Good morning,

Howard has asked me to make sure that you received news of his experiences during his travel to Malawi. He was in Malawi, helping to launch the Operation 20/20 with our in country partners, Save the Children. Notes from Howard's daily experiences, in his own words, are below. Pretty awesome!

Greetings from Malawi!

The trip here was really long - about 30+ hours from the time we left Medan, Indonesia until we arrived in Malawi. We were in 5 airports and took 4 flights, the longest of which was 11 hours.

When we landed in Malawi, our driver is this large Malawi man, with a very sweet gentle face, named Williard. After all of the flying, we still had a 4+ hour drive to get to our hotel. The amazing thing was that it was Saturday which is market day, so we would pass these towns and the dirt area in front of the shops would be filled with people selling all of these vegetables, tomatoes, sugar cane, root crops, and then along the road we would pass sections where every few hundred feet, there would be these little wooden stands set up with whatever people were selling.

One section was the charcoal section - people would have burnt wood and had big chunks of charcoal to sell. They create these cylinders out of branches and I think put other branches or wood inside and then put the charcoal on top and weave a little basket around it. The cylinder is about 12-18 inches wide and stands about 3-4 feet tall. So you just keep going by sections of road and there are 3-20 cylinders of charcoal for sale. There was also a wood section - bundles of firewood (sometimes sold next to the charcoal).

We passed a gravel section - people collect rocks - some black, some grey, some red, and then pound them with a hammer into pea sized pieces of gravel (maybe they start out being the size of a loaf of bread). So you pass someone and they have 3-5 piles of gravel and that is their business. Some women had woven these beautiful rugs, baskets, mats, and hats out of straw. I wish I could bring some of this home but because we are traveling so much, I don't think I can lug it back with me.

One section of road (this is weird), had people who had these three skewers next to each other and I couldn't tell at first what was on them - was it a vegetable? Fruit? No, it looked charred - maybe some kind of animal. I asked Williard and he told me it was field mice - the people catch them in their holes and then put them on a skewer and fried them - I guess they are a snack the people like!

All the way while we were driving, kids and adults were walking and riding bikes by the side of the road. Out in the distance, you see lots little huts with straw roofs, maybe the homes are 10 x 10 - pretty small. Some are made out of adobe, less out of brick. It is poor but not as poor as India where you mostly see houses made from cardboard, plastic and pieces of metal. What is nice is there are some big hills and small mountains in the distance and aside from the electrical lines by the road, it is wide open country, without power lines and cars and everything else we are used to seeing

The people have beautiful open faces - very dark skin and a gentle disposition. There is definitely a big divide between the white people you see and the Africans. Although these are no longer colonies, you still see the influence of that system.

The surprise when we got here was that it is winter time! Fortunately the winter is extremely mild but I was expecting blistering heat after Indonesia - which was hot and humid. So it was a great surprise to get off of the plane in Johannesbery and feel the cold air.

Today is a welcome rest day - very much needed! This place we are staying is over the top beautiful – the scenery is really spectacular, by the side of a lake, a little piece of paradise.

Tomorrow, we will begin our distributions in Mangochi.

I will check in soon!
Howard

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Howard B Schiffer
Founder & President
VITAMIN ANGELS

P.O. Box 42029
Santa Barbara, CA  93140

Ph: 805 564 8400
Fx: 805 564 8499
Web: www.VitaminAngels.org