The father of a Malawian boy adopted last year by US pop diva Madonna said on Sunday he was eager to "see, touch and hug my son David", as news reached him that she was expected to visit the country.
LILONGWE: The father of a Malawian boy adopted last year by US pop diva Madonna said on Sunday he was eager to "see, touch and hug my son David", as news reached him that she was expected to visit the country.
"I will be very happy to meet my son after eight months as well as Madonna because we only met once with her in court during the adoption process," Yohane Banda, 32, said.
Although there has been official confirmation, Madonna is expected to arrive in Malawi on Monday. Earlier reports had suggested she might reach the poor southern African nation on Sunday.
It will be her second visit to continue her charitable work with the Raising Malawi Organisation.
Speaking by cellphone, Banda said he knew nothing about the intended visit of the singer and a possible re-union with David except what journalists had told him.
"Nobody has told me Madonna is coming," said Banda, who hails from Lipunga village, a rural dusty and poor outpost 50 kilometres from the Home of Hope orphanage in Mchinji district.
"I am hearing it for the second time from people like you journalists," he added.
"I don't have any programme about her visit. No government official nor the orphanage has come to see me, but I would still be the most happiest person to see David and Madonna," he said.
David's reunion with his biological father is expected to take place at the Home of Hope in Mchinji, 110 kilometres from the capital Lilongwe.
It was there that Madonna chose the then 13-month-old boy among 500 children for a controversial adoption that sparked a heated debate.
The poor and illiterate farmer brought his son to the centre last year after David's mother died shortly after birth.
Madonna was last year granted an 18-month interim order by the high court allowing her to take David out of Malawi.
The ruling sparked a heated debate about adoption laws in a country where the number of orphans is surging as a result of AIDS.
The singer has denied using her vast wealth to fast-track the process of adopting David. Yohane has said he let his son be adopted to escape the poverty of the southern African nation.
The singer is expected to continue her charity work of constructing several orphanages. Her spokeswoman denied reports that she was going to adopt another Malawian child.
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