The last day we split into two teams, I went with Charles and Jonathan to Mwachipa and Alton and Maria went to Fumbe. Although it was the most urban village we visited, the volunteers who escorted us to the participants’ homes at Mwachipa did not know any English. I used the little Chichewa I had acquired by then (mostly to amuse them) and they told me what I needed to know by pointing and pantomiming. We encountered one of the saddest situations in Mwachipa. We interviewed the grandmother of a two year old girl whose caretaker, her aunt, had passed away just a few days earlier. The girl’s mother died (of an eye infection) soon after she was born. So, this little girl had already been orphaned twice. The family never knew who the father was and the grandfather was away working in South Africa. I knew they were being cared for, though, because as we did the interview, a neighbor was laying new bricks around window.

I bought some popcorn from a lady in the village who was bagging it to take a street market. Village popcorn really is the best. A radio was playing somewhere and some kids came up to me while I was sitting outside waiting for Charles. They danced and danced and danced :).