Celebration 2 of 2

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 1 Corinthians 9:24

Sorry for such a late post, but the Olympics have been on and...that's my excuse, Olympics. I have been distracted from watching amazing people who have spent their whole lives working on this goal of going to the Olympics to find out if they are the best. And there have been some unbelievable records that have been set, by astonishing people and countries. Learning their stories and how they have gotten where they are. Learning about how they train and what they go through to be the best, I love it all. This is my last post.

cooking with the village

 

THE CELEBRATION

 

Movie of village shown to the village

THE celebration every year is the last day that we are in the village. This is the day we get there early in the morning and we stay until after dark. We spend the day just being with everyone, getting to know them, taking A LOT of pictures. Going to the homes of the people we each have gotten to know a little better. We cook with them, or rather try to cook with them, we eat, we play games, we kill a goat or two and some chickens. Lots of dancing and lots of singing. This year we added the play that I spoke about earlier and the movie. Every year is different and every year is special. 

 




this girl

children

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

boys

 



I spent most of my time hanging out with Fiki, because there were so many people with us this this whole trip I was lucky if I was able to say hi to her for a minute everyday, let alone catch up. We talked and cooked together, I got to learn a little about everything Live Love Malawi has been doing in last year, and what other people not involved with Live Love have been doing too.



dancing with the children

foot pedal on sewing machine

They built a sewing building for the women and widows to learn how to make clothes, purses, bags, and even learn how to hem, and fix holes in clothes. They were taught this to be more self-sufficient and they love it. The women were taught in only a few months how to sew on non-electric machines that are powered by a foot pedal that were donated (including The Grove church) to them so that they could make money for their village and families. 


sewing machine



Bau (mancala) Malawi board game

concert

They are adding more agriculture to the village of Chipampa and so they built a water tower to get water throughout the fields. They are building huts in the village to let guests stay in the village. They have started their second year of school of literacy for adults in the village to learn how to read both in Chichewa and for some in English too. We were there to see the first graduates, and now these women and 1 man know how to read their language and some know how to read 2. It was amazing and beautiful.  They are working with ways to medical treatments to children and adults, the care they need, including Malaria, leprosy, hearing, eyes, burns, bed sores, and coughing. I also found out about a new organization called Donor See where people can learn about how they can donate to help others in third world countries. This site is made for people to put up information and pictures of people who need help to get a cure or medicine, or even to just go to the doctor. They keep updates on each person so that the donors know what is going on and how they have helped. The person who started this is Gret Glyer, an American who has been teaching at ABC academy for a couple of years, he also started Girls Shine Academy a school for girls in Malawi. specifically Mkanda village. We were there when they were in the final stages of finishing the school. The link talks more about it and what is left to be done. These are some of the things that we talked about all night.



Girls Shine Academy

What else do we do on the last day? We take it all in, we remember what we have seen, and what we have heard, we take pictures of everything and everybody so that we can take it with us, and show others. We try and see how we can come back to our own country and not go back to our own routines, and find a way to be in Malawi, while we are in America. We remember how blessed we are in America.

How do we come back to America and not go back to a regular routine? Some people only wait a few weeks and it is back to the same life of rushing around, trying to get everything done on their errand list, driving their kids around to all of their extra activities, Malawi will always be in their hearts and mind, but they do not know what else to do, and life happens. Some start their own organization as soon as they come back and try to find a way to help, one guy, Nick, went back 6 weeks later to become a 5th grade teacher at ABC academy, and last year a girl named Alyssa went back to teach as well. We all have our different ways to cope with what we have seen and been through while we were there. It is a life changing experience no matter what the outcome. I know I will be going back next year and I am starting right away with funding.
 
I want to thank each and every one of you for all of your love and support in getting me to a place I love so much, a place that changes me every time I go, a place where they teach me more than I can ever teach them.

Thank you all again for all that you have done for me.

The Celebrations 1 of 2

Money being thrown in the air

Psalm 98:4-Shout for joy to the Lord, break out in praise and sing for joy!

There were two celebrations this year. An 
engagement party and our epic 

Feast. The first thing I will say is that, I have never been to an engagement party in Malawi (the year prior we went to a wedding) but it was nothing like I would have expected from an engagement party. Every year we do a last day celebration in the village with the ABC students/translators and the whole village and people come from other villages gather for it too.

THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY

The 'Throne

The engagement was Fiki's. She got engaged last year in December. And will get married in October this year. From getting engaged to getting married, the time is usually really short for Malawian's heck dating is pretty short too. Originally they wanted to get married in July, but they did not have the money, so that is what the Malawian engagement parties are for. Usually the aunts and uncles pay for the wedding it is a traditional Malawian wedding, the aunts and uncles also get to choose the color of  the wedding, but the engagement is their tribal colors. This years engagement colors were black/red and a little brown, red is in most tribes, the wedding is purple and silver. Family and friends come together to celebrate, meet each other for the first time and give as much money as their hearts desire. Everyone ended up giving over 1 million Malawian Kwatcha (note: there are also Zambia Kwatcha). There were 3 people who were constantly counting the whole time we were there. There was a guy who would go out and pick up the money off the ground and give it to the counters. They tried to make it a little more organized by having us throw the money into this wide basket of sorts, but we were terrible at it, and it was windy.

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Bill and Fiki dancing and money!!

Two left, which one is she?

ring

What do they do at an engagement? Here was my perspective: There is a DJ, who announces everything in Chichewa. She did an announcement for every group to come up and give money. This was before we saw the bride-to-be and groom-to-be. The DJ announced: the brides side the grooms side, their church, the Live Love group, the ABC group, and then their are smaller groups within each of the groups, while we were there I would guess over 30+ groups that danced up to the front and gave money, they announce when you should give smaller Kwatcha or 1000 Kwatcha. The next thing we saw was the groom coming out, he is surrounded by his family and friends, and they walked/danced up to the front and announced him, and he sat at his chair/throne (it reminded me of a throne, I'm sure that's not what it is). Then they continued to announce people to come up and throw money in the many groups that they have. (I was able to go up for being a friend or the bride-to-be, being in Live Love, being apart of ABC, just a few examples)  Next, they ask the family and friends of the bride-to-be to get her and bring her to the front. So over 100 people brought her to the front (dancing was harder with so many people), or rather the 3 of the brides-to-be to the front. There were 3 potential brides-to-be and they were each completely covered from head to toe, and the groom to be has to choose the correct bride. He chose correctly on the 2nd try, and she was gorgeous. He then got down on one knee an place the ring on her finger.

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yes these are the brides maids, and Fiki

'Bridesmaids', gifts and moms and a DJ
DJ is in the orange dress
last 3 offerings on the end

The bride and groom then stand in front while more people are called to throw money at them. They then sit together, at their throne, while more money is thrown on them. (A lot of money is thrown at these). One of the last things that we saw before we left, as this is an all day event, was the bride-to-be's 'brides maids' for a lack of the correct word, along with the bride-to-be stand up front in a line and hold an offering from the bride-to-be to the mothers of the 'brides maids'. The mothers stand in front of their daughters and dance and throw money, and then the daughters give the offering to their mothers. The offerings were small packages put together by the bride-to-be and her sister, they had things from, fruit to hand brooms to thermoses. There were also 3 other offerings that the bride-to-be handed out to 3 people who are special to her, who have supported her through her life. These 3 people were to give 20,000 Kwatcha (that $30.00) to her, they did this by, you guessed it dancing and throwing it, or making it rain.

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groom-to-be's family dancing, and money on the ground

Kids dancing

Bill and Fiki last year

Bill and Fiki

Part 2: The Epic Celebration coming soon...