Sarah’s blog 21/7/24
Container #13 arrived in Ekwendeni, near Mzuzu, and was due to be opened at 10am on Friday morning. Levison and two of his team had left Chitipa on Thursday afternoon as soon as they heard that the container had been released by customs and was travelling north from Lilongwe to Ekwendeni. As Levison is in the far north, this journey takes a long time. They had a few hours sleep at Karonga then onto Ekwendeni. There was a blocked road due to a lorry breakdown but they managed to get there on time.
Things then didn’t go to plan. The customs officers needed to do some extra checks so the container had to go to their warehouse in Mzuzu to be unpacked there. Hundreds of people gather when a container arrives. Everyone waited all day Friday and the boxes etc hadn’t been released. I had to send more money so that Levison and his staff could buy more food and find somewhere to stay overnight. Everyone was getting very frustrated but were told to return at 9am on Saturday. The boxes were eventually released after 11am on Saturday which was just as well because the customs officers don’t work on a Saturday afternoon!
The Homecoming – Levison’s truck returned to Bright Futures Campus at lunchtime today…three days after setting off…and what a hero’s welcome they received! Levison had to move children out of the way so that the truck could get through…they were so delighted to see the truck come loaded with boxes.
The other truck and driver they had to hire, didn’t want to come along all the small dirt roads so will wait for them in town. Levison and staff will go back to collect all the tables and chairs that were sent for the classrooms at Bright Futures Secondary School.
Levison asked me to thank everyone involved – all the donors, all the volunteers – everyone. We would like to echo those thanks too. It is always a team effort and needs all of us to each play our small part in making things happen.
To the team at Bananbox Trust in Dundee – thank you for ensuring the boxes are correctly labelled and packed onto each container. And to the BBT team in Malawi, thank you for ensuring the correct boxes are given to the correct recipients! Sorry that you had more work to do this time but we appreciate everything that you do. I’ve added the link to their face book post for you to see some of their photos. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/4daSw9JPGi9mx6Gm
Hope everyone enjoys looking at the photos and videos, most of which were taken just a couple of hours ago. A hero’s welcome indeed…and very much deserved! Thank you, Sarah x DonorSee (a link to our fundraising page with small projects)
