What an exciting few days!

Hi everyone! It's Ruth and Kirstie here, updating you on our project.

Hope you haven't been worrying about us! We have had no access to the internet since Thursday. We have had a rather busy time in between.

I shall begin by updating you on Friday's trainings. Today we were looking at First Aid with both groups in the morning. Elizabeth, Emily and I (Ruth) were with the under 18 group. As first aid was very new to the girls they ended up having to take quite a lot of notes, however showing them slings and the recovery position ensured plenty of active participation. With the over 18 group Kirstie, Lorelei and Hayley found that the ladies were all very enthusiastic about learning first aid and said this was what they had all been looking forward to - very nice to hear!

In the afternoon we looked at human rights with the girls. We were all very impressed by some of the intelligent and thoughtful answers some of the girls gave when asked what rules they would have on their own islands (no killing, no torture, freedom of expression, free education for all). The girls had grown rapidly in confidence since the first day of training. The over 18's looked at the 8 point programme in the afternoon session.

Next day of training involved Lorelei, Hayley and I (Ruth) working with the over 18s on planning a camp. They had some really good ideas about how to plan a camp but had some very unrealistic budgeting ideas. The under 18s group looked at adolescent health and development, which included training on hopes and aspirations and puberty. The girls found drawing changes to the female body during puberty hillarious!

We finished this training early today but then returned later in the afternoon for a campfire with all the ladies and girls. This was brilliant! They had all prepared songs and dances and we all enjoyed singing and dancing and eating sweet potatoes cooked in the fire.

Sunday was our last day of training in Mangochi. As many of the girls had a very long way to travel home we were asked to ony come in for an hour and a half. We therefore spent the morning singing songs and playing energisers and teambuilding games. We then said a tearful farewell (thank you Emily) and were off to enjoy our first days off in a long while. We went on the back of a pickup truck to a place called Nanchengwe Lodge which is situated on lake Malawi. After being dropped off 2km from the lodge we slogged all our bags along the path and eventually reached our destination. We stayed in a beautiful beach hut 10m from the lake shore. Without going into too much detail we had a fantastic time relaxing, sunbathing and chilling out. After 2 nights at the beach house we got up at 5am this morning and have just arrived in Lilongwe after an epic 7 hour bus journey with lots of live chickens. We all feel relaxed and ready to start training again tomorrow.

Lots of love
Team Malawi x