I have come to Rafiki Malawi during an amazing time. On Thursday, July 9th, the 6th and 7th grade orphans of Rafiki traveled on a field trip outside of Mzuzu to visit the Ekwendeni Blind School. This school houses and educates a couple of dozen blind or nearly blind Malawian children. Why the visit? Cindy Renner, a staff member at Rafiki, knew that the Blind school only had one braille typewriter. She put the word out to her contacts in the USA and three braille writers were found and sent to Africa! Today was the day to deliver them.

We loaded all our kids into two vans- It looked like clown cars with so many kids crammed into them, but it worked and everyone was comfortable for the hourish ride. It takes a long time due to the poor roads, only one lane of traffic going in each direction, and numerous government road blocks to inspect for tax stickers on vehicles.

Once at the Blind school, there was quite a program of welcome to us, along with singing from the blind children. The blind school is run by the Central African Presbyterian Church, which has its roots in the Free Church of Scotland and the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa. The staff of the Blind School were there along with a local tribal chief. Rafiki not only brought the braille writers, but also oranges and some round cheese puffs for all the children (I didn’t taste the puffs, but they are insanely popular).

The Elwendeni children have a difficult life. Not only are they brought up in one of the poorest countries on earth but they are also blind. As if that isn’t enough to deal with, some of them suffer from albinism and have no pigment in their skin. Having black features their skin in totally white (see photos). For these children, blindness is not unusual as are skin cancers. They also suffer from discrimination here in Africa.

Nevertheless, it was wonderful to see the children use the new braille writers, enjoy their snacks, and fellowship with our children from Rafiki.