Dear diary...

While we were in Malawi the team kept a diary of all our goings on... this is slowly being deciphered from hand written scrawl to computer... If you want to know the real stories behind the Malawi 05 Project have a look at the diary as it starts to appear.

Picture postings

See the right-hand column for our online photo album of the trip...

Come and find out more!

Ship to Shore Thursday 15 September

Come and join us onboard Trinity for our September ‘Ship to Shore’ prayer meeting… it’ll be a great opportunity to find out what our intrepid team got up to in Malawi this summer!! It’s also a chance to meet and commission our new onboard staff team… And if that wasn’t enough to entice you down the path, there will even be a scrumptious meal!! Please come!

Place: Trinity, Tollesbury
When: Thursday 15 September
Time: 6:30pm meal, 8pm meeting

Please let the office know if you are coming to join us for the meal (info@fact.org.uk)… Look forward to seeing you then!

Apologies from Ruth... and news from Ed

Hi everyone...
Just a quick note to say sorry that no photos or more details about our five weeks have appeared yet... getting back into life in England takes more time than I remembered! But they are coming I promise!

Also, received a text from Ed yesterday - apparently he has been in Kotochi where his other road project is (the boy just never stops!) and is living at the Chiefs house!! Must be interesting... Apparently he is having to do alot of walking though as the truck is still in pieces - so more prayers needed there!

Anyway - I'd better get back to filtering through my photos!

Ruth x

We're back!!

We're back in the UK!!! We made it!!! Hurah!!!
There's lots to tell from the last week, as we've been travelling, winding our way back down to Lilongwe... a longer report to follow but the highlights were - travelling up 'Ed's Road' to the Livingstonia plateau, complete with 20 switchback bends and sheer drop... and a rather close encounter with some elephants at Vwaza Marsh, who seemed to want to stay in Rob and Vince's hut!! And... Ed has got his luggage at long last - just in time to keep him in clean clothes for the next month or so that he is staying out in malawi to work on yet another road.

Thank you all so much for all you prayers - we've been so aware of them. Anyway... I'm off to sleep!!! More deetails of our exploits and hopefully some pix to appear v soon!

Love from Ruthie xxx

“It feels as though we’ve been here for months…”

A very excited Ruth phoned this morning at 7am (8am Malawi) to bring greetings and news to everyone – the jetty is complete, Hooray! She was hoping to have phoned from the jetty, but apparently even at this time of the morning there are throngs of villagers parading around on the new construction, so there was no room for her!
Spot on plan, our team, assisted by many villagers topped off the jetty with concrete on Tuesday – everyone frantically mixing concrete by hand. Ruth says its looks amazing and the boat has already come in and used it, everyone is very delighted.
On Tuesday evening there was a big celebration in the village, at one point it felt as though there wouldn’t be enough food, so they scoured the village for anything on four legs, cassava, a sort of lettuce leaf that is fried and rice. About 50 people, including the village chief called Keith joined our team (it strikes me that village chiefs come from a good stock of names).
Half way through our phone conversation Ruth thought she caught sight of the boat coming over the horizon – she was mistaken, but that’s their next activity today: the boat will take them the two hour journey north to Mlowe where they will spend a few days before trekking off by road to Livingstonia to complete their stay in Malawi – it will be a few days of rest and sight seeing.
But, before they leave, they must lay a big mooring into the deep water so that the boat can secure offshore before coming into the jetty – such attention to detail!
As we finished our conversation I asked Ruth how everyone was feeling, she said, “…very tired, but really, really amazed by all that we’ve achieved – it feels as though we’ve been out here for months, everyone is getting on so well…”. She went on to remark how relieved they are to have done so much heavy and risky work without injury.
Let’s thank God for all they’ve safely achieved; let’s pray that their final week will be a great time of rest and blessing.
Their Heathrow flight comes in at 06.45hrs on Friday 26 August.
David

They stand in amazement...

A very excited Ruth phoned this morning at 10.00hrs to report fantastic progress on the jetty at Tcharo. They arrived in the small lake side community last Friday where there was no boat landing; there is now a 20 metre long jetty – WOW! They’ve used the gabion method of building (large wire cages filled with rocks). In the early stages they used lots of huge rocks that were very tricky to move, the local women have been teaching our team how to carry stones on their heads. I expect Vince will dispense with the food trolley when he gets back to work!
Ed Sauven has been a real slave driver, they’ve had little respite from the constant work but they are in good spirits. To make things easier, the villagers are enthusiastically helping and there’s a real sense of everyone going for it, to create a new landing for the boat. Their aim is to get things all done by Tuesday next with a layer of concrete to top it off.
Their location is very isolated and remote. The girls are living in a borrowed house and the boys are based in a building near to the clinic. Cooking is done in a fire that’s built into a hole in the floor. The fishing is good and they enjoyed eating a 2-foot long catfish the other day.
John Challis has returned today from Lilongwe, he’s been on the search for Ed’s baggage – thankfully it’s been located in Johannesburg, but they have no idea how long it will take to get it to him. The indomitable Ed though, is coping well - it was a pleasant surprise to find a little store of clothes that he left behind last year.
The lakeside setting is beautiful – evening light fades early and marks a welcome end to their daily labours. Ruth said they stand in amazement at all that they’ve achieved in the short time they’ve been there.
In the middle of next week when they are complete, they will say farewells and then will go back to Mlowe where there will be more celebrations to mark the end of their work. Apparently, “Dave” the white goat (recently named) will be there waiting for them – he’s destined to be the main ingredient of their celebratory feast!
Ruth asks us to continue to pray for safety – she says they’ve done some amazing feats of rock moving without serious injury so far. Pray also for energy, their programme has been really hectic, without much chilling out time. Let’s also pray that their final week when they do some sight seeing and take some rest will be a real treat for them all.
David