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.
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