored students to their respective secondary schools to meet the head masters and pay their school fees. Next, it'll be off to the community garden to see how things have been going and how we can improve the project.

I'll be heading back to Portland shortly to wrap up some paperwork and train our friend and volunteer, Dave Johnson, on how to handle the office while we are away. Then on March 1st, I'll join Dustin in Malawi - where we'll stay through the end of June, further developing our micro-loan and creative education programs.

We look forward to keeping you posted via this blog! We'll try and post from Malawi at least once a week (if/when the internet works). :) Thanks for reading and feel free to keep in touch with us through e-mails and blog comments. Take care.

~Cara Pattison