The Rev. Fred Garry is on sabbatical as pastor of Watertown's First Presbyterian Church. He and his family are in Malawi.

By REV. FRED GARRY

MZUZU, Malawi — On Saturday we made the drive from Lilongwe to Bandawe. Mark Purcell, of Purcell Construction in Watertown, was ending his trip to Malawi with a few days at the lakeshore and we were to join him. We pulled in around 3:30 p.m. and the stress of the drive just evaporated. Oh, the lakeshore.

Mark and his sons, Andrew and James, arrived in Malawi a week before. They spent a few days in Lilongwe seeing the crisis nursery, a few days at Mvuu seeing the elephants, and then four days in Mzuzu being led by Sam Chirwa and Grace Chiumia. I gave some suggestions as to where they might lead the Purcells, but it was not necessary.

When we met up at the Chinteche Inn, James and Andrew were still excited about the day before. Grace took them to a DPP rally where she was the focus. (Democratic Progressive Party is the ruling political party in Malawi.) "So your Dad made a political speech," I declared. They both smiled and said, "Yeah, he did."

"Never thought you'd see that, did you?" They both shook their heads and continued to smile.

As we all unwound a bit, the details of Mark's time in Mzuzu started to unfold. They pretty much jettisoned all the sightseeing and got to work. Mark, like the eight ladies from Watertown and Canton who had also recently visited here, was bothered that we had purchased iron sheets for the widows of the dambo but had yet to get any of them installed.

(Dambo is a Tambuka word for low point; it also connotes a kind of slum or place of the poor.)

Mark put aside touring and jumped into inspection mode. Then he set about hiring contractors. Within two days all the widows of the dambo who received iron sheets now have new roofs installed.

One house, though, was not salvageable. This problem led to negotiations to purchase a few acres on the outskirts of Mchengatuba so this one can, as Mark put it, "just have a whole new house."

I am not sure that dambo has ever seen a day like this one before: the day Mark Purcell came to town.

I spoke with Sam later about the land in question and we believe we can get it for around $700.

"There will be enough room," Sam said, "for at least 10 houses." All the teenagers starting tossing around names for this new village. I think "Graceland" is the one everyone agreed to.

I want to say it took Mark Purcell about 10 minutes to figure out how much joy can be had in Malawi. The possibilities, the people, the rate at which significant change can occur are truly a lot of fun. I tried to stress to him how we need to get to work on the U.S. side. The church is still the umbrella for the widow's fund, but we need to formalize it as a nonprofit. We also need to form a board and get everyone on the same page.

When I told him I don't want the U.S. board to be the decision makers, he smiled. "No, the people here should be making the decisions."

With that I could see he really got the beauty of being a friend of Malawi. It's about creating the possibility of something and getting out of the way.

The women of the dambo are very glad Mark Purcell gets it.