Sunday, March 29, 2009

Madonna Trip To Malawi

All set to add to her brood of children, Madonna visited Chkhota Village, where she has bought land to build part of her school for girls, in Malawi on Sunday – but not without controversy.

During the visit, Madge was shown a map for the land she had purchased while she stood alongside her Chief Advisor of Pediatric Care for her Raising Malawi Charity, Dr. Eric Borgstein.

The singer, 50, was accompanied by her daughter Lourdes, 12, and sons Rocco, 8, and David, 3, whom she adopted from Malawi last year. And she and Lourdes visited Chinkhota Village, where Madonna has purchased a large tract of land to construct a girls' school there, which sources say is modeled on the Leadership Academy for Girls that Oprah Winfrey built in South Africa.

Although the village chief thanked the singer for her "generosity," some residents were less enthusiastic amid fears that they would lose their ancestral lands and crop fields.

"We are told to leave our gardens after this year's harvest; we are told our houses are to be pulled down – but nobody is talking about compensation," said Esinati Nkhoma, a local mother of four. "Where will we move to?"

A senior government official said issues of compensation for the land are being handled by Raising Malawi, the charity established by Madonna.

When a journalist asked Madonna whether she was worried about the land concerns, she shouted back, "No!" Later, Madonna and Lourdes were heard asking villagers "Muli bwanji?," which translates to "How are you?" in Malawi's native tongue, Chichewa.

Coming up tomorrow,on a Monday morning, Madonna has a scheduled appearance before a High Court judge that could allow her to have Mercy that very same morning.

“Madonna will appear before a judge ... to petition the court to certify her adoption,” a source close to the situation told Us magazine. “Madonna will definitely be granted a temporary court order to allow her to take the child away with her.”

But courts records show she plans to adopt 3-year-old Mercy James, whose single teenage mother died at age 18.

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