women's retreat at CCBC

So we spent our first week and a half in Mzuzu mostly relaxing and using the free Wi-Fi. There was a women’s retreat here our first week. The 240 women that arrived were mostly from this area but some were from as far south as Zomba. In the states most Christian women go on retreats to get away from their family and just relax with other women and learn more about their lives with God. Well not in Malawi, on top of the 240 women there were 56 whole food eating children and many other babies. The Malawian mothers don’t seem to mind their children tagging along. Classes are held with children crying, breast feeding and diaper changes as if the children were not even there. The main study of the week was being Christian wife’s and mothers, how to run a Christian home and village. As an added activity for the women, there were crocheting classes. Marty and I gave out yarn and crocheting needles to every women. (the yarn was donated by the Church of Christ in Georgia) It is just amazing what these women can do, most already knew how to crochet and they would teach the others that didn’t. Marty printed out some different patterns for the ladies and explained to them that they can make money by crocheting things. One women that attended the retreat already has a business making crocheted doilies, she charges 4000 MK (about 28$) for each doilies and she is back ordered. Over the week she found 4 women that were good crotchetier and taught them her design and after the week hired them to help her make her doilies.
The women of Malawi are so amazing. They are strong women that can do almost anything and don’t say a peep. On top of raising the children they are also the cookers, cleaners, farmers, food and fire wood collectors and much more.
In most cases Malawian woman choose their husband, in earlier years if a man had a rough hand this meant he was a hard worker and had crops or land that he harvested so he would make for a good husband, now if a man has a soft hand it means he probably works in an office at a computer and is wealthy from that job so he would be a good husband. If the women’s family approve the man then she can say that he can marry her.
A lot of Malawian women are educated and can successfully run and own their own business. Unlike many other cultures, if a Malawian mother gives birth to a little girl the family feels truly blessed and know that only good can come from it.

in bed in Mzuzu

it has now been 3 weeks since are little adventure through Zambia (time really flies here). We have been staying at the Mzuzu Bible College. It is very nice here a little cold for me but nice. we have a lot more to write but I am very tired and not feeling that great today so i will just have to tell you more later. Just wanted to check in with everyone so that you know we are still alive. Jarrod started work on the guest house here at the college. He is taking down 3 walls (when the staff let him work) I will have more to say a little later.

traveling mercies...part deux

It's a long one folks, get ready!
So we arose early, drank some tea (please note that I did not get any coffee) and took off...this time for Lundazi. Dean (of Dean's campground) very nicely gave us directions. He said that the road used to be really bad, but they had been working on it, and it was much better now. He wasn't sure about the last 40km, though, as he had not been that far north in some time, so that could still be a little rough. This all sounded like good news to me. Lundazi is somewhere between 150 and 200 km from Chipata so it should be about a 2 hour drive (at 100 km/hr). Add in 40 km of rough roads, and you're looking at maybe 3 hours. It was 8:00, so we should be there by 11…12 at the latest. This won't be bad at all. Our first stop was to a "superette," (read: convenience store that doesn't sell coffee) to pick up some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. While the cinnamon rolls are a little light on the cinnamon, they are absolutely delicious. I'm not exactly sure why, but bread and baked goods in Africa are incredible, at least in our somewhat limited experience. We also picked up some juice and went on our way. Making our way north out of Chipata, the road was ok. It was fully paved, with no potholes, but the blacktop was grooved. It was akin to driving through a construction site in the states, where they've put down the concrete and roughed it up so the blacktop will stick better, except that this was the blacktop. Anyway, this doesn't really slow you down much; it just makes the ride really loud. So we were going, and we were going in the right direction, and we were going 100 km/hr, and I was happy. There are many less cars on the road in Zambia than there are in Malawi. I would assume that this is due to population density differences (Malawi has 109 people per square km; Zambia has only 15.5 people per square km. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density ), but I’m not really sure. What I do know is that in Malawi if a goat, or sheep, or cow, or any other crazy animal is on the road, they know that they need to get off the road when a car is coming. In Zambia, if one of the aforementioned critters is OFF the road and sees a car coming, they make their best efforts to get ON the road. Maybe it's because they're not as used to cars. Maybe it's because they're really stupid. I couldn't tell you the reasoning behind this odd behavior, but I can tell you that it makes your journey radically slower trying not to be the reason that some Zambian family loses their livelihood under 3,000 lbs of steel, plastic, and rubber. But we're still moving. After about 40 km, we have successfully navigated the road avoiding bicycles, pedestrians, minibuses, road crews (they were actually working!), goats, sheep, cows, other animals I don't want to kill, and chickens. Suddenly, and with no warning, the road ended. OK, it didn't exactly end. There was what appeared to be the remnant of a road ahead of us. The moon has fewer craters than 100 yards of what was left of the road though, and our Nissan Presea isn't exactly a Land Rover. Go ahead, do a Google image search, I’ll wait...
Did you see it? The first pic that comes up? The silver one from Sri Lanka? Yeah, that's what we're (I'm) driving.
So there we are in our 4 door, low slung, family sedan (her name is Rosalita, or Rosie for short, and she's a good girl who has since had 2 thorough cleanings and is resting happily) wondering if it's not just a better idea to drive back to Chipata, cross back into Malawi there, and drive up the M 1, which we know is a very good road. We decided it couldn't be too far to Lundazi, and the road can't be that bad for that long, so let's just go for it. They say hindsight is always 20/20. It was another 130 km to Lundazi from that point. The road never got better. It did get worse, at times, but never better. Our top speed for that 130 km was 30 km/hr, and that was only for about 20 meters. Most of the time we were actually driving off the side of the road, which was much smoother than the road itself. We have since heard the Zambian M 12 described as "a series of craters in the earth rimmed with blacktop." I couldn't put it better than that. We spent the next few hours going anywhere between 0 and 20 km/hr, trying to avoid the holes in the earth that almost certainly would take us directly to the north-west of Canada if we were to fall into one. Thanks, but no thanks. We also avoided more bicyclers and goats (though we still can't figure out where they were going to or coming from, this is literally the middle of nowhere). Eventually (many hours later), our path did lead us to Lundazi, where we stopped for a celebratory ice cold Coke and a short stretch.
We continued up the road a bit, expecting to see a boarder crossing, or at least a sign for a border crossing, but alas, there was none. So we turned around and drove back to a police station we had seen to ask for directions. As I approached the building, a very large Army official brandishing a very large automatic weapon just about ran to greet me. Now, I’m not sure of the proper etiquette in greeting a man with a large automatic weapon, but I thought I’d offer him a handshake and ask "How are you?" To my delight, the breadth of his smile matched the length of his gun, and he grabbed my hand for a hearty handshake. His English was very good, and he informed me that we just had to go up the road half a km and turn right on the dirt road after the airstrip. "That's the road to Malawi," he smiled at me.
"Great!" I was relieved that soon enough we would be back in the land of decent roads. "How far up that road is the boarder?"
"Umm," he pondered. "About an hour and a half."
And my heart sunk. My face must have too. His smile transformed into a look of shame for what he had said. I didn't want him to feel bad, so I put a smile back on and thanked him profusely for all of his help. We shook hands again, and his smile returned before I made my way back to Kate and the car. From everything we could tell by the lousy map we had, we should have been able to walk to Malawi in less than 10 minutes, but at an hour and a half drive and the lateness of the day already (it was about 4:00 in the afternoon by this point) it would be just about dark by the time we got to Malawi. I told Kate what the nice man with the big automatic weapon had told me, sighed, and started the car. She gave me a nice pat on the leg, and I smiled at her, and off we went.
We made the right turn after the airstrip and started down the dirt road. The dirt road was far superior to the "paved" M 12 we had spent the last hours of our life on, and progress was good. For the first time since about 9:30 in the morning, I got the car out of 2nd gear. I got the car all the way into 4th gear. My spirits were improving, and though I knew there was a long road ahead, at least we were moving somewhat fast. Kate made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and gave me some juice. We have an iPod to tape adapter, so through the car stereo we cranked the Toby Mac album Portable Sounds up to 11 and drove on. To our amazement and glee, 20 minutes after we had left the police station, we were at the boarder. A couple of exit stamps on the Zambian side, and a couple of entrance stamps on the Malawian side and we were done. No questions, no money, no headaches, just helpful people who stamp passports with great authority because their inkpads are just about dried out. There were two exit gates so we asked the Malawian loud stamper which we should take to get to Mzimba. He told us to take the one to the right, and then he came out and opened it for us.
So off we went again. Toby Mac went back to 11, and our spirits were high. There was still plenty of daylight, and the dirt road was in pretty good shape. This would be a walk in the park. Another 20 minutes passed. The road was deteriorating fast. Toby Mac was back down to about 1 or 2 so I could concentrate on the new potholes and sand traps. Tiger Woods has had nightmares about golfing on this road, I’m sure of it. I had, by this point, become fairly road-weary and tired. I didn’t miss all of the holes in the road and nearly got stuck in the sand twice. Kate was being very encouraging, even through her own fatigue, and Rosie was a real trooper. We had seen no signs of civilization, not even a hut, since we left the boarder. I wasn’t sure that this was the right way to be going. Soon enough, we saw a sign. It said that there was a primary school to the right. I took this as good news. And then a second glance at the sign. Across the top, in big, bold letters it read, “MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, ZAMBIA.” I immediately became paranoid that the loud stamper had intentionally directed us in the wrong direction. Kate assured me that he would not have done such a heinous thing and that we should just keep driving. I thought this was a terrible idea, but she was so calm and sure that I said ok. After a few kilometers, we came upon a mud hut with a couple of women sitting outside. I stopped the car and got out to ask them where we were. They didn’t speak English or Chichewa, and I surely didn’t speak whatever language they did, but they informed me that we were in Zambia. But, they pointed down the road in the direction we were traveling and said, “Malawi.” I still wasn’t convinced, but Kate made me keep driving. Another 15 km down the road, we came across a family coming in from the fields. I asked the father where we were. Again, we did not speak the same language at all, but I got from him that we were in Zambia, and that Malawi was further down the road. I tried to ask him how far it was, but that was too much to ask of our multi-lingual conversation. I thanked him, and off we went. Something about this man made me feel a little better though. He was very confident that we were going the right direction, and I started to feel a little better. Almost immediately we saw a pickup truck with Malawian tags coming toward us. I flagged the truck down and the driver informed me that Malawi was a meager 15-20 km further. The road was still pretty bad, though it had some good patches. All the same, I knew now that we were on the right path. Kate knew it all along. I would, literally, be lost without her.
Toby Mac had long since ended, but we still had some good driving tunes going, so I turned the radio back up, and drove on. Soon enough, we were at a town called Jenda, in Malawi of all places. We had literally been in Zambia from the time we left the “boarder crossing” until this very moment, nearly an hour and a half later. I still don’t understand how that makes any sense. If you do, please explain it to me.
We drove through Jenda and the road ended at a T junction. We assumed that this was the M1, based on our lousy little map. I noticed a roadblock, so I got out to ask the very large Malawian Army official with his very large automatic weapon if it was, in fact, the M 1 and if we should turn left to get to Mzimba. Again, he was all smiles, but he wanted to know our itinerary. I told him we were going to Mzimba for the night and then would head to Mzuzu in the morning to meet some friends there. He told me that was a bad idea, as the road between Mzimba and Mzuzu was out, and I’d be going way out of my way (or something along those lines, I’m not sure…I was pretty beat, and Malawian English is not nearly as easy to understand as Zambian English). He recommended that we go straight to Mzuzu tonight, to save some time. I asked how far it was, and he told me that it was 133 km from this roadblock to the Mzuzu roadblock. I thanked him for his help and went back to discuss our options with Kate. She and I agreed that another 2 hours of driving wasn’t so bad, and would put us at the Bible College in about two hours, which would make it 8:00. We called Randy and Marty, who exclaimed that we were more than welcome to arrive that night. Exactly 2 uneventful (aside from a couple sets of rumble strips the likes of which Americans have never seen) hours later we arrived at the Bible College, haggard, tired, and kinda hungry, but no worse for the wear. Our Zambian adventure had come to a close, and God willing we will never have to go back there unless it’s to go to South Luangwa Game Park in a really nice Land Rover.

traveling mercies...part uno

So we hit the road and said "our see you again"s to Senga Bay and headed east to Lilongwe. We stopped in the very dull confusing city for a bite to eat and a little internetting then back on the road heading North West to Zambia. Once we hit the Zambian boarder we stamped our passports and paid our dues then made our way to Chipata (the first city right after the boarder). Chipata is a very nice clean little town; we camped there at Dean’s campsite for the night. It was very cold and Jarrod was very uncomfortable in the tent so as you read earlier he moved to the car. Once I woke we asked Steven at the office how to get to Lusaka and he gave us the directions. So off we went….
After 4 hours of driving both Jarrod and I were getting a little tired so we stopped on the side of the road for a bit to stretch then off again… another hour passed and I started to feel unsure of our trip, it just seemed too long of a drive and the map made it only look like a couple hours. We stopped and asked and everyone told us it was the road to Lusaka. So we moved onward up the mountain. We hit this crazy pot hole and bent the rim of our tire but the rubber did not split. Very worn out and upset Jarrod changed to the donut and we figured when we hit Lusaka we could get it repaired. Driving on, we then crossed the Luangwa River on this very impressive bridge. It was just amazing (sorry we did take any photos, we were a little exhausted). We then entered the small road side town of Luangwa where to our surprise there were a couple of guys with hammers who called themselves tyre repair men. So Jarrod thought it was worth a try. To our amazement we watched these 2 men hammer our rim back in place to near perfection; they then checked the tire for leaks or damage. No problems so the tire was put back on we paid our 50,000 Zam Kwacha ($10) and we were on our way again. Before we left we asked the gentlemen how much farther to Lusaka and they replied “230km” so Jarrod shrugged and we continued on. Once we were back on the road I just had a bad feeling and thought that all these Kms didn’t make sense. So I whipped out my Malawi book to see if any of the maps happened to have Zambian towns marked since we were so close to the boarder. One map did and Lusaka was not on it because it is way to west...the town we really wanted to go to was Lundazi. I goofed up big time, but Jarrod being so sweet was not upset he just wanted a sandwich and a Coke.
So we turned around and started to head back to the bridge where we could ask the army men there if they knew a road from where we were to Lundazi. Well like Malawi, Zambia only has a couple major roads so no road from there; the only road to Lundazi was in Chipata. So back to Chipata we went.
We finished up our 700Km round trip a little after 6pm so we decided to camp back at Dean’s. Not having much money we were going to cook the rice we had but Jarrod asked me if we could eat at Dean’s little restaurant because they were serving chicken. I looked at him and just knew how exhausted he was and knew that rice was not going to cut it tonight so I said yes.
The next morning we took off for Lundazi. Dean and Sam had told us it was a little ruff but we had no clue what we were in for…
(To be continued)

Soccer final

Well we are now settled in Mzuzu at the Church of Christ Bible College.
But let me tell you a little about are last couple days and then we will be all caught up.Well I told you all about the library and Jarrod talked about everything we had to do in Senga Bay but some things we left out. On Saturday we had the soccer final all day long. Our day started at 8am with the Cool Boys vs. the Super Rhinos battling it out for 3rd and 4th place. After the Super Rhinos beat the Cool Boys 3 to 1 (it was a shock but good game) we ran off to Tom’s (Sam’s other camp site) to finish setting up for the awards ceremony. After a quick lunch we went back to the field for the final match. Rovers Youth vs. Young Star. Now a little background about the teams. Rovers Youth is part of the Rovers Soccer Club in the Maganga Village. The team had a rocky start with a loss in their first game but after that they picked up and finished their season 5,2. Their coach is Sydi a man who plays for Rovers Club. Sydi along with Perri (the coach of Cool Boys) formed the league and did an amazing job. The Rovers Youth is full of smack talking 15 year olds and it is fun to watch. They all just love soccer and the side lines are full of “did your mama teach you to kick like that” and young girls that sing songs and dance for their boys. But in all their mocking and cheering they have fun and are good sports and play the game well.
The Young Stars dominated the league with an undefeated record but had very poor attitudes. Even though they where leading the league in both points and goals their coach would complain about everything. According to Chief Mucuti all of the boys on the Young Stars team were over 15 but they would still complain about the ages of the boys on the other teams. (hope that makes sense) Well the Young Stars made it to the final with no problems except they had a new coach. Their coach quit the team the week before the final because he didn’t like the league. Real nice right? I am sure that made his boys feel really good about themselves.
So the final came and it was a great game both teams played amazing the 80 min game ended at 0,0 so we moved into 14 min over time… still 0,0 so then it came to penalties. The game ended 5-3 with the Young Stars on top. Now the story behind this win…. The night before the game the Young Stars slept in the grave yard to talk to the ancestors. Now to you and me that would just be psyche tactic to get into the Rovers heads. But no… The people believe that the team spoke to the ancestors and when it came time for penalty kicks the ancestors blinded the goalie of the Rovers so that he could not see the ball and Young Stars would score the goals. Crazy to us but all of the teams and spectators believe that that is why they won the game.
After the game we all went back to Tom’s for the awards ceremony which was lots of fun. I had made a movie of pictures we had taken though out the season and it was really cool to hear the boys calling out each others names and laughing at the funny pictures. Along with 1st through 4th prizes we also gave out fun prizes like best dressed and funniest player and best kicker. We gave at least one player from each team a prize so that it would be fun and the kids don’t feel like they played for nothing because they were last in the league. We had some great donated prizes the big thing was Mama K and the Malawi Project donated us 20 pairs of brand new Nike sneakers. Then we had t-shirts donated from Sam’s mechanic and hats and pencil cases from the Print Shop. We had toys and Adidas flip flops as well. All in all it was a fun time.
We got back to Cool Runnings just wiped out from the day so we relaxed and had our last good meal of fish and mashed potatoes on the house and Sam even sat down for dinner with us. (This is a big honor)
Sunday morning we woke up packed the car, said our good byes to the staff and hit the road to Zambia.

Last days in Senga Bay

It’s August 17 at 6:45 in the morning in Chipata, Zambia. I couldn’t sleep very well last night in the tent, so at about 5 this morning I decided to move to the car and try to sleep there. It’s cold here though, and Kate has our only blanket in the tent. So no more sleep for me. Oh well…I put the iPod on and listened to some Caedmon’s Call and organized pictures on the laptop. Now I’m listening to Derek Webb (big leap, right?) and writing what you are reading. It’s nice that for a couple of days we don’t have any real responsibilities. We’ve been working 7 days a week since we got to Africa. Kate’s been working until 9 or 10 at night for the last few weeks keeping soccer organized and getting the slideshow ready for the awards ceremony. We’ve both been wearing a lot of hats the last few weeks. I have been a window installer, shelf builder, the guy trying to find the right equipment to build shelves (someone needs to open a home depot here), chauffer, generator repair man, musician, technology support guy, preacher, soccer judge, painter, cook, photographer, composting teacher, and recruiter of additional help. Kate has been a painter, artist, teacher, calmer of nerves, rice cooker (Kate can cook some rice, let me tell you), soccer league administrator, organizer of just about everything, playmate to the kids, photographer, shopping expert, first aid technician, navigator, substitute Samantha (a very tough job indeed), among other things. We’ve had a lot of help the last few weeks. Gretchen and Callie are Americans who were staying with margaret at the Baptist Clinic. They Spent their last few days in Malawi organizing books at the library, which was huge. Thank you ladies! We recruited Julie and Stephanie from Belgium last week to continue their work. They will be in Senga Bay for a few more days to finish up all of the books and start to put them on the shelves. Barry from Holland is backpacking his way from Cape Town to Nairobi. He wasn’t planning on coming to Malawi, but while he was in Mozambique he decided to come through Senga Bay. He asked if he could help with the library. He has since changed his plan of being at cool runnings for 2 days to being there for at least 2 weeks. He will continue building the shelves and helping Sam with other projects in our absense. Thank you Barry!
So now we have left the people of Senga Bay. After our 2 days off in Zambia (the only way to extend our visas), we will be back to work in Muzuzu. We’re not exactly sure what we will be doing there, but we know that God will provide work for us. We look forward to that work, and to getting to know Randy and Marty, with whom we will be staying. Keep us in your prayers, and we will keep you in ours.
Jarrod and Kate

Leaving Senga Bay

Well our 2 week turned 2 month stay in Senga Bay has come to an end. We are now driving in the car on our way to Muzuzu to stay with Randy and Marty of Muzuzu bible collage.
Our last week in Senga Bay was full of “see you again” and “have a safe journey” (you don’t say good bye here). We worked Monday and Tuesday in the library. I finished the painting in the children’s corner. It is a picture from the Franklin book. I think it came out nice. Austin (a teacher at the Para Secondary School) was talking a lot with me over the last couple weeks and he explained to me that the children will just love it because Malawian people are not really exposed to art and especially murals; also most things in their lives are brown or very dull blues and pinks so to see bright colors and pictures on the walls will be something new for them.
Jarrod and Barry really struggled with the library all week. There is no electricity at the school or in the library so they have been relying on generators to power their drill. One generator worked for a bit then didn’t want to start back up, then they couldn’t use it another day because it was needed by someone else, then another generator came that worked and started up just fine but it only put out 3 volts of power. The last generator came and worked great, so much work was done that day and the boys’ frustrations quickly turned to progress.
Let me tell you a little about the library…
It is a building that is on the Parachute Battalion base but unlike the states anyone is welcome to walk on or off the base with no questions asked, it is not even gated. Even though the library is on the base and is right next to the Para Secondary School it is for anyone in the community. It is the first library in Senga Bay and has been funded by the people in the community. Many of the village and Army people contributed to the purchase of the bricks and cement to build the building and the Malawi Project donated the money for the roof. The 6000 books inside of it were all donations from Sam’s clients and the Malawi national library. A gentleman from the community has been sent to training in Lilongwe on how to properly run and organize the library. He will be the main librarian but teachers at the school said that they would help out on their off days. All of the teachers are so very excited about the space, every day that we are there they come in to see the progress and look through some of the books. The Minister of Education stopped by this week to see our progress. It is so nice to really see the people interested in the library. When Barry and Jarrod hung the first set of shelves everyone came running to see because they have never had shelves before and a shelf full of books is even better.
Plans for the future include a long ten person table for study sessions and homework small tables for works and reading or games of chess or checkers. They will be running electricity to the library hopefully by the end of the month for lights and for computers. The library is hoping to have 3 computers donated (do you have a computer you don’t want, it is duty free!) so that people can write papers or research the internet. That would just be a wonderful thing.
Now that we are leaving Barry will continue on for another week or so, but he and Jarrod have shown the men how the shelves are to be hung and if the volunteers can’t finish the work the Malawian men can definitely finish the job.
There is much more about the week to talk about but I will leave you with this for now so you can just absorb.
Much Love,
Kate