I leave Malawi today after a quick and jammed-pack trip. During the last five days I’ve interviewed school children, teachers and a village chief.  I’ve listened as staff members outlined their programs and families shared their dreams.

I’ve seen women knead clay and shape it into cookstoves that will provide them an income for the first time in their lives. … children act out the perils of child labor with plays and dance … tender new corn and tobacco plants in red soil with craggy mountains in the background … and everywhere the energy and drive of a country full of young people.

I’m ending this trip on the humid shores of Lake Malawi, which consumes more than a third of the country’s area. Tomorrow we drive back to the airport in the capital city of Lilongwe.

I’ll take home what I often do from these travels — the knowledge that the world is a big place and there is more under the sun that we can possibly imagine. It’s heartening to me, this knowledge. It brightens my days.