Lilongwe, Malawi (KDVR) — It seems like everywhere Grant Arends goes in Malawi, the locals shower him with gifts. Big bunches of bananas, buckets of potatoes. Even live chickens.
The gifts may not seem like much, but they’re all that villagers in the most remote parts of Malawi can afford. It’s their way of saying thank you to Arends and the other volunteers who’ve come here to help provide safe, sustainable drinking water in one of the least developed countries on earth.
“I was at a well and they had no gift to give. A man had a torn shirt. He took it off. He literally gave us the shirt off his back,” Arends told FOX31.
The Boulder financial consultant is in the middle of a three-week stint in the east African country, working with a nonprofit called Marion Medical Mission. He’s one of 19 volunteers traveling the African countryside, witnessing the joy that comes the very moment villagers start pumping water from a well they themselves helped dig and assemble.
“Christians from America heard of your need of clean water, so they provided the money to help fund the pipe, pump and the cement,” Arends told residents of one village.
The nonprofit says a donation of $475 covers the entire cost of a well. An estimated 9,000 Malawians die from waterborne illness every year, most of them young children under the age of five.
“The danger is cholera,” Arends said, standing alongside the mudhole filled with stagnant water that had previously served as the village’s water source. “I mean, with the animals and everyone drinking (from) this water, the amount of cholera and other bacteria and diseases is not good,” he said.
Retrieving water has been a task that could prevent young girls from going to school.
“They’re getting up at two in the morning and sometimes walking hours for clean water, maybe more than one time a day. They can’t go to school. With clean water, that changes everything,” Arends said.
The people in the village actually dig the wells themselves by hand, 20 feet deep. They’re involved every step along the way, working closely with Marion Medical Mission field supervisors. Arends and the other American volunteers arrive for the final step: cataloging the location of the well, making sure it’s in working order, and handing over the well to those whose lives will be changed by it.
“You will see the words carved ‘Glory to God’ (in the cement cap of the well). That is to remind you that every time you pump clean water from your well, that this well was a gift from God to all of you,” Arends told villagers last week.
This experience could not be more different than Arends’ regular life back home in Colorado. The number one question he gets from friends is, is it safe in Malawi? He says there’s only one thing that makes him feel like he’s in danger.
“Those roads are gnarly,” he said. “Straight down on your left, straight down on your right. And you better be paying attention.”
But all those roads lead to the same place: villagers in need. The people who are always saying thank you, even though they don’t have much to give. Little do they know, they’ve already given Arends and the others a much bigger gift than they could ever imagine.
“They were just so joyful. I think that’s every day of their lives. That’s the most haunting thing about being here is seeing folks full of not just happiness because that’s transactional joy, which is, you know, at your core,” Arends said.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
