More Welcomes and Good-Byes - Carole's Post

It isn't that I would want everything to stay the same.  In the mission field, there is a constant flux that keeps life interesting, yet sometimes it is difficult to see someone move on, in particular the transfers of the elders and sisters to other parts of the mission.  I'm selfish and want to keep those whom we have come to know and love in Blantyre.

On the other hand, when we have local members returning from their missions, it is such an momentous day! They have served 18 or 24 months, most likely in another African country, and they are bringing back with them spiritual depth, leadership qualities, and an enthusiastic spirit for building the kingdom here in Malawi.  There is no doubt that they will do more to help the Church take root on Malawian soil than any other group. We know the young men and women who are leaving to go on missions and we will be back in the States when they return.  So it is especially tender for us to see those coming home now, whom we didn't know when they left, and imagine how the missionary experience has changed them.

Here we are at the airport greeting Elder Nyirenda after his arrival from the Kenya Nairobi Mission.  Picking up members of his family along the way to the airport, we wanted to make sure that his family was there to welcome him home!
Elder Nyirenda is the only one in his family who is a member of the church.

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Just look at that smile of Christopher's!  Christopher Sitolo had been telling us for weeks all about Elder Nyerenda, now back to "Mike", and I don't think anyone was more excited to see him. Mike had served as an assistant to his mission president.

A week or two later after church, Mike, with loosened tie, is getting ready to go make some visits to less active members of the Blantyre 2nd Branch.





One day after Mike arrived home, we went to pick up Elder Sikumbiri, who had been serving in the Zimbabwe Harare mission.

We were worried that there wouldn't be family to greet him because we were not able to connect with them.  Before he left, the family had lived on Soche, but had now moved. Once again, Elder Sikumbiri is the only member in his family.  But when we got to the airport, there was his family.  They recognized us because of our name tags.  Of course, we offered to give them a ride home.  One hour later, as we were driving north toward Lilongwe, we arrived at their new home!  (There are so many little details that get lost in translation...)

I was worried about Elder Sikumbiri, now back to "Steve".  How would he ever get to church, living such a long way away?

But there he was on Sunday!  He has found a place to stay on Soche so he can easily get to the Zingwangwa branch. That sure does make a branch president happy! - and all the young single adults too!

Now to the story of Maxwell, our VERY PATIENT prospective missionary from Zingwangwa.  George wrote earlier about his mission call to Mozambique.  Only days before he was to leave for two months of training at the Missionary Training Center in Brazil (since Portuguese in the language of Mozambique) he found out that his visa application had been rejected.  His date was pushed back to the end of April.   When the visa did come through, we found out that two other prospective missionaries in Zambia were still waiting for theirs.  President Chinyumba (our district president) who handles the passport issues for the Malawian missionaries, managed a small miracle.

Maxwell, before being set apart by Elder Beal.  Thereafter, known as Elder Mbera.

 The sister missionaries were especially excited for him.

It's a bittersweet time for his loved ones. His mother, not a member, is on the left.  Sister Mwale, his "church mother" is on the right with his twin, Benson.  

Elder Maxwell lived a long way from the meetinghouse and made many, many sacrifices to come to church over the past few years.  We know he will be a great missionary!

In the meantime, we have another prospective missionary, patiently waiting.  Khama Ganghire was scheduled to leave for the Johannesburg mission in April but days before his departure, his visa, too, was rejected, something very unusual.  His date has been pushed back to July.  

Early May brought changes to the our Blantyre mission field. 
Two sisters were released:  Sister Griffus from Minnesota and Sister Mntungwa from South Africa.

After church, we took them, along with their companions, to the bus station where they would take the bus to Lilongwe, fly the next day to Lusaka and two days later, fly home.  
(Yes, these are short sisters!)

Sister Griffus left many of her clothes for Memory Munthali, who is waiting for her mission call.  Then she filled her suitcase with chitenges and more chitenges!

Saying good-bye to her companion, Sister Browning

Sister Mntungwa was such an awesome missionary, a real sweetheart!

With her companion, Sister Zohner, also from Idaho.

Sister Mntungwa's suitcase won the prize for heaviest.  I was worried when George heaved it into the truck!  She assured us that about 20 pounds of books were staying in Lilongwe.  I sure hope so!

And as the bus pulled away...

Farewell, bon voyage, we will miss you!

Child Snatchers - Carole's Post

Though my visiting teaching partner could not go with me, I made an appointment to go visit teach Sister Mkandawire toward the end of last month.  George drove me and on the way to her home, I received a text from her husband saying that she had gone to the Nancholi market to sell some things. I thought I could just go find her there.  
The small market sits behind a Total filling station and close to the Manase police station.

  
We walked through the market looking at each booth or mat, not knowing where she might be or what she might be selling.

Just as we were about to give up, her son Elliot came running up to us, looking very happy to see someone he knew.

Elliot is about eight years old and speaks English quite well. When we asked where his mother was, he said she had gone home.  "Okay", we said, "we will drive to your house (or close to it).  Do you want a ride?"
That was definitely what he wanted to do, so he rolled up his mat with a few things in it and headed off with us to the car.  Elliot even took my hand for a minute or so.  

This is Elliot in his home

and here he is with us at church.

When we got to the car, I held the back seat door open for him and he climbed in, with George and I in the front.  As George turned on the car, a couple of people came up to the car and I rolled down my window to see what they were trying to tell us.  They got right up to the window and were yelling, questioning who we were and telling Elliot to get out of the car.  We kept trying to tell them that we knew his parents well, that we went to the same church, and we were driving him to his house.  The couple of people at the car quickly grew in number to about twelve people.  I turned around to tell Elliot to tell them who we were, but I could tell Elliot was just loving the spectacle of it all!  He sat quietly as the center of attention, didn't say a word, and took it all in!
Every time they would yell for Elliot to get out of the car, George would tell Elliot NOT to get out of the car.  Finally, they unblocked our way.  I guess they decided we did look legitimate.
When we got to Elliot's house and I told his mom what happened, she just laughed and thought it was amusing. Then she said there were people who did come around and steal children!

About ten days later, we were passing by the market on our way back from visiting some other members  and someone came running up from behind.  It was Wisdom, Elliot's younger brother, and he was just beaming.

 This is Wisdom at church.

I didn't dare show him too much attention knowing that all eyes were upon us!  We chatted a couple of minutes, I gave him a hug and off we went, leaving him to walk home.  I wasn't sure we could convince the group that we were not child snatchers the second time around!

A Visit to Davie's Village - Carole's Post

Davie is one of our favorite people - and that has probably been true for every missionary couple that has lived in Blantyre!  We trust him completely.  He works as our guard, as the gardener, and as the all around helper.  He helps us take on and off the canopy on our truck, to lift heavy boxes when we are arranging the storage room, and he accepts the many deliveries.  One night we left our shoes outside because they were so dirty and in the morning, they were polished and clean - just like magic!  Davie obviously takes joy in making others happy.

One week we told Davie that we would like to take him home to his village on his day off.  It was a holiday on Thursday so that seemed perfect.  Though Davie works full time for us, his wife and children stay in the village so he only sees them once a week.  Occasionally they come to visit him here and they stay with him for the day.  The first time that happened, I went to introduce myself  and little baby Mike took one look at me, got a terrified look on his face and started to cry. Now, that has been the pattern every time I see him!

So, on a late Wednesday afternoon, Davie changed clothes in the garage as he usually does, and climbed in the back seat of the car.  Off we went!  It was only about a 30-minute drive south on the Chikwawa Road before we turned off on a dirt road to the east to drive to the village of Chunga.  About ten minutes later, Davie told us to stop, even though we just seemed to be in the middle of some maize fields.  

You could tell that Davie was excited not only to see his family but to show us his other world.  And little Mike still was not very happy to see me!

 The village children were the first to gather around. So many are related, but we couldn't keep the relations straight and most of the villagers did not speak English, so Davie kept busy translating.  Picture taking is always a popular activity!

This is the time of year that the maize has been harvested.  It has dried on the stalks and now been picked.  Everyone pitches in to remove the kernels, then allowing them to dry in the sun for several days.

 We always ask all the people we visit how many bags of maize they were able to harvest.  The terrible rains of January destroyed many of the plants so yield is lower this year.  Many people know they do not have enough to get them through until next year's harvest.

The villagers were very proud of their animals.  I was actually quite surprised to see a cow.  Goats and chickens you see in the city, but no cows.

From here, she poured the milk into an empty plastic soda bottle to take to market and sell.

A day or so later, when Davie was back at work, I gave him some goat cheese since he had no idea that goat milk could produce something so delicious (at least I think so).

Elder and Sister Bingham, the Self-Reliance missionaries worked on teaching farmers about goats before they left the mission field.

The ubiquitous chickens.  In Blantyre, they sleep the nights in the owner's house while they roam free during the day.  The life of the village chickens is probably more the way we imagine chickens on the farm.  Probably because I was oohing and ahhing, Davie asked me if I had ever seen a pig, and he was willing to take me over to the pig stye, but I assured him I had seen a pig.

As some people walked by, they stopped to chat with the "azungu".

One of the main reasons we came was to take a photo of Davie and his family so we could put it on the board at church.  Davie's wife Chrissy does not get into town often enough to go to church very much but she is part of the branch.

First she went in to change her dress - I always understand when the women need a few minutes to prepare!  Even daughter Hanna ran in to change to a lovely white dress.

When Chrissy's mother, who stays (lives) in a nearby house saw us, she too wanted a photo with her daughter.

She owns several houses in the village.

We can see why Davie is fond of the village.  The people have a strong sense of community.

Davie built this home, anticipating the day that he will retire and go to live at the village full-time.  In the meantime, his family has a nice place to live.  We especially admired the view.

We headed back through the maize fields to the car.  Chrissy's sister took the bottle of warm milk so we could drop her off close to the market.

 I am out in front.

It is the custom in Malawi to accompany your guests at least half way back when they are leaving.  It is our natural inclination to tell them "That's okay, you don't need to come" but we have learned they are not happy if they do not feel they are been gracious and polite.

We watched Davie, Chrissy, Hanna and baby Mike as they headed back to the village for an evening together.  

The next morning Davie was back in Blantyre- not to work for us but to cut the lawn at the church.  He is used to going back and forth on the minibus, but I am sure he is looking forward to the day he can stay in one place.

In the meantime, we are happy to have Davie around!  

  

The Comfort of Security - Carole's Post

When we are at home, we know that we are never really alone. We always have a guard on the property - one during the day and two at night.  We know that we can just step out of our house, yell, and someone will usually come very quickly.  We don't even have to step out of the house, because we have panic buttons in several of the rooms.  If we hit one, it will supposedly not only alert the guard, but also a security team who will arrive here on the double!  You might think those panic buttons would give us security, but the one in our bedroom is immediately inside the door in exactly the place where a light switch would normally be.  How many times I have walked in and my hand automatically went to turn on the light...fortunately I haven't hit it yet!

This is the entrance to our property on Kufa Road.  When we drive up, the guard usually hears us and opens the gate.  If he is not right there, we just tap the horn and he immediately comes.  I frequently get out of the car and open the doors myself by putting my hand through the cut-out peep hole and sliding the metal latch.  It is never locked during the day.  I can also let myself out through the pedestrian door when I head out for an early morning walk or want to walk to the market or the church.  I am always cautioned by Davie, our guard, not to use the shortcut to the church.  It goes through a maize field and this time of year when the plants (though brown) are so high, I am told that it is easy for robbers to hide, waiting for an unsuspecting soul! 

Here is Davie, on the inside of the gate.  We think Davie is the greatest.  Not only is he the most pleasant guard around, with the most amazing smile, 

but he is a top notch gardener.  See those boots - he always wears those just in case of snakes.  And sure enough, about a month ago, he knocked on the door and asked if we would like to see a (dead) snake!  It was just a baby, but a black mamba just the same.  Davie assured us that it was only the second time he had seen one in all the years he has worked here, protecting missionary couples.

After driving up the long driveway, we enter the house from the back (in other words, the front door is the back door).

Each outside door has two handles, making it tricky if my arms are full of groceries or church materials.
Each lock has a separate key. In the evening, we lock ourselves in with the same two keys.









Then we close the grill gate and lock it with two padlocks which require two more keys!

We have French doors that lead from our living room to a small porch outside.  We open those doors on a nice day because the view of the yard is lovely.  However, this is how we lock that door because the other locks don't work.  There is also a locked grill gate on the other side of the small porch.

This is another door, from the kitchen to the patio where we have our washer and dryer.  Same pattern...










These are our night guards.

Arias and Manyowe  
I'm not quite sure why he has sunglasses when he only works at night but it creates a certain image.

Though we know Davie, our day guard, quite well, we don't know the night guards very well.  However, I think they know us better than we know them.  At various times through the night, they will circle the house, talking, laughing, sometimes singing.  They are only a couple of feet away from the house. We have a window at the head of our bed so we hear everything crystal clear.  There is a changing of the guard at 7 AM but Malawians are early risers and there is much activity from the time the sun rises.

One night, soon after we had moved into our new home, I took out the trash.  I went through the kitchen door, across our backyard patio, opened the gate, and took a step or two in order to reach the outdoor trash can.  Just as I took off the lid, someone very close spoke to me, but I couldn't immediately see anyone!  I screamed and ran back in the gate, slamming the bolt lock, and ran inside the house, immediately locking the kitchen door.  Later, George told me that he had seen the guards sometimes sitting in the corner by the trash cans at night, catching a little nap. 

1. This is a picture - obviously by day.  There is a three-legged chair now placed where the guard was sitting on the ground.

A few days later,   I mentioned it to Christopher who lives on the property and he laughed, saying that usually they sleep in the dog house!  Huh!  He pointed out the dog house close to the garbage cans. 

 I said "but aren't they the night guards who are supposed to stay awake all night?"   "Yesssss, but well, you know how the Ndirande branch was broken into two weeks ago.  That's because the night guards usually go to sleep!"

I guess saying "Those night guards are in the dog house!" can be interpreted in different ways. 

There is one photo that I really wanted when I thought about writing this blog.  When we drive around town, we sometimes see open trucks marked " RAPID RESPONSE TEAM" or "ALPHA UNIT" filled with men is swat team gear, but I never have my camera ready and we pass by quickly.

Yesterday, we went to the sister missionaries flat to meet with a plumber for repairs.  We got their keys and they instructed us how to open the many locks since they would be out working.  However, we had forgotten about the alarm system, so when George and I opened the door and walked in, I could hear a buzz, indicating we had 15 seconds to punch in the code or a security team would be alerted.  Sure enough, a VERY loud alarm went off.  I managed to reach the sisters and get the code so we could turn it off.  About 8 minutes later, a SWAT team, complete with shields, was rushing up the stairs to the second story flat.  I met them outside and assured them that we had just made a mistake. They seemed very disappointed until I told them I would love to take their photo!

So we were all happy! I didn't have to go searching for a unit because it was much easier to just summon them!