Matema handover ceremony

Matema is a village at the northern coast of Lake Nyase.  The beach is a beautiful place to relax.

Due to poltical issues with the leadership in this village, it took quite a while to complete these 2 buildings with the much needed 5 classrooms.  Now they have 8 classrooms for nearly 1100 children.

We told them that we would renovate the staffroom and build another 4 classrooms this year if they can make their contributions, something they promised to do.  Also for next year we have foreseen a 4-classroom building.  This would halve the number of pupils in each classroom as with 120 in each class it's a bit crowded.  In 2019 we will renovate the existing 3 classrooms. In 2020-2022 another 8 classrooms and extra staffrooms will follow, provided they have enough teachers.

Great singing and dancing.  The pupils did put together a great show.  We even had 3 rappers, who had composed a song about "Fonzi", the name I now get known by all the kids. :-) .  My wife Louisa and myself got some traditional clothing wrapped around us, a nice gesture to tell us we are part of their community.

After cutting the ribbons it was time for some food, they had prepared and then we took off to our hotel.