Questions? \_(ツ)_/ Part Two

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”   -Maya Angelou          

(updated 2019)


Q: What is it like there?

A: At first sight, it is exactly what you are probably thinking, from the moment you first land. The airport is really small, there are no terminals. When driving to the campus, you see cars, and trucks, and lots of minibusses. Minibus are small vans packed like sardines with people. There are a lot of bikes, that people use to travel and carry lots of stuff that they need, wood, chickens, straw, sugar cane. Once you get over the mental image of it being exactly like you were thinking, heard and have read, you realize it is so much more than you could imagine. It's beautiful, and welcoming, fun, and more family than most understand.

One of my favorite moments in my first years. I was able to spend it with Fiki and a few other Malawians. The day started by us being told that we were to get some things for lunch on the last day for the celebration in the village. We were to get 3 things in the market. We started at 9:30am. The market we went to was only 10 minutes away and the village another 10 minutes from there. It took us over 3 hours, because in the process we dropped off some jerseys to get names put on them, then we stopped because someone wanted to taste the fruit at a mini-market we were passing, then one of the markets caught on fire while we were there, so some of the guys with us helped put it out, while we're there, there was another one of our guys getting lumber for the pen for the goats that our pastor wanted to make in the village, so they helped them do that, then we went to COTN to pick up Ben. We found out that we needed to go back and pick up someone at the college, cause their car wasn't working. We all went to the market together and went separate ways, for about 30 minutes to look for the 3 things we needed. We talked to some people that the Malawians knew and they introduced us. One of the ladies at the market kept trying to get me to buy tangerines, but I told her to ask Fiki. Fiki told her no and the lady looked at me. I told her to keep trying, cause she will buy them eventually. The lady followed us for 10 minutes, Fiki kept saying and didn't understand why the lady was so persistent, as usually when Fiki says no, people listen, and I told the lady to keep trying, and eventually, Fiki bought the tangerines (that was funny) it's her favorite fruit. We finally got what we needed and left, we went by COTN and picked up someone else, I don't know who. (This whole time Fiki and the ABC students that are with us in this small truck are getting phone calls and texts on where to go and what and who to pick up, and you never see it). We stopped at a place to get someone money, we stopped to give someone food, we stopped a lot, and it was so simple, it was exactly how I picture God would do things for his family, for the people he loves. I just was along for the ride, most Americans would be upset that we were not staying on a schedule and stopping to help so many people, and get so many things. It was actually very relaxing and nice to care for people. Just before we started to go to the village with the things we were originally told to get, we stopped again, because those jersey's I spoke about earlier, they were done, and we picked them up, paid for them and went on our way. I definitely saw God in them that day, love your neighbors. It didn't matter if they were related if they were sick if they were man, woman, child, young, old. They would have done this for several more hours and they do when we are not there. One of the saying we hear all the time is 'figure it out' and that is just what they do, they figure it out. We may have started several hours later than we would have in westernized culture, but they start right on time. TIA is another saying meaning 'this is Africa'.

Q: Will you go back?
A: Yes!!

Q: Will you move there, do you want to move there?

A: I don't know if I will move there, yes I would love to live there someday.

Q: Where is Malawi?

A:------>   there's a map :) We are in

Lilongwe, Malawi. Which is also the capital of Malawi

Q: What was different this year than the previous years?

A: It is different every year. No matter how many people we bring, no matter how much training we go through, there is always something different that happens or will happen. I was not emotionally invested my first year, I actually thought I would skip a year, but I ended up going the next year with a much smaller group and it helped me to invest my whole self into Malawi and the people. Don't get me wrong I loved it there the first year, that is why I wanted to go back, but I was not sad to leave, and I didn't think too much about everything we did, I am really good at bottling everything up, but then they had a huge storm that destroyed a lot of things that we helped build, and that's when I knew I had to go back, that's when I became emotionally invested.  The second-year was the most emotional time for me. I ended up becoming friends with a lot of the ABC students and the Live Love staff. I talk to them on a daily or weekly basis.  New things the third year was the whole other church came with us, the justice team started, and the music. It is interesting how different everything is every year. My fourth year, one of my favorite students graduated and her and her family moved to South Africa to start a missionary. My fifth year, I was the only American on my team and i got 8 students to hang out with all day every day, and had a blast, I also got to go to Lake Malawi by myself with the students and no one from my church. You cannot assume anything will be the same any year, even the ABC student translator/interns change.

Q: Are there any interesting facts about Malawi or Africa that you found out while you were in Africa?
A: Yes,

-Malawi is known and called the warm heart of Africa because it is such a welcoming place, the youngest person that I have gone on a missions trip with was 5.
-Zambia-the country where we went on Safari, borders 8 other countries



Africa is large enough to put the United States, China,
Europe and India inside it.



-The Baobab tree also is known as the upside-down tree, is found in parts of Africa and Australia. This tree has many uses including, food from the fruit that grows on it, building shelter, barns, the inside is hollow for animals to make homes too, it also gets very large. Click on the link to read more about them.
-Malawi's length is longer than Arizona.

-to make paint, they will take the ashes of a Redwood and soak them in water and salt.

-a group of zebras is called a dazzle
-Lake Malawi-9th largest lake in the world, more species of fish than any other lake in the world, including cichlids (pronounced 'sick-lids') which I sold for 9 years at PetSmart. It is a meromictic lake, meaning the water layers never mix.
-Over 50% of African's are under the age of 25


Q: What is something that you would like people to understand about Malawi?

A: Something that I would like people to understand is that, Malawi in not completely a poor country. There are people who have lived in Malawi their whole lives and never stepped foot in a village, and there are people who live right next to a village and do not even realize it. And the same goes for villagers, not all of them know that their lives are different from any others, there are villages out there that no missionary or westerner, has been in. I have noticed that when I go to Malawi, or Africa in general, people think of Africa as a country rather than a continent. Not every country is going through the same thing, not every country is what you hear or have read, they have their own story, they have their own life. I am often reminded that every person has their own story and that I should ask people that I meet what their story is.  And when I do, I get a different perspective of each person. ABC students are fascinating to talk to, not to stereotype, but I would have assumed that each one has a similar story. For instance: Blessings-one of the main guys who runs Live Love Malawi, he is from a village, it is where he grew up. It takes 3-4 hours to get to his village from the main road, he did not get his first pair of tennis shoes until he was 10 years old, they were red. He is the first person in his village to go to college. This year I met a girl named Zione, she came from a wealthy family, both of her parents went to college in London and got their Masters and doctorate degrees in politics and education respectively. She was never shown the life of a village, and got everything she has ever asked for from her parents.

I was writing this answer and came across a TEDx talk that I feel explains what I am trying to say. I have provided a link. The video is just over 18 minutes long, and it is worth watching.  TEDx talk

What team today? Part 2







It always seems impossible until it’s done-Nelson Mandela

If you didn't read my first post about the teams we were on go here.

This is the second half about teams and a little of what we did while we were in Malawi.

 High school team- I wish I had more to say about them. I know they did amazing things, loved on wonderful people and helped any way they could. I know that they were in a bunch of places, but they were their own group most of the time. I know that they served on several other teams as well. The one thing they did do that we have never done was go out to another village called Kaungu about 3 hours away and give away 50lb bags of maize. I remember one lady telling us that it was devastating to see the famine, starvation, bloated guts on babies and children, lack of water. We see the same thing in the villages we go to, but not nearly as bad as what they saw. I wish I had pictures of them, but I barely saw them on campus, let alone out in the villages. But they did amazing things.



Construction team- What did they do? They built a couple huts, painted the brand new

The beginning of building a new bridge

women's/widows seeing building, painted the new girls school in Mkanda (I don't know if I told you all this, but they pronounce every letter in their words so Mkanda, the M is pronounced like movie, or 'mmm, mmm, good' Campbells soup.) they helped start building the fallen bridge in the village, that helps cut the commute time in half. They put some extra touches on the clinic, they bought a lot of supplies, fixed some huts that had fallen roofs, put a huge water tank on top of a huge brick wall for water supply to new agriculture farm coming soon. They helped build some huts in the village for visitors to stay in, I believe they did so much more, but I wasn't there for all of it.







Medical- What don't they do. They did at least 1 clinic everyday in a village (Mkanda, Chiliza, Chipamapha, mguwie) they did several clinics in prisons. They saw hundreds and hundreds of people. They checked to see if anyone had malaria, and gave medication to help fight it. They also handed out certain antibiotics to anyone who needed it. Dr. Cook, our request doctor who has been 7 times I believe did some bigger surgeries on some of the Chiefs, like huge tumors. He is actually an OB/GYN doctor who specializes in surgeries and emergencies. He also does preventative care and counseling. One of our key people in Malawi him and his wife lost their baby in September of last year and she was 8 1/2 months pregnant. If she was in America  the baby would have survived. Dr. Cook was able to be there to talk to them about what happened and answer questions, and to counsel them in their time of grieving. And also let them know what to expect, if they ever got pregnant again. It was a good thing for them, for their healing, and their future. I never went out with them, so no pictures :(

The whole village watching a movie of themselves and
where they live

Media/film- Mosaic church brought along their film and camera people. There were 3 people in all. 2 of them just took a bunch of amazing pictures of EVERYTHING. and one of them took a bunch of video, he even had a drone there. Can you imagine the faces of people who have never seen an object fly, let alone a drone that is taking their pictures or filming them. The kids LOVED IT. . They were able to see themselves on video. It was pretty amazing to see and hear. The ooos and awwes and the laughter was beautiful. In the end the film crew (1 guy), was able to edit all his work into about a 10 minute film and show it to the village on our last day. It was a pretty amazing feat in itself.











Flyer of our worship team to do a free concert in Malawi, our girls headlined

Music and a show or two- We had a wonderful eclectic group of musicians with us. We even had a huge concert event with two of the grove worship team and a famous Malawian popstar, the turn out was huge. The grove brought several people who knew how to sing and play instruments, we did worship everyday. The Mosaic team, well pretty much everyone knew how to sing on this team, they wrote their own songs in Chichewa and they had a small team who went around and taught everyone in the villages how to sing them, they also directed a small group of children in a play, that they showed us on our last day.  There was so much incredible talent, it was fun to go into a village and have them sing Mosaics song, and it was fun to see the creativity the children came up with when making props for the play.





Women's and widows team- This is my team, this is the team that I started on 3 years ago, and this is the team that I was able to help lead last year. This team is all about bringing God to the women

One of three women's conferences, Mosaic lead this beautiful
and amazing conference

and the widows of the village, these women are going to be the ones to bring their village to God, and show them that he is worth it. These women believe in our team, they believe they were put here to share their knowledge and wisdom of God and his love. They are the ones who are learning how to read and going to the literacy school that was started, they are the ones learning to sew so they can sell what they make and bring in money for their families, to help provide, they are the ones who are learning to make jewelry to again bring in money. They are the ones who will learn to garden and bring food to the table, they are the ones who are going to change Malawi starting with their own village. And the changes that they have been making slowly for the last 7 years has paid off, the reason we went into Mkanda village this year was because these women have the presence of God. And they travel around and talk about Live Love and what we (you all too) are doing to help them. And last year they came to a wedding my pastor went to and asked him if he would start coming to their village. They see God in our presence  and want to know him.





Justice team update: From the last post that I did about Which team today part 1, I said that our justice team got 11 people out of prison and one child. I learned a little more about the woman and child that were in prison. The lady was falsely accused or being in a mob riot. She had proof that she was actually in the hospital with her child. Because of this story and Sean and his team learning about what happened, since we left 11 more people got of prison that were falsely accused of being in this riot, and 5 other prisoners were set free due to other convictions. This is an amazing new team bringing justice to another country, I am so proud of everything they have done.



This man has only one leg, he
lost it when a group of men attacked
 him. He is very sweet, he
speaks English well

This man was the only man in any village to come to our
womens conference to be in the presence of Goe.
He believes with all his heart. He sat next to this tree the
whole time listened and prayed, he is in this picture.
I felt God in his presence the moment he sat down. He
was amazing.


 

The Safari

Phillipians 4:8 whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

I

My favorite

One of the best things about going to Malawi is seeing all the amazing sights that are there.  The nature, and how they build... everything. But the one thing our pastor wants for us is to show us the beauty of Malawi, or in this instance, Africa. So we went on a Safari to Zambia the country right next door.

This is what happened last year:

This was, to me, really fun, and a little complicated. Why? because 3 years ago we went on a Safari in Malawi, and it was a long drive south, to a beautiful place. Last year we went to a different country in Africa, so we had a different travel story to tell. The drive was shorter, but the commute was longer. We only had 28 people with us, in comparison to 60. When you go to a different country you get to go to the border, and when you go to the border you get to stand in a line....Well here..

We drove 3 hours to the border of Zambia/Malawi. All 28 of us got off the bus, but left our stuff on it. We all walked to the Malawi border building, while there we were given a small paper that we had to fill out to let them know we were leaving. We quickly realized that we did not really need to write down everything correctly on this paper -they were not reading it- so someone wrote that he was the president of Malawi, others wrote random stuff, some just scribbled, thank you kindergarten. In the end it still took us about an hour to get through. Then you walk over the Malawi/Zambia line to the Zambia building and you give an angry person your passport in a different country, they ask questions and check your temperature, and this takes another 30 minutes or so. Then for some reason you wait for a long period of time for the bus to get approved, another 2 hours. And your off, no big deal.

(I do not have a picture of what this looks like for two reasons, 1) it's boring I can look for a picture online of people standing around and waiting, and it would be equivalent, 2) We are not allowed to take pictures of the police that are around, so if for some reason we take a picture of them by accident, it can turn out bad.

This is what happened this year:

Remember we have 148 people this time. We separated into groups. On Tues/Wed the Grove high school team went to Zambia, with our high school pastors, and some of the high schoolers parents. On Wed/Thurs the rest of the Grove went to Zambia. Also, on Wed/Thurs the Mosaic team went to a different safari in Malawi, the same one I went to 2 years ago. It took about 2 hours for the high school team to get through to Zambia, we tried to be better prepared by using the advise of the high school team, but it took us just as long. This time around we needed to get visa's. (we did not need these last year). But it was quicker getting in and out of Malawi/Zambia than last year and we had more people this time around.

The lodging/bathroom:

outside of bathroom, there are 3 'sides' with a door

curved walkway into bathroom

outside shower/sink

This year we had so many people we could not all stay in the same lodge, so me and a small group went to Croc valley lodge about 5 minutes away, and the drivers went to a third lodge. I stayed at the original lodge the year prior, and it was beautiful. (For those of you who are reading this who went last year, ignore this next part). The lodge we stayed at this year was AMAZING, the tents were a thousand times better, and the ones from the original lodge are pretty great. The view was similar, but better, the food was better, and monkey's were everywhere. Last year we stayed in tents that are decent, regular, large tents, and we had really nice beds inside, but the bathroom was outside of the tent, and if you needed to leave once it got dark, you have to call a night watchman to make sure you get the bathroom safely without getting attacked by an animal, that may have wandered on to the lodge. This is a national park, we are in the animals natural habitat, and these lodges do not stop the animals from going anywhere they want, so that is why the night watchmen are for, they will bring a light to show us the way, but also are trained on what to do if say a hippo or elephant, or lion were to come and try to eat us. The bathroom is really neat it is made up of straw/bamboo, the sides/walls (a spiral shape) where there are 3 toilets and 3 showers, you can take a shower and talk to the person taking a shower on the side. When you walk into the bathroom the 'hallway' is curved, so if you were looking at it from above, it would look like a maze .

Our tent

Our beds

The tours are 4 hours in the morning and in the evening. Sometimes you see a bunch of things, sometimes very little. Either way this place is amazing. Here are some of God's creations.

We are this close

momma and her cub

I have a ton of sunsets





I can't help it

These are endangered. We saw them in 2015, they said there was almost no chance
we would see them, the drivers were so excited they got all
the trucks to get here.  (African wild dogs)



just a few more

zebras



sunset



I have a problem



A serious problem

Family

There were hundreds of these, I have one pic



Pumba

In motion

Hippos

some one dropped a camera in front of him





blurry

close up of African wild dog



Just woke up

We stop to watch the sunset, we are able to get out of the truck.
They give us a small snack and a drink (tea or coffee)

Questions?? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Part One

'Hardships often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.'   -C.S. Lewis

(updated 2019)



I am often asked a bunch of questions when I get home, I am also asked a bunch of questions when we are leaving. So I thought I should answer some of those questions on here:

Q: How are you treated? Do they like you?

A: It depends on where we are in Malawi. When we first arrive, we are greeted by the smiling faces of the amazing ABC students, at the airport. Whether we arrive with 30 people or 148, a bunch of the ABC students come and help us with our bags and load them for us. And several ABC workers ride on the back of a huge truck making sure our luggage does not fall off.

The first place we go after dropping off our luggage is to a market, there are many markets all around Malawi, thousands, and they are all over the side of the road. There are markets you can get in and out of without much thought and there are ones that are not so safe. We go directly to the not so safe one. Our pastor likes to scare us, show us the worst part of Malawi, and lets us know that this is the worst we will see. This market is one that we are not allowed to take pictures of, because 1) they will probably steal your camera/phone right out of your hand. 2)They really don't like it. This is where we see the not so nice in people. The 'road' this HUGE market is on, is called Devil's alley, for the theft, prostitutes, and all-around danger that they have. The place is basically a 1/2 square mile of a bunch of shops, and by shops I mean plywood shops about 8 ft X 8 ft, some a larger, some smaller, but they all sell a bunch of stuff and they all want your money, everyone is pretty loud, it smells very bad of feces and alcohol, the walkways are super narrow about two feet wide in most areas, and there are a lot of people trying to get you away from the group you are with, we usually will have an ABC student in the front and the back of us. I think I found it slightly intimidating the first time I went, but now I don't really think too much of it, and on this last trip they had me in the back protecting, everyone,, I have become a Malawian, even the guys that used to grab and touch me, are a lot nicer and know who I am.

The other markets we go to are small and quaint, they sell a lot of produce, they are one of my favorite places to go. They still have a bunch of people trying to sell you their product, but they are not as pushy or in your face. I love watching how each 'vendor' takes care of their area, they have their broom and always try to keep the area clean, they stack their products neatly and with care, and when someone buys something they immediately make it look perfect. The people at these markets just stare at you a lot, but they are friendly, they don't know who we are or what we are there for. 

This rice, this rice had my heart and what made me notice how much care

they took in their product. We took the rice out of the one on the left,

 someone else was on the right side. Fiki was able to touch the rice, eat some, see that its texture

was good, and even mixed it around to make sure they were not hiding any bad rice in the mix.

 They put our rice in a bag, weighed it and we paid. Before we even left, the guy folded thebag down to where you see it now and made the mound.
There was something special about this. I can't explain.



Every section looked this beautiful

She was fixing her section after
selling some tomatoes





















ABC students are wonderful, nice, friendly, understanding, we could not do what we do, or go where we go without them, we could, but it would be so much harder and we would get little complete. They are happy to help and always easy to find. They all speak English, and well so the only problems in communicating is when we talk about things that may not make sense to them e.g. happy hour, zucchini, are a couple things I remember, or if you put a sentence together in a more westernize way, they will ask you to say it differently, but I found that this rarely happened, but it was funny when it did. The students answered a lot of questions, and the same ones over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.  Their patience was incredible. They go to the village at least twice a week as part of their education, so they know the village well and they know the people well. They know what needs to be done, they know who is sick and why they point us in the direction that we need to go. They are always happy and they LOVE to sing and dance, and they all know each other's songs and dances, So you could be in the middle of a song and dance with the women in the village and you will slowly start seeing the ABC students join in.

The people in the village, they are friendly to us. The villages that we have been going to for years, they think Azungu's are amazing, they sing and dance with us. The women and children are the ones we see the most. The men are harder to get along with, we do not see very many men around except on the soccer tournament days when everyone comes out. When we go into villages where they are not used to us, they are cautious but welcoming, we usually bring a couple of women from the village that know us and know the village we are going to as well as the people. This helps with the new people not being so uncomfortable with us. What I have noticed is the children are very hesitant to touch us in a village that are not used to us. they will laugh and point, but until one of our regular women villagers makes them touch us they keep their 2-foot distance. The children in our regular village, do not understand boundaries or personal space, so you could have 4 children fighting over you in a second.

Q: What do you wear?

Chitenje as a head wrap

Chitenje as a skirt, head wrap, and sling
Chitenje-pronounced Chi-ten-gee, the Chi is like chip
not like Chicago.

A: The men can wear regular clothes t-shirts and pants or shorts. They can wear this in and outside the village. The women can wear anything they want outside the village but should stick to a t-shirt/blouse and pants. If they want they can wear shorts outside the village, but this would be a sign of disrespect in Malawian culture. Sticking with something that goes past the knees whether it be a skirt or shorts or dress, and a shirt that covers their shoulders and does not show skin e.g. Cleavage, or back. In the village, women MUST wear a regular shirt that covers their shoulder. No tank tops. And they MUST wear long skirts. The village women wear this thing called a chitenje. This is basically 2 meters (6.5 feet) or (2.18 yards) of fabric that they wrap around their waist and tie or tuck in to secure. They come in all sorts of amazing and beautiful colors and patterns and they average 1500 Malawian kwacha (money) that's about $3. The chitenje is a 'staple' for the Malawian women. They use this thing for EVERYTHING. As a skirt, to gather things, food, dishes, clothes. They use it as a baby sling, a head wrap, to clean, to sit on. The first time I went to Malawi I was helping a widow in her home by putting down a layer of mud in her house. This helps the house with any extra holes and dings they might have accumulated to smooth their home out. Once the mud dries they have a sold floor, wall, patio. While I was doing this my skirt was getting dirty, as I was on my hands and knees, the widow and her friends were watching and they stopped me, I thought I was doing it wrong, but no, they took their chitenje off and put in around me so that I would not get dirty. This is another use, offering it to people who might need it. This year the women have learned to sew and found several opportunities to give their chitenje to one of us who had a minor or major rip or tear on their skirt, wrapped their chitenje around us and asked for our skirt so they could sew the rip or tear. This fabric is brilliant. (Once again I had this amazing picture of a woman, using her chitenje as a sling holding a baby and she was swinging an ax at the same time. Now it's no where to be found.)


Q: What do you eat?

A: We eat the same there as we do here. They have the markets everywhere, they have grocery stores that are about half the size as one we are used to, and they have lots of food. At the school: breakfast- cereal, hard-boiled eggs, toast(the toast is amazing, we love it and miss it), pancakes, French toast, yogurt, banana(I don't like bananas but I love theirs), apples, coffee, tea, water, juice. Lunch-we had sack lunches usually with an apple, chips, and a granola bar and a sandwich. The sandwiches one year were peanut butter and jelly, then they would run out of jelly, and they would be peanut butter and peanut butter or peanut butter and butter, then they would run out and they would be butter and butter. They upgraded us to ham, chicken salad, and Italian sandwiches the last couple of years. The chips were Lays potato chips but they have different flavor a that a lot of people like more than American flavors. Sweet Thai chili was one. Dinner- chicken, rice, nsima, home fries, meatballs, potatoes, goat, greens, leftovers from the day before. We also went out for pizza at Pizza Inn (I'm not a fan of pizza, but there was something about this place that I wish America had. They do have KFC in Malawi we have never been there, but the ABC students seem to love it.

(I never take pictures of prepared food I am about to eat, and it looks like I did not disappoint, maybe next year??)

Random pic: The truck that held all of our luggage.
we have a different type of truck or bus
every year.

Q: What do the villagers eat, what is their staple?
A: They basically eat Nsima, greens, beans. Corn is their staple, this is what they usually harvest while we are there. With corn they make nsima. They harvest the corncobs and set them out in the sun till they are completely dry, they sit down on these mats that they use for everything (sitting, guests, corn, groundnuts) by hand they take off every kennel and put them in these baskets. Every year we usually sit with them and help, but this year because of the drought they did their harvest early because people will steal their harvest. Once all the kernels are off they soak it in water for 3 days, I believe this is too clean it as well as else but that I have not asked. Then they lay it flat on the mats until it is completely dry again. Next, they take it to a mill and grind it to a fine powder. There are mills in most villages. They are loud. To make nsima, the take a huge pot, and put oil in it along with water and the corn powder and they mix it by his mix gets super thick. The women in the village are very strong. We had bodybuilding men try to stir this stuff and the women had to take over cause they were going to slow. I think nsima tastes like cream of wheat, but it's so thick you could build models out of it without it falling. So what they do is they wet their right hand and take some nsima
and they roll it into a ball with just that hand and then they take some greens or some beans and thy eat it. This is all done with their heads. The beans are usually kidney beans and he greens are whatever they picked or grew. Collard greens, mustard greens, whatever they have and they cook them. They are fresh and really good. We had this meal several times while in the village. I miss it a lot., Oh yea , and they cook everything by taking 3 rocks and placing them in a circle, getting wood and starting a fire between the rocks and placing the huge pot on top of this all outside. These pits are made out of metal, and the whole this gets super hot and these women will use their hands to move it without a second thought. We try to help by using bare corn cobs as pot holders under the ledge of the pot (as the students show us) and it is still VERY VERY hot!!

 

Q:Any other missionaries there?


Random pic: you can buy these tables at a market
Flip the table over for a game.

A: The short answer, yes. A more detailed answer, a lot of the teachers at ABC College and ABC academy are missionaries, they can be there from 1, 2 or 5 years. They also go out into the villages on Fridays. But there are many missionaries everywhere we go. You can go to the markets and see them, we are very noticeable, we do not know the language and it is obvious, we walk faster, Malawians take their time with everything, they are in no hurry to get things done quickly, but they will get it done. There are many places that people can work in Malawi as a missionary, COTN (Children of the Nations) and World Vision are neighbors.

Q: What shots or medication do you have to get?

A: There are quite a few things that are recommended. Typhoid, Tetanus (booster), yellow fever, Malaria medication, are something's I can think of. I do not get anything, except the Malaria medication. And I am terrible at taking it. This time around I did not get it at all, and asked one of the doctors on the trip if I could have some, he gave me15 pills I took it for 5 days (the directions say to take it 2 days before you leave, then take one a day, and then for 7-30 days after you get back) I have never done this, and I have also never been bite by a mosquito. We have only had one person ever get Typhoid a long time ago, before any of my trips, and that was because she went off by herself into a hut and ate their food and drank their water, when she was told not to do this unless there is a student with her to make sure everything is ok....it wasn't. No one has ever gotten Malaria, but that could more than likely be because people actually take the meds. One day I will not be so lucky.



Random picture of a rickety bridge to
 and from different markets

Q: What is Malaria?
A: I get this question a lot but from what most hear it is preventable and curable, so why do we need the medication? Because we don't want to get Malaria, it is a disease that causes fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches, but can lead to yellow skin, seizures, coma, and death. There are approx. 438,000 deaths each year, mostly children under the age of 5. Malaria has several types; Malaria 1-5, the lower levels make you sick and are curable and preventable, but since people in the village cannot afford them they usually will stay sick for a while and then get better, and most have had malaria so many time, they have lost count. The higher malaria can kill you within a day. My good friend Suzgo lost his mom to Malaria 4 the same day she was diagnosed. Malaria is preventable, using cautions like mosquito nets (which I slept under every day, malaria meds, repellants, the like it at night so stay inside, wear long sleeves and pants. The malaria meds are about $15, and there is a cure. When a person gets Malaria in a third world country. Most of the time they do not have the money for Malaria meds, or families have to think about should they spend the $30 a month they get on helping their child/family member, or should they feed the family. This is why a lot of children end up dying, not enough money.

I know this kids name I swear. She was a handful

Q: Does anyone get sick?
A: Yes, people are sick the whole time we are there. Most try to push through, but some have to stay back and fight whatever they have. Children are sick a lot. We had one lady this year who was doing great all day and then out of nowhere she started throwing up for an hour. We took her to the clinic on the ABC campus and she spent two days there until she was able to keep down solid foods. We still don't know what she had but thank God she was healed quickly. I personally have never been sick while there, Thailand, on the other hand, is a different story.

And on that note, I leave you this:

Dorm room from last year, and my
mosquito net.

Which team today? Part 1

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. 

Use them well to serve one another. -1 Peter 4:10

-VBS-KIDS-Grove and Mosaic

-JUSTICE

-MEN'S CONFERENCE
-SPORTS
-AGRICULTURE

-WOMEN'S AND WIDOWS

-HIGH SCHOOL

-CONSTRUCTION
-MEDIA/FILM

-MEDICAL

-MUSIC

These were the teams we were on. Before we went to Malawi we have meetings every month with our teams, for 10 months to see what will be doing, what will be going on, learn a little of the language, and culture and other stuff. We were able to change teams if we wanted, as some of these teams were doing things and going places that others were not going to udo. Here is a break down of what each did.

VBS-KIDS-Leader Jen Bellinger-Children's pastor at the Grove-(If her name looks familiar, yes she is the wife and mom to two MLB former/players, and she herself has a beautiful heart for God and his children- each day this group went out to a different village, or orphanage or school and were able to spend time with the kids. There were 3 villages that everyone focused on Chiliza, Chipampha and Mkanda. Chiliza village and Mkanda have schools, but they all have tons and tons of kids. This team also spent a day in a village called Mguwie <- that might be spelt wrong. Mguwie is directly behind COTN-Children of the Nations, from what I heard the children speak english very well. 

In Chiliza village, they went to the school, where they get to be with the kids and see the classes, the teachers will show them what the students have been learning, and then let the KIDS team take over for a little bit to do some games. This team is also very good at being a distraction. When we come to Malawi, the children will miss school to be around us. And that can be hundreds of kids. So when another team is doing something, the KIDS team will be there to distract the kids from interrupting. Our Mosaic Team KIDS would teach the kids new songs and also taught a handful of kids how to do a play, which was presented to the whole community on our last day.

In Chimpapha village, the KIDS team did VBS-vacation Bible School, a little back story, our
church does VBS the week before we leave for Malawi, the parents pay for VBS and each kid
gets a shirt (red, blue, white, yellow, green) the kids wear these shirts and then on the last day they are asked if they want to donate their shirts to a kid in Malawi. On the last day of VBS Malawi the kids run down this hill in their brand new shirts. This is one of my favorite days to see this color of sugar high kids running as fast as they can.

Sea of color
(this shirt is brand new for the whole family, sometimes you will see the
same kid wearing this shirt for the whole year, and sometimes you will see the
mom wearing it Monday, the dad wearing it the next day, and a sibling on the next)

Mkanda village is a new village for us to go in to.  This village has been watching the other villages that we have been in for years, and has seen a change that they want to be a part of. So last year when our pastor went back to a wedding in October, many people from the village of Mkanda, including the chief came and asked if we would be apart of their village too.

 

Justice team- This team is new for us.  This is our first year bringing justice to the people in the prisons. Let me start from the beginning.  Last year a guy named Sean who happens to be a lawyer came with us. He also goes to our church. He came on this mission in hopes to see how he can help as a lawyer, and spent a lot of his times throughout the prisons that we visit, with out medical team. He saw the injustice that these individuals receive, he saw the over populated places, that were so crowded, some of the prisoners slept on their sides back to back covering the floor with no space in between, some of the prisoners slept crouched with no space in between each other, not everyone got to eat every day during the one meal they get, and he found out why people were in prison. A lot of them were there cause they had to pay a fine, a small fine to us, but something they did not have. So Sean spent time with a former prisoner who now helps run the prisons, who himself became a Christian and wants to bring God to these individuals. (I should know his name, but I forget) This guy left prison, got an education and then went right back to work at the prison to be a change. Sean was able to leave last year with enough information to start something. He hired someone to do the work on the Malawi side, to seek out the prisoners who could get out quickly for small reasons that we in America would never go to prison for. And Sean went back several times throughout the year to see how the legal system works in Malawi so that he would do things the correct way.

 

Needless to say Sean was very successful, with the help of the team that drove around with him, he was able to get many people released from prison. The most in one day was 3 on this day in particular the justice team said that the prisoners were let out as they were driving away, and the prisoners ran toward the van they were in and kept thanking them. One man was in prison for cussing at his aunt. On one of the last days we were there he was able to get a lady out of prison, whose 3 year was in with her. Now, in Malawi women can have their children in prison with them up to 6 YEARS!! I have absolutely no pictures of any of this, but I am so excited to see what Sean and his team will do throughout the year and next year. If you want to read an amazing book, by a guy who is a lawyer helping people in third world countries get out of prison he also started Restore International read Love Does by Bob Goff. He loving, funny and quirky. Altogether they got out 11 prisoners and one child.

Men's conference-This conference happens every year. It is held in the ABC auditorium and it is for the chief's of the villages to come and learn about God and how they are where the change needs to happen to see a difference in their own community. When this conference started a few years back there were only a handful of chief that came, this last year there were 77, men and women chief this year was different though, this year one of the key speakers was a lady named Chief Kachindamoto also known as the terminator of child marriages, she spoke on, your guessed it, how to prevent or stop child marriages in your village and how they need to be leaders.  She was a very powerful speaker.

 

Chief Kachindamoto
being greeted by the other chiefs

All 200 + of us greeting each chief, we
do this every year!!

I don't have much to show on this team either. It is a one day event, that I have never been a part of, however, they did let us come back to see Chief Kachindamoto speak, and I am grateful for that.


Sports team-This team is very literal. Gary, a guy who comes with us every year was the leader of this team. He literally played sports every day with some of our group, and many Malawians. Their sports of choice is soccer, and they are amazing and most play bare foot. Ouch! They played some days at the college and some days they drove hours away to play. We have, rather they have a huge soccer tournament that starts in the beginning of the year and by the time we get there, they are on their last leg of the tournament and the final game is played in the village. We azungu's are aloud to play too, some do. This year I found out that the ABC Malawi campus is the only place that has an indoor basketball court in all of Malawi, 17million people!! So a lot of games are played there every year day. While we were there John Lott (former NFL coach, who is also best friends with my lead pastor), had us dedicate a new part of the basketball building that is being built and should be done soon. John Lott moved back to Texas, but lived in AZ for awhile and while there he would do these camps for kids and all the proceeds went into building this add-on to the basketball building. This add on will have lockers, showers, weight room, and more bathrooms. The original only has 1 toilet for men and 1 toilet for women, so this will be huge for them. The picture on the right is the new center connected to the basketball building.




Home of John Lott Strength and Speed center

Basketball court



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Lott donated to build a concrete stadium on the soccer field, it is to the left of the basketball court pic. On the side of the stadium is the AZ Cardinals . I took a picture of this too, but TIA. John Lott is a good man, who is super funny, if you can find a video on him speaking I recommend it, he prides himself on the fact that he no longer cusses, someone pointed this out to him a long time ago and he decided to fix it. The words that he uses to replace cuss words were hilarious, and the analogies he makes up, made us laugh out loud, in tears funny. Although he was only with us a week, he did a lot. He also bought 10 acres of land for the village of Chimpapha for agriculture. To be able to grow their own food, and use solar power, and have an aquaponics area. this will help the village to be self sustaining, they will be able to feed everyone and they will be able to sell what they grow. It will be interesting to see how far along they get throughout the next year. (I will share on this in a year). This ties into the Agriculture team- they sadly did not have a lot to do, and so they were able to go into any other teams that they wanted. I was told that they had two days worth of things they could do, when John Lott bought the 10 acres, they were able to start giving ideas and making a start up plan, but since Malawi had such a bad drought season the agriculture team was unable to do much. But that is okay, TIA, you never know what may stop you, we pray and wait til next year.

 

 

There is so much more to share and quite a few teams to still write about, I want to get this out before the week ends and get the rest to you all by next week. If I have not said thank you for each and every one of your support.  Again Thank you. I see huge changes coming to this amazing place and I cannot wait to get back.

 

stay tuned....