African Adventure

The Mbiza Church Family

We had been planning a trip out to Mulanje with Ethel and Mary (the Guarino family’s housemaid and daughter) for several weeks, and we were excited that it was actually happening and it would be full adventure. We just underestimated how much adventure!

We woke up bright and early around 5 am to be ready by 6 am, when Ethel was suppose to come get us. Our morning went pretty smoothly without too much adventure. We caught one minibus to the neighboring town of Limbe, then caught another minibus to Mulanje. I am going to stop right here and explain some of the wonders of Malawian minibuses. Most of these busses have seen better days and look like they could break apart anytime. Now most of these busses (they really are just vans) can carry 14 passengers comfortably, but that’s not smart for business. These Malawian bus drivers and advertiser/ money changer guy, pack these busses FULL. Instead of 14 passengers, I counted on one minibus that we rode on that there was 25 passengers, crammed into every corner.

Anyways, back to the story. Once we arrived in Mulanje by minibus we had to seek out other transportation up into the bush. Now since Samantha and I are “azungus” everyone tries to rip us off. Taxi drivers in town told Ethel that the cheapest they would go was 1,500 MK per person one way( which is a complete rip off since a minibus to Mulanje was only 370MK). So we opted for the cheaper option, bike taxi. Now these guys put a new meaning to being a fit bicyclist. They ride one speed bikes on dirt roads, often bare foot, up steep hills, across sketchy bridges, at least 100km a day. My driver for going back home told me that for example, the trip I was on was about 20 km, so he rode a total of 40 km just to get me back into town (20 km each way) and these are not 40 km of nice paved roads like back home. Once we got to the church, Mbiza church, we are instantly welcomed with much excitement. We were asked to sit in chairs at the front of the church, so everyone could see us. The church family continually thanked us for coming and presented us with amazing gifts at the end of the service. They gave us two HUGE “vines” of bananas, two huge bags of fresh peas, and dried cassava root. They also fed us amazing food. After lunch we walked probably 5 km up and down hills in the hot sun to get to Ethel’s family houses, where the bikes would pick us back up. Now Sam and I were a little under prepared and didn’t take enough water, so by the time we reached the houses we were severely dehydrated. I even resorted to drink a little water, that they claimed was safe but who knows. Of course living up to Malawi standards the bikes arrived an hour late to take us back. We left Mbiza around 3 pm and proceeded to have a fun, sometimes scary bicycle ride back in. After 40 minutes we arrived in town and proceeded to buy and down several water bottles. We got everything loaded on to a minibus and took off. Now we were placed comfortably in the minibus at first, but of course you can’t turn away a customer. So before I know it I am wedged in between Sam and Ethel sitting sideways, trying to take as little room as possible. As we got closer to town our minibus began to drive slower and with less energy, and low and behold we ran out of gas. We unloaded everything and switched to yet another minibus and drove into town. Now Limbe’s bus station is a mass amount of people and busses EVERYWHERE, so much chaos.

This is where it all begins. The sun is setting and dusk is quickly coming when we arrive. I step out of the minibus with Mary (Ethel’s 4 year old) on my hip and my bag right below my hand and her body. As I step out I see a hand brush against my bag, and I instantly reach my hand down and try to pull my bag away and I don’t think much about it. Until the lady that was sitting next to me on the bus told Ethel to check out bags because she saw someone grab a phone out of our bags. What do you know my awesome Malawian phone is gone. Now apparently Limbe is known for thieves, especially at night. A young guy came around and was trying to “help” with our bananas and received a lot of scolding and slaps from other men trying to help. He must have been known as a thief. Once we found out my phone was gone more men began to huddle around us, questioning and trying to help us find the thief. Now here in Malawi it’s ok to steal, until you get caught then it punished like everything else here, by getting the crap beat out of you or death. The men standing around us began questioning the little guy who was trying to “help” us with the bananas. He claimed he didn’t do it and told them to search him, but that didn’t change their minds. They continued to beat the crap out of him right beside us, sometimes getting us mixed up in it. It was dark, it was complete chaos and we just wanted to go home. Thankfully Shadrack( Ethel’s husband) showed up and got us another minibus that took us all the way home.

Yesterday was a very memorable Sabbath. There were so many situations that could of gone a lot worse but were survivable I know by the help of God and his amazing angels. Being in another country and faced with these situations you quickly learn to just put your trust in God and hang on, because there is nothing else you can do.

Go With the Flow

I am officially an illegal immigrant of Malawi. When you enter the country you receive a thirty day visa, stamped in your passport. Now this is fine if you’re just here for tourist purposes, but since we’re here for a just a little longer it could be a problem. Today is the end of my thirty days. When I first got here Samantha and I went to the Seventh Day Adventist Union office and applied for my official long term work visa. Well, that was four weeks ago and I am sure that my application is still sitting in a folder in the office. When we went yesterday to talk to the secretary at the Union office she was quite determined in saying that we shouldn’t go down to the visa office and extend my visa. According to her we were supposed to do our long term visa before we left, which Sam and I both tried to do, so if we went down to the visa office it would just alarm them that we are illegally in their country. We’ve given her enough time to get our official visas but she seems to keep making excuses. So on Monday we are suppose to go down to the immigration office with her and she will take care of my tourism visa, until then I am illegal. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it gets taken care of, if not if I leave the country I won’t be able to get back in(which is a slight problem).

Here’s the thing about Malawi; everything is done in their time. Everyone is laid back and have the strong mentality of “no big deal, it will happen when it needs to” or “if it’s not broken don’t fix it.” For example, the family that we are living on their property is having their house renovated. In the states it would probably take about a good 3 weeks or less to accomplish the job they are doing. Here, they are not schedule to be done till the end of October and they started in the middle of August. Samantha and I return from school and all of the workers are just sitting around talking. No one has seemed to have even heard of a work ethic. Now to be fair to Malawi, there are definitely some citizens that work hard and get things done in good time, but it seems to be quite rare. It has taken a lot of getting use to and a lot of frustration dealing with this mentality. Both Sam and I are so use to going out and getting what we need done when it needs to be done. Here we are being taught to go with the flow. Every day we are reminded that everything occurs in “Malawi time” and we can’t do anything to change that.

The Little Things

We got the most exciting new today! We’re getting a STOVE!!! Now I know that this seems like a simple and weird thing to get so excited about but it made Samantha and I literally dance around our room with joy. So far in this adventure we have been doing all of our cooking on a little apartment sized stove. The thing about this stove is it has three burners, but only one that works and the temperature is uncontrollable. This means you just turn the dial till it clicks and the burner turns red instantly, you have to stand next to what you’re cooking to stir it constantly since there’s only one temperature, HOT. Now the stove we have also has a warmer and an oven, but neither of these works. So for the past month or so we have been cooking one item at a time and lots of rice, beans and vegetables; nothing baked. So many different possibilities are being opened up, we will be able to make so many different types of food we’ve haven’t had since we left home.

A couple of weeks ago we came home from spending time at one of our friend’s home and out of the blue I decided to try the hot water faucet. Now up to this time we couldn’t even get water out of the hot water side, let alone hot. When I turned the faucet cold water came pouring out. WE HAVE WATER! We didn’t even care if it was cold, it meant there was a possibility that it would become hot. Now the way that hot water works here in Malawi, each house has a geyser switch that basically turns on the hot water heater, and then once you’re done with the hot water you switch it off to conserve power. Samantha switched on our geyser and we left it on a couple of hours Friday night and then turned it again on Sabbath morning. It worked! We got HOT SHOWERS!! After 2 ½ weeks of freezing cold showers they become very dreaded and infrequent and you completely forget how a hot shower even feels. The moment the hot water hit my face I felt every care melt and finally clean.

When we look at how busy our lives are in the States and all the little things we take for granted daily its incredible. When I was home I would of never second guessed being able to take a hot shower or go into the kitchen and bake something. It’s incredible how such little things as hot water or a new stove can fill your heart with joy and absolute excitement.

Foreign Hospitality 8-30-2010

Whenever you are going into the mission field or travelling outside of the country you always hear that the people are very hospitable and will love to cook for you. Samantha and I have found this to be very true. We have quickly learned a motto for going to other people’s homes…just eat, don’t ask, just eat it all. This can be quite the challenge sometimes. This past week we were invited to one of our student’s home. These students are Egyptian Muslim so this is their month to fast. However during their fast they can break it every day at 5:30, or at sundown. Samantha and I were invited to their home to join them in their one meal, and since they do not eat any other time in the day it was a very large meal.

I have grown up vegetarian and have only eaten small amounts of meat at a time. When all of the dishes were brought to the table I discovered that I would be eating A LOT of meat that meal. There were two kinds of beef pastry dishes, fried chicken, beef potatoes and who knows what other kind of meat in the all the dishes. My mother taught me well though and I took a good helping of everything and swallowed it with a smile. However it seemed that anytime I got even close to finishing, my plate was full again. Apparently it is an offensive to Egyptians for the guests to stop eating before they do, so we ate and ate. I felt like I had eaten a whole cow and half a chicken. Finally the family had eaten all they could so they sat and waited for us to finish our plates. We waddled into the living room and were soon served fruit salad. The food seemed to be a never ending process. They eventually drove us back home and each pothole we hit it seemed more and more questionable if I would be able to digest all that meat. After about four Pepto Pismo’s and a night’s sleep I survived!