First response

The leaves rustle in the breeze and I am at ease.
Crickets chirp, men chat, kids play.
A minibus sputters up the road.
One groans under the weight of people packed 4-4 or more onto wheels burdened by an almost empty tank that feeds on K698/liter fuel,
weighed down by mothers and babies,
teens and crates,
cardboard and luggage,
wise women draped in chitenges,
Eyes down, voices low,
"Muzungu!" children squeal, eyes aglow
White skin?
Black American?
Either way this sight is new- or at least rare-
our presence brings truth to tales....
Heads turn. Eyes stare.
"How are you?"
"Do you play pool?"
"Will you pay 3.7 for these goods?"
"Ask GOD why Blantyre?"
"Be serious when you pray!"
If I seek-
GOD will reveal the divine purpose for these days.

-Written 10/6/2013
Muzungu- refers to people with white skin
Chitenge- is like a sarong made of fabric that women tend to wear over trousers or shorter skirts when going out
minibus- basically a 15 person passenger van used like a city bus, usually has 4 rows, and they seat at LEAST 4 people on each row. A ride to town costs 100-200 kwacha.
Kwacha is the Malawian currency, which is rapidly depreciating. The exchange rate: K320= $1

Maswera bwanji? (Good afternoon)

Hello! I hope you all are doing well. Welcome to the posts of my 2013 Summer Field Ed Experience in MALAWI! Thanks to Rev. Cayce Stapp and the Church of the Resurrection and Duke Div for making this possible. Praise GOD for the wonderful people we have encountered so far and the amazing ones we have yet to meet!

After many hours of travel, Christina and I were welcomed to "The Warm Heart of Africa" with "open hands" on Thursday, June 6th.We are living  in the Nancholi area of Blantyre, Malawi. We are six hours ahead of EST. So it's about 6:30pm here. We live on a compound which includes Galilea United Methodist Church, the pastor's house, a health clinic, our guest house, Malawi UMC conference offices, 3 other living quarters and a nursery school.

Once a week we will work in the health clinic, teach at the nursery school, and attend home visits. We will each preach 3 times and lead Sunday school lessons and nightly prayer groups. We will individual host dance and prayer workshops. 

In Malawi they speak Chichewa (the vowels sound like Spanish vowels, n at the beginning is silent, k's and t's are usually followed by h- but it's silent)  and English- along with other languages. Abusa Collings (Pastor Collings)  and his wife Esther (maiabusa) are very hospitable. Esther cooks for up to 10 people a night because so many people come to visit the pastor. And people often drop by the guest house to speak with us. We have learned to have a flask (thermos) of hot tea and some biscuits (cookies) available at all times. 

The food is kinda like southern comfort food. Most meals people eat nsima with ndiwo (relish).  Nsima  remember, the "n" is silent) is basically thick grits. The relishes can made from spiced beef, fish, MUSTARD greens =) , "pigeon" peas, CABBAGE etc. 

We quickly learned that black outs and water outages are common. We have a garbage bin filled with water to use to cook or bathe with when water stops running. And we have to manually fill the toilet at those times...Cold showers and boiled water bucket baths are our current MO. We have head lamps and flashlights and book lights to use power outages. We are learning to cook on a mbaula aka chacoburna aka charcoal burner aka mini grill during power outages. Maibusa showed us how to light it twice, but we've only boiled water so far. 

The internet at the church is fickle. We are using a dongle that provides 3G internet, but my Ipad doesn't have a USB connection so I will have to use the internet when our supervisor lets us borrow her laptop- like she did tonight. If anyone has suggestions on how to link a USB to an Ipad, please let me know.

Continue to keep our summer in your prayers. God is doing mighty things here in Malawi. 

Zabwino zonse (all the best)

K