A visit from an ex-prisoner

Today one of the prisoners we met in Chichiri came to see us. He has just been released, and was dressed extremely smartly in jacket, crisp white shirt and tie and a big grin. He sat and watched rehearsals for a while, and joined in when we were recording one of the songs. It is a hymn of thanks the prisoners at Mikuyu sang when they were released, so it was particularly pleasing to have our very own released prisoner join us. The actors had a whip round to give him a little money to cover his transport costs (he can't afford the bus fare to visit his mother in Ntcheu) and to welcome him out of prison, which was really nice of them, as they themselves are only on a modest daily allowance.

We ran the first half of the play - it took 55 minutes which is at least 10 minutes too long. However, this should tighten up by at least that. If not, I am going to have to do some ruthless cutting. I hope not, as I can't think of anything which could easily go at the moment.

The best thing about this week though, is the stage roof is now about 2 metres higher. A relief to everyone and I'm amazed at how quickly you can get things done in Malawi if you put your mind to it!

Publicity has started to take off, too ... there was a centre page spread (with pictures) which was an interview with me in the Sunday Times, this morning Misheck and I were interviewed for Capital FM (the most popular radio station) and next wednesday we're being interviewed on TVM (Television Malawi). Hopefully this is just the start - posters are out, the FaceBook event has been created and an SMS (text messaging) campaign is slated for the middle of next week. So if we aren't a sell-out, it's nobody's fault!