Minister's Visit to Malawi September 2006

In September of 2006, a delegation from Ayr Presbytery paid a visit to Malawi as part of the "Change for Malawi" programmme. Rev. Young was part of the group and here are some of her photos

A roadside market selling tomatoes	Lake Malawi - beautiful but dangerous because of parasitic organisms
The outside of a hospital ward. No meals are provided so patients' relatives come and cook for them.	The group outside Livingstonia Church. Left to Right are Dr G Powell, Mr J Henderson, Mr D Watson, Rev A Christie, Mrs E Geddes, Rev R Young, Mr D Geddes
A well similar to those provided by Wateraid	Kavuzi Church and Rev Anocks Chizisa. This is New Cumnock's partner church in the scheme
A new church being built	The guild choir in Bandawe
Rev Young preaching in Bandawe Church	Inside a typical classroom
The children outside	Sunset in Malawi - a beautiful country

The Rev Young writes -

It is difficult to sum up the time spent in Malawi in a few words, but we were treated like kings and queens. Malawi is called "The Warm Heart of Africa" and this is absolutely true. The people were delighted to see us and made us so welcome. Usually visitors stay in hotels and visit towns but we stayed with people in their homes.

Malawi is a beautiful country. Despite the hot weather we could not swim in the Lake because it contains the Bilharzia parasite which can cause serious, if not fatal, illness to European visitors.

We visited many isolated churches and prayer houses in a mini bus driven by the General Secretary's personal driver, Owen. It was wonderful to meet the people face to face and bring greetings from Ayr Presbytery.

We were all shocked at the conditions of the primary schools, the majority of which were really poorly equipped. Classes can be 60 or 100 children with one teacher. Primary education is free but secondary education is fee paying. Only 14% go beyond primary and only 1% go on to university.

The GP with us, Dr Gareth Powell, spent some time starting to train three school leavers to be clinical officers. This was taken on later by the Government with funding from the project.

It was a great privilege to be there with people who have so little yet are so happy. Some of the children were so poorly dressed it touched our hearts yet they were still happy.

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