Every week on Thursday I make the hour drive to the Dzaleka Refugee Camp to work at a small hospital for the day. You might be surprised to hear that Malawi, while being one of the least economically developed countries, has a refugee camp. This is in large part due to the overall hospitable and compassionate nature of the Malawian people towards outsiders as well as the fact that Malawi has not experienced war since the late 1950s and early 1960s when they were fighting their War of Independence to break away from British colonial rule. Like I said, they truly live up fully to their name as 'The Warm Heart of Africa'.
While I have not traveled too far from the city where I live, I am driving for at least an hour or two every day going to and from the hospital, school, refugee camp, and tennis trainings. Speaking of distances, the district and village where the movie The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was filmed and took place are actually quite close to me. The true story is about a young boy in Malawi who saved his village during a severe drought back in 2001. I have watched the movie and was very impressed with how well they showed a pretty authentic and accurate depiction of Malawi. While it seemed so foreign when I watched it before coming here, watching it now feels like it is in my own backyard.
