Day 24 – Martyr’s Day
Today is Martyr’s Day, a Malawi holiday. It is honoring those who lost their lives in the battle for their freedom. This is not the day they got their freedom but it was the beginning of an uprising that led to them getting their freedom five years later.
I got up early and got my bath. We had breakfast before getting ready for my morning class with the ladies.
Setting Up the Printer
Lawrence and Mbwenu are working on setting up the printer today. There have been some difficulties since we do not have a disc drive and the driver is not available on download from the internet.
This printer scanner is to scan lessons and print letters to the students about their lessons. We have also used this to make copies for ladies’ class.
Clinic for 5 and Under
I leave for class with other neighbor ladies. We arrive and there are a lot of people at the building today. The church lets the five and under clinic meet in its building until the clinic is built. They have laid the foundation for a community clinic across the road. This is a much-needed clinic and helps provide local health care for nearby residents with young children. Most households do not have transportation of any kind so this truly meets a need to have access to healthcare nearby.
Ladies’ Class
We wave and head to the bakery for our class. The ladies are excited to see me and Esther and to be together for another Bible study. Today I give them a coloring sheet with a Bible verse on it and hand out the markers as we wait for everyone to arrive. Everyone loves to color! We have our class on Proverbs. I am taking lessons from a book we studied in ladies’ class at home. Life Me Up by Alice Cravens Moore. We finish class and head home as the baking ladies start their baking.
Life Group
We rush home for lunch and wash the dishes just in time to go to a life group. This one was rescheduled from yesterday. Today’s life group is hosted by Samuel Nyirenda one of the elders at the Tombolombo Church. Lawrence gives the devotional talk on Romans 6.
Aaron is at the life group today (you may remember he suffers seizures). He really looks good today. Aaron sees Lawrence’s water bottle with the red lid and says Coke. I am so glad to see Aaron is walking today and saying a few words.
After life group, we go to Manyamula for some shopping. Bags for school supplies, 200 notebooks, 200 suckers, water, tissue, and Coke.
We head home for dinner and bed.
Day 25 – Stay Home Day
We get our bath, breakfast, and dishes all done before we get ready for the day’s work.
Baby Bags
Today I have a lot of preparation to do. First I make cards to go in our baby bags for the clinic and then Esther, Wanangwa and I assemble 30+ baby bags. We are ready for tomorrow!
Wanangwa goes to the shop to work this afternoon.
School Supplies
Next, we start on the school supplies. We are making 200 bags. We have 178 primary-age kids in our church and satellite churches. With the help of some young people, we get all of the bags assembled. They seem to enjoy helping and it sure made the process easier. I rewarded them with suckers.
Maureen came by. She works at the clinic in town and has asked me to come to work with her. They need me she tells me! She will come back later since we are working.
The tailor brought the dresses for the little girls and a skirt for Talumba. They are so excited to see them. I take the girls to their moms to try the dresses on. I think their moms are as excited as they are. Katie is a bit shy but I finally snap a photo of these cuties.
One of our students came by for his results on his WBS lesson. I have to tell him he must repeat this lesson. The students must make 76% for a passing grade.
Wanangwa and Mbwenu get back home and we have dinner. I try unsuccessfully to order flowers for my mom’s birthday!
Day 26 Maternity Clinic and Baby Bags
This morning we got the news that Wanangwa’s 27-year-old cousin has passed away by suicide. He is working in South Africa. This is heartbreaking, to say the least.
They decide we will go ahead with our plans to visit the local maternity clinic. A midwife greets us at the car and walks with us to the clinic. There are actually two parts to the clinic. One is for maternity and deliveries. The other is a family clinic for all ages. People are lined up to be seen. I see the line and think oh no we don’t have enough. Then they lead me around back to where the moms and dads are waiting to be seen.
Introductions and Greetings
They bring a chair and have us sit. They love to have formal meetings and greetings. The head midwife comes out and introduces herself and she chats with our group in Tumbuka. They have me stand and say something. I was not prepared so I told them I was a mom to 11 children and they all looked shocked and clapped. Take good care of yourself and your babies I encouraged them. I would have been happy just to greet each one individually and give them their gift. When you are in Malawi you do as the Malawians and that includes gratitude and ceremony.
Next, they had the moms to number off. The ladies gave each mom a baby bag with a blanket and a hat. I explained that my mom had made each blanket and some other ladies had made the hats. The young moms were very excited to get the bags and one was chosen to formally thank us. 5 moms were not there yet so we left bags for each of them.
Tour of the Clinic
As my group headed to the car one of the midwives gave me a tour of the delivery room and maternity ward. They are in the process of getting the building next door ready for moms. They have about 30 births a month at this facility.
We stopped in Manyamula and I bought sodas for the ladies who came with me. Then we went to visit Emmanuel (13 years old) who has malaria. He looks very sick. He is already on medication so should be feeling better soon. We prayed for him and left.
As we were driving home I saw a sign. Lovemore Nursery School. This is the new location for Glory’s school. I was so surprised. They stopped the car for me to greet her. I happened to have just enough tiny suckers to give each child so I handed them out the window to her.
After this, we continued on home for lunch.
At 3:00 the church is going to comfort the family. This is one of the most heart-wrenching things I have ever participated in doing. The women went inside with the other women and sat on the floor. I was silent except for the tears I was shedding with and for this family. Outside the door, the men read scriptures and sang songs of comfort as we sang along. We were there for about an hour.
We were all drained with grief when we got home. I made fried egg sandwiches for supper with tomato slices. I was impressed the kids would try something new.
We were all ready for rest.