Limbe, Malawi … It is late afternoon as we leave the Blantyre house and travel to the original sites of Dr. Banda’s home, and medical office, as well as the original site of the first political party in Malawi. Dr. Banda was the first President of Malawi, and these sites hold historic significance, though only the party office is on the registry of historic sites. The houses have not been set-aside as national monuments, and currently have other families and businesses operating within their historic walls. Today I am traveling with Mama C. T. Kadzamira, and she serves as an excellent tour guide to the historic sites, and memories of the early years of the republic.
After viewing the sites we make our way east along the Blantyre-Zomba road to the edge of one of the prominent mountains that surround the Blantyre area. The blazing African sun seems to set the sky on fire as it settles down behind the horizon on the western slope. Acouple of enquiries from people walking along the road, and we reach the fenced and gated home of 94-year-old Fanny Thindwa. Fanny came to 
Malawi in 1963, just as home rule was enveloping the former colonies. She was from Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), but was married to a man from Nyasaland (Malawi). Her husband was an accountant for the Bible Society, and with the changes taking place in the federation of Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia the society was transferring their staff to their respective parts of the federation. Fanny became a schoolteacher in her new home, then built and operated her own school. Fanny taught three of her family members, sisters Esnath and Mary, and brother David, remarks Mama Kadzamira with a great deal of pride later in the evening.
As we step through the door two things immediately catch my eye. The first is the frail, but extremely alert, woman sitting on the far side of the room. I instantly know this is Fanny. She is wrapped in a heavy sweater, overlaid with a warm blanket, and looking as though she has just prepared herself for a long winters night. The late afternoon is turning cold quickly in anticipation of the Malawi night, and at her age the cold gets through to her feeble body easier than with most of us. The other thing I immediately see is the wheelchair from the Malawi Project and Free Wheelchair Mission that is sitting beside her easy chair. It was delivered just three weeks ago, and the report has not yet reached my desk, so I am completely surprised to see it.
We talk with Fanny about the old days, and from time to time a beautiful smile spreads across her face as she recalls those warm moments in the distant past when freedom was new, and the republic was just beginning. Fanny is a wealth of information, and she can still give a history lesson with nearly perfect recall, in spite of her long years and frail body. Her old wheelchair, she tells us, is no longer workable. It just could not withstand the harsh, punishing conditions of dirt, the bone chilling bumps that it needed to endure, and the rough terrain that a wheelchair must maneuver in Malawi. There are few sidewalks, and most roads are little more than dirt paths. This new wheelchair, with its all terrain capabilities, will help her for many years. With a smile she assures me she is planning to get to 100. I have little doubt that she means it, and the way it looks at 94+ Fanny is well on her way to reaching her goal.
Richard E. Stephens
Malawi Project Inc.