Some Pieces of My Life Here

I am very thankful that we have mosquito nets. We sleep under one every night. It is best to use the bathroom, have your phone and anything else you need before getting into bed. It is not that convenient is you have to get up. Ours does have side zippers so it is easier to get in an out then some. It is our preference to tuck the net in because there might be a stray ant, cricket, spider or in reality even a lizard that might crawl up the inside if it's on the floor.

I am convinced that I am more adapted then one might expect because I don't remove lizards under 4 inches from my house, because I know they eat mosquitoes and such. Any bigger then that and I figure they belong outside. I have only seen 2 small ones in my house at this point. So live and let live.

In many ways its seems like Blantyre is one continuous farmers market. In the past week I have purchased bananas, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and green beans from the roadside. I also got fine strawberries one of the first days we were here. I could buy mangos, oranges, lemons, onions, assorted greens, yams and yesterday Lychess by the bag full. Reality is that I would have to study to know what to do with a fresh lychee.

Yesterday we ventured to the curio market. It was overwhelming. I know the artisans depend on Azunga (white people) to buy most of their wares. However for my first trip I only wanted to look and see what was available. I had a hard time saying no that many times.

Today our guard/gardener showed us that the dog had an ingrown dew claw. I had looked at her other paw and thought it needed a trim and been at a loss as to how to trim it. So I called the vet I had a number for and the Blantyre SPCA, society for the protection and care of animals. I got a live answer at the spca so that is where we went. Sweepy got her nails trimmed and the ingrown infected one cut out and shaved around, 2 shots, dewormer and flea treatment without too long of a wait and we paid 18,000 Malawian Kwatcha, which is about $25 US currency. Probably the most amazing part of the whole process was the fact the google maps gave us directions how to get there.

Our day to day life is settling to some routine. We have designated Thursday as our main day to shop for groceries and other needs. We eat fruit, yogurt and granola most mornings for breakfast, Sandwiches or leftovers for lunch and what ever I have decided I can make from whats on hand for supper. Lots of stuff with meat, veggies and gravy over rice or potatoes. Last night it was Lo Mein, tonight I am making chili. I soaked my beans over night and will cook them in the pressure cooker to save time.

When I have time I sit with my camera and try to take pictures of the monkeys. I generally see them, my camera is generally in my lap rather then focused on where I know they will pass by that time though. So I must be content with pictures of the colorful lizards and the trees and such.

We have begun language learning. I am memorizing the words pretty well but struggle with the nd sound at the beginning of words. Also there is a saying in grade school that when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking and also the silent e at the end of words. All vowels are pronounce in Chichewa. Hoping my tongue and palatte can begin making the right sounds.

 Best picture I have managed of the monkey. He was right in the yard today.   Vegetables near the road.

Traveling observations and First Impressions

I have dreaded the process of traveling to Blantyre Malawi. Long flights and cramped spaces on planes are generally an exercise in endurance. Maybe I had such low expectations that anything seemed good, I am not sure but I found the travel easier than I expected. I did not have much stiffness in my knees and virtually no pain and I was able to sleep a couple of pretty good chunks of time.

The airport in Johannesburg is large and very modern and has some really nice shops. I didn’t shop but they looked to be filled with some pretty lovely eye candy. Bright printed cloth, bowl, carvings etc. If time were of no import I could easily spend an afternoon browsing and shopping there. Well maybe just browsing as most places airport prices are pretty high. We had some small mix-ups with directions and our hotel. I can say they were small after three days. To my exhausted traveler self, they seemed nearly insurmountable at the moment.

The parts of Blantyre I saw my first 2 days here seemed pretty rural. Narrow rutted dirt roads and lot of people walking but not a large amount of traffic. We have now been into the main town which is much more urban and visited the two big supermarkets.

The house we are living in is a pleasant surprise. It is very spacious and pretty much fully furnished. That really means there is more than enough here to meet our needs but I will add some things to make it seem homier. The floors are all tile and the curtains are mostly dark African prints.

The kitchen has lots of cupboards and counter space. I have much as I expected a small gas stove and an electric fridge. The stove seems to have an above the stove broiler area. Something I will have to experiment with and the fridge is a bit larger than I expected. I also have a laundry area with a washer and dryer, I consider the dryer a huge bonus. The bedrooms have what to me are built in wardrobes rather than closets. They are roomy and easy to organize. The thing that has surprised me most about the house is the windows. The screens are on the inside and they pull open like a little door and then you push the window open and close the screen. They have built in decorative metal that is for security. The doors have similar gates of metal as well as the wooden doors. We also have a security guard. When I asked about why we need this level of security the response was to deter robberies and vandalism and that the area here is actually pretty safe.

We have fruit trees and some blooming trees in the yard, including mango trees. I am eager for the start of mango season. I am making an assumption that the fruit trees are the reason I have at least one monkey hanging around. I am too new to the country to find them a nuisance and am fascinated. That might change if they decide to eat all the fruit. It would seem most people find them more of a nuisance than a benefit.

The house we are living in was the house of some missionaries who are on extended leave for family health reasons and we seem to have become part owners of their dog. Her name is Sweepy and she appears to be an aging border collie. I brushed her a bit today and took her for a walk. Having a dog around on a walk adds an element of safety as most Malawians are somewhat afraid of them esp. a fairly large one like Sweepy. I have seen her to be somewhat listless but after playing with her a bit she definitely was moving faster and showing more interest in life. I think I have a new friend.

 We met most of the missionaries here in Blantyre Thursday morning. Names are coming, though not completely set in my mind. They are all from places other than the US, which made me feel a little tentative prior to arrival. They have been kind, warm and gracious toward us new comers. I am optimistic that it will be easy to build good working relationships with these people.

Our first months here will be intensive language learning. Malawi has two official languages, Eng

lish and Chichewa. One can get around with English but it is helpful to learn some Chichewa. It also shows respect to the citizens to learn “their” language. We were advised as to the importance of greeting here before we came. I have already seen that it is important to exchange more extended greetings than in the US. How are you? How did you wake up? How are your husband or wife, children, how did they wake? Relationships are held as more important than time. Maybe the west could learn something from this.

At this point the language and accents sound thick and foreign to me. I know from experience my ears will get used to this. I love the richness of the sights and sounds around me. I am hoping and praying that my brain and tongue can start wrapping themselves around making Chichewa words and making sense of hearing it spoken quickly.

Zikomo, that means thank you in Chichewa. I am so glad you took time to read my blog.

The following pictures show how the windows look and the blooming frangipani tree out side my window.

Some thoughts about international travel

Laying on my bed in a hotel in Johannesburg South Africa with my mind spinning in circles and wondering what tomorrow will bring.

We managed to get safely from Alexandria, MN to Johannesburg South Africa in the past two days.
This feels significant.
I was on the hotel shuttle earlier this evening listening to the conversations around me and its obvious I am not in the Upper Midwest anymore. Many thick accents and many unfamiliar languages and my very white skin is definitely in the minority here.
There are things to be said for wide body jets that you fly over the ocean. They have slightly more room then small planes in the economy seating area, they have seat back entertainment systems to distract you from the amount of time you are spending in the same seat. They feed and hydrate you pretty regularly. Particularly enjoyed the banana and oreo cookie bar I got sometime in the middle of the night my home time and early morning local time in South Africa, can't say a lot about the other food. It was edible and filled the void in my tummy.
So getting off our plane today I was feeling like a very accomplished traveler and blessed by God. That feeling quickly hit a few bumps. The Johannesburg airport is the nicest airport I have been though in Africa. It has tiled floor and lots of signs. We had been provided information about how our hotel stay here would work. However that was not correct. Expedia is not my friend at the moment. I reserved a hotel room in Johannesburg through there service over a month ago. Then said hotel sent me a note through Expedia that they were flooded and transferring me to a hotel quite a long distance from the airport. So what do you really do about this. After a lot of long phone calls we cancelled the first reservation and made a new one. However they didn't tell me I needed to guarantee it with a credit card to hold the room past 2. They did tell me it was right in the airport. So we first went to the in airport hotel and then had to back track and catch a shuttle to the right hotel. Then arrived to find they had no reservation. End of story is that with a little time spent trying to figure things out we got a room at the second hotel.
There are some comments I can make about people in South Africa around the airport. The hotel desk clerks we dealt with are well trained and were kind and patient, to an amazing degree. We got into a situation with what I believe was a man posing as airport staff who really wasn't supposed to be in the airport at all. He was directing us to the hotel shuttle area and was very polite however it became obvious once we got to the location that he had taken us on a long and round about route to procure a tip and left us at the edge of the area to avoid being found out. As one who has been through a number of international airports and been warned of this I should probably have known better. I got a lot of steps on my fitbit to make up for the time sitting on the plane. I think between going to the wrong hotel and then trekking back through the airport and the round about trip to the hotel shuttle I made over 2.5 miles, hauling our hand luggage. There is a bright side.
I should also note that I had made an effort to book a hotel that had a pool. I thought it would be refreshing after the lengthy plane ride. We got here, I settled a few things and got ready to swim. Out door pool, not lighting, no heat. My feet went in which was okay but with water about the temperature of iced tea I did not go further.
When we were at training in Cambridge Ontario we did skits about stages of being in a new culture. One groups skit dealt with trying to accomplish things. Our experiences after landing today were frustrating and I know I will have more frustrations here but We are safe, God is good and he has brought us this far surely he will see us though.

Needs, Wants and Making Preparations Happen

We were "Commissioned" Sunday. It was kind of cool. There were 5 questions we were to answer mostly about serving God faithfully. It was good to think of those things.It was good to talk to people first hand about the ways we have seen God working over the past months. It was good to talk to long time friends. I want to be faithful.

We have four more days to try to figure out the things we need. Do I want to get a power bank?
Should I pull my 8 cup pyrex measuring bowl out of the blue suitcase that is currently a few pounds overweight. How many skirts do I really need? My family have heard a lot about those skirts. I think I have a bit of a thing about clothes and shopping. Certainly I know that compared to most I will meet in Malawi I have a luxurious amount of clothing.

I think back to messages I heard from Ramesh Richard literally decades ago now. He talked about what God sees as enough. He felt that standard was food for the day at the beginning of the day and a change of clothing, might or might not have included shelter but I tend to feel that shelter should be included though a description of that would rise a whole further debate. I just know that I have wondered what I might eat often but never wondered if I would have food to eat on any given day. I have wondered what to wear but never if I would have something to wear. I have concerned myself with what the temperature of the place I would live or stay might be, would I be warm enough or cool enough depending on the season. I have never wondered if I would have a place to sleep.

In other words I am now and have been blessed to have all I need and much more. That makes it hard to narrow my belongings down to mostly needs and forget about my many wants. It's continuing to happen though.

Besides packing belongings there are numerous things to take care of. We live in an age of technology so making sure documents we need are on the laptops we will travel with and that our old technology is properly dealt with is a challenge. There is also insurance, phones, financial accounts and such. I am so pleased that my husband is taking care of most of this but. . .

I have spent days trying to make sure our phones are unlocked so that we can use them with African SIM cards when we arrive. If your provider is AT&T this is not as simple as it could be. It's a multi step process and then they send you a final email with three steps to complete the process. The steps fail to mention a couple of critical points and I for one am not convinced of the efficiency of their call in customer support staff. However after a number of issue we have unlocked phones.

I also learned today that my retirement account people think I was born  Jan. 1 of 1800. They also informed me that having this date was my mistake not theirs and that they could only change this date by me sending in a regular letter with my birth date and signature on it so they would know the appropriate time that funds could or should be dispersed with or without penalty. Some days I wonder.

I also am still trying to get our insurance settled. Not sure where that process is at but at this point they mostly seem more efficient then the others I have dealt with.

Maybe all this is good and I will be prepared for the inefficient systems I will undoubtedly encounter in Africa. Time will tell
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Final Preparations, Questions and Mopani Worms

We have reached 9 days and counting til we get on a big airplane with lots of luggage to fly to Malawi. Wednesday, I packed our 6 large suitcases with the things I am sure we are bringing. Four of the cases are just under the 50 pound limit somewhere around 45-47 pounds. One is just over 50 pounds and one is in the 32 pound range. I know that I have around 10 additional pounds to add with water filter cartridges and power converters when they arrive.  This feels like my packing is in pretty good order. We can still pack some things into our carry on luggage.

Now there is the fact that I still have 3 or 4 tote bags of yarn and a large storage bin, also a storage bin and two laundry baskets packed up with extra clothing, there are also some boxes with important??? Papers and random stuff. This next week it will be either gotten rid of or put in storage totes in our daughter’s garage or basement. The amount seems manageable to deal with over the course of a week.

People continue to ask me what our housing will look like. I just don’t have answers to that question. I know that our country director Mike Hammond has housing in mind for us and that it is characterized as Western style missionary housing. I am quite confident we will have running hot and cold water and electricity when there is electricity. I also know that there is wireless network available, unsure about the stability and the bandwidth but there is something. I don’t know what sort of configuration and square footage things will be or if there will be any existing furniture left by others or we will start completely from nothing. I realized that I really don’t know how to buy furniture and household goods in Malawi, and grocery shopping I know has a bit of adventure involved in finding what you need. What I do know is that as I Samuel 7:12 states, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” We have emptied and sold a house, “getting by with a little help from our friends” as I am not sure the final move out would have happened without a good bit of help. We acquired work permits in a timely manner. We were able to buy a property in Sioux Falls which will be rented out while we are gone and will become our home when we return. My knee replacement is strong and stable and pain free a good bit of the time. We had screening tests that show our heart and vascular risk of disease to be very minimal. My thyroid tests showed stability on my current dose. We feel comfortable with where we are financially with the support we have received toward our ministry and start up expenses. We feel despite many questions the Lord is going before us. I know some of this is repetitive but I can't say enough about the continuing provision of our Lord.

So at this point my excitement to learn Chichewa and begin our new jobs is high, my heart for the Malawian people is strong, and my trust in God is huge.

I keep reading information about random things online. Last week I found a recipe for fried mopani worms with peanut sauce on the Shoprite website. I read the description about how you purchase them and soak them and rinse them before actually cooking them and adding the peanut sauce. I am not sure how I feel about eating insects at all but I realize that there is a chance that it will be something I encounter and may need to do. I understand it is pretty common to roast termites in the high season for them to show up in droves. I am resolved that if God could get us this far he can also help if the need to try culinarily challenging foods occurs.