April 23, 2007

Yesterday we traveled to Nkhoma. Nkhoma is located about an hour and a half outside of Lilongwe and is home to the Nkhoma Hospital, a large mission hospital located in the hills of Nkhoma. Today we started out work projects. Some of the team members worked with the hospital staff, while others painted the waiting rooms. It was sad to see the hundreds of Malawians who are ill, waiting for treatment. Some of them wait all day just to find out what is wrong, traveling from hours away just to be treated here, some even come from Mozambique. Men, women and children come in an effort to recover from being malnourished, overcome malaria or even have a tooth pulled. Many of the people suffer from HIV/AIDS, who don’t want to be tested in fear of shame because, “Sometimes it’s better not to know.” It was tough to see all the sick people, and hear the non-stop crying of two or more infants all day long. We would start painting in the morning, and finish at about four in the evening. All day the babies would cry. The sad reality is that some of the people will not return home. There were a few nursing students from Holland training at the hospital. Today I asked one of them, Annjo, how her day was going. She said that the morning started out okay, and then they lost a child. I asked how she was doing, and to this she could hardly reply. I could see the hurt Annjo had seen earlier as the child’s family was probably nearby. I know nothing about what had happened, just that it happens all the time in a country like this. I just didn’t expect it to happen in the two days we were there.

Hope is always just around the corner! This evening, after most of us had already left the hospital, a little boy was brought in. He was malnourished, and suffering from a severe case of malaria. He was almost on the path to death when they brought him in. Many of the poorest couldn’t afford to fertilize their crops, so now they are running out of food. This was the case for this young child. Thanks to God, the medical team here at Nkhoma was able to treat the boy and tomorrow, well, tomorrow he should be smiling again!

-Justin

April 22, 2007

The past several days have had us traveling around Malawi visiting some of the feeding centers. On Friday we visited the Chimwang’ombe center, one of two centers that are still waiting to build the physical feeding center, along with a chicken house, a goat house and other buildings for the program. We shared Bible lessons, songs and a skit about Paul and Silas. Our Young Life staff friends, Marty & Susan, Larry & Joan and Steve, who became family to me, spoke to the teens. There were a few hundred children there that day, which is low in numbers because it was a “more than usual” rainy season. On Saturday we traveled to the Mponela Feeding Center. Mponela is located about an hour to the north of Lilongwe, a little further than Chimwang’ombe. The Mponela center can see a number of orphans, in the famine times reaching over 1,500 children. The town of Mponela is a larger “Trading Center” (village/town), which has created a greater population than in the other villages where Ministry of Hope’s Centers are located. The Young Life team was with us again. They hosted a seminar for local youth workers and volunteers. They had a few sessions and really gave great insight to the groups. As I said before, these guys really became family! At times, it felt like sitting on a king-sized sofa chatting with family, having a sofa-king, great family time! I was able to take them to the airport, and as the paparazzi flew past us on the road, trying to beat Madonna to the airport, hoping to snap a picture of her, we joined together in prayer. I will miss them, their quirkiness and their love, which taught me so much!

To the Madonna fans...I saw her flight crew, does that count for anything?

-Justin

Last year, I had sort of a list of things that I had done that I wasn’t going to tell mom. It was the “Don’t tell Mom List.” We’ve all had one, two, or twenty of these as children. Even when we are older we adhere to this sort of thinking, about things, things we don’t want our parents to know. Well, even though I know they (my parents) will read this, this story is number two on my current list.

-Driving in Malawi.
It happened the other day, when I least expected it. Out of nowhere I’m asked to drive some of the group members back to their hotel from the office. No problem, right? You’d think, but as some say, “This is Africa!”
Let me break it down. Left side of the road, stoplights that a select few observe and Minibus drivers wanting to own the road, bicyclists and people on the side of the road, people who are a little harder to see at night, and there’s no streetlights. Shift with the left hand, turn signal with the right hand, rearview mirror to the left and the roundabouts to the left. It’s really not as bad as it seems. The last words Daniel said to me was, “Just keep left.” It works! It’s really like switching gears, once you’re behind the wheel it’s as though you’ve done it before. I was as nervous as I was last year on my Air Malawi flight take-of. I think I have the hang of it. I’m a little afraid about returning home. Not so much because of the driving, but mom will ask what’s No.1 on my list!

-Justin

We returned home today from a visit about four hours north in Mzuzu. We had dinner after we got back to town and then came to the house. I checked my e-mail and started on some various tasks. I sat down with my computer to go over some of our scheduling. I decided I was still a little hungry, and it would be several hours before I would be going to bed. Last week I had purchased some individually packaged chocolate oatmeal. I thought how good the oatmeal would taste…dry that is. Sometimes I like to eat oatmeal straight from the package. I flew past the rat zone to the counter where the box of oatmeal was resting, waiting for my arrival. I made it to the box, picked out a packet of chocolate oatmeal, filled a glass with apple juice and headed to the living room where my computer was waiting. On my way to the computer I opened the packet of oatmeal and notice that the outside was covered in oat powder and that it was a little lumpy. “No biggie!” I thought, as I brushed off the outside and smashed the clumps back to normal oat size. I was then busy typing and eating. I was drinking my juice to regain my sugar level after a hard day out in the African Sun. I had an ant crawling on my arm. I wondered how it had gotten there, but just kept plugging through my documents. After a while of eating oats, drinking juice and typing (probably other stories like this, and some work) as well as downloading my pictures from my camera, I noticed that some ants were crawling around my pack of oatmeal. Again, I wasn’t thinking it was anything to worry about. I picked up to packet to eat some more when I noticed some small holes in the side of the pack. This was why it was lumpy, and I was trying to figure out why there would be holes in the pack of oats. To be honest, it really did take several seconds before I clued in as to what was going on. As I saw the ants running for their lives, inside the oat packet, with nowhere to go, I walked to the kitchen to see what had happened. With a somewhat ill-feeling stomach I concluded that ants like chocolate oatmeal, even when it’s still in the pack, or box for that matter. I could write this one off as another learning experience about packaged food in Africa. I didn’t get sick. It was only ants.

Chocolate Ant Oatmeal!

-Justin

Today is Sunday and our first three people arrive today. I was up early for church. As I was getting ready, I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth. It was about 6:30am and the sun was up already, so I don’t know why I had the light on. I think I was used to switching on the light I need. So, I’m standing there brushing away, when I hear a noise that makes me think something’s going to explode. I don’t know. There’s just a sound, you know, we all understand as something "happening". This happened about as fast as the rat could run across the kitchen last night. From the moment I thought something was going to happen to the time I realized what it was, the light bulb expired. I thought it was some crazy, African version to celebrate the life of the bulb. As the light went out the bulb exploded! My first reaction was closing my eyes and covering my head at the sound. Glass showered the whole bathroom and the noise was about that of a firecracker. There was glass in the tub, in the sink, on me shoulders and even in the other room. When I went to find a broom (I forgot that it is a handheld one that you have to crawl with) the watchman insisted on cleaning it up for me. So, when he came inside he removed his shoes. I stopped him and told him that there was glass. “Oh, that’s ok, sir.” He replied. When I told some of the Malawians after church that I needed a new bulb and that it had exploded their reply was, “Oh, sorry.” which is the normal reaction of sympathy. I said, “Oh, that’s okay.” To this they replied, “No, that usually doesn’t happen.” meaning that the light is just supposed to go to and not explode. For a moment I thought that the exploding light might be something I’d have to get used to. When I went to replace the bulb I couldn’t remember whether I had turned the switch off or not. I thought I had but now it was hours later and I really couldn’t remember. Since the British colonized Malawi the switches usually turn on when you push them down. So, I thought I could just base it off the rest of the switches. I decided to take a poll of all the power switches in the house and base the way I should flip the switch for the bathroom off that. After just four switches it was 50/50. I just went with the fact I thought I turned it off, because I really didn’t want another exploding bulb in my face, not while I’m standing on an end table that is on top of a chair, just to reach the light. It was off, and shy of losing my balance a little, everything was fine. We now have a working light for the visitors coming in today, in their bathroom that is. The new room I moved to, I'm using a flashlight.

-Justin