The Calm Before The Storm

Goodnight from Malawi! Well, as we get ready to go to bed, we wanted to write a quick post of what we've done this week, so far! As new missionaries, we've been having an orientation. Yesterday we spent the day learning a little more about ABC, and then we were off the the market with one of the Malawian students from the college.

It was meant to be a scavenger hunt to get us exposed to the Malawian culture, but the idea of a "scavenger hunt" in the Malawian culture, just doesn't work, since the people here and so laid back and want to spend more time talking with you and getting to know you than completing a task. The relationship is more important (which we like), so our team pretty much gave up on completing the scavenger hunt from the very beginning. The student from ABC that was with us, was Richard, and he was great at taking us around and showing us different things.

There are a few areas to the market and we had only been to the "less crowded" part of the market, which was still crowded, so coming to this side of the market, was a little bit more "chaotic" There were people just shouting at you to come take a look at their produce, or just saying hi! Many of them laughed at one of the men with us, since he was carrying his daughter on his back (and the women do that here), and they were laughing at Derek too, because he was holding a big basket that this family bought for them (and only the women hold the baskets here). That allowed for several conversations to open up in the market.

Today we drove about 1 hour to a town called Dedza, and on the way there, we got to see the more rural part of Malawi, we got to drive on some very bumpy roads, but then we reached a nice little restaurant, where all the new people got to talk as well as learn more about the Malawian culture. I think most of the learning about the culture will come with experience, but we're glad that we were able to listen to these other people and their insights.

School starts on Monday so the next several days will be spent in meetings, in the classroom, and lesson planning. As school starts, we know our time will be much more limited than it has been, so we won't be able to updated the blog as often, but keep checking it for new posts! :o) We are still overwhelmed with just work and adjusting, but we're excited for what is to come.

Due to the internet limitations we can only post pictures from 12am to 6am so they will be added later....we know pictures add a lot! We will have some of the Market and Town and Derek will throw in a few extra stories in the next day or two before school starts.....and just a little teaser it has to do with a W.W.F. in Malawi experience (for those who do not know what that is...its better that way) being made fun of in the Market, what God has been doing in our lives, and being chased by a lioness and her cubs....







(Just kidding about the lion but you should still read the next post)