Letter from Malawi - Week 3

We’ve been in Africa 2 weeks. It looks very… African. The soil is orange red, and quite dusty, the roads are busy with pedestrians and bicycles that you have to take care not to hit on the narrow roads. The women wear colorful prints, carry babies on their backs and bundles on their heads. Others wear suits. The weather is nice this time of year, cool at night warm in the daytime. I’ve seen some beautiful birds and flowering Jacaranda trees. The Malawians we have met have all been warm and very willing to practice our greetings in Chichewa. I think we are going to like it here.
The kids started school this week, and seem to be adjusting quite nicely. They have all made a number of friends already. We have also met and been helped about by missionaries that have lived here a while, they have made the transition a lot easier. We had our first meeting with the missionaries of Partners in Hope where we prayed for the work and for each other. I’m so happy to be with a group of people who know they depend on God.
Speaking of transitions…. Please, please pray for ours. We need to find a house, furniture and a better internet connection! Pray for our language learning, and for us to be effective in our work here.
Love,
Elizabeth

Early Impressions of Malawi: A List from Week 2

A gardener cutting the grass with a manual hedge clipper – the giant scissor kind.

A very functional sprinkler made out of a hose taped to a water bottle with holes poked around the middle of the bottle.

All the houses have razor wire and electric fences around the walls. The electricity is enough to give a zap like a bee sting, but not to kill or even maim. It still feels like a prison at times.

Crows have white bellies so that they look like they’re wearing tuxedos.

Beautiful birds with iridescent red wings, a long skinny crest on their heads, long tails and glowing green bodies.

Kids who appear well-fed, begging, sticking their hands out when I walk by. Even two-year-olds are begging when they see my white skin. I understand it, but I don’t have to like it.

God comes through exactly on time. We got the support we needed just two days before we left the US and a little more has come in since we arrived. Thank you, God.

No hummingbirds. They’re Western Hemisphere birds.

The internet is often too busy to log on, especially in the evening.

Everything is imported, so everything except corn flower is very expensive. Gas $4.50/gal, Jelly beans $4 for a tiny bag, which would be less than $1 at Walgreen’s.

I wish I weren’t allergic to cats. The Jonats (the family we are house sitting for) have a very friendly cat, but I can’t pet it without feeling raw in my eyes and nose.

The weather is really pleasant in late winter, which means summer is going to be really hot. Here there are really three seasons: hot, cold, wet (which should be called hot & wet.) Since we're in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed, so winter is just ending.

I’ll have to relearn how to drive a manual transmission, not hard, but now left handed while driving on the left. Yikes.

I am beginning to have some culture shock as different annoyances catch up w/ me; we’re house sitting so we can’t unpack all our stuff, and we are learning how to function in a new environment. All this will pass and God will get us through, but after ten days, I have frustrations.

As I was writing this blog the first time, the electricity went out, which means that the 1 hour internet access card I bought was running, although nothing else was. Bye, bye 1 hour internet access.

I know that we will adjust, and the adjustment is painful, which hopefully means God is scrubbing off some rough edges and stretching us. As time passes we will adjust our rhythm to the rhythm of life here. Right now I feel like an opera singer trying to rap.

People are tickled pink when when we try to say even a few words in Chichewa.

We can see God working in many ways, even the most minute details. As hard as things are here, we know we are in God's gentle hands.

Please pray for us. We need the prayers and everyone could use more practice.