Lately.

This past week, Peter and I met with the widows again and learned even more about COTN’s widows program. We were able to see two homes of the women involved in the program. One of them, Wezzi, was a graduate, and she was caring for her 5 children plus the child of a relative, so 6 children total. When we entered her home, my first thought was “this place is HUGE!” Of course it’s all relative, but her house had about 5 rooms – one for cooking, storing food, one for herself, one for the boys, one for the girls and then she also had a living room with one couch. Wezzi had saved enough money to build her home and put a metal roof on it to protect them when the rain’s came. Before the program her profit was 500 Kwacha per month (about $3.5) and after the program her profit increased to 2,000 Kwacha per month (about $14). It was amazing because she has been able to save money each month and she has even set aside extra for finishing the house. The other women that were there said that Wezzi’s story truly encouraged them and gave them hope for their future! Heck, the girl gave me hope. She showed me what strength, courage, faith, perseverance and determination could accomplish, and I felt extremely empowered through her.

The second home we went to belonged to Eunice Moses. She lived in this tiny house with her last born son. The house was truly two rooms - one room for the kitchen, living room, dining room, etc, and another room for sleeping. The roof was made of straw and during the rainy season rain comes in from all sides flooding the small space. And to top it all off, Peter said he saw a rat!

Their hope for the future is that the graduates will be able to loan money to the women who are just starting off in order to help them start their businesses. Thus both parties will benefit, the person loaning the money will get their money back with interest while the other person receives money they wouldn’t otherwise have received. Such a cool concept, one I believe they thought up on their own!

We bid them farewell and to be honest I was really sad to leave. Some of them hugged me soo hard, and I got a little chocked up! I will miss their beautiful singing, even though there were times when I truly thought it would never end, thus my questions would never be asked or answered. I will miss their willingness to talk to a stranger and their passion for empowerment and each other.

On Saturday morning we spent time with our family in Mgwayi. I always get a little nervous about our time because the family doesn’t speak English and they always have us doing interesting tasks! To be honest though, I love that COTN has paired us up with a family that we keep going back to. It has been such an amazing experience to get to know the mothers and the children in the village, and I love being involved in some of their daily tasks. So the moms name is Crissy and she has 4 kids – Ruth, Lute, Grace and Andrew. Her husband passed away awhile back and only one of the children, Grace, is sponsored through COTN.

So this Saturday we sat around with all the women and children and husked the corn and took the corn bits off the cob with our thumbs. I must say it was hard work sitting for that long and it was so hard on our soft thumbs! Peter got a little blister early on which prohibited him from continuing the task, but I kept on like a champion and pushed the pain from my thumbs to the back of my mind. I just kept thinking “gosh these women do this kind of stuff ALL the time – I can’t just give up!” Even when Dave and Pike (COTN staff that came with us) told me to give it up and kept checking on my thumbs I just said, “Don’t worry, I’m fine!” Well needless to say, I competed my task and all I had to show for it was a huge blister on my right thumb.

It was a great day and we sat around while the kids asked us tons of questions about America, such as what do the girls our age do? My response…umm?? Not chores like this! The girls here work soo hard and they help their mothers with EVERYTHING from cooking, to cleaning, to washing, to caring for siblings. Makes me feel as though we don’t do enough back home.

Sunday we went to church, which was of course longer than Peter and I are use to, but it was okay because we were expecting it! It wasn’t crazy like I thought it might be. The pastor spoke in English and then someone translated his words to Chichewa. We didn’t get home till about 2 in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing games with the COTN secondary students. All in all it has been a wonderful week and it is hard to believe our time will be ending soon!!