Yes! - I'm Going to Malawi

I think I'm probably living my inner teenager.

My idea was to go and work in India or Africa when I had finished college. However marriage immediately post graduation & then a baby a year later gave me other priorities. Life, earning a living initially, a husband, a baby & home, become all consuming. Suddenly you are a grown up with responsibilities. Then a career took over & the desire to run my own school.

Life goes by so quickly. Literally in the blink of an eye your child is an adult & you are retired. You have done some of the things you wanted to, but have also had to make compromises along the way. If you are married, have a family & elderly parents, other peoples needs always come first.

So, in 2012, as a widow of 3 years, with no parents around, I got to do what I had wanted to all those years ago. I went to work for a month as a volunteer, teaching in a "Bamboo School" in Kathmandu. It was a wonderful experience, but took a bit of a toll physically.

Now I'm going out to Kasungu in Malawi in August, working for a month as a volunteer with a great organisation called the MicroLoan Foundation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkzQ5bIHiAQ&authuser=0
(highlight, click & open link)

Kasungu is about 80 miles North of Lilongwe, (the capital), in the NW of the country close to the border with Zambia & Kasungu National Park. It's a chaotic one street town which was the birthplace of Hastings Banda the former life President, who had a palace there. Malawi is "the Land of the Lake" because beautiful Lake Malawi is the dominant geographical feature following the Great Rift Valley. Fortunately for me English is widely spoken because my Chichewa (a variant of Bantu) is non existant at the moment.

I'm supposedly going out to help set up a training programme for local people so that they can take over managing the loan book. Small loans, typically £25 - £50, are given to women to help them set up small businesses so that they can support their families, educate their children & put a little money by as savings. Over 90% of the money is repaid, so constantly recycles. 

I hope I can do what they want me to. In my experience travelling a large part of the world it's the women who keep the show on the road. Anything we can do to help them is a win win situation.