During a daylong visit he hoped would begin to express his deep appreciation, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Northern Malawi Christopher Boyle Wednesday praised Foxcroft School students for changing the lives of hundreds of African children with a donation last spring to help build schools in his country.

"In Malawi, when we want to say thank you, we don't write a thank-you note or send an e-mail," Bishop Boyle told students and faculty in an all-school meeting. "When people help us as you have helped us, we go in person and tell them how grateful we are. It's important to sit face-to-face and talk.

"When we want to say 'Thank you,' we say 'Zikomo,'" he continued. "But when we want to say 'Thank you very, very much indeed,' we say, 'Zikomo kwamoiri.' On behalf of the 1.2 million people in Northern Malawi, I say Zikomo kwamoiri to you."

Led by the Class of 2007, which organized the event, the Foxcroft community raised $15,343 last April with a Walk-a-thon and t-shirt sale. Ambassador Bernard Sande, Malawi's envoy to the United States, came out from Washington, D.C., to walk with the students and made them "official ambassadors of Malawi."

Bishop Boyle's visit deepened the relationship and understanding between the fortunate students of Foxcroft and the needy people of a tiny, faraway country. During his visit, Bishop Boyle toured the Foxcroft campus, met with the Student Council, ate lunch with a dozen students, and chatted with Head of School Mary Louise Leipheimer. The Foxcrofters learned that virtually every family in the Malawi has been touched by HIV/AIDS; there are only 100 doctors to care for the country's 12 million people and 80 percent of the students who took high school graduation exams last year failed because of the lack of schools and teacher.

A decade after a universal primary education initiative in Malawi, Bishop Boyle said, there is an extreme shortage of secondary schools. Only a small percentage of qualified students can be accommodated and they often have to walk as far as 10 miles to share one textbook with 14 other students and one teacher with 100 or more classmates.

"Your response to our need for schools in Malawi is fabulous," Boyle said. "You have shown me that there is no xenophobia (fear of foreigners) at Foxcroft and that you are willing to take responsibility to make the world a better place. You have changed the lives of hundreds of students – boys and girls – for years to come."

The Bishop said that when they received word of the generous donation by the Foxcroft community, there was singing and dancing in celebration.

And now, school buildings and faculty accommodations (qualified teachers must often be imported) are being built with the money Foxcroft raised.