Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Caroline Luka

For the past eleven months I have been part of the community that I was deployed in. I may not have necessarily been one of them, but I felt a sense of belonging. I knew that I had made a home away from home. The relationships I have built will last long and I know that no matter what, I will always have a place to lay my head on in this community. 
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My time is up, and it is time for me to pack my bags and go. Bidding farewell to people is never easy and my community did not make it any easier for me. The music, dances and speeches nearly made me tear up. I could not admit to myself how much the people meant to me until I had to cover my face when the chief made her final remarks. Good-bye is not good at all.

Looking back at the activities and projects I have worked on put a smile on my face. From working with youth to renovate the nursery school for the children made me feel at ease. I have managed to make an impact on my community and it brought nothing but joy in my heart. The vibrant youth I worked with are now venturing into a business. I am so proud that they are using their assets to and solutions to their challenges. The nursery school kids now have a classroom that is safe and sanitary. Their days of learning outside or in a church are finally over.

“We are sad to see you leave. Do you think its possible for you to stay a little longer?” asked one of the little girls who I assisted teaching at the nursery school.

My heart broke. 

In as much as good-byes are painful, the memories are what makes you find the good in the good-bye. The lives you have touched, the change you have made in the community and most importantly how the experience has made you grow. Personally, serving as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer has molded me into a woman that I am proud of when I look in the mirror. The impact I have made in the community will live on. I will never forget the things I have learned about the community and about Malawi. 

As much as I would have loved to stay, I couldn’t. It is time for others to come and bring in new developments while I go and find my new adventure. 

“So, for now I say goodbye to this chapter of my life and I look forward to what comes next” -- Brooke Davis

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Mr. Silvester Kunkeyani

How time flies!! So it’s been a year already since I came to serve as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer at Mkwachi village in the northern part of Malawi? When I first came into my community I did not know what to expect. In fact, I was a little scared. The one year of service with CorpsAfrica has been the most rewarding journey of my life with many lessons learnt.

In order to build a more resilient community whose young generation is more responsible and makes rational choices about their lives, we focused on training about 500 youth in Grassroot Soccer intervention programs through camps that address HIV/AIDS education by empowering the youth with vital and correct information about the deadly virus and help to reduce further spread of the virus in their communities. While living in my community, I observed that the local women worked so hard in setting up small-scale businesses but unfortunately these businesses were not making enough progress. To tackle this challenge, I facilitated a workshop with my community's village loans and savings group to teach them how to manage, run and execute business plans and how to track business performance using key business performance indicators. Through these sessions my community boasts of increased business knowledge and monetary returns. 

I also worked with my community to write a proposal to CorpsAfrica with an aim of rehabilitating an old borehole at the village's Health Centre in order to reduce water woes at the local Health Centre and the villages surrounding the Health Centre. The proposal was successfully accepted and approved. The project once implemented will see over 16,000 community members benefitting. 

We worked with the local primary school in identifying some challenges the local school was facing. Together with the school management committee and the Parents and Teacher Association, I facilitated the writing of a project grant to WorldConnect US with an aim of rehabilitating and expanding the headteacher house for the local primary school that was too small and in dilapidated state. The grant also sought assistance to have 80 desks made for the school that will see about 160 students having a comfortable place to sit. The grant was successfully approved and when funding comes through, the school will wear a new face with the rehabilitation and expansion of the head teacher’s house and the provision of the 80 desks. This project is named Mkwachi primary school growth and development project and is being funded by WorldConnect US. 

The one year of service with CorpsAfrica/Malawi has been a journey of great rewards and total transformation. I am going back home as a person who made a change at Mkwachi village in Nkhatabay and the people of Mkwachi will never forget me just as I will never forget them.

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Mr.  James Matipwiri

​When I look back and check my clock, I get overwhelmed and I realize that the hands have made countless cycles in registering a year of my voluntary service. As a Somali proverb says, "Every camel was once a two-year-old" the words reminds me of my experiences I have had during my service as a volunteer in Dedza. As time goes, we play, we learn and grow. But it is much more than that with me because my time as a volunteer has helped me developed into a different individual. In short, they made me grow in so many different ways.

Having served as a volunteer in Dedza East, I have learnt a lot of things that I never thought I would learn. I have collaborated with NGOs that I never knew existed. In short, the service has exposed me to the world inside my community.

Since October last year (2017), it has been a very exciting journey of learning and discovery. Before joining CorpsAfrica, I had no idea of what my potentials were like. Some people could describe me as possessing some introvertive characteristics but that was quite a perfect description. I had to come out of my comfort zone and unleash the fears. And I have realized that I can lead, I can facilitate change, I can help others transform their living conditions for better. I have emerged a transformed person with lots of new ideas, knowledge and experiences to take on the world.

Living alone in a new environment is stressful if not careful enough, so I made lots of friends in my community, some worth keeping while some always made me question what I am actually doing with them, but anyway, friends are friends. In a nutshell, I have grown and developed professionally, socially and culturally.
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I will never forget the experiences I have had throughout my entire service, the amazing people I have collaborated with, and above all, the impact my projects shall have in my community.

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Mr. Chancy Simba
 
I have to smile a little as I write this, because I recall my friend Kondwani just after Pre-Service Training saying to me, “Chancy, just make yourself useful around there.” Well, when I first arrived at my site Mzimba I struggle to find ways to make myself useful around my community. Language was a problem. Now, 11 months done the lane I sit down and look back like, “How did I make myself useful?” I believe the most important thing of volunteering is being useful. There are a lot of stories worth sharing to how we Volunteers have been useful to our communities. 
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In my community I tried as possible as I could to make myself useful. Working with my site mate, a Peace Corps Volunteer Kevin, I found myself being more useful than I thought I would be. There are a lot of activities and project that we worked on but a few I can share. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but Carol, my fellow CorpsAfrica Volunteer, believes this one (above) is worth a thousand and one. She shares how her project has changed many lives especially children in her community. I believe Carol has been of great use to her community when they worked hard on a nursery school which was never in a good condition. She believes her community now can be able to work and sustain a project they long waited for. 

“Making this project a success has been one of my biggest achievements. Not only have I given the children in my community a conducive environment to get education, but I have also eradicated the ‘we are helpless’ mindset the community had. It took efforts from the community members to make this a success. The vibrant participation in the project has given them a sense of ownership and responsibility. I know that their contribution will make this project sustainable,” says Carol.
 
I believe a lot of my fellow Volunteers have lots of stories to share of how useful they have been in their communities. We all have learned a thing or two. I am proud to say volunteering for a year with CorpsAfrica/Malawi is extremely worth it. 

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Khwima Nyirenda

My journey with CorpsAfrica started in a village called Mpalale, in the central region of Malawi. My home, however, for the past 11 months has been in Mzimba South, and it is only fair that I share the five things I love in this southern part of Mzimba district, especially my community Thoza.

1) Warm People The people in Mzimba are welcoming and very generous. I have never lacked a helping hand when I needed it. They made sure I was a part of everyday life and traditions.

2) Irish Potatoes Irish Potatoes farming is one of the most practiced kind of farming in Mzimba South. It is a great cash crop for the area, and almost a staple food, second from Nsima. I love that I almost never bought Irish Potatoes because my loving community always made sure I had them in abundance. I mean, they understood that I am but just a volunteer.

3) Meat What is a Ngoni culture without meat? Meat is cheap to find and to buy in my community. Sometimes hyenas can do the village a favour by “injuring” a goat in the middle of the night, and well, what can the poor goat owner do but share the meat with his neighbours.

4) Wild Life I just mentioned a hyena. Yes. There is a vast forest reserve in my community and it has various wild animals that I saw for free, including hyenas. I know most of us get terrified when we hear about hyenas but contrary to popular belief, hyenas are very terrified of people (or anything taller than them). I was told not be terrified, and to give hyenas a chance, so whenever hyenas tried to kill my neighbours’ goats at night, I stepped out and shooed them away. JOKE.

​5) Blue-Sky Not the actual blue sky. Blue-sky is a precious stone mined in my community, it is not BLUE, but it is Blue-sky, and I love it. I had not heard of it until I started living in Mzimba. It’s a beautiful stone that is bought by the Chinese and Zambians. The real 5th thing I love about this southern part of Mzimba is, there is always something you have never heard of, just like Blue Sky.
 
As I conclude my service, I just want to take this chance to appreciate the family I found in my community. I have had my ups and downs, but I will always remember the love my community spared for me.

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malwi Volunteer Mr. Dingaan Kafundu

My CorpsAfrica service is actually coming to an end. It’s crazy how fast a year goes by. I am in my last week in my community and can’t help but think about some of the things I have seen that have impressed me the most during my service. There’s the community involvement, my professional and personal growth, and the fact that I feel I have become a better leader. But what I feel has impressed me the most has been the kids and how they don’t let the rural–urban divide ruin their childhood fun.

From the outside looking in, you would think that due to a lack of general technology and equipment and infrastructure etc. that the children in rural communities may not have as much fun as their better off urban counterparts. This is not the case. It’s amazing how creative and innovative the kids can be. I believe they are much more creative than those in the city due to what they make out of what they have. I would wake up early in the morning to the sounds of kids laughing and playing while driving in their cardboard cars. They would use the sand outside my house and pretend to be the azungu they see hiking the mountains around them. I would walk to the market and find a bunch of kids running away from a herd of sheep with huge smiles on their faces, pretending their running from a pack of lions. It’s all in the little things.

If I could pick out one moment that really stuck out for me, it would be this young 11-year-old boy I met while taking a walk through the community. I found this little boy collecting marbles and well, I figured, he simply wanted to play a game of marbles. This was before I saw him leave the marbles and go on to pick up a bunch sticks. The kid pretty much had my full attention at this moment. He then went on and found an old scrappy cardboard board and put it on top of an old tin. I still had not figured out what exactly he was planning on doing. He then put the marbles on the board, picked up the small sticks and lay them on the board, picked up a bigger stick and then it hit me, little man had built himself a makeshift pool table. It did not stand up straight nor did the marbles behave but did he care? Not in the least. He was having the time of his life.