Go 4 Good volunteers Deena and Joanna recently returned to NYC from their 6 week stay in Malawi. The two women were working with Goods for Good partner Tiyambe Nawo community-based organization to help develop a sustainable nursery school program. Joanna was working to formalize daily routines at the nursery school children while Deena was starting a choir and organizing other after school activities.

We had to share this excerpt from Deena’s blog during her last week in Malawi:

“I don’t think I knew just what it meant to be a developing country, when I chose Malawi, from ideas, to people, to education, to technology. This place is shifting, it is a country in transit. I learned that even in the village, where a gentle shield of glass protects a very ancient, sacred and simple way of life, seemingly untouched, even the village wants to learn, to grow, to move forward.

I also saw just how hard it is, like reaching in a bowl of mixed marbles, deep and dense and then trying in that same bowl to arrange the tumbling marbles by color. It feels almost impossible. Along the way you must accept difference, alternate ways of living and figure out how to help without infringing. Never accept defeat.

That is Malawi, this country with difficult sense of time, lack of logical systems, now working credit card machines, unpaved streets, where school is not mandatory or even made a priority for some.

But there are beautiful people here in this country, joy, smiles, innovative ideas who desire more. Whose pride of their country is strong but who know there could be improvements. They are people like Blessings, Raphael, the school teachers and mostly the Benesi family who taught me the true sense of responsibility to community and to being open to new ideas while maintaining tradition, so rich and so vivid.

That is how you grow, one person at a time. I am so curious to see the future of the center, our heartfelt classroom, our children, the teachers, the Benesi family and this country as a whole.

I know that my time in Malawi is not over. It can’t be. We have hardly brushed the surface, and I would like to return. I hope to return. Knowing now what it means to work with a developing country such as this, that it is not molding a people, rather sharing ideas to inspire growth. Consistency is key. It is something I want to keep a part of my life, and plan to as I embark on future endeavors.”