Refugee Camp (A story from Derek)

The day started off pretty well.  Jeannette had to run off to school at about 630am to get ready for her School day which started at 715am.  The school is only about a 5 minute walk which can seem like just a 20 second walk or a 30 minute walk depending on the day.

We wake up each morning around 530am to 600am.  I usually try to get the coffee going and then take some breakfast out onto the back porch.  I don't do it every morning, but I try to sit out on the porch, wait for my coffee to cool off a little, and enjoy the sunrise.  The back of our house looks at a small yard area and then a wall which surrounds the campus.  Our garden is against the wall as is our little goat pen and Chicken Coop/structure.  I enjoy walking in the back and see how some of the new seeds have come up and how the Maize has grown.  We have a small garden but it is growing (....I did not mean for that to be a pun.)

   This particular morning was a Thursday and I try to meet up with a good friend around 7am.  I do not have to teach any Jr. High or High School PE classes on Tuesday or Thursday Mornings so usually I try to network with the other Colleges and Teams in Lilongwe and try to arrange some games with our ABC teams.  I also will stop by a few stores and re-stock the Gym Snack Bar (called a Tuck Shop here).  We use it to raise money for the Sports Program here.  My friend James and I try to pray and just talk about life.  He is one of the Doctors here at the ABC clinic and he is fast becoming a great friend.

   I have a heart for forgotten people, particularly refugees.  I had heard about this refugee camp about 50 minutes from our ABC Campus past the Airport.  When I was meeting with James I asked him if he wanted to come with me to the refugee camp to check it out.  I had heard that at the camp they had a soccer team and I wanted to get our College team to play them.  James said he would try to go with me and we arranged to go in the early afternoon.

   That morning I tried to get some sponsors for our Gym, to sell some advertising space so that the Sports Program would have money to maintain the gym, the Soccer Fields, and help the teams with various expenses.  I spoke to a few people but nothing officially happened.  I also had to check on a few games that we had on Friday and the following week, making sure the teams were still coming and at the correct times.

   At around lunch I had to meet with a student so I called James beforehand and asked him if he was still interested in going. He said that he was and so I asked him for a favor, to look up the directions to how to get to the camp. He laughed, here I invited him to come and I didn't even know how to get there.  Well in Malawi there are not a lot of road signs and this refugee camp was not particularly well known and not really marked out as to how to get there. James and I left in the middle of the afternoon with some directions but we were pretty confident that we would find it and were very lighthearted about it.....meaning we were okay with getting lost....to an extent.

    In Africa, especially here in Malawi, people will give you an answer even if they do not really know the answer.  As we asked for directions when we were driving we got a wide variety of responses.  So we decided to ask at least 5 different people and take the average....this gave us a better idea of the general direction.  Well we turned off the main road onto a dirt road which seemed to require 4 wheel drive at times. It seemed like we were going into the bush/rural areas 10 minutes, 20 and then 30 minutes. We were having fun and getting a bit nervous when I noticed that I was down to  half a quarter tank of gas.  We coasted down the hills and then realized we were pretty far out and had no cell phone reception.  Well now we had to go forward, praying that there was gas somewhere up ahead.

(One of the dirt Roads before it got a bit rough)

    We asked up to 10 different people on where the refugee camp was, and where there was a petrol (gas) station.  After about an hour on the dirt road we got a good average that the camp was from 5Km to 20Km up ahead.  We pulled up and saw the UNHCR offices to the right and turned up there.  Of course the offices were closed but right next to it was a soccer field where guys were just starting to play.  As it turns out it was the guys I needed to talk to about arranging a soccer game.  I got their contact info and we started to head out to leave.  We got mobbed by about 30 to 40 kids trying to get into the car and asking for money.  After that we drove about 150 yards to some local shops trying to find some petrol as we were on fumes now.  James got out while I tried to phone Jeannette to let her know where we were and that we might be just a bit late.....
(Clinic & Admin Buildings at Refugee Camp)

                                                                                       (Road to soccer field & UNHCR offices below)

   When I got off James was walking out of one of the small shops with a 5 liter container of what was mostly gas/petrol.  The shopkeeper had a funnel that we poured the gas in, while James and I enjoyed some Cokes that he bought for us.  While we were by the car we were mobbed by about 30 Ethiopian refugees (most were trying to get to South Africa to find work.....they were illegal aliens and no one really wants them so they are stuck in the middle there at the camp)   I started to get uncomfortable as some of the guys started adamantly asking for new clothes and money etc.... We listened but they seemed a little upset.  I used my one Amharic Phrase (thank you) and started naming off some of my favorite Ethiopian foods and that made them all laugh and smile.  By the end of it, many of the guys asked when we were coming back.

   As we drove off I prayed that the petrol/gas like substance would power the car back to the African Bible College Campus.  The gas tank read that it was more than half full and we were directed to the main road which saved us at least 30 minutes on the way back.

   We laughed a lot on the way back going over what had happened and just the context of being lost going to a refugee camp in Malawi Africa.  I am looking forward to going back and sharing with you the next interaction at the refugee camp.  It is neat to see what God is doing in the lives of others as well as how he is allowing me to pursue the desires he has put on my heart. 

   More to come soon.  Thanks for your prayers and support! Please keep us up to date with your lives and we will keep you updated with what God is doing in our lives!

Tee-wan-ah-na (goodbye in Chichewa)

-Derek Breuninger-    

Our first "Regular" Week, Our New Neighbor

  Good morning!   Well I am writing this to you having gotten up at 5:30am on a Sunday morning.  The reason is that the nearby Mosque upgraded their sound system so that the call to prayer is a bit louder now at 5am.  Also we......rather I Derek, purchased a goat at the market yesterday which has turned out to be an investment gone bad.  This goat will not stop making noise....(and it happens to be right outside of our window which did not make Jeannette very happy this morning as she stormed out of the room with a "not so happy" look on her face. )

 This week we finished our first week of school at the Academy (K-12th grade).  Jeannette's classroom has been transformed into an amazing place of art and learning and fun and is one of the best classrooms on campus.  I included two pictures one of Jeannette in the classroom taken from the front and one from Jeannette's desk towards the front of the class.

(Here is Jeannette at the desk working hard.)
I have been teaching 2 PE classes at the Academy Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They have been going well and the weather has been cooler, around the 60's in the morning and as hot as about 85F  during the hottest part of the day.  I have

It's Jeannette writing now. Yes, I did wake up with a not so happy look on my face this morning, but you would too if the mosque first woke you up at 5 and then the cute, but annoying little goat, would not stop bleating! Well, I guess it turned out to an okay thing, because Derek and I have been hanging out this morning. It's probably the longest we've hung out in a while now. :o) School started on Monday and it was a very long but great week! I have a wonderful class!! The kids are really cute and it's neat to listen to each one of them share about themselves. I love learning about the kids! I jumped right into my curriculum this week and have been trying to make learning fun! I've still been trying to make the classroom look inviting, and I have been hanging up the kids work. We are singing a song in chapel in two weeks, and the kids sound so wonderful! I have a little boy from Malawi, who doesn't do the hand motions but just claps and gives a little head shake! It is so cute! I'll see if someone can record it, and then we'll try to post it! Life has been as regular as it can be. I haven't had the chance to go out to villages, or volunteer at the orphanage. The classroom has taken up all my time. I spend two weeks decorating, attending orientation, and lesson planning, that I am still trying to get organized in class, but I know it will come along. There's another teacher who takes kids to a village for ministry on Friday's so I will try to go with her several times. I'm still not sure what our routine life will look like, or if it will ever be "routine" but I am excited to see what comes our way. We have been blessed with some terrific friends already, and they have made our transition to Malawi much easier!
   
Derek:  So I want to give you a brief run down of a few stories about things that have happened here in Malawi.  A few days ago I was using the morning to go and try to meet some of the other Athletic Directors of some of the nearby colleges and technical schools. I also needed to run by some stores to check on the prices of a few things that we will be selling at the Gym snack bar to raise money for the sports program here (it is called a Tuck Shop here).  I am almost adapted driving on the left side of the road here so I have been able to enjoy the times when I drive out in the city.  I fit in as a driver thanks to driving in Mexico and Southern California......plus you can use your horn a lot here and people don't get offended....as much.

Anyways, I was driving and met quite a few people who own shops, sell wholesale, even a guy who was selling cars. As I was in the parking lot of an equivalent store like Costco (minus the free samples and a lot of cool product) I noticed a man on crutches who asked for money. I ignored him and went in to shop.  I came out and he was still there by the car I was using and so I gave him some chips that I got from a chip wholesaler I had met with earlier.  He scarfed them down. I grabbed someone walking by to help me translate who turned out to be a car salesman.  I had him ask the man on crutches why he did not get his leg looked at by a doctor as it looked like it was an old open infected wound. I gave him the name of the Medical Clinic we have on campus and told him to go by as it was affordable.
      After that I walked with the man I had used to translate for me who had some cars for sale. I had a good talk with him and as I was leaving I saw the man on crutches again waiting to talk with me.  Well at that point, I remembered a chapel from the day before where the pastor was talking about the good Samaritan who helped the beat up and left for dead Jew, paying for all of his expenses even though culturally they were supposed to be bitter enemies.  The pastor who led the talk ended it with something like "Do not ask 'who is my neighbor', but look at the people around you, they are your neighbors". Well I was using one of the African Bible Colleges cars and was on my way back to the campus anyways so I motioned for the man on crutches (it was actually a wooden stick) to get in the car.  We drove to the campus, about a 10-15 minute drive and during the drive I found out that his name was Mustafa. His English was not great and my Chichewa was not there but we managed to communicate a little bit.   I checked him into the clinic waiting "room" and told everyone that this was my friend Mustafa and that I would be taking care of any and all expenses.
     Well the Doctor or Physician's assistant came out and told me that his leg wound was from an old burn and would take multiple antibiotics and some time to heal.  The dressing on the wound also needed to be changed everyday.  I thanked him and we went up to the pharmacy window, got his medicines, then went to the cashiers window to pay.  During this time I was thinking and looking at Mustafa. He had a big smile mixed with a painful face from his injury but his smile would always come through.  Here is a guy who had no hope in his eyes of getting better but was just begging and God had me come to him,  take him to get his damaged leg fixed up and take care of it.  After the clinic I was going to give him some minibus/taxi money (about 2$ US) but then I decided to drive him back.  That was a lot of fun because we used the point method or where he would point and I would go.  As it turned out we drove to his family who was on the side of the road downtown.  He had a wife and two kids, one of which was a baby.  I did not understand what was being said between his wife and him when we pulled up, but they were all smiles.  She thanked me and just from her eyes you could see how happy she was.
   During this time Mustafa was in the clinic I made a PB & J Sandwhich, some other food and some water and also grabbed a shirt and a little Jacket as it gets cooler in the evening and Mustafa's shirt was literally in tatters, tied together so it would stay on.  Since then, Mustafa has come a few times and is now walking without any cane or crutch.  We have it worked out where a young man who works at the clinic named Krispen, calls me when Mustafa comes and when I have a break from classess, I run down to the clinic and meet with them there, Krispen translating for us.

   Originally I was not going to share this story. But more than anything it has kept coming into my mind and heart...almost like a throbbing.  In total I probably spent no more than $25.00 for medical, transportation, and a few dollars for food, which in the long run is not much.  Here a life that was/is being changed....a small leg infection that prevented someone from almost walking, he could not work and provide for his family.  A little Neosporin in the states and bandages you could buy at any grocery store would have prevented the infection.  What really got me about this was God's love.  I felt so removed from this, like I was witnessing everything from the third person as God provided for this man and his family and I got to see it up close.   As I saw this I thought about God's love for me, God's love for the hurting, the poor, the rich, the well, the sick.   As we were driving back this last time I smiled at Mustafa and said "Hey, you know you are my neighbor." He looked at me and laughed and said "Neighbor".

Thanks so much for your prayers and support.....
                          Derek and Jeannette





The First Chapel at ABC Bible College
(above) Freshmen Registration in the Gym
(below)

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)