Coffee Morning
“Tamupokererani ku Muzuzu Crisis Nursery Kofi wa mulenji uno!” Welcome to
the Mzuzu Crisis Nursery “Coffee Morning”. A “coffee morning” in Malawi is not quite what we expected. Sounds like a straightforward open-house, bake sale, right? Wrong!
It was the staff’s idea and they were excited about this “second annual” fundraising project. In preparation, the grounds were swept, weeded, and tidied. The floors were scrubbed, walls washed, and windows cleaned. Everyone was given a job. Then, in addition to dozens of posters, over 100 personal invitations were printed, signed, and hand delivered.
I (Darlene) w
as elected to bake all the fancy cakes for auction. YIKES! Fortunately our neighbor had a frosting bag and I set to work on this daunting task 2 days prior the big morning. Baking 7 cakes, six dozen cookies, three dozen muffins, and two trays of fudge became my fulltime job. The day before the event, several of the nursery staff stayed up until midnight cooking samosas. We made snacks to sell as well. The nursery was a beehive.
Coffee Morning morning dawned bright and fair. (Thank goodness it didn’t rain). People began arriving at 9:30 for our official 10 o’clock opening. Folks took tours of the Nursery and enjoyed just visiting and sociali
zing. By 10:15 the program began with prayer, scripture, brief meditation, and song. Then, after Paul gave a welcome in Tumbuka & a brief history of the Nursery, we heard from our guest speaker.
By 10:45 the auction started! It began slowly, with the biggest cake going for cheap (bummer). However, the American chocolate chip cookies were a hot item, as were the donated cinnamon buns and custard pie. The bidding got more intense; with the biggest price ($21.00) going for my small cake that said “Joy”. The woman who bought it had a daughter named Joy. You never know! My fudge, however, was a flop. No one even knew what it was.
As a part of the event, everyone who attended brought a gift for the nursery. We ended up with plastic pants, dia
pers, Vaseline, soap, formula, milk, likuni phala (cereal), sippy cups and some clothes. Lots of helpful stuff!
All in all, our morning was a huge success. The nursery got a lot of good publicity and we actually made some money (over $700 in cash and in-kind donations). The staff was exhausted, but felt renewed in mind and spirit. Our management team is keenly aware that Malawi and Malawians themselves need to do more to help support the ministry of the Crisis Nursery. We’re already talking about what we’re going to do next year!
the Mzuzu Crisis Nursery “Coffee Morning”. A “coffee morning” in Malawi is not quite what we expected. Sounds like a straightforward open-house, bake sale, right? Wrong!It was the staff’s idea and they were excited about this “second annual” fundraising project. In preparation, the grounds were swept, weeded, and tidied. The floors were scrubbed, walls washed, and windows cleaned. Everyone was given a job. Then, in addition to dozens of posters, over 100 personal invitations were printed, signed, and hand delivered.
I (Darlene) w
as elected to bake all the fancy cakes for auction. YIKES! Fortunately our neighbor had a frosting bag and I set to work on this daunting task 2 days prior the big morning. Baking 7 cakes, six dozen cookies, three dozen muffins, and two trays of fudge became my fulltime job. The day before the event, several of the nursery staff stayed up until midnight cooking samosas. We made snacks to sell as well. The nursery was a beehive.Coffee Morning morning dawned bright and fair. (Thank goodness it didn’t rain). People began arriving at 9:30 for our official 10 o’clock opening. Folks took tours of the Nursery and enjoyed just visiting and sociali
zing. By 10:15 the program began with prayer, scripture, brief meditation, and song. Then, after Paul gave a welcome in Tumbuka & a brief history of the Nursery, we heard from our guest speaker.By 10:45 the auction started! It began slowly, with the biggest cake going for cheap (bummer). However, the American chocolate chip cookies were a hot item, as were the donated cinnamon buns and custard pie. The bidding got more intense; with the biggest price ($21.00) going for my small cake that said “Joy”. The woman who bought it had a daughter named Joy. You never know! My fudge, however, was a flop. No one even knew what it was.
As a part of the event, everyone who attended brought a gift for the nursery. We ended up with plastic pants, dia
pers, Vaseline, soap, formula, milk, likuni phala (cereal), sippy cups and some clothes. Lots of helpful stuff!All in all, our morning was a huge success. The nursery got a lot of good publicity and we actually made some money (over $700 in cash and in-kind donations). The staff was exhausted, but felt renewed in mind and spirit. Our management team is keenly aware that Malawi and Malawians themselves need to do more to help support the ministry of the Crisis Nursery. We’re already talking about what we’re going to do next year!
posted by Paul and Darlene Heller at 12:13 PM
1 Comments:
I'm so excited that the event was a success! I only wish I could have been there, too. Did you make any rainbow cakes like you talked about? They definitely missed out on the fudge. I hope you all enjoyed the leftovers! I'm thankful that the staff felt renewed after the event as well.
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