2 happy stories and 1 sad

Story 1: Visiting William was incredible. He was so nice and informative. I know Blessings, his country manager, from working with World Camp in January. I arranged with Blessings for our group to come to a ceremony at Wimbe Full Primary School, where William went. I thought they were having a sort of “handing over the keys” ceremony for a new windmill that would power the school. Expecting a two hour drive, we were really antsy when we finally arrived after three. There also wasn’t a windmill in sight. Turns out the ceremony was to hand over the keys to a brand new (solar powered!) building built by an NGO and William’s organization, Moving Windmills. Also to our surprise, the people filming William’s documentary (also called Moving Windmills) were there to film. It was their final day of filming after five years. And a group of 18 azungus was definitely going to disrupt the natural chemistry of William’s small village. So they asked we not be present for the ceremony. We agreed, but asked that in return we could see the school, expecting to quickly poke around ourselves. Instead, William and Blessings gave us a full tour. We saw the new bathrooms (one for boys, one for girls, which actually does a huge amount for keeping female enrolment high), new buildings, solar panels, and even the library where William studied windmills after he was forced to drop out of secondary school. William answered all of our questions and was incredibly kind. He just graduated from secondary school in South Africa and will be attending Dartmouth this fall. He hopes to study mechanical engineering. I asked him quite a few questions about the windmills, but was also pretty star struck. (I also had him sign my copy of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which I just happened to bring with me.)

After the tour, we asked to see the actual windmills. Gilbert and Geoffrey, William’s two best childhood friends, walked with us to William’s home and gave us the full tour. We saw the very first windmill he built, which no longer works but is still standing. The second windmill generates power for his home. The third is the biggest; it pumps water to irrigate his father’s fields. The electrical windmill now powers every house owned by a member of William’s extended family.

We met William’s mother as well as his younger sister and brother. I didn’t get to but the rest of our group went into William’s house to see the switch pad that controls the electrical flow. It was incredible to look up and see such beautiful windmills that empowered so many people, all created by one young man.

Story 2: In January, I worked with teachers at the last school we went to, which happened to be really close to the school we were at this week. There were seven teachers total, two of which I became quite close to. One was about five months pregnant. Her name was Ellina. When I told her my sister’s name was Elena, she said we would be sisters as long as I was in Malawi. On Monday, Ellina recognized our Rovers and came to the school we were at. She saw Jaren, another coordinator, and asked for her sister, Karen. It was wonderful to see her again. I can’t describe how surreal it was to see her – and to meet her beautiful two month old son Vincent. I honestly never thought I’d get to see Ellina again, and there she was, standing right in front of me. We talked and caught up for a few minutes before she left. Wednesday, Ednah, another teacher from the same school, also stopped by. It was great to see her too – and find out how she’s been since January. Ednah remembered everyone’s names from the session and asked how we were all doing.

Story 3: My cell phone got stolen at camp yesterday.