Farewell to Nakoma School

On our second last day, the community hosted a farewell celebration for us. It was supposed to start at 10 am but typically it started Africa time....12:30 pm.  The Primary Education Advisor arrived and he was a great guy, Mr. Darlington Nyambalo.  We all were seated in the central area of the school yard under a tree to watch the singing and dancing.  We also had  speeches (did I say that Malawians love their speeches??!!) from all the different community groups. We also had an opportunity to share our gifts with everyone. 

In the afternoon, the community came together to watch a netball game between Nakoma and a nearby school.  Without exaggeration, there must have been 500 folk watching the girls play. The ref also had a baby on her back as she monitored the game!  Soon after that game we moved over to the football pitch to watch a game there. Girls won, boys lost unfortunately.  What a great sense of community there was that afternoon!

Interestingly, before the celebration began, a young girl came in who had been bitten by a dog.  Immediately, she was sent to the local hospital for an injection.  It brought back the AIDS/HIV issue.  Charles then explained he thought that there were about 20 pupils in the school with HIV but he was not sure how many were out there that had not registered their condition with the school.