Tuesday June 2, Mabuya Camp, Lilongwe (morning)

All this dysfunction and I keep thinking that Europe, Western Society was once very similar to this: overcrowded, dirty, dangerous, loud, surviving. Everyone studies the Renaissance in school, but what changed? What happened that pulled us out of 400 + years of stagnation and slop? Could that flip occur here? It was a long road from the Dark Ages to the present, but so many of the leaps have already been made, certainly they can be shared. What occurred? Back at Mabuya Camp yesterday we met Ben Chambers, AGE's man in Malawi, a six foot five Chichewa speaking American from North Carolina, with long white-blonde hair, tied back in a pony-tail. Accompanying Ben (or visa versa) was Idah Savala, on of AGE's star scholars who will be coming back to the United States with Katie and myself to attend summer school at Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She was initially very shy and soft spoken, but Katie clarified, very outgoing for a Malawian school girl. She's fifteen years old, in form 3 at Providence Secondary School for girls in Mulanje. This is Idah's first time to her capital city, she has never seen an airport, a supermarket, Lake Malawi... She is going to have countless firsts in the weeks to come. We all hope that she will not be too overwhelmed. Ben is fearful that she is going to come back, hating Malawi, spending the rest of her life trying to get out again. We also met two other members of the team last night: Christin, from the Fletcher School in Boston, who did Peace Corps in Bulgaria, and Christine from Chicago, who previously did education research and development in Mali. Both of them are interesting and spirited. Everyone is more traveled than myself. Ben has lived in Malawi for the last three years since coming here to teach for Peace Corps.

FLICKR Photos