Celebrating the Super Bowl Malawian Style!

Well I shouldn’t exactly say “Malawian Style” as I celebrated/watched the super bowl with the teachers and staff (mostly all Americans) at the African Bible College (ABC) which is basically a miniature America…there were still some Malawian features to the whole experience though…here are all the details!

Friday Feb 4^th I left the village…first Elliot drove me an hour to Santhe- thankfully the river hasn’t flooded over our road out yet so we were able to drive the entire way instead of having to take little wooden boats (I like to call them “African Gondolas”). Once we made it to Santhe then I caught a minibus (African public transport where you smush 20+ people and belongings in a van that is supposed to only carry maybe 12 people). Rode that minibus to another trading post Chinkhoma where then switched to a different minibus that would take me all the way into town (the capital city Lilongwe). I left my house at 7am and finally arrived in town a little after 12pm…so in total the trip takes around 5 hours. However if you have your own car (not riding public transport) and drive Dzuwa to Lilongwe it should take only around 2 hours at the most (I think). Friday night and Saturday night I stayed at a super cool hostel the World Race Team introduced me to called Mabuya Camp. I enjoyed just relaxing and being by myself…getting some good personal time to just be with God without village distractions and time to reflect on some things. Watched a couple movies and got to skype with family. Sunday morning I met up with Michelle, a friend who works at ABC who I met in September when she came with a group from her church (the High Desert Church…remember me talking about them?) to Dzuwa for a couple days…anyway met up with Michelle and Whitney (Michelle’s roommate) on Sunday morning for church!!! She took me to this super cool church in town called Flood church. It was amazing! This was my first non-village church service since I arrived! It reminded me of church at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Greenville! Flood has a super cool mix of people, both Malawians and missionary families from lots of other countries like American and the UK. All members are involved in intentional community groups too! I felt so at home there and really wish I lived closer so I could join one of the community groups! Oh well at least I will be able to visit when I am in town. After church Michelle, Whitney, and I did a little shopping and then headed back to ABC. Had a delicious lunch of bowtie pasta with broccoli, fruit salad, and garlic bread!!! YUM!!! Spent the rest of the day catching up on emails and just relaxing. I also got to visit Whitney’s classroom at the academy on campus (she teaches 1^st grade). Topped the night off watching some episodes of “Boy Meets World” that we projected up on the wall at her house! Oh and let me just say Michelle & Whitney’s house is incredible! I felt just like I was back home in America! Seriously! First of all electricity and running water…what more can you ask for! Hmmm…well maybe a kitchen with a stove, blender, and a REFRIGERATOR! Can you tell I have been in the village for too long?? I felt soooo spoiled! Now for Super bowl Monday in Malawi (haha) we were scheduled to start watching a recording of the game at 5:30 so I made sure to stay off facebook all day so I wouldn’t spoil the surprise! Hung out at the house most of the day. Wrote some letters and watched another movie J Then got treated to a 30 min back massage (one of the students mom’s at the academy has a local spa)!!! After that got to go to a grocery store I hadn’t been to yet where I found Whole Grain Cherrios for an amazing price!!! One box here is normally K1200-1300 ($ 8ish) So crazy right! Well at this store they were on sale for K600 ($ 4)! Yay! After that we headed back for the party!!! J There were probably 40+ people at the party. Everyone brought a side dish and their own meat for the grill! It was a typical America cookout! J Everyone there was rooting for the Packers except for 3 of us (GO STEELERS!) which made watching the game very interesting J haha I had such a blast! Although we lost it was still such a fun game to watch. I have really missed watching football! Oh the only downside to the whole thing though was that since it was being broadcast in Africa they showed African commercials not the American ones!! So that was a major bummer. Did I miss any spectacularly good ones?? Tuesday the 8^th I headed out bright and early from ABC. Did some shopping around town and made it to the bus station by 1pm to start my journey home. I had to wait though for 3 hours for a bus!!! Then once the bus was full and we headed out the bus had to go all over town looking for diesel as there was a diesel shortage in town!!!! Starting out late from town is a very bad thing b/c that means then I am late getting to Chinkhoma which means no minibuses going to Santhe! So after leaving town at 4:30, I arrived in Chinkhoma to find just as I expected no minibuses! So I waited in the dark for almost an hour before a random truck came by and picked all of us waiting up. So I rode in the back of a random truck to Santhe where Elliot picked me up. By the time we got home to Dzuwa it was around 8:45pm!!! An aweful journey home to the village but TOTALLY worth it for an amazing long weekend in town!!! Thanks Michelle and Whitney for being amazing hosts!!! And thanks to the ABC crowd for letting me join in on the party! J

Disrespect and lack of Discipline at School:

Now for a complete change of subject J Something that I have been noticing during my time here and that is increasingly becoming more and more frustrating to me is the village children’s complete lack of respect for their teachers, parents, and elders! I am totally dumbfounded by this!!! I am especially aware of this problem at school as I am a teacher and am having to deal with all of this disrespect and lack of discipline! At school there is no set structure for discipline. All of the teachers just teach because of the money so they are not very invested or concerned with really doing their job well. In my class I have pretty set strict rules…ones you wouldn’t really see as strict in America just the normal class rules…no talking during class, no hitting, kicking, or pinching other kids, no eating during class, respect each other…the usuals…it seems strict though compared to the other teachers who do not keep any rules at all! The problem is though my discipline in my class can only go so far…I can only put a kid in the corner so many times before it is not effective any more. In America here is when you might send a kid to the principals office where a call might go home to their parents about their behavior. Here though the headmaster could care less if the kids are misbehaving…and even worse is that the parents too would probably be more than happy to have their kids home with them to help work in the fields so they are not encouraging their kids to behave in school or even go to school. I am doing the best I can to teach these kids what it looks like to respect their elders…not to talk while their teacher or other students are talking…to do things the first time when asked by their teachers or elders (here the teachers have to chase the kids around beating them with sticks while the kids laugh to get them to do what they are asking!)…to stand in line nicely without shoving, kicking, or hitting other students (I have kids crying ALL the time because someone else has hit them or kicked them!)…the whole situation is just so crazy to me! Bahh!! So you can really be praying for my kids at school and all the other classes as well…pray that God would really capture their hearts and that they would begin to behave and respect one another and their teachers/elders!

Ok Random Comment time J

February 10^th = My half way point!!!

I can’t believe I am half way through my time here! There were so many times when I thought that I would never make is this far. Thanks to God’s grace, guidance, support, and love as well as all of your prayers I have!!! J

How long does a tube of toothpaste last??

Weird question right…but I was very curious as to how long a tube of toothpaste would last me here…so I charted it! Haha you have to find some way to amuse yourself here in the village so why not keep track of your toothpaste levels??! Anyway a 5.8oz (164g) tube of Colgate Total toothpaste (not the gel the paste J) brushing 2 times a day using a pea-sized amount lasted me 117 days!!! Cool right?! I think that is kind of amazing!

Christmas Cards:

Thank you to everyone who sent me Christmas cards!!! I finally just now received them! Hahaha Oh Malawian mail! I loved reading all of the Christmas updates and being reminded of the sacrifice Christ made for us in coming to live among us, and dying for us.

Laundry:

There is nothing like a nice rain to re-rinse all of your clothes that have just been washed and are trying to dry in the cloudy sun-less weather…doing laundry in the rainy season stinks!!

Thanks for all of your love and support!!!

Steph

Prayers Request

-Family at home

-Health: both for my health and for the health of the kids here…in the rainy season sicknesses are so much more prevalent (there are TONS of mosquitos out right now = lots of malaria)! Kids have been throwing up left and right at school this past week…its especially sad because as the kids don’t have lots of food in their homes so throwing up consists of lots of dry heaving & spitting up thick mucus not actually throwing anything of substance up…very different than sick kids in America

-Perseverance in finishing up the remaining half of my time here- that God would continue to use me even if I am not seeing results and that He would continue to teach me and mold me to be more and more like Him!