Moving Foreward!

Their have been many great things going on with Hope For Malawi and a few people interested in possibly pushing Hope For Malawi farther and getting it known in the world.I think we are really doing well ! Please remember to check out our web at www.hopeformalawi.net to check out our upcoming feast and craft market. I will blog again if I get more information about people pushing hope for malawi forward!



write to you soon!!!
Jaako

We won!!

We got the results for the Maxwell House Brew Some Good contest and we won! We got $10,000 dollars! And that can finish the medical clinic we left money behind for in Chikulo, Malawi. And hopefully start building another school. It is just such a blessing. And it'll just help the people in Malawi so much. It is just so great. I feel so good about winning. It's so amazing. And I can't even think of the right words - it's just great!!! I will write to you soon.

Jaako Polkki

still in the contest!!!!!!!!!!

My mother received a email from maxwell house saying the judges made their dicisions and are going to let us know but first all the contestents have to fax them a form and we did so know we just have to pray!!! not much other has happened since my last blog so i will write to you with the results soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

maxwell house contest!

Last weak we found out that we are one of the 5 finalists to win $10,000 for Hope for Malawi from a contest with maxwell house! Literally my mom came in the room and said we were one of the finalists for the contest , and that a few freinds put us in the contest!!!!!!!!!!!! thats all that has happened lately but when the contest is over we will write to you again!!!

write you later


jaako

It was an amazing trip

It was an amazing trip. We are helping to put up a clinic, and we helped open up a preschool, helped fix up two schools, and we handed out a lot of Bags of Hope. Also, while we were there, we met two other amazing contacts. We were able to meet with Katherine (an older Malawian lady who is running alot of preschools and a women's internation network and is still going at the age of 73), and Mick & Tracy who started off as being our Safari guides. With them we are doing the preschool and the clinic. And with katherine, we've been helping the kids of her preschools by giving them Bags of Hope, sweaters and underwear. And with katherine we helped a group with HIV by giving them food and supplies. We also have known that Katherine has started up a damn for a community with fish to eat and water to water their crops. And in that, she also stopped the community from low water flooding. Like I said it was an amazing trip and I'm glad to be back - but at the same time I'm not. I really hope I can go back in two years and see all the people of Malawi again. Bye for now!

Jaako

Getting ready to leave

Today we are leaving back home. It doesn't feel like it's been 3 weeks. I wish I could stay here for a little bit longer. Everything is packed and the flight leaves in 5 hours it leaves at 1:20 Malawian time. We will be back 10:37 a.m. (Canandian time) this Saturday. It's been an amazing experience to be here. We've helped plenty of kids and have given people money for their projects. And our scholarship student Hope, is still in nursing school. We spoke to her by cell phone and due to strict school rules we were unable to visit. I'll write more about my trip when I get back.

From, Jaako

Getting Prepared

So, some of you guys are going to wonder what it is about from the title, we really are going to sleep in a village hut tonight. Well, that is our time zone here. We bought 5 mats for the team that are made of straw and aren't even a centimeter thick that we will sleep on. Earlier today, we visited the last few pre-schools in the Mangochi area and some of the kids were so terrified, because out where we were they've never seen a white person because it so far away from the central big cities. They were so scared that they were squirming out of their mother's arms like nothing!! Man, I never knew a little child was capable of running that fast!! She just zoomed away from me!!

Yesterday, we visited a group that were HIV positive. There was eight adults and two babies. And it was very hard for the mother's with the babies because they weren't suppose to nurse their child but they had no choice because babies need milk. So we thought about it and we decided that we should give them some money to get milk for the babies and so that everybody can be strong and well nourished. And we are thinking and praying about how much more we should leave them with.

This will be my last blog until I am back in Lilongwe, but if I can I will write to you as soon as possible. Bye for now.

Jaako

A safari and one church

Ever since the man with the infected finger, I'm just gonna tell you a little bit about what we've done. So we went on a 2 day safari with 3 game rides. We saw lots of animals, including lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, baboons and many others. Funny story about the baboons, while we were just hanging out one of the baboons tried to steal Lily's chips. Funny how it knew what to go for. And then the went for the pop.

We also went to Dedza today where it is known to make amazing pottery, the best in Malawi. And it's a world wide tourist attraction and we met a woman who was HIV positive and she had a little one year old son and so we quickly talked about it and we gave her money to pay for the medication for at least 2 years. And we are hoping the little boy doesn't have HIV too.

Later on this week, we are going to be heading to a remote village called Mangochi. There we will sleep in a village hut, and get to see what a village life is like.

It's just so amazing to be back and to hear all the same songs but at the same time it is hard to see how poor they are. For example, Hiv, lack of food and nutrition and just the malnourished stomaches.

And that is your Malawi update. I will write to you as soon as I can. There may not be internet in Mangochi.

Jaako

Poor man with an infected finger

As you can tell by the title, I will be talking about a man we met with a very badly infected finger. Our first set of remote villages we went to, we met him and Clint being a nurse said that if he didn't get medical attention the infection could spread and maybe result in death. Sadly, I don't know how, but we just left the village and we just felt so guilty that we had a team meeting and decided that we would go out there, get that man and pay for his medical attention. So we drove out to the village today and met with his sons and wife and they said he had already left by foot in the morning and he wouldn't have just tooken the main road he would have tooken short cuts and all the paths. So we squeezed in his son and he showed us the way. It was a very big adventure. While we passed the small villages, we would throw candies out the windows for the kids. Finally we had found him and we prayed for him and asked him if we could pour some water that we had prayed over - over his hand. So we squeezed him in and we drove him to the hospital. Finally when we got to the hospital, it turns out we had to wait for an hour -which turned into many. We waited as long as we could but finally we just had to give him some money to cover his expenses, a ride back and to just bless him. And so we were off. We felt so good that we helped this man and hopefully we can figure out how everything went and hopefully it's good. I won't be able to write to you for a few days for where I'm going there will be no internet. I'll write as soon as possible. God Bless you.

Jaako

Great to be back!!

I'm finally back!! It's my second time and it's just beautiful. We have gone to two villages, and handed out just under 400 Bags of Hope. We've bought 90- 50 Kilogram bags of maize and I've done some catching up with old friends. It's nice to have a bigger team and we have been making Bags of Hope night after night.

The villages were full of poverty, malnourished stomaches, ripped clothes and one man had a very bad infection on his finger and can die from it if he doesn't see a doctor. And he lives far out from Lilongwe, so that can't be good.

It's so nice to come back and hear all the same songs. There's not much more to say, I'll write to you soon. That is your Malawi update.......

Jaako

Things are going good!

As you can tell from the title, things are going good. We are at about $14,000 for this trip and we have two more fundraisers. One is the pancake breakfast which is 2 days before we leave and a Maltese Meat Order which is running all of May. We have finished our schedule of what we are doing in Malawi and I'm so anxious to be going soon. And guess what!!?? We are actually going to be able to sleep in a village hut - it will be very fun! But I'm a little bit nervous about the bugs. At least we're already immunized. I really, really can't wait. Hey if you're a facebook user, please join the group Hope for Malawi and it will help keep you up to date with what's happening. And that's your Malawi update for now.

Write to you soon.

Jaako

Booked and Confirmed!!

From the title as you may tell our flights are booked and we are going FOR SURE!!!! We are planning on helping more with Hope (our nursing student). She is still in nursing school and she has just transferred schools. Our plan is to educate nurses and Doctors so that we can open up a clinic. We have 3 more fundraisers and they are a spaghetti dinner which is April 27th, Bon Voyage Pancake Breakfast on May 31st and a Maltese meat order. We are hoping to change Malawi some more and to really make a difference. We will be doing Bags of Hope again and we are looking for people to donate small toys, girls underwear and other small items. And that is your hope for Malawi update. Write to you soon.

Jaako Polkki

You can email us at hopeformalawi@yahoo.ca if you can help us in anyway or if you have any questions.

Valentine's Chocolate Fest

As you may have guessed from the title, yes, soon we will be having a Valentine's Chocolate Fest. There is going to be all the chocolates that you can imagine! It is gonna be February 15th from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. I don't know about you, but that's a party I wanna go to. All proceeds will go to Malawi.

Speaking about Malawi, Hope our scholarship student is switching schools because her school closed down and this school is alot more expensive than the other so there are going to be a few tough times. But I still believe we can get this amount of money too because I believe God is supporting my mission. And hopefully things will work out.

Hope is going to nursing school, her parents have died and she's watching her siblings. And she really wants to become a nurse to help others. So that's why we are supporting her.

I am going to the Toronto area during the March Break to be on the Miracle channel. If you want to see my presentation and hear a bit more I will be happy to come to my group or church. Email me at hopeformalawi@yahoo.ca.

Talk to ya soon.