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Malawi Quotes

Browse 16 quotes about Malawi.

Malawi Quotes

“With the money my mother earned from selling cakes, my father cut a deal with Mangochi and bought one pail of maize. My mother took it to the mill, saved half the flour for us, and used the rest for more cakes. We did this every day, taking enough to eat and selling the rest. It was enough to provide our one blob of nsima each night, along with some pumpkin leaves. It was practically nothing, yet knowing it would be there somehow made the hunger less painful. "As long as we can stay in business," my father said, "we'll make it through. Our profit is that we live.”

PovertySurvivalCornFamineMalawi
Book:The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
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“Papa, why are you selling our goats? I like these goats." "A week ago the price was five hundred, now it's four hundred. I'm sorry, but we can't wait for it go any lower." Mankhalala and the others were tied by their front legs with a long rope. When my father started down the trail, they stumbled and began to cry. They knew their future. Mankhalala looked back, as if telling me to help him. Even Khamba whined and barked a few times, pleading their case. But I had to let them down. What could I do? My family had to eat.”

PovertyFamineGoatsDifficult ChoicesMalawiHard Choices
Book:The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
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“Don't worry about the water," said a man with a nervous grin. "This is hardwood, it won't ruin. You'll have this chair into your old years. How much do you have? I'll take anything. My children need to eat." A few of the businessmen like Mister Mangochi bought things they later gave back. But most people had no money. They simply shrugged and shook their heads.”

PovertyKindnessFamineHeartbreakingMalawi
Book:The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
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“News came of Beni Beni, the madman of Wimbe, who'd always made us laugh in better times. He'd run up to merchants in the trading center with his raving eyes and snatch cakes and Fantas from their stalls. No one ever took them away because his hands were always so filthy. The mad people had always depended on others to care for them, but now there were none. Beni Beni died at the church.”

PovertyMental IllnessFamineIt Takes A VillageMalawi
Book:The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
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“It was common for my father to sit my sisters down and tell them things like, "I saw a girl working in the bank in town, and she was a girl just like you." My parents had never completed primary school. They couldn't speak English or even read that well. My parents only knew the language of numbers, buying and selling, but they wanted more for their kids. That's why my father had scraped the money together and kept Annie in school, despite the famine and other troubles.”

EducationFeminismFathers And DaughtersMalawiStem GirlsEveryday Heroes
Book:The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
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“If we were going to determine what was broken in the radios, we needed a power source. With no electricity, this meant batteries. [...] we'd walk to the trading center and look for used cells that had been tossed in the waste bins. [...] First we'd test the battery to see if any juice was left in it. We'd attach two wires to the positive and negative ends and connect them to a torch bulb. The brighter the bulb, the stronger the battery. Next we'd flatten the Shake Shake carton and roll it into a tube, then stack the batteries inside, making sure the positives and negatives faced in the same direction. Then we'd run wires from each end of the stack to the positive and negative heads inside the radio, where the batteries normally go. Together, this stack of dead batteries usually contained enough juice to power a radio.”

ElectricityBatteriesElectronicsResourcefulnessMalawiTroubleshootingRadio Repair
Book:The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
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