Finding Faith in the Battle

What does a day look like in Lilongwe, you ask? Let me tell you the grand adventure of life here! The day starts at 4:50am with the call to prayer from the local mosque, who's loudspeakers are pointed right at our house, I swear. Chad gets up, and Miriam rolls over in denial, praying the kids didn't wake up (that's a 50-50). At least 3 times a week Chad gets out to run 10-12 kms (6+ miles) "just to help him wake up". Overachiever!!! My only consolation is that everyone laughs at the crazy white guy running! The nanny arrives at 9am, so Isaac is securely tied to her back (which he loves!), the kids are banished to play outside, and we start language study. At 11am our tutor arrives, and we do more formal learning drills until 1pm when our smoke starts coming out the ears. After we grab a bite to eat, we head out to talk to people and practice what we've just learned. I usually go up the street and talk to all the guards at each gate and Chad talks with the guys...

So this master thief used a car jack to pry apart the bars on the window, slid the glass planes out of the window (they're removable here!) and grabbed the computer which was out on the table because I had been trying to send e-mail that night. He sweetly left a whole hand-print on the wall when we reached over to unplug the computer, because the bars were so dirty. Not just a finger-print...the entire hand, fingerprint swirls visible to the naked eye! The police came by, interviewed everyone, informed us that they were unable to use the handprint , and suggested we rent out a spare room to a police officer to keep us safer (yeah, like that would make me feel better! Sometimes the police are worse than the criminals!!!!). And then they arrested our poor sleepy night-guard who said, "Officers, I know nothing. I was sound asleep!" At least he's honest. He probably doesn't even know what a computer is, how to use it, or how valuable it is on the black-market here, bu...

The word is officially in...Lake Malawi is AWESOME! Chad's mom was here for a brief 5-day visit so we managed to make it to the Lake for an afternoon. It's about 2 hours away, not too bad for a day trip. We weren't sure what it would be like, and I was afraid to get my hopes up too much. But I was speechless to think that we're so close to such a relaxing, wonderful place! There is a hotel right on the beach, and they charge to swim in their pool but use of the beach is free. The sand is soft, the surf was impressive and gave Chad a good hour on an ocean kyak trying to ride the waves, they let us use the beach chairs and umbrellas to lounge under, and they brought us freshly brewed coffee. I can not tell you how good it felt to relax and sip coffee in the sun, watching the kids play on the beach! It helps me handle the ups and downs of life just to know there IS a place we can get away to if we need. So if anyone wants to come visit... =)

I've picked up a few pointers since we've been here. I'm not sure this will be of help to anyone else, but let me share anyway... 1. Tins of baking powder and bags of flour actually CAN get used up! I never knew that. When we left the US, I think I gave my mom the same tin of baking powder I bought 10 years ago when I got married and thought any respectable home owned the stuff. But when making rolls, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, cakes, cookies and tortillas from scratch, you actually use it!!! 2. I love debit cards. Really love them. And I miss them. I am not sure I will ever get used to using only cash. Especially when the biggest bill is worth $3.25. That means my shopping trip today, which came to 9000 Kwacha, ($60) was paid with 18 bills. We have to use fanny packs to carry a week’s worth of money, because it won’t fit in a wallet! 3. Always have at least a week’s worth of money in above-mentioned fanny pack, because you never know when you’ll be able to access th...

Relative deprivation: the term used for how all of us feel like we’ve got less than other people. Well, I’m having the opposite problem. I’m doggy-paddling to keep my head above the relative-wealth pool I’m in now! Our crates arrived last week, so all Friday and Saturday we unloaded them and carried in boxes, bags, and garbage cans full of our stuff. Our house-helper, gardener, and night guard were all here to help carry things in. As we opened the first crate, we realized it must have been dropped at some point. The book case came out in pieces. The desk was splintered in several places. Plastic containers were shattered, and the freezer door was dented so badly the seal is compromised. Our missionary friends were all so sorry for us, seeing our broken things come out one by one. I didn’t shed a tear. I was too caught up in the knowledge that our 3 Malawian helpers were carrying in more stuff than they will ever own, combined. Every load of laundry Musa helps fold makes me aware that ...

http://picasaweb.google.com/pumpellys/WeReInAfricaNow# Click on this link and you should be able to see a slideshow of our recent photos. We'll see how this works!

We're still processing all that we experienced and learned over the past month, but I wanted to let you all know we're back and we're well. There's no way to describe all that we did, but I'll do my best without boring you too much. For 12 days or so we spent the mornings meeting with whoever would talk with us in the market-places and inner-city neighborhoods of Lusaka (the capital). We were assigned a different topic each day, (like health-and-medicine, witch-doctors, life-stage ceremonies, etc) and in teams of 2 with a translator, we just talked. Africa is like that...you can go to a neighborhood and perfect strangers have the time to sit down and talk for as long as you want! It was a great chance to "pick their brains" on how they experience life, how they think, etc. In the afternoons, we had lectures and forums from Zambian church leaders on different topics to prepare us. We rode the local transportation, ate local food in the markets, and attended...