January 2, 2012 | Leave a comment Hi Illinois Sister Cities Association family, Just sharing some happy energy related to our Sister Cities activities here in Urbana. Our Sister City is Zomba, in Malawi, Africa. We hosted our third “Malawi Mixer” at the Independent Media Center in downtown Urbana. This was a party to celebrate the completion of a public outreach grant from the Office of the Vice Chancellor to the Center for African Studies on the University of Illinois Campus. We have had presentation in every primary school in the city, based on reading the elementary level book Galimoto, and conducting a workshop to build this quintessential African toy. For the High School and two adult reading groups at the public library we read and discussed The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. (I strongly suggest you look at this inspirational story.) The African Studies group split the costs with us and paid for the performance of the native Malawi band playing authentic Kwela music, while our group and the African students cooked the meal for over 158 people who attended (official head count). Goat stew, chicken, nsima (corn meal grits), red beans, and greens, fried plantain, and fried bread balls for everybody, and drinks (mango and guava juice, lemonade, and cola). We danced for 2 1/2 hours, ate a lot, met many wonderful people, and got the wonderful press, below. The Daily Illini student newspaper came and did live interviews of some of our members and also covered the progress of our AUPAP grant work in Friday’s newspaper. That African Urban Poverty Alleviation Project grant project list is in full swing, and we have foundations and pit excavations done at three primary schools in Zomba for VIP pit latrines for the kids and have progressed much further on the construction of the hospital ablution block providing showers, flush toilets, and urinals for the Guardian Village residents who care for their family members staying at the central hospital. With the extra money leveraged from the cancellation of our third proposal in Zomba, (twenty-three Water Service Points), we are planning on adding value at the hospital with the addition of another community kitchen, washing facilities for cooking utensils, and a much needed laundry area. All these projects, with the hours of correspondence between our hard working Zomba Sister Cities Committee, Zomba City staff, and the African office of SCI, has built a stronger bond of friendship between us all. These interactions with the people of Malawi have indeed opened our hearts and have inspired many. Yours, Dennis Roberts Urbana Sister Cities Committee chairman