Justin & Joni's Weblog

Well, It is definately volunteer season here in Malawi. We've been so busy we can barely find time to sleep much less blog or email. Today we went with the group from Liberty Corner to the Khwamba Feeding Center. It was really fun. They just arrived on Monday so this was their first trip into a village and they were so eager to learn about and be involved in the culture. Everything they saw was so amazing to them. It made me realize how de-sensitized you get when you live in Malawi. I have begun to see the poverty and hardships as just a fact of life. Being with this team made me remember why it is that we are here and why we want so desperatly to help the people of Malawi. I really wished today that you could be here to see what we do and why we do it. I wanted to share my experiences with you but I have found that words and pictures don't do it justice. Dave, one of the group memebers asked me today "How do you share these experiences in a way that people can understand?" I didn't know what to say. After thinking about it all day my answer is this, you take pictures and talk about the things you saw and how they made you feel and hope that you've provided a good enough glimpse to touch somebody's heart.

We have been staying in a guest lodge while we look for a home. It’s been a little challenging, but we are okay with it. We’ve had few opportunities for housing, and when we do, someone has usually already placed a deposit on it. We are trusting God for this one. That’s all we can do at this point!

While staying at the guest lodge we’ve enjoyed many things. The first team, consisting of mostly US Ministry of Hope board members, has stayed here along with the second group from Tulsa. It’s been really nice having other English speaking foreigners around. We don’t see them that much while we are at the lodge, but it’s nice hearing voices outside in plain English, and not just in shouting Chichewa.

The other day, actually it’s been about a week ago, I started scratching my lower back. I had been bitten by a mosquito and couldn’t resist the urge to scratch. The next day, that area of my body had a much larger rash-like spot on it. I didn’t think much of it other than to stop using the towel they put in the bathroom. We also switched the sheets back to the ones we brought, thinking that somewhere in their laundry process they had placed the sheets over a bush for drying. I thought this because I’m not usually allergic to chemicals, or many plants for that matter, but Joni is allergic to many of both and she hadn’t gotten it. It was about a day later, maybe two, when she realized she had it too. We didn’t think much of it, during the day it was easy to ignore, and we just thought it would slowly go away. It wasn’t anything we had seen or had gotten before, so we kept researching it as much as we could. When the itching had gotten so badly by Sunday night that Joni was loosing sleep over it, we decided to go to the clinic. We went to African Bible College Clinic, and waited only ten minutes or so before they started our process. It didn’t take long before we saw the doctor and he said, “Yep, it looks like you’ve got some bug bites.” So, he wrote a few prescriptions for us, “body paint”, itch cream and antihistamines. We made it out of there in less than 45 minutes with a total bill including prescriptions of under $40US. We now are the proud owners of two new Malawi Health Passports! They use these instead of keeping files on everyone. You take it with you when you need to see the doctor, he writes in it your diagnosis, prescriptions and instructions on taking meds. They even stamp it “Paid” when you’re done, provided you paid. Anyway, we are on the road to recovery, though it’s a bit slow and has a strong medicine smell.

Justin

Today marks our third week in Malawi this year. It’s been quite busy lately with a couple of groups and individuals in country. Our time as of late has consisted of many trips to the Crisis Nursery, a few trips to the village and one trip to the doctor.

During the first week I spent my time mostly planning the events of the first few groups to arrive. Whenever we had the time we would go to the Crisis Nursery. We couldn’t help but stop by during the day, in the afternoon and on our way back to the lodge, which is another portion of this story. I was very happy to hear some of the stories about the infants from last year. Several of the babies that I grew to love, have found homes! One infant who was very sick last year was adopted by one of the Crisis Nursery staff members and is doing very well! With the countless infants that have come through the Crisis Nursery, the faces I’ve seen, and the number of unknown, or rather untold stories, it’s really nice to know the beginning to her new life. What was once a discouraging story is now a life with a promising future!

Two Girls in Matapila Heading Home to Cook.

We made our first trip out to the village about a week ago. It was like we were returning home! We went to Matapila, where I have stayed for weeks on end and where our relationship started almost a year ago. It was still early in the day when we arrived to Matapila, and the route we took had us pass by the primary school. Besides hearing a couple hundred Malawian children yelling, “Azungu” a few small voices stated more. “Justin” was on the lips of my friends, and though some didn’t believe I was there, they soon found out I was really back. We waited by the most recently constructed feeding center, taking a few pictures, watching the slow trickle of children come to investigate why we were there. I was greeted by some of the elderly friends from years past. Mr. Gwetsani was there, who still has the shoes I gave him two years ago. Annette, Ernest & Kalilani’s grandmother quickly recognized me and told me, “Ernest abwela kusukulu.” If I spelled it right it means he’s coming from school. Both Gwetsani and Annette help with Ministry of Hope programs in Matapila.

Children in Matapila playing "Duck, Duck, Chicken".

A few moments later I heard my name again, but this time it was a familiar voice. I turned to see Chikondi, my “thirteen year old translator’ running towards me. We hugged as though we hadn’t seen each other in a year, and he quickly explained to me, “I was told you were here, but I said, I don’t think Justin is here. So I came to see if you were, and then I saw you and thought, wow, Justin is here!” Unfortunately, the “Malawian tone” in his voice cannot be recreated in text well enough. We waited a little longer and more children started showing up for the program. One of the MOH drivers, John, started teaching the children a Bible lesson while they waited for food. Finally, I saw Ernest. It took him a while to be comfortable with me again, but then he quickly started holding my hand and using my forearm as a chin-up bar. The children are fascinated by the color of our skin, and love how when you use you hand to squeeze our arms, it leaves a fading white mark behind.

Justin and Ernest in Matapila.

We left that day feeling as though we were finally home! It was tough to leave so soon, but we knew that was only the beginning to an amazing time here!

Justin

May 8, 2008

I haven’t gotten to post anything since we got here so I though I would update you guys on what I’m up to.
Pretty much nothing... Justin and I get up in the morning and get ready for somebody to pick us up and take us to the office around 8am. When we get there, we check our email and answer any that need answering. After that Justin coordinates volunteers (booking hotels, making iteneraries, working out the details, etc.) and I read. At the moment I am reading a book titled, “Friend Raising” by Betty Barnett. However, I only have like 2 Chapters left so I will probably be finished by today or tomorrow. And then I will start “The Gospel according to Disney: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust” by Mark Pinsky. I usally read and work crosswords until luch. After lunch I will finish whatever I was doing before we sat down to eat. As soon as I’m done with that I usually walk down to the nursery and play with babies or run errands with Justin. And then at about 5ish somebody takes us to get food and then back to the lodge we are currently living in....

When the teams start to arrive I will probably volunteer with them in the villages and nurseries but until then my days are pretty....relaxed. So thats it in a nutshell, a day in the life of Joni Manon!

This is the second part of “Journey to Malawi Part 1”. Please find that one below, and read first. Otherwise it’s a story ending spoiler. Enjoy!

A British Ariways Boeing 747 Landing in Johannesburg, South Africa.

When we got back to Heathrow Airport and made our way through security. We went to Giraffe, a world cuisine restaurant with high quality food! I had a 100% Scottish Angus burger with a coke, and Joni had Lemon Chicken and a coke, though sparkling water was her usual that day.
We both were tired, but I didn’t want to rest. Joni napped, and worried I would sleep right through our boarding time I took a walk. I freshened up, as much as you can in an airport bathroom, and walked around the duty free shops. I kept looking at the departures screens, waiting for our gate to be posted. At last, some information! It said I should see a British Airways representative. I stepped up to ask what was going on. “Well, your flight has been canceled.” the fine young chap exclaimed. I asked what happened, and he said, “Well, you see, we don’t have enough flight crew for your flight. But make your way to Gate A19, then the BAA (British Airport Authorities) will assist you back through to the Luggage Reclaim area. Collect your luggage and make your way to the ticket counter and try to rebook your flight there. There’s one more flight this evening to Johannesburg, if you hurry you might make it.” “Thanks!” I said as I started to run to where Joni had passed out. I grabbed her hand and pulled her off the seat, tossed her backpack to her and said, “run!” I explained everything to her as we rushed to the gate.

The BAA didn’t know what to do yet, so they were going to have us wait until everyone else got there. I told them I know I had to be at Luggage Reclaim belt number 9, so they let us through! We were at least 15 minutes ahead of everyone else. I thought we had it in the bag. Then we waited another hour for our luggage to finally arrive on the belt. We made our way upstairs, still ahead of most everyone else. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make any of the next flights out that evening. British Airways rebooked our flights for the next day and, because South African Airways didn’t have a Wednesday flight to Malawi, we had to reroute through Zimbabwe. They booked us a nice hotel, gave us some meals and even let us make several international calls to inform family and friends of what was happening, the least they could do.

It was a bit tough having to haul 8 total pieces of luggage around, on and off busses, into and out of the hotel and back to the airport. We were back at it the next day! We got to the airport with a little extra time, made it safely to our gate, and finally boarded the 11-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. We were seated next to a wonderful British man who we were engaged in conversation with for a couple of hours, both at the beginning and the end of our flight. Though it was an overnight flight, Joni didn’t sleep, and I only slept for an hour or two. We arrived in Johannesburg, and had about a 3-hour layover. Wanting to sleep, hungry for no reason, we struggled to convert Dollars to Rand, and pay the right price for our food. Finally, they started boarding our flight to Harare, Zimbabwe.
I don’t know how well versed you all are in African History, or current African events, but there are better places to be than Harare, Zimbabwe. On the edge the possible end to Robert Mugabe’s 28-year dictatorship presidency and the nations economy on the verge of collapse (pretty much is collapsed, $1USD=$50million Zim) it was the last choice on the list of places to pass through. A recent article in the Malawian Newspaper said that, in the past 28 years, Zimbabwe has seen an inflation of 165,000%. But we only had to wait in the airport…and wait…and wait. In what is called the second nicest airport in all of Africa, in a place that was once first in education and was acclaimed for its form of government as the model for other African nations, we waited 6 hours for our next flight. At 8:30pm, our departure time, they started hauling our aircraft around, then putting the luggage on, then the meals and service carts, and then fueling it up. I think we finally started boarding about 9:30, and left shortly after. When we stepped on board, it looked as though it were a refurbished Russian airliner. Trying to put my stomach at ease, I told myself, “It’s only an hour long flight, and then they’re flying to London, it has to be in good shape!”

We arrived safely in Lilongwe, Malawi at 10:30pm, collected ALL of our luggage and were greeted by Daniel, Kelvin, and Brandon. What a joy to see our ride already waiting, after all that! We got to our guest lodge where our heads hit the pillow before we even knew it!