Kim's Malawi Trip

Epilogue - August 13 - Humbling

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People are always asking me, "How was your trip to Africa?" I've really struggled with how to answer. While it was fun, awesome, beautiful, sad, exhausting, life changing, none of those words really feels like the right answer.

I think the answer I like best is "humbling". I've always tried to live my life to be grateful for what I have and appreciate the small things in life, but truthfully - I don't do a good job.

I will try be thankful for receiving all gifts - even if it's just a balloon.

I will try be grateful that I can dance - even if I'm barefoot and it's raining.

I will remember to thank the Lord - even if I'm not in a big modern church.

I will try to be welcoming - even (or especially) to those I haven't yet met.

I will be grateful when I get to my destination - even if the road was a little rocky.

I've already started saving for a return trip. I can't wait to return.

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope it gives you a little insight into Malawi.

Epilogue - August 13 - the good

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While Malawi defiantly has challenges that, before this trip, I had seldom thought of, progress is being made. The long drought has ended and crop production has increased. We saw crops being irrigated. Mphatso said that he had not seen that before.

The markets seemed to have several different varieties of vegetables.

The infrastructure is improving. Several of the roads we used to travel between big cities are brand new and the current administration is making this a priority.

This truck has a load of tobacco - a major exported crop.

This road is only 2 years old.

There is an effort to empower women. We saw many billboards that encouraged the end of domestic and child abuse. We hope, through our church's mission, to teach several of the women of Chamasowa to sew. This will enable them to learn a trade and earn money. The pastors in the Blantyre Deanery are making an effort to have their wives have more of a leadership role within the church - a traditionally male role.

This young girl is acting as an acolyte

More wells are being dug - this helps reduce the number of people with hepatitis and other water borne diseases.

Our church, Glen Cary in Ham Lake, MN seems to be making a difference in the lives of the people of Chamasowa. Our partnership has helped to build the church and well above.

We helped furnish pews, so the congregants don't have to sit on the floor.

We helped fund the purchase of a motorcycle so the pastor could travel between churches within the parish. Pastor Simba is the pastor of 2 parishes - 11 churches and they are miles apart. It would take him hours to get to some of them from his parsonage at Chamasowa with the motorcycle.

Epilogue - August 12 - the bad

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This and that about the country~the bad

I'm sure you are wondering about the toilet facilities in the villages. They are, of course, all outhouses. They seem to be communal - one for several houses. They are either a brick, 3 sided building or thatch buildings. There is a hole, with no seat that, well for lack of any polite way to put it, I often wished I was male. The hole is about 8" long and 3" wide - you have to have good aim - and make sure you bring your own tp - I never saw any in them. The "deluxe" facilities have little feet prints marks in the floor so you know where to put your feet :-)

Malawi is one of the 30 poorest countries in the world with a per capita income of $690 - and I'm sure that that in the villages its much, much less than that. 12 of 100 children die before they reach the age of 5.

The ratio of child to teacher is supposed to be less than 60:1, but it is often double that.

Many areas have no acceptable drinking water. There is no refuse collection.

Women, do have voting rights, but have very little power. Domestic abuse is common.*

The infrastructure is poor - transportation of goods is nearly impossible on the current road structure.

July 27th - heading home

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We woke up to find out that not only didn't we have hot water, we didn't have any water, just a drip from the sink. It was disappointing not to be able to shower or even wash up much.

I was glad to see that my friends the guinea hen and turkey had not become dinner yet.*

We met with Mphatso in the ELCM office and also met with the financial officer. They gave us chatangas (traditional African fabric used for skirts or shirts or head wraps) that Bishop Bvumbe left for us and were made in commemoration of a Lutheran leadership meeting a few years ago. It was such a nice gift that we weren't expecting at all.

We sadly said good bye to Mphatso at the office as he had some work to do before leaving on another trip. Ken took us to the airport. We will miss them - they made the trip so enjoyable and we learned so much from them about not only the ELCM, but the culture of the entire country.

We arrived on time in Johannesburg, but unfortunately our flight to Amsterdam was cancelled due to maintenance issues with the plane. Of course they didn't make the decision until about 2am. We got to our awesome - 4 star hotel - after retrieving our luggage (except for Susan's - it never left Lilongwe) going back through immigration - about 4am.

We had a leisurely day in Johannesburg at the hotel eating wonderful breakfast and lunch, enjoying a hot shower with lots of water pressure waiting for another plane to come. It finally did and after a stop in Amsterdam, we arrived at MSP 50 hours after we left Lilongwe.

Sunday July 26 - back to Lilongwe

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After leaving Monkey Bay Parish we drove back to the ELCM headquarters in Lilongwe. We drove a very windy road up a mountain with lots of switch backs. Mphatso was very excited about this road as it was the first time he has been on it - it's just a few years old. It cuts hours off the old drive. We saw people walking or biking up this road carry all kinds of heavy loads. I know I could never do it.

This is a very common site on the flat roads or in the mountains. Men ride/push bikes with big loads and women walk with their loads on their heads. He has either corn or potatoes in the bags.

We arrived back at the ELCM guest house towards evening and once again unwound from the Land Cruiser.

Inside the Land Cruiser - Joe sits next to me. Ken drives and Mphatso rides shotgun. We don't have any luggage in the picture, so it's pretty roomy. *

Mphatso and Ken are took us to an Italian restaurant for pizza. It's kind of funny to see a restaurant named Mama Mia in Lilongwe. It was very good - much like a nice Italian restaurant in the US. Mphatso thinks the food is too spicy. I suppose if you are used to a diet of rice and sima Italian food is spicy. He told us that when he visits the US, he has a hard time with our food being too spicy, too. The restaurant was full of Europeans and/or Americans - the first such place we have seen.

We went to be early to get ready to head back to the US tomorrow.

Sunday July 26 -worshiping in the open air

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View from Luther Cottage

The original plan for this weekend was to return to Lilongwe Saturday afternoon and worship at the Cathedral at the ELCM headquarters. But since we already had the opportunity to meet with the Bishop and he was not going to be there, we decided to worship at a village church. This also gave us another night to enjoy the sights and sound of beautiful Lake Malawi.

When I woke up the women were doing their washing along the lake shore and the men were trying to get the goofy Americans to buy more curios. I did buy some more items. I wish I had more room in my suit case as there were several bowl that I would have liked to have had, but they were just too big and heavy.

We packed our bags and headed to worship at a different congregation within Monkey Bay Parish. Mphatso asked Pastor not to mention to his parishioners that we were coming as we had to "worship and run" in order to get back to Lilongwe in a timely fashion. It took several wrong turns before we found the "road" to the church. We kept driving past it as it wasn't recognizable as a road. Ken proved to be different from American men as he stopped to ask directions from the villagers. Everyone was very excited to tell us how to get to the church. Soon we had several people following us on foot to show us the way.

We are kind of like the Pied Piper - where ever we go, people follow.

This is indeed the winner of the "Worst Road in Malawi" contest.

Seriously! - look at this road - it's just a path!

Although we have been in Malawi for well over a week, I was unprepared for simple starkness of this church. The original church blew down in a storm 2 years ago and they are now worshiping in a grass hut.

The church was overflowing - there are no pew or benches, people sit on the dirt floor.

We were lucky enough to be there to witness 5 Baptisms. The babies are face down, instead of face up!

Pastor Joe's chair
The altar

And as it is in the Vatican in Rome or Notre Dame in Paris or Glen Cary in Ham Lake or Monkey Bay Parish in Malawi : "He took the cup after the supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, 'Drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, in remembrance of me."

I was asked to say a few words of greeting at the end of the service. My words heartfelt and I thanked the people of the Warm Heart of Africa for welcoming us with such joy, grace and generosity. As Americans, we tend to think of the people of Malawi as being without any riches, but I can tell you that in some ways, they have as much or more than we do.

As always the service was filled with song.

Saturday July 25 Monkey Bay - the church

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Don't think I've described brick making -

There are very few building materials available in Malawi. Wood is very scarce and the government is actively trying to discourage using wood to make charcoal - the main heating source. I'm not sure what they are proposing that the villagers use instead, but the police can confiscate charcoal that is being sold. Anyway - back to the bricks -the soil in most parts of Malawi is a heavy clay - a good material for making bricks. Every village has brick makers who use a form to make the bricks. When enough are made they will make a kiln from the brick, build a fire in the kiln and fire them. The whole process takes several months. If the bricks are not fired before the rainy season, they will dissolve. Bricks last about 60 years. All the houses in the villages are made from brick with either a thatch or metal roof.

Bricks ready for firing

A kiln -

Typical village home

Those of us under 80 walked up the hill to see the church that is being built. I can't imagine carrying bricks up this hill to build the church.

They have been building this church for several years and hope to have in finished within a year. The setting is just beautiful, overlooking the hills and the lake. You can't help but feel closer to God here.

The altar

The sanctuary - as seen from the altar

View from the sanctuary of the hills and lake

Walking back down the hill

The difference in the standard of living between Chamasowa and here is startling. I'm not sure if it is because of the partnership between Glen Cary and Chamasowa, or other factors (mostly food availability/crop yields). It's just so hard to know how to help.

Saturday July 25 - Monkey Bay School

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Ken and Mphatso picked us up about 10:30am so we spent the morning relaxing and admiring the view of the lake.

We drove on perhaps the bumpiest road yet (another day - another winner in the bad road contest!!) to an unfinished church on the mountainside. This church also sponsors the village school. Pastor Joe is the brother of the school's headmaster. They have 700 students in 8 grades with only 4 teachers.

First we stopped at the teacher's office. It's not like the staff room in our schools. It's one -10x15 room that is the office for the head master and the teachers.

These are some of the posters in the teacher's office.

School is out for a break (they have 3 terms with 2 week breaks between and then 6 weeks off when the rainy season makes it impossible to walk to school) but every time the villagers hear we are there they come to welcome us. These are videos of the school children singing. As I understand this is a spontaneous concert - they didn't know we were coming.

The man who walks across the picture is the Pastor Joe. The man of the right in the blue t-shirt is a teacher. The man sitting along the wall is an evangelist and is Chamasowa Pastor Simba's brother.

They also have a half-finished feeding station. There is a huge need in this area. We noticed that this area seems to have more poverty and more malnourished children. Most feeding stations will feed 50 children, but there is a need to feed 150 here. The total cost of the feeding station is about $175. They raised about $90 in the village - probably 30 homes. We just couldn't stand the idea that it would take $80 to finish the feeding station so we got together and donated the money.

The feeding station - it needs higher walls

The feeding station needs pillars to hold up the roof - not these branches

There also seems to be a need for available health care - there seems to be many more sick people here.

Monkey Bay - July 24, 2009

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We are back on the road again - this time heading north to the southern end of Lake Malawi to the Luther Cottage at Monkey Bay Parish. The name is appropriate as you can hear the monkeys and occasionally see them.

Luther Cottage is a simple house in a beautiful setting - right on the edge of Lake Malawi. According to Wikipedia: Lake Malawi (also known as Lake Nyasa, Lake Nyassa, Lake Niassa, and Lago Niassa in Mozambique), is an African Great Lake and the most southerly lake in the East African Rift valley system. The lake, third largest in Africa and eighth largest in the world, is situated between Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. It is also the second deepest lake in Africa but its placid nature at its northerly shore gives no hint of this feature. The lake's tropical waters teem with more fish species than any other lake on Earth.

We will spend two nights at Luther Cottage and travel to two different congregations within the Monkey Bay Parish. The cottage has 5 small bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a gathering room, kitchen and a screen porch. There is also a nice porch facing the lake. There's not enough water pressure to wash your hair, but it is sort of warm :-)

We arrived in the evening and enjoyed quite time listening to the waves and reading. In the morning I was up early and saw some men on the beach on the side of the house. I thought they were fisherman repairing their nets. I couldn't see what they were doing as the seawall blocked my view. As there are a lot of Muslims in the area, I was unsure of the cultural protocol, so I didn't go out to see what they were doing. But my curiosity got the better of me and I found that they were vendors selling all kinds of curvings and jewelry. I bought some gifts to bring home. Again, I'm not very good at bargaining, but that's OK. One of the men broke my heart - he asked if I had any shoes or t-shirts to give him. I had an old pair of sandals and a tank top that I gave him. He was very grateful.

These young boys had bows and arrow and were hunting mice and rabbits (I think) They were very excited to have their picture taken.

A fisherman trying to sell us his catch.

A fisherman in a little boat in a very big lake.

A young mother and child. She had corn in her bucket on the way back from a field just behind Luther Cottage.

A beautiful sunset.

The hand carved door from the porch to the entrance of Luther Cottage.

Sunrise at Luther Cottage in Monkey Bay.

The local Laundromat in Monkey Bay.

Susan is allergic to many additives in food, so two of the safe foods for her are rice and potatoes. Our cook at Luther Cottage prepared this meal for her.

Mphatso, Joe, Susan, Ken and Ellen in the gathering room at Luther Cottage.

Mvuu Camp - inside the enclosure July 24th, 2009

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Liwonde National Park has seen several changes in their animal population. Lions have not been seen in the park in the past few years although they are sometimes heard. Black Rhinos have been introduced and are successfully breeding and increasing in numbers.

For our final safari we chose to go inside the Rhino enclosure with the hopes of seeing one of the 12 rhinos. This may sound like a visit to the zoo, until you realize that the enclosure is about 40 square miles. The enclosure not only keeps the rhinos in, but keeps the elephants out and controls the impala population, which can over graze.

We were not successful in seeing any rhinos, but did see

Zebra - they were very shy

Impala

Sable

They were nearly exterminated because their manes are used to make sable brushes. Thankfully, their numbers are increasing. They are beautiful - click on the picture and you can see his hitchhiker.

and Hartabeast

This video gives you an idea of the jeep ride in the park - watch the driver's hands :-)

We had lunch in the dining room and were back on the boat at 2pm to meet Ken and Mphatso at the dock to head to our next stop - Luther Cottege on Lake Malawi.

More Safari July 24, 2009

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We woke at 6:30 as be had to be at breakfast at 7 in order to be on the boat at 7:45 for our river safari. Breakfast was fresh fruit and bread.

The river safari was amazing. Mvuu is Chichewa for hippo and it sure is an apt name. We must have seen over 200 hippos.

We saw many crocodiles

We saw many different kinds of birds

Fish Eagles (Malawian National Bird)

Kingfishers

Cormorants - the trees are not white - that's all cormorant poo from the rookery.

The nests of weaver birds have front and rear entrances. They are built in the branches of a Yellow Fever Tree - which has medicinal properties for Malaria, not Yellow Fever!
Bush Buck

Baboons

A 25 year old ant hill

Safari! July 23, 2009

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(These photos were taken in very low light - they're not the best.)

We had a briefing at the lodge and were told not to leave our rooms at night without a guide as hippos and elephants sometimes wander through the camp at night. Right outside our room was a pair of warthogs - Pumba!

As we arrived at Mvuu Camp much later than we hoped and the sun was getting low, we left right a way for our first safari. The first animals we saw were elephants - several of them including a nursing cow and calf - can you imagine any thing cooler than that?!

We were treated to a beautiful sunset - just like National Geographic! In the twilight we saw springboks, hippos and impalas.

Springbok

Impala

We stopped along the river and watched the stars come out - simply amazing how dark it was. I've been in northern MN and seen the night sky there, but this was simply amazing. I had not ever seen the Southern Cross, so I was glad the guide pointed it out to us and explained how to navigate using the southern constellations. The night birds were chirping and the hippos grunting. We learned that you can hear hippo grunts over 2 miles away - I believe it- it was so quiet.

When we went on our way again, it was dark and the guide used a powerful spotlight to shine the trees and ground looking of animals. We saw several nocturnal birds and a huge porcupine as well as some elephants and impalas.

We had dinner in the dining hall - roast pork, salad and carrots all very good. The chocolate cake was not very good. I think Joe stayed up, but the rest of us went to bed early. We were so tired from traveling on the bumpy roads.

Off to Mvuu Camp July 23, 2009

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Homemade pancakes for breakfast with fresh fruit. I will really miss this place!

After saying a sad farewell to John and Elaine we visited with Bishop Bvumbwe and his wife Maria as described in an earlier post.

Then we are on our way to Mvuu Camp in the Liwonde National Park . We stopped at the village of Liwonde and bought some curvings (not a misspelling - that's what they are called) to take home as gifts and souvenirs. I bought some coasters, a key holder and some letter openers. I'm not good a negotiating prices. They are just so poor, I almost feel like asking them to take more for their wares. :-)

Just when we think that the roads we have traveled can't possibly get more primitive, we travel on a new one to take the title of "most difficult road". It took almost an hour to go 18kms - people walking were passing us :-). Poor Susan suffers with motion sickness more than I and had a miserable time.

Mvuu Camp from the Shire River - love the Baobab trees!

We finally arrived in the late afternoon at the dock to take the boat across the Shire River to the camp. Ellen and Joe have their own "rooms" and Susan and I are sharing. They are very comfortable with their own bathroom, a porch with a view of the lake, solar and generator electricity and comfortable beds. There is a big covered outdoor dining room and a pool.

Susan and my room

The cool bathroom

The interior of the room

July 22 Our last evening at Masomphenya

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These are called Chief's Chairs and were carved by locals. This is on the front porch at Masomphenya.

John and Elaine are leaving tomorrow to visit the country of John's birth - Zimbabwe. This will be Elaine's first trip. It has been interesting listening to John tell of having to leave his country when Mugabe came into power. It's obvious that he is excited to show his country to his wife, but is dreading to see what has become of his homeland. It's hard for me, as an American, to comprehend. Americans complain about the various administration at the time - it's too liberal or too conservative, but no one is imprisoned, murdered or persecuted due to political views. John has written several beautiful songs about Zimbabwe.

When we arrived back from Mulanje, Ellen was well rested and anxious to hear about our adventure.

Elaine and John planned a wonderful BBQ that was served outside for dinner. Mphatso and Ken joined us as well as Kevin, the MD from the UK. We had kabobs (veggie and with chicken), couscous salad, green salad (with veggies from the garden) and Filet Mignon. I was rude and asked Elaine how much the filet was as you don't see many cows. She said it was very expensive - about $5 per pound! While is seems so very low to me, it's way out of the average Malawian's budget.

back of Joe, Ellen, John, Elaine, Kevin (MD from the UK), Susan, Mphatso (he was cold and had his hood up) and Ken

Stewart was very proud of the Tiramisu he made for dessert.It was so very good!

John and Joe entertained us with their guitars after dinner. I'll be sad to leave here.

Wednesday July 22 - Mulanje Massif

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I woke well rested after taking a sleeping pill to a sunny day - finally!! Stewart made me a onion and garlic omelet- very yummy. Ellen is pretty active for someone of a certain age, but she decided that she would spend the day relaxing at Masomphenya while Joe, Susan, Ken, Mphatso and I hiked on Mulanje Massif.

According to Wikipedia -the Mulanje Massif, also known as Mount Mulanje, is a large monadnock in southern Malawi near the city of Blantyre, rising sharply from the surrounding plains of Chiradzulu, and the tea-growing Mulanje district. It measures approximately 13x16 miles (22x26 kilometres) and has a maximum elevation of 3,002m at its highest point.

I was a little hesitant about this adventure as I don't like anything higher than about 3 inches. Our fellow visitor to Masomphenya told me about his climb the week before to the top of the mountain where he had to rock climb. Thankfully, we are just going up to the waterfall - a fairly easy hike that didn't require any special equipment or climbing skills.

When we arrived at the park, Mphatso spoke to several porters to ensure that the ones we hired could speak English and would get us safely up and back. Ken is also afraid of heights, but he too decided to give it a try and joined us on the hike. Our two porters led the way up the narrow path that climbed 2400 feet up a fairly steep grade. They were wearing flip - flops, a fact that astounded us as we were slipping on the loose dirt and stones in our athletic shoes.

It took up a couple of hours to climb and we had to stop a couple of times to catch our breath due to the high altitude. The vistas were amazing - photos don't do it justice.

We came across some women carrying fire wood on the path - barefoot. I just can't comprehend their life style - I complain sometimes about carrying groceries from the car to the house.

We ended our climb at a beautiful waterfall. One of the guides dove from the rocks above the falls into the 80 foot deep pool. Susan wanted to go swimming, but Mphatso convinced her that it wasn't safe. The hike down was much easier than going up and we enjoyed stopping several times to look at the valley below.

Mphatso, Joe, Ken, Susan and me

Our porter jumping into the waterfall pool.

Wednesday July 22-23 A guitar and the Bishop

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Music is an important part of most worship services. Glen Cary has several wonderful choirs and bands. But nothing prepared me for the magnitude of music in a ELCM worship service. I sometimes wonder if they only invited those who could sing come to worship while we were there, as I didn't hear a single off key voice :-) All this multi-part harmony - sung so joyfully and with such volume.

Joe trying to learn how to play a 4 stringed guitar and Nedson playing Joe's guitar.

There was a band at Chamasowa and the same band traveled to another congregation we visited. Their instruments were all hand made - drums, a single stringed bass type instrument and a guitar with 4 strings. The strings were made from an unwound bicycle brake cable. The young guitar player, who spoke English, asked Joe if he had an extra guitar at home that he could send.

The band traveled in the back of a pickup truck - very common to see 8 or 10 people in the back of a pickup truck.

Nedson - the guitar player.

Joe told him that it would just be too expensive to ship a guitar. Joe then had an idea to purchase a guitar in Blantyre and donate it to the church. So we found a store that sold washing machines, Ipods, and guitars. We purchased a guitar, some extra strings and a case for about the same price as a comparable one in the States.

The next day we stopped at the Deanery to visit with Bishop Bvumbwe and his wife Maria. He is the first Malawian Bishop of the ELCM. He and Maria have been to Glen Cary several times and it was good to see them again. Joe presented the guitar to the Bishop and he was so excited to receive it!

Tuesday July 21 - Chimvu Parish

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I took a sleeping pill prescribed by the travel doctor and finally slept. In fact, Susan said she looked over last night and I had fallen asleep with a book on my chest and the reading light on - who knew? Those reading this are going to be envious to hear of the french toast we had for breakfast. I'm so grateful to Mphatso for finding Masomphenya. The trip is emotionally exhausting, so having wonderful food and a comfortable place to sleep is such a blessing!

We began the day at the Blantyre Deanery to meet with the Dean. He is hosting a Leadership Conference for Lutheran leaders. We also met Esther (sorry didn't catch her last name). She is the coordinator for the feeding stations within the Deanery. She told us that they feed 3000 people every day, mostly orphan children affected by HIV/AIDS - incomprehensible.

Back again to Chamasowa, but this time our focus is the village school. The first - eighth grade school has 1500 students with 12 teachers. The government mandate is 60:1, but in the villages it's almost always nearly double that. These villages are so remote that it is impossible for teachers to commute to work, so there must be available housing. Most villages cannot afford to build houses for the teachers. This school is also in dire need of more classrooms. Some classes are held outdoors under trees.

Peaking out at the visitors

There were about 100 students in this classroom

We walked the short distance back to the church and down the hill to see the well that was dug in 2006 with funding by Glen Cary. Pastor Simba was very proud of the fact that it only takes 1 pump to get water to pour.
This is a "very good well"

We had lunch in the parsonage - fowl of some sort, rice, sima and cabbage - what a surprise :-)

We then traveled to visit another church within the parish - Nangombe congregation.

As always they were so gracious and happy to see us.

We received a beautiful hand carved cross to take back to Glen Cary.

Receiving the Cross - lots of singing and happiness

Susan thrilled the crowd by dancing and singing along with the crowd. They often sing a song that is about how they are very weary, but the Lord with help them. It has lots of hand motions and we can all sort of sing along, but Susan had them laughing and clapping.

The woe is me song - with actions!

We returned to Blantyre a totally different way and were able to see Mulanje Mountain. Very intimidating...Dinner was Moroccan chicken, steamed veggies and mashed potatoes. We had several power outages during dinner, which is very typical. The owner of the B&B is an accomplished musician/song writer so he entertained us with several of the songs he had written about the problems of Africa.

Monday July 20th - Chimvu Parish

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The day began with breakfast at Masomphenya - homemade scones with homemade granola and marmalade - ahh roughing it in Africa. Susan and I didn't sleep well, so we are a little weary.

Yesterday, we discussed how we can improve our partnership with the church in Chamosowa. Pastor Simba felt that having electricity available would open many doors of opportunity. That will be one of the ideas we will bring back to Glen Cary.

We are also going to focus on providing school uniforms for 50 "children in need". Almost 15% of people in Malawi live with HIV/AIDS. Because of this there are thousands of children who are either living with just one parent or are orphans. Among these children are the 50 (there are more, but current focus is the 50 most needy) Chamasowan children who will receive funding for uniforms.

These are the children who will hopefully get uniforms.

When we returned to Chamasowa we were again greeted by a hundred or so smiling, singing Lutherans. I wish those reading this could experience this greeting - it's just overwhelming. Joe took pictures of each of these children to aid us in our fundraising campaign. We made plans to come back tomorrow and got back on the road to visit another church in the parish.

We drove down an unimproved road - more like a bike path for several miles to get to the oldest Lutheran Church in Malawi. The ELCM is a new church - established in the early 1980s. The church we visited was built in 1982. The village was very primitive, but the congregation was just as welcoming as Chamasowa. It amazes me how formal greetings are in Malawi. It's very important to greet everyone and greet them in order of standing in the church. I have to laugh at Mphatso - there is no short "i" in Kim or short "u" or "a" as in Hogdal (Hogdal is pronounced "hug doll" for those of you who don't know) in Chichewa, so he has a heck of a time saying my name.

A view of the road between the 2 churches. If you click on it you can see people walking along. This is typical of the rural roads.

This area seemed poorer than Chamasowa. This church is 27 years old.

Can you imagine walking for miles in the mud and cold to get to church/school barefoot?

The weather has been much cooler than we expected - mid 50s as a high and drizzly which is unusually cold, even though it is winter here.

We had dinner with Ken and Mphatso tonight - beef stir fry - yum! We had great conversation and learned a lot about the politics (improving) and the church (growing) in Malawi. We also enjoyed talking to a young Respiratory MD from the UK who is volunteering at the local hospital during his vacation. He told us that many Malawi women have breathing issues due to cooking over an open fire in an enclosed area. He says that their incident of lung disease is greater than issues due to smoking cigarettes. You very seldom see anyone smoking here even though tobacco is an important crop.

Worshiping at Chamosowa Sunday July 19

2009-08-03T06:32:00.019-05:00

After meeting in Pastor Simba's office with Dean Mofolo and other church leaders, Joe (who was preaching the sermon)was left in the office and Ellen, Susan and I were taken through the middle of the church to our seats right up front. I have never felt more welcome to a place. Everyone was so gracious and smiling and glad to see us. We tried to guess how many people filled the church, but gave up and just decided that it was over full :-). Keep in mind that many walk hours to get there, often barefoot.

Pastor Joe's (Pastor Simba thought he was a pastor and had him wear a stole, which was hastily removed when it was made known that he was not - gave everyone a few chuckles) sermon was about Jesus's compassion for people even though he was tired. Mphatso interpreted for the congregation and Ken and a retired pastor interpreted for us the rest of the service. He did a great job of linking our two cultures.

The service was filled with music- about 3 songs to our usual one. They had 5 or 6 choirs, all with beautiful strong voices. It didn't seem like the service was 3 hours - it just flew by! Really :-) They had a pa that was hooked up to a generator so we could hear the band - a homemade guitar, drums and a bass type instrument.

We received shirts made with he Malawi flag and a flag banner from the church officials. We also received cabbages, bananas, and papayas as gifts from the parishioners.

The Sunday School children got up and recited Bible verses. Although we couldn't understand them - you could tell they were very proud of their accomplishments. We had lunch of rice, chicken, sima (a kind of hard mush made of ground maize that is a diet staple), potatoes and veggies at Pastor Simba's Parsonage (the building was funded by Glen Cary), lovingly prepared by the women of the church and his wife. An occasional chicken would wander in the house.

It was getting towards evening when we headed back to Masomphenya in Blantyre and a dinner of Lasagna and salad. We can eat the uncooked veggies here as they are organically grown on the premises. We enjoyed a couple of beers - Carlsberg is a Danish? beer that is the only beer available - that we have seen, anyway.

July 19th - Sunday at Chamasowa

2009-08-02T11:40:00.013-05:00

Our church in MN has had a partnership with the ELCM church in Chamasowa for several years. We have helped fund the church building, the parsonage, a well, a motorcycle, a bicycle and some sewing machines. Our goal for this trip was to determine how we could further our partnership in the years to come. I had heard from Susan and Ellen that we would be warmly welcomed when we arrived in the village, but what occurred was just overwhelming.

The day was cool (winter here) and drizzly. We stopped in one of the many street markets to try to buy umbrellas. We were offered sunglasses, knives and soccer balls, but no umbellas.

We drove through huge Tea Plantations and enterned our first rural road. Remember, I live on a dirt road, but I was not prepared for the Malawi version of rural road. They are about a car width wide in most places and so rutted that we had to stop and put on the 4-wheel drive several times. There are constantly people walking by carrying water, food or goods to sell on their head. The women also often have a baby strapped on their back. Autos have the right of way. I thought that awful at first, but if pedestrians had the right of way, you'd never be able to move - so many are walking.

When we arrived in the village we were greeted by 75 singing, smiling, joyful church members. It took a while to get out of the car, we were mobbed by so many people.

Still on the road to Blantyre - July 18

2009-08-02T11:01:00.011-05:00

We unwound ourselves from the back seats of the Land Rover and were thrilled with our accommodations for the next 5 nights are at ("Vision" in Chichewa). Masomphenya Lodge It's run by a couple from Zimbabwe and Ireland. It's beautiful and very spacious. Not at all what we were expecting. Susan and I are sharing a room, Joe and Ellen have their own rooms.
View from Joe's bedroom

Main room at Masomphenya

Susan and my bedroom

We went to the Deanery to meet the Dean and have dinner. Dean Mofolo is the Dean of the Blantyre Deanery which covers much of southern Malawi. As water is so precious here and often has to be hand carried from the well - if you are fortunate, if not the river, it's customary to have the host pour water from a pitcher over your hands to wash them. We enjoyed hearing about the Dean's responsibilities and a dinner of chicken (?) rice, and cabbage. We got a laugh from Ellen's coffee cup - it said "Uff da" - a gift from a visitor from Sweden

July 18 Blantyre

2009-08-02T10:35:00.006-05:00

I was restless at night hearing what I thought were sobbing children, but discovered that it was turkeys walking around gobbling :-) . I also heard the Muslim call to prayer from the nearby Mosque. They blare it over loud speakers - and early! about 5:30. We soon discovered that the only water in the cottage was hot - with no governor -very steamy. So we filled some buckets and let them cool so we had water to wash with. We had breakfast in the Dining Hall. Eggs, fried potatoes and bread. Many dishes are fried in a heavy oil and aren't seasoned. A little greasy and bland for our tastes. But much better than the locals get for breakfast, so I'm trying to be grateful.

We left in our deluxe Land Rover (a wee bit of sarcasm there) for the 5 hour trip to Blantyre. We saw many market places along the road. They were selling vegetables - cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, meat, firewood for fuel, thatching for roofs, charcoal, scraps of metal, tires, just about anything you could think of in the open air. People walk for miles to get to these markets. The woman carry items on their heads and the men push bicycles loaded with wares. We saw young boys selling dried mice on a stick - perhaps a new MN State Fair delicacy.

Forgive the quality of the pictures - they are from a moving Land Rover and we are sitting facing each other, so ..this is as good as it gets

July 17th - We've arrived in Lilongwe

2009-07-31T17:47:00.001-05:00

I watched a total of 4 movies and too many TV shows on the long flight. It was very cold when we arrived in Johannesburg - about 40 degrees - to spend the night. The hotel was further from the airport than we had hoped, but it gave us a chance to talk to a 20 year old girl from the UK who is spending 6 weeks at Krueger National Park studying elephants.

Mphatso met us at the airport in Johannesburg as he had been there for a meeting. He is the Communication Director for the ELCM (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Malawi) and will be our guide as he was for the group who came 4 years ago.

We arrived mid afternoon in Lilongwe. The people are indeed poor. Many are selling items along the road. The soil reminds me of Georgia - red clay and everything is a dusty red. The air is very smoky and there are fires burning everywhere. Mphatso told us that the people set the fires to clear brush and get rid of rodents.

Tonight we are staying at the ELCM headquarters in their Guest house. It is a 3 bedroom house with a small kitchen and 2 bathrooms. Susan and I are sharing a room and Ellen and Joe have their own.

Susan encouraged about 10-12 local children to join us playing games. We played duck/duck/grey duck with them. They caught on quickly and had a great time. These are most likely children of the staff at the church, so they look well fed although they are barefoot in the cool weather and their clothes are a little raggedy. Joe got out his guitar and we sang with them, too. We had dinner in the "dining hall". As we walked there we came across the Women's Choir practicing. Beautiful joyous voices. Dinner was rice, chicken a corn/greens medley with bananas for dessert. We have to be very careful what we eat as sanitation is not a priority here and I do not want to pick up any nasty bugs. We went to bed at about 9pm - party animals, we are not!

From Minneapolis to Lilongwe in 40 short hours

2009-07-31T17:26:00.000-05:00

July 15, 2009 and we are off on our journey to Malawi. Susan and Ellen - at 80 years old!! are on their 2nd trip. For Joe and I, this is our first visit. We are flying from MSP to Amsterdam to Johannesburg. We will stay in a hotel there and be on our way to Lilongwe in the morning.

Malawi Africa Trip

2009-07-31T07:24:00.001-05:00

I thought this would be the easiest way to allow everyone to see the details of our trip. I'm going to post my journal entries and some pictures from that day. I hope you enjoy it.