I am going to cheat a bit and condense the last week into one blog. I know, I know that’s not right, but as I sit at Dulles Airport with my 9 hour delay, I realize I didn’t blog the last week and decided I better do it before I forget everything.
Monday was really a hard day for Lusungu and I as we were trying to make sure that everything on the spreadsheets matched her folders. This wasn’t just a Monday task but a Tuesday and Wednesday task as well. Especially since I have a MAC and I had to ensure that the files I left her with, she could access through a PC. Finally, I figured it out, whew.
On Monday, we had Awana and it was really fun especially since we brought some bandanas for the kids to color. They were left over from our VBS so they were truly cowboy bandanas, but the kids loved them. This kept them entertained for 40 minutes and some still didn’t finish coloring them.
On Tuesday, we had the guardian meeting and Ken did a bible devotional with the women and then we said our good byes. Oh, I should mention there was some serious singing and praising this day. At first, it was pretty tame, but then, Moses got fired up and was telling the women that they needed to put some more enthusiasm in it. Of course, I am paraphrasing since I don’t speak chchewa but from his body language and what happened afterwards, this is what I gathered. I have never seen Moses thrown down in this way. He was really getting into it in a very James Brown like manor. I have to say being amongst the women and the men singing in chchewa has got to be one of my favorite sounds in the world. You forget sometimes that you don’t speak the language as you find yourself supplementing your own words in their praise songs. Saying our good byes were hard, some of the women that I met the past two weeks really touched my heart, like Meiness who was my favorite guardian. With us, I didn’t really need a translator even though she didn’t speak English, she understood it very well. Then there was Denisa whom I got to interview on Wednesday for a special biography. She lost her husband the Thursday we got there and her story is a very sad one.....I will post what I wrote later (even though it’s just a draft and by no means to I claim to be a writer). It was sweet, on Wednesday afternoon, I walked through the village and she was sitting on her porch. She pointed to her pan, then her mouth and then to me, asking me if I wanted to join her for lunch. Hi replied no thank you (in chchewa) as I was on my way to Awana.
Wednesday had a different vibe than last year’s last day. Really the whole trip did. The differences between this year and last year were obvious but not in a bad way, just a different.
Apparently a lot of kids in the village got wind of the bandanas and school bags, pencil pouches and bookmarks that we made at VBS and handed out to the kids at school that day....as a lot of kids showed up for Awana. Talk about chaotic, this was the most chaotic day that you can imagine. The kids were being noisy, pushing each other and then when we went to hand out the cross necklaces for the kids to make and we explained that we only brought enough for Awana and that we would make sure that the younger kids would get the necklaces first. This did not bode well with the older kids that had been crazy the entire time leading up to the craft time. There were a few times that I had to yell “halleiugha” to get their attention to which they reply “Amen” and quiet down. Well, of course all the kids didn’t get a necklace so we pulled out some of the leftover bandanas from Monday and the kids were pushing for these not to mention the kids who had finished their necklaces and now were crowding for a bandana. It got too out of hand, so we ended up putting the bandanas up since the kids were acting very crazy. By the end of the day, we probably could have all used a cocktail. We hated leaving on such a bad note, but we made sure to love on the kids before officially saying good-bye. Unfortunatley, I never saw Sara and Mikey, although I didn’t have much hope in seeing them since they are not a part of Adziwa or Awana. They just happened to come last year when they found out the azungus were in town. Although I was sad, I was happy to bond with a few girls like, Mary, Salome, Salome and Liz.
I have a feeling this will be my last trip to Malawi for a long time. At the end of this trip, I felt a sense of completion unlike last year. I am so thrilled to see how far Adziwa has come. The school last year only consisted of one block with 2 classes, but no one was using the school yet. This year, they were using the block, 2 classes met in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. In addition, they were in the process of building a school administration/library block and beginning to build 3 more school blocks. Within the next year, they will have standards 1 thru 8. The maize mill that is right when you pull into Adziwa Gardens is almost ready to start production. This will produce income for the community. I could definetly see the difference, yet still wonder how God determines who is born to whom. I can’t help but think that. I try to imagine myself being born into that culture and what my life would be like...and it’s really hard to fathom. I think about the people in the village and how they make the most out of their simple lives and how happy they seem. I wonder if I would take it that well too. I know that God has His hand on Africa and that he cares for them. This is evident.
