We began the day fulfilling a promise to the brothers’ cook Philip to show him an English recipe. With masterful supervision from Brother Michael, jammie bread and butter pudding was soon our new favourite breakfast food. Whilst waiting for the pud to bake, we climbed a nearby water tower to take in the view and the morning sun.
At the centre we spent time with current students who told us about the harsh realities of trying to fund training in mental health care in Malawi. This left us thinking about how The Umoza Trust might be able to assist, and we discussed the idea of setting up an Umoza Trust Scholarship with Isaac at the college.
We spent the early afternoon with the children at Umoza (the vulnerable children’s project) and had a great time interacting with them. A 7 year old boy even remembered Caroline’s name from her first visit here two years ago! We were struck by the politeness of the children, who despite having very little were keen to return the toys that we brought for them. Luckily we had the interpretative assistance of Moma who let the children know that they were to be shared by the children at Umoza.
Our final appointment of the afternoon was at the college, where we shared information about our training programmes in the UK and Malawi and made further plans for future collaborations in teaching and research.
We are now sat in the pitch black at the SJOG centre awaiting the arrival of Kelly and Hayley. Once they have arrived we will be sharing our evening meal with Devlin and his family (hopefully Kelly and Hayley will be able to stay awake!)