Virginia Tech and the Malawi Education and Children’s Welfare Foundation are collaborating to help Mzuzu University (“Mzuni”) rebuild its library. You can send books or money to them, or go to Amazon to buy the most needed books through their new website: https://malawiedandchildwelfare.wordpress.com/
Normally when a gang of people breaks into a building in the middle of the night it’s because they are desperate to get something for themselves. But not this time. In the early hours of 18 December 2015, a fire broke out in the Mzuzu University library. A group of people ripped through the burglar bars and braved the smoke and heat to bring out as many computers and books as they could from the main library and the adjoining children’s library…only to have them destroyed by rain before they could be taken to another building!
With The Economist’s article “Crashing disappointment: road deaths” coming out so shortly after the accident at Kindle, we are thankful that our members of staff are not among the statistics!
One of Kindle’s two vehicles was involved in a serious accident. Clifford the finance officer, Joseph the director, and four of Joseph’s family were in the vehicle which bystanders said rolled three times before coming to a stop as shown in the photo. Amazingly, nobody was seriously injured. Four were treated and released at the local hospital, and the other two were back to work (albeit with the help of painkillers) a week later!
In a bid to keep our night guards awake with some sort of productive activity, we bought an oil press and a big bag of peanuts. You put peanuts in a 2-litre bottle on top of the press, turn the crank, and out comes oil and “press cake,” which is the peanut solids. If you then smash up the press cake it becomes nsinjiro, which people here mix into porridge for breakfast.
It’s official! I am a lecturer at Mzuzu University, a.k.a. Mzuni, in Malawi’s northern region. They considered hiring me as an Assistant Professor, but that title is pretty rare–even the head of department is only a Senior Lecturer. Continue reading “On Staff”
Training is now finished for starting cervical cancer screening and prevention at Kindle’s Katawa Community Clinic. This is a photo of the team from Kindle along with the first woman to benefit from the new instrument.
This is Roxie, our new Black Lab / German Shepherd, in the house Jolie made for her. We decided to get another dog after our house was broken into last month. Nobody was hurt and not much was taken—just shoes, a backpack, and a radio—but still it wasn’t a fun experience.
I interviewed this week at the Malawi University of Science and Technology, and there are two other local colleges that are interested in me as well. We are hoping that teaching physics could be my next job. I’ve missed teaching!
The Stockers' Stories 