Celebrating Michael’s birthday…”it’s tradition”
Monire everyone, it has been another eventful day here in Mzuzu. It’s Michael N’s birthday, wooo hooo! Nineteen today, he’s is “just a baby” according to Modesta, one of the fantastic ladies looking after us here.
We started the day with mass and then back to the house for breakfast. Michael opened his birthday cards and then to Celia and Bernadette’s delight appeared to “turn hot water into Mzuzu coffee”.
Our morning was spent working between St Peters Primary School and Luynangwa School for girls. We split into two groups - Michael N, Monica, Jennifer and Steph went to St Peters while Caroline, Louise and Michael D went to Luynangwa. The children got to draw their own tartan, hearing stories about Scotland, kilts, bagpipes and took part in a maths treasure hunt - running between stations they solved sums and problems to complete the course. Our first teaching session ended with a good sing song to some of the classics – head, shoulders, knees and toes and the hokey kokey.
We waved goodbye to the primary schools for the day and went to St Peter’s Secondary for their closing ceremony. A group of students amazed us with an acrobatic bonanza of back flips and rolly pollies.
Packing into the minibus after lunch, we went to Mary Martha for some traditional Scottish sports day games. We played everything from sack and bean bag races to egg and spoon races with the kids. Each child then stepped up onto the podium and presented with a medal and a ‘well done’ sticker. The kids and the volunteers at the centre then sang happy birthday to Michael. Our visit ended with an emotional march to the minibus to the sound of the pipes with a crowd of kids surrounding us.
An evening of partying was then enjoyed by all. Thumbiko and Father Mfune joined us for drinks after dinner. Speeches were made, drinks were drank… A little pink and weather beaten from the sun we headed to bed. All in all, another amazing day.
PS. Shout out to Christine Northcote. See how Steph couldn’t find that brother birthday card. You wrote it to Michael from you and dad ha ha ha. I knew I put it in the trolley…
PPS. Michael says that Tony D has to stop complaining about the state of the scaffolding Pennyburn after witnessing the Mzuzu equivalent.
Stephanie N & the Malawi Team
We don't know what Steph is talking about regarding the Birthday card and feel sure that she may have had a little too much sun.....sos steph...just don'tknow how that happened!!! Glad to here Mike had a nice birthday,just headin off to camp but hopefully will be able to follow blogs as we will attempt to get internet access,figure if you can manage in Mzuzu,well,need i say more. Keep up the very funny blogs. Give our love to Thumbiko.
ReplyDeleteHa! That's hilarious! And after all that worrying...card thief! card thief!
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a great birthday mick, we had a great time celebrating here in your honour with Natasha et al xxx
oh and steph, bananas...yum!!! xx
ReplyDeleteLove hearing the daily stories of the malawian crew :) keep them coming x
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that michael had a great birthdayy :D hope u liked the card i made u haha x
Hope everyone is well and there is more great stories to come!! :D xxx
hey all, belated happy birthday michael n... hope 144 gold medals were enough for all the kids, and jen "get me two... and one for yourself"! Loadsa love, Ali xxx
ReplyDeleteAnother busy day for you. I was thinking about you yesterday when I attended the funerak of a cousin. In his day he was a great friend of Africa and campaigner for human rights, particularly in Africa and there was a lot of African music played and sung.
ReplyDeleteLooks like summer is back her, at lwast until lunch time so it looks like I;ll have to beat McNulty at golf again. Any good golf course in Malawi?
only 8 days to 'B' day.
P.S.
ReplyDeleteStill to much drinking on your trips!!!!