Today I, Zeb the Duck, and the 6 human women are going to our home for the next two weeks. The women are volunteering with the British organization, Ripple Africa.   We are riding north in two cars for most of the day.  Leaving Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, we will be a little south of Mzuzu, Malawi on the shore of Lake Malawi at Nkhata Bay.   Here is the map of Malawi.

While stopping for fuel, we admire this lady and her bright dress.

Isn’t she pretty?   I think she is.   While riding, we saw signs announcing that we were in a goat group area.   So, we asked what this meant.   Our driver told us that Heifer International gave some families a few goats.   The families cannot kill and eat the goat.   They use the milk, sell the extra and let the goats reproduce.   The families then give extra goats to another family.

When the village has enough goats, the extra goats are given to another village.   This is a great way to give people a start and let them help themselves and their neighbors.   Now we know what a goat group is.   We like it.   We are now at our new home.   This is our building.

My room is the door on the left.   Each of the rooms is for two women.   Inside my room I notice the mosquito netting over the beds.

This is necessary to help prevent malaria, from mosquito bites.   There is always the chance of malaria, but this is not the main season for mosquitos.   However, we are all taking daily pills to avoid malaria.   We will eat our meals here.

We have a great view of Lake Malawi from our dining area.

Of course we want to walk on the beach.

I love this canoe.    As you remember from yesterday’s map, we are in the tropics, between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, so there are many wonderful green tropical plants.

There is no electricity here, so our meals are cooked on a wood burning stove.   This is a 3 burner changu changu moto stove.

We will tell you more about these stoves another day.   Ripple Africa helps support this clinic.

The hospital is hours away from here, so the clinic is very important.   Ripple Africa also supports and encourages reforestation.   These little black bags of dirt will have tree seedlings inside and will be planted when they are big enough to grow outside.

One of the main functions of Ripple Africa is to improve the education.   Many schools receive help from Ripple Africa.

We will show you more about the schools another day.   Today this duck wants to give you a glimpse of what Ripple Africa does, and what we will be doing for the next two weeks.   The slogan for Ripple Africa is “giving a hand up, not a hand out.”  For more information about Ripple Africa, visit http://www.RippleAfrica.org   There is no better way to end our first day on Lake Malawi.

We love the full moon rising over the lake.   Without electricity, the skies here are so beautiful.