ABCs of Malawi

Mary, one of our leaders on the trip, told us that on her mission trips, she likes to make a list of adjectives that describe where she has visited to help her put in to words what she has seen/experienced. I thought that was a great idea, so I did a list myself to share with you.  Not all of them will need explanations, but I will expand on the ones that do.

A - alive, able

• For a place that is barren and where resources are minimal, the people in Malawi are so alive. They wake up smiling and work hard all day. With God, the impossible is made possible and they make the most out of everything.
  

B - brown, bumpy

• There's not a lot of greenery in Malawi unless you have money to water your grass. The roads are extremely bumpy. In Kauma, the black top ends and the clay begins (yes sing the George Strait song) The dirt roads were just as bumpy. 
  

C - caring, cheerful, crowded

D - delightful, determined

• Some people can't afford to send children to school, but they work their hardest to make the most out of what they have so that they can. Also, Felix, one of the builders, came down with pneumonia while we were there. They told him to not work, but he couldn't afford to not work because then his kids wouldn't eat. 
  

E - energetic
F - familiar, faithful


• In a place where I didn't know anyone, never been there before, I felt so at home.  Like I was with family. There were few times that I felt uncomfortable.
  

G - graceful, grateful


H - healthy, hospitable

• I had a certain expectation of seeing a lot of babies with bloated bellies from malnutrition. Surprisingly, in the village we were in, I didn't see any. Not say that people weren't sick, but not what I imagined.  
  

I - independent, innocent

• Many people, like widows, are very independent. They rely solely on what they earn for there family. However the community does help out when they can. Innocent in the fact that some people don't know of anything than what's outside their community. 
  

J - joyous
K - kindhearted
L - loving
M - mysterious

• I wonder so much about the life of the typical Malawian. Especially when we drove through the village at night to take James home from dinner. It was quiet and dark. It was kind of eery in a way.
  

N - natural, neighborly

• This is truly a community. You know the saying it takes a village to raise a child. This is living proof, so many families have taken in orphans to raise and the love exudes.
  

O - obedient, observant

• I am still in shock on how obedient the children are there. The children's program would have anywhere from 100-150 children daily. The kids were so attentive and listened to the story. I have a hard time getting 20 kids to listen to me on Sunday morning. While on prayer walks, if James told them to quit following us, they did.  They were very observant. When arriving, we were told that Malawians will trust you more once they know your heart (more so true for the adults and not the kids). I would say this was very true. 
  

P - polite, productive

• I can't believe how hard the people in Malawi work. The average worker makes $1 a day. They work 7 days a week from 7 until 5. They aren't working cushy jobs behind a desk, but doing real physical labor. The women, if they work inside the home, are busy doing chores all day long: cooking, washing, cleaning and getting water and wood.
  

Q - quiet

• The night we drove through the village, it was like the Christmas story. All was quiet as a mouse. Like I said, kind of eery.
  

R - resilient, resourceful

• I can't believe how strong the people are, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually. Death is common. I asked Joy how many funerals there were in the village within a month she said around 6. That's just in this village. Resourceful in that they can take the most obscure thing and make it into something to play with or to use around the house. For instance, one lady made small cakes using tin cans. Children were playing with a sticks and tires and wheeling them around.
  

S - sick, smiley

• I  know I said healthy earlier but that was in consideration of my expectations. I was shocked to learn that in sub sahara Africa, every 5 seconds someone dies of Malaria. We hear so much about HIV/AIDS being THE killer, that Malaria gets overlooked and it can be prevented a lot more than it is through education. Steve (the school head master) was telling the kids simple things like, keeping grass cut short, sleeping under nets and emptying sitting water out. 
  

T - thankful, tender

• Any time we visited with anyone, they were so thankful. One family brought us a bowl of roasted peanuts as we were sitting down. We each took 1 out of the bowl and then James started loading his pockets. We looked at him funny and he said if you don't take them, she will be offended. (He didn't even like nuts), so we started eating more. Later that day, we bought timber for their roof and when we came back, she had yet another bowl (3x the size of the first one) with more nuts. We bagged them up.
  

U - unbiased, upbeat

• I never felt like an outsider (in a bad way) for the color of my skin. Okay, maybe when little babies when scream because we scared them as they hadn't seen a AZUNGU (white person) before but other than that there were never any prejudice. 
  

V - victorious

• The people of Malawi have to overcome a lot of trials, but they are victorious. They have so little, but so much as they rely on God for everything. 
  

W - welcoming, willing
X - xeric

• Okay so I am stretching it here for an "X" word without saying xciting or something like that. This word means being deficient in moisture which it is for most of the year, so it works :)

Y - youthful
Z - zealous

• Man these kids have so much energy