Pardon my pun with rice. Yes, rice is popular here  In fact, kids love to tell you their favorite foods and rice seems to be #1- even more than the national dish of nsima. Go figure.

But what this post is about is the Rafiki RICE program. RICE stands for Rafiki Institute of Christian Education. And it’s the natural next step after Rafiki’s orphanage’s classical christian education program. The plan being, once children are finished with their secondary education, what to do? Some will go on to university, some to trade schools, and some directly into the work force. But having so many well educated young people- educated in understand God’s Word and world, it makes natural sense to train these folks to start their own community schools. So RICE is like a teachers’ college.

This past week, I’ve conducted a basic computer class with the RICE students. In my classes we’ve go over the basics of computers, with a special emphasis on learning and using Microsoft Excel (you techies may be asking, “hey, that’s old hat- why aren’t they using Google apps?” Well, remember, they don’t have the internet here much. And what they have is painfully slow and expensive. Technology is 30 years behind. No fast internet, no Google apps). We built spreadsheet models to determine the economic viability of starting and conducting a school.

Of course, this is just in the initial years of the program. But Rafiki is getting ready. The photos below show the current students (affectionately known as the Rice Girls). They are under the tutelage of Madam Jane, a missionary from Lexington, Virginia.

The goal is to have these women start their own classical Christian schools in their villages across Malawi. It’s a great way to leverage the great Christian education they’ve been given and share the blessing with other Malawians.

Currently, the RICE program here is conducted in a small building with some classes held in the JSS building (Junior Secondary School- left [are you mirin my artsy photo now?].

But very soon, a massive new building will be completed here on Rafiki’s Mzuzu campus (see construction photos below).

These workers are excavating the area on the side of the new RICE building. Yes, it could be done with a rented backhoe. But it was determined that it’s cheaper to do with manual labor (and it provides more employment, too!)

It’s all so exciting and amazing what God is doing in Africa!