Okay, so I received an email inviting international student service organizations to apply to participate in a showcase on April 27th in conjunction with Dr. Paul Farmer's visit to VT and presentation that evening. It sounded like a great opportunity and I figured I would enter the Malawi Chibale Project.
A couple days later I got an email saying we were one of 21 organizations to be selected to participate! We were asked to provide a 200 word description of our organization to be included in a document to be distributed to Dr. Farmer, university officials and journalists.
(Dr. Farmer is an American anthropologist and physician from Harvard University. Dr. Farmer is one of the founders of Partners In Health, which is an international health and social justice organization. He is the feature of a 2003 book called Mountain Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Could Cure the World.)
We were asked to be in Burruss from 1:30pm until 4:30pm and then again at 6:30 as people arrived for Dr. Farmers presentation at 8pm. It was going to be a long day but thankfully I don't have classes on Mondays. Krista, Lauren, Sarah and Amber came to help! This is our booth:
The majority of the organizations were doing projects in Haiti and some of them had some very official posters. There were also booths with homemade presentations just like ours! But we had the best artifacts!!! Patti Talbot brought me the Chibale Project t-shirts to put on display and possibly sell at the booth. We made friends with the booths next to us and enjoyed their company throughout the day.
We were encouraged to come promptly at 1:30pm because Dr. Farmer would be arriving to come by and visit each booth. As we were setting up a photographer from the Roanoke Times asked to take our pictures. Of course we agreed! We began to explain our project to him and he brought over the reporter to talk with us more. We ended up talking for about 10 minutes as they were jotting down notes. They were very nice, but asked questions like "What was it like to go to Malawi?" Thats very hard to answer/explain in a short sentence!
Turns out the reporter and photographer really liked our project because we were selected to be in the article the next morning! Check out Tech students show off their passions
Next Paul Farmer came by our booth. I'm embarrassed that I had never heard of him until I found out he was coming to Virginia Tech. Here's the news release on his visit. He sounds like a really cool guy. He co-founded Partners In Hope!
He was running late so he didn't talk for long. He had been to Zomba but couldn't remember where he stayed. I didn't really continue the conversation with him because I didn't know anything about him and didn't want to sound stupid. (Especially with his entourage standing right there listening to our conversation!)
The provost came by to visit and a man tried to buy my wooden globe... sorry its not for sale!!
I was on a Malawi adrenaline rush!!! I was so excited to talk to the Roanoke Times because they were so interested in our project. The booth looked great and we were getting donations. This was all so wonderful and the evening shift hadn't even begun.
I came back to be at the booth while people were coming to Burruss for Dr. Farmers presentation at 8pm. I was surprised how many community members came to this event. Over half of Burruss was adults and just a handful of students.
I met a man who has been to Malawi 8 times through World Camp! That is the program I'm looking into for next summer. He was impressed I knew all about World Camp.
I met a lady who goes to Blacksburg Presbyterian Church and was at the Moni, Malawi Celebration. She knows Patti Talbot and many of the other people who work with Malawi.
A VT student who is going to Malawi came by the booth to chat. Amber and I tried to give her all the advise we could in 10 minutes.
We met a lady who teaches at Prices Fork Elementary and went to Malawi a couple years ago before it was a study abroad program. She actually made a PBS short documentary that Dr. Kelly showed us before we went on our trip. When she came up to our booth, we recognized her voice from the video! We absolutely loved talking to her! She knew many of the same people from Malawi and went to many of the same places. It was so great to talk to her and now she knows about our project.
Dr. Farmers presentation began. I enjoyed listening to his work and hearing his passion but a lot of what he said was jargon and over my head. Maybe thats because I haven't read his book yet.
The evening ended with people slowly walking out and looking at the booths. Many people are blown away at the sign on our poster " $2 feeds a child for an entire year". Many people got our their pocket books and donated every coin they had. We appreciate it soo much and know it will go such a long way in Malawi. We raised over $40 throughout the day!!
This event was very helpful with raising awareness about our organization. I am so glad the first real event was a great success! This is just the beginning of many more Chibale Project booths! I had such a wonderful day meeting so many people who share the same passion as I do.
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