The Day the Azungus made Pala!!! :-)

Well the World Race Team (WRT) has finally arrived here in Dzuwa! J They arrived safe and sound Dec 6^th and have been such a blessing already! One of their first activities here was making pala for my Dzuwa school kids. The Wednesday after they arrived the women who were supposed to be cooking that morning didn’t show up because they were too busy working in their fields (this is something that will be a constant battle during the rainy season). So Esnart, the WRT, and I decided that we were going to try to tackle the task of making pala for the kids. What a feat! I am so amazed by the women who cook everyday because it is a ton of work! It took 15 of us to do what 2-5 village women do every morning. We carried all of the supplies to the school, started the fires, and filled the 2 HUGE cooking pots with water (making multiple trips to the water pump). Then once the water was hot enough we added the maize flour and then took turns stirring until the pala was thick enough to serve. The smoke in our cooking shelter is ridiculous! We have 4 windows and a door and yet standing in the shelter for 5 minutes is an almost impossible task with all of the smoke. It literally feels like your eyes are going to fall out they are burning so much and it is very hard to catch your breath. But we managed to complete the task thanks to everyone’s hard work. Both the kids and teachers reported that our pala was delicious! Wahoo! J We even had requests for us to be the permanent pala cooks! Ha! The WRT also helped me put on a game day for my standard 1 kids the second to last day of school. This was a BLAST! We did a bunch of different relay races and all the kids got candy when we finished. We have been practicing the concept of a relay race the entire year so it was so great to see how much progress the kids have made to actually be able to have a game day!

Holiday Break:

Friday Dec. 10^th was the last day of school for term 1. In total I tested orally one-by-one question-by-question 84 of my standard 1 students (which on the one hand is sad to me that more didn’t show up but on the other hand I don’t know if I could have handled any more kids!). I handed out my homemade report cards on the last day of school for the kids to take home to their parents. Who knows how many will actually make it home but I at least wanted the kids to be able to see their scores.  One of my fellow teachers whose son I have in class actually came up to me and gave me a HUGE thank you which was a huge surprise and gift of encouragement. I think that many of the teachers had tons of doubts about my ability to teach the kids so it was VERY cool to hear him thank me for how well his son did on his exams and how much he has learned. Yay God! Overall though I am sooooooo thankful for a break from school!!! Pray that I would get good rest these next couple weeks and that I would be able to prepare well for the start of Term 2, which starts January 3^rd.

News Flash:

As of about 9pm Malawi time on December 15th 2010 my little village of Dzuwa entered into a new era. We now have internet access!!!! OH MY!!!! Yes it is still true that we don’t have running water or electricity but we have internet! Hahaha! When running off of solar or generator power we are able to turn on our router here and have wireless internet so I am actually posting this sitting in my room in the village J Its not as fast as internet in Kasungu but it will allow us contact with the outside world during the worst months of the rainy season when we are basically trapped here in the village. Praise the Lord for providing the money to make internet possible!!!

Well I can’t think of any more super exciting things or random comments to share so I guess this is the end of my post. Thanks soooooo much again for all of your prayers and support. I am completely blown away by all of the messages I receive from people giving encouraging words and saying you are praying! Even people from other countries that I have never met!!! God’s kingdom is just sooooo amazing!

Finally I think my 2 biggest prayer requests right now are for continued protection from sickness (there have been some bugs going around here…1 JTW staffer is down with malaria and 2 WRT girls have been diagnose with dysentery)…also for prayers for Christmas and being away from home…I am excited to be able to be here to experience a Malawian Christmas but I am very sad to be away from my family…pray that I would really be able to be present here and soak up every minute of Christmas in Malawi.

P.S. A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO MY LITTLE SISTER JAMIE FOR GETTING ACCEPTED TO FURMAN UNIVERSITY!!! WHOOT WHOOT!!! If you see her give her a big hug and say congrats!!! J I am soooooo proud of you Jamie!!!!

P.P.S. Check out new pictures on my Facebook!   

Its Raining Its Pouring the Old Man is Snoring!!!

Rain: 
Yep its true...the rains have officially started in Dzuwa. For the most part they have just been small rain showers so far but we did have one HUGE storm that flooded our entire yard! It was pretty incredible! Our house has a tin roof and rain on a tin roof sounds soooo crazy...especially when it is pouring! Its so loud you can't hear the person next to you talking!!! So fun to experience (from inside though). It will be interesting to see what happens in Dzuwa once the heavy rainstorms are more consistent. From what I hear you wade through like 2 ft of water going anywhere! Oh boy! I have my rain boots ready! :-) Since the rains have started that also means that everyone has been sooooo busy in their fields cultivating and planting their crops. So busy in fact that some of the women haven't even showed up to cook for our feeding program! Grrr. I have never lived in a farming area so all of the cultivating and planting techniques are very fascinating to me. Oh and there are no big farming machines here (shocking I know! *sarcasm*) so all of the work is done by hand with one hoe! So a family will prepare acres and acres of land all by hand! The people of Dzuwa grow tobacco, corn, soybeans, peanuts, and beans. Its very exciting to see how everything is becoming so much greener and some of the plants are already growing! I can't wait for the day when there are huge corn fields for me to run through (it has always been one of my lifelong dreams to run through a corn field...yes I am weird). Also since its raining you might be wondering about our cultivation program...well we now have all 6 acres committed to us! Praise the Lord!!! One acre has been prepared for planting. Today is the deadline we gave the chiefs for all 6 acres to be cultivated and planted so they should be working as I type this. We'll see what I find when I get back.

School:
This Friday Dec 10th is the last day of school for term 1! WAHOOOOOO!!! I am so ready and excited for a break! This past week and continuing into this week we have been giving our kids final exams. Yes that is what they call them. Can you imagine final exams for kindergartners!!!  I was very surprised by this. I don't even remember taking tests in kindergarten. Does anyone remember taking tests in Kindergarten?? Anyway administering tests to all of my kids has been quite a task!! We don't have the resources to produce actual tests (I don't think the kids would understand them even if we could) so we have to administer oral tests to each student!!! So far I have tested 80 students!!! Their test consists of writing the letters we have learned so far (A-K), numbers 1-10, shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, diamond), questions in English like "what is your name?" and "how are you?", and some simple commands like jump, run, touch your head...Testing each kid individually is soooo tiring and frustrating...especially since the kids are so young you have to prompt them to do everything saying "write A" like 5 times before they actually do it. OH MY! Going into the exams I was a little nervous because in a lot of ways I feel like I have failed these kids. There are just so many of them I feel bad I can't give them the individual attention they crave so much. I can't even learn all of their names (not yet at least)! I feel awful I always have to ask the kids their names. And I can't speak their language! Gosh I just want to be able to communicate freely with them soooo bad. I was very nervous to see the results of the tests because felt like the kids may not have even learned anything and would fail in all subjects. Well the tests have turned out better than I was expecting! I knew I had a group of like 5-10 kids who were really learning but I didn't know what to expect from the rest of them. I have been surprised that many of the kids who I thought didn't pay attention in class are really learning. They could write and recognize many of our letters, numbers, and shapes!!!! I couldn't believe it! There are still a handful that got zeros though. Most of them are the younger kids who really shouldn't be in school anyway but just come for the food. So overall God has really blessed me with good scores and has encouraged me that maybe I am teaching these kids something.

Immigration Papers:
I have turned in my application for my work permit and am now just waiting to hear back from the office in Blantyre to see if it has been approved! I also finally got a return flight (I had to turn in a copy of my ticket with my application and was having great difficulty with my travel agent). I leave Malawi on August 1st and  officially return to the USA late August 2nd 2011. So for now I am living on an extended visa until my papers get approved. Please pray they get approved.

Frogger:
I now understand the concept of the frogger game. While driving home late at night from Lilongwe after turning in my immigration papers I felt like I was in a real live game of frogger...except I was in the truck! There were soooooooo many frogs out on the road!! Oh my goodness I couldn't believe it! Everywhere you looked there were frogs! I was sad though we couldn't really dodge them so I think we were responsible for quite a few frog deaths! :-(

If you don't move you will be hit!:
This is a statement I have learned is absolute truth here in Malawi. Whether you are walking, riding a bike, crossing the road, or driving if you don't move out of the way you will be hit!!! Here is the hierarchy Trucks>Cars>Bikes>People & Animals...during one trip into town I saw a truck hit a biker b/c he didn't get off to the side of the road fast enough...and my minibus today ran over a goat because it didn't get out of the middle of the road fast enough...I think the goat is still alive for now at least...so you have to be super aware of your surroundings at all times!

The Finger Snap:
Ok remember the finger snap that all the guys at Furman did all the time?? (sorry for those who didn't go to Furman) They would shake their hand in some way that their fingers would snap...ok well I was waiting outside of my classroom the other morning and one of my students started doing it!!! I was so surprised and excited and starting laughing. During my time at Furman I learned how to do the snap a little...I am no pro but I can do it...so I did it back at the girl who did it and all of my students who were watching were awestruck! They were shocked I could do it and started talking among themselves "Ahhh Ahhh Madamu Madamu" (They call me Madamu) It was soooo hilarious! Who would have guessed they know the finger snap in Malawi!!!

New Internet!:
Well I am writing this post using the new internet system here in JTW's Lighthouse Internet Cafe. December 1st they installed a fiber optic system!!! and it is so fast! It is really almost as good as internet in America! I am soooo thankful for the new system! I was even able to post more pictures in my facebook album! Here is the link:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=558627733664&set=a.558627608914.2078334.28304486#!/album.php?aid=2078334&id=28304486

Ok well I will end this post with the 4 responses to seeing an azungu I have experienced here so far and some prayer requests. Thanks for reading!! :-)

The 4 responses to seeing an Azungu (white person):
1. Complete Terror- this usually comes from little children who have never seen a white person before and burst out screaming and crying acting as if their life is in mortal danger
2. Utter Shock- mouths wide open & speechless frozen still where they stand
3. Total Indifference- could care less and won't acknowledge your presence just walking right past you with a mean look
4. Absolute Excitement- frantically waving and screaming "azungu azungu" and cheering when you wave back or greet them

Prayer Requests:
-The World Race Team: there will be a team from the Christian program the world race living here in Dzuwa for the month of December. They arrive on Monday :-) I am very excited for their arrival and for the chance to spend some time with other Americans my age!! Pray for safe travels for them and  for their time in Dzuwa that God would be preparing the way for them and work in great ways through their time here.
-For Family back home
-For me and homesickness here...especially as Christmas is approaching...It was hard to miss Thanksgiving with my family and will be even harder missing Christmas...
-Pray for health during the rainy season: protection from Malaria, Cholera, and other diseases that explode here while there is lots of standing water.