Epilogue - August 13 - Humbling

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.