1.
January 24th Visit to Liwonde
On Sunday, January 24, 2016, Carole and I travelled with
President Matale, the Blantyre District President, and President Banda, Blantyre
1st Branch’s new Branch President, to Liwonde, to oversee the
distribution of a large load of maize flour, beans and relish bags to the suffering
members in the Liwonde Group.[1] The Church hired a flatbed truck to
transport over thirty 50 kg bags of maize flour and three 50 kg bags of beans,
while we carried the bags of relish in the back of the Mission’s Toyota truck. President Matale accompanied the truck
driver and his workers on the way to Liwonde, both to show them the way to the
Church building and to ensure that nothing untoward happened to the supplies
while in transit, leaving from the One Kufa Road residence at about 6:20 in the
morning, while President Banda, Carole and I left Blantyre 20 minutes
later. Shortly before Machinga (30
minutes or so outside of Liwonde), we finally caught up with the flatbed truck,
thereafter travelling in tandem with the flatbed the balance of the way into
Liwonde.
Twenty minutes before we received a call from President
Matale, warning of a police speed trap outside of Zhoma, and while the news are
welcome, it was too late—we had already been pulled over for driving 64 in a 60
kilometer speed zone, and fined 5,000 kwacha, the standard fine for all
speeding violations, regardless of the speed of the offender. Our Malawi members are horrified by these
fines, the fines being among the highest charged by the police for traffic,
vehicle equipment or document-related violations. But, by and large, Westerners care little about
the fines, as they simply represent a cost—and for us, a relatively small
one--of driving in Malawi. It doesn’t
matter how many tickets one gets—there is no effect on driving privileges or
insurance costs—nor does the cost of the ticket vary depending upon the speed
of the offender. The same flat 5,000
kwacha fine is imposed whether one is driving 4 or 50 kilometers over the
posted speed limit. Thus, for most, it’s
not worth the effort to avoid the speed traps or to expend too much mental
energy worrying about a ticket. What of
course matters is driving carefully, especially when passing through small
market towns, to avoid a collision with a goat or dog or, far worse,
sideswiping a bicyclist with a heavy and wide charcoal load, or colliding with
one of the hundreds of pedestrians walking along the roads. President Banda, who was riding with us, was
surprised to learn that speeding tickets in the United States are far more
problematic—the size of the fine dependent upon the excess speed; and the risk of
losing one’s license or being socking with an nasty increase insurance
premiums.
Our little caravan pulled into the Liwonde Chapel at close
to 9:00 in the morning. The Chapel was
built several years ago on leased land, next to a decent size home, currently
used to house the Group Leaders’ offices, restrooms, and several classrooms. The Chapel is little more than a large open
hall, with a concrete floor, no permanent pews, and an open wood-framed roof, a
slightly raised dais on one end, and three small classrooms, with mounted
blackboards, on the other, sized to accommodate 150 to 180 members for a Sacrament
meeting, with ceiling fans to cut the mid-summer heat. Windows along the two sides admitting light keep
the space from feeling like a huge cavern.
Though utterly functional, and stark in appearance, the hall would be an
ideal model for a new meetinghouse for either the Zingwangwa or Ndirande
Branches, when the Church finally can find a suitable site for those
branches. It was not too expensive to
build and the construction time was relatively short, two advantages not to
ignore, especially in a region of the world where the Church’s growth calls for
ever-increasing numbers of meetinghouses.
And while the worship space is basic,
our local members would find it more than adequate for their purposes, a great
improvement over the overcrowded homes in which they currently meet.
All three members of the Liwonde Group leadership were
present when we arrived, along with 10 or so additional members. By the time the Sacrament Meeting started at
9:30, our ranks had swelled to roughly 50 to 60 attendees, including adults,
young adults, children and infants and the four visitors from Blantyre. This was in stark contrast to our first
visit to Liwonde, some 11 months before, in the midst of the early winter
storms of 2015, when we met with only six to eight local members, most members cut
off from Liwonde because the local flooding from the winter storm have left the
outlying villages isolated, temporary islands bordering the Shire River.
Carole and I, along
with President Matale, were asked to speak during Sacrament Meeting. Aaron Benjamin, the Group Leader’s son, and
a recent returned missionary from the Uganda Kampala Mission, translated our
remarks into Chichewa, since the congregation consisted primarily of villagers,
few of whom had much, if any, proficiency with English. The village schools, while teaching English,
struggle, because most teachers themselves have little facility with the
language. Often it is hard to get much
rhythm when speaking through a translator—the speaker must develop just the
right cadence and pace—otherwise the translator struggles trying to keep up with
lengthy sentences or is left dealing with short choppy phrases, with little context/ Carole shared with the congregation the
lesson on spiritual gifts and Church unity we used when first visiting the
Zingwangwa members, taken from the text of 1 Corinthians 12, while I talked about
when the House of Israel, during its 40-year sojourn in the wilderness, after
fleeing from Egyptian bondage, were beset by poisonous fiery serpents. Those bitten
could find healing only if they have the faith to gaze upon the brazen serpent
that Moses was instructed to hold up.
Sacrament meeting was followed by an hour of Sunday School,
the lesson given by Aaron Benjamin, in one of the classrooms in the house adjacent
to the meeting hall, so packed with members that extra chairs had to be scrounged
to accommodate all who wanted to attend.
It was clear that the attendance was out of the norm, hardly a surprise
given the circumstances, since Aaron allocated a portion of the time to allow
those in attendance to introduce themselves to one another.
Following Sunday School, the group was dismissed to assemble
outside, gathering under the awning over the walkway between the meetinghouse
and the adjoining home, sheltering them from the heat of the mid-day sun. There they
left as the welfare items were distributed. One
Blantyre member, before the trip, had warned us about the risk of things
getting out of hand. Apparently,
Malawi has a history of nasty, sometimes violent, incidences when refugee goods
are distributed, as unruly crowds jostle, shove and push to lay claim to a
share of the available goods. But, to
their credit, the local group leadership had everything firmly in hand. Prior to our arrival, they have prepared a
detailed list of the families getting welfare assistance, itemizing their share
of the maize meal, beans and relish. So
for the better part of three hours, family after family were called forward, as
local leaders carefully doled out their share of meal, beans and relish; and, thereafter
each family claimed a small patch on the grounds to stash their share, as each awaited
the final disposition of all the welfare items that had been brought.
The distribution went quite smoothly the first time through
the list, but when the local leaders realized there were excess items remaining
after the first deliveries had been made, the process virtually ground to a halt.
Slowly,
local leaders re-calculated how the excess was to be distributed so that each received
his or her fair share. Everyone would
have been exhausted without the welcome shade of the covered walkway. But mothers, with infants and small
children, sat patiently under the walkway, waiting their turn, watching carefully
the distribution.
[1]
Brother Benjamin is the Liwonde group leader, who presides at the regular
Sunday meetings, absent the presence of a more senior presiding authority from
either the Blantyre 1st Branch, the District or the Mission. The Blantyre Zone Leaders try to visit the
Liwonde Group at least once a month for support, sometimes accompanied by a
Branch or District leader.
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