Quest Overseas - Gap Year Volunteering in Malawi

The memories of my four weeks in Malawi will be ones i cherish for the rest of my life. Leaving the comfort of home to head to one of the most impoverished nations on earth certainly opened to my eyes to the suffering millions of people around the world endure. Spending time with children orphaned by HIV and improving facilities in two communities by helping build a library and renovating a feeding centre was an incredibly rewarding experience. Seeing the happiness and genuine gratitude for the small amount of work we had done over the four weeks in the community was incredible. Although much of the time is spent in the communities, the down time spent with the rest of team was great fun with the final weekend swimming and canoeing in Lake Malawi being a real highlight. Quest and Joshua both do amazing work and i could not recommend going on this trip enough.

Striking up personal relationships with some of the children has left me with a very precious memory. One little girl, who was called Bianca, initially was very shy but over the course of my 4 weeks there she was never far from my side. Doing work I would turn around and she would be there, writing my diary in the sun she would come up and sit next to me and watch me, laughing at my writing and trying to communicate with me the best she could and plaiting my hair-most of the time it would just be in knots haha. She came to say goodbye to us when we left and gave me the biggest hug ever, i was very composed until then.