Day 43
Today is Sunday!
My favorite day. Our car is still being repaired (we hope). Matthew Phiri has volunteered to drive us today. I’ve shared about Matthew before. He is the village headman over 16 villages. Matthew arrives at 8 am but we do not leave for the church until 9:30. We have a great time visiting with Matthew and sharing a breakfast of fried eggs, chips, and a very good pumpkin.
No-Bake Cookies
I saved some no-bake cookies, especially for Matthew. He goes immediately to the car with them so that he will not forget. He asked for the recipe so I printed it out for him. Measurements are different so that is going to be an issue. And there are no measuring cups to be found in this area.
Late for Church
Church started late because of a funeral in the area. Wanangwa has a short class and Lawrence does a shorter adult class today too. We have our regular worship assembly.
Comforting the Family
After church, we all go as a group to comfort Daniel’sfamily who has lost a loved one. Daniel is one of our WBS workers. Apparently, when a member passes away the church goes to comfort the family on several occasions as well as neighbors and families surrounding them. This time a collection of mealy meal has been made and we take a huge container of meal to the family as well as a collection of 5200 kwatcha. We sing songs, Lawrence gives a short lesson and someone prays for the family, We say our goodbyes.
Lunch
When we get home we finish the lunch preparations that were begun before church. While lunch is being prepared I walk with Matthew around the farm. He is very interested in Mbwenu’s animals and gardens. I show him the new baby goat. Mbwenu comes and shows him the fields of maize. Then we have lunch. I introduce Matthew to the chow chow I made and he likes it. Most people like it much better than the sauerkraut.
Matthew and Mbwenu leave to check on the car repair. Esther and Raphael start the dishes. After this Raphael takes Wanangwa to the shop for a while.
Hedgehog
Lawrence does some work on WBS and I do some writing. I feel very lazy today so I don’t do much. Esther has her usual crowd with a few extras today. They bring her a surprise. At first, we thought it was a porcupine but it is very little. They laugh a lot at how intrigued we are with what turns out to be a hedgehog. It curls into a ball with its head inside. Esther holds it.
A nice day!
Day 44
Funeral
This morning there are a lot of people walking by the house. Today is the funeral for the 86 year old woman who fell into the latrine they were digging. So sad. For one thing, it is uncommon to live to this age and so sad for her to die by an accident.
I do my laundry by hand today and I hope it stays sunny enough to dry in one day.
Scanning lessons
I help Lawrence scan in his backlog of WBS lessons. We make pretty good progress and then we take a short walk together. Some people come by for WBS lessons and I look out the door to see two young men studying the Bible and WBS under the tree together.
Jump Rope
Today is one of those calm quiet days. Everyone is hanging around and almost seems bored by my American eyes. I give them a jump rope and they spend a long time jumping. Young and young adults. They have some amazing tricks they can do while jumping rope. They are crazy. talented.
Mbwenu has business in Mzimba so he picks up a money transfer for us. Esther goes to the soccer games with the kids.
Turnip Greens
We pick some turnips and greens for dinner. I helped pick beans. After dinner, we sing with the family. We love this! Our singing is a mixture of Tumbuka songs and English ones.
Another nice day.
Day 45
Breakfast doughnuts and eggs. One interesting thing I have forgotten to write about is how they do their boiled eggs. After the eggs are boiled, they fry them so they have a crisp coating on them. I am not sure if there is a special reason they are done this way or not but it is interesting and they taste good too!
There is an elder’s meeting this morning so I shell beans while they meet. Everyone wants to help me so they are finished up quickly.
Jonah
Since we will be home most if not all of the day I want to do a Bible story with all of the kids hanging around. Esther and I make a giant fish out of a sheet of my flip chart paper. I make the flap so that I can move it to show Jonah in the belly of the fish. I also printed coloring sheets for Jonah. It was a great idea but it didn’t work very well. Our fish was good and everyone like it. They just had a hard time following the story. The kids and adults all participated and enjoyed coloring their pages. Kondwoni, our prize WBS student, decided to read the story after I told it. So maybe all is not lost.
Beans and Fried Okra
I cooked beans and fried okra for lunch. Mbwenu had to leave (probably to check on the car progress). He grabbed some fried okra and left. Daniel, one of our WBS workers came by to check on his WBS lessons. Lawrence is overwhelmed with so many lessons. Our students are so eager to have their lessons. We probably need to teach them some patience.
Lunch Guest
We invited Daniel to stay for lunch. He seemed to enjoy having lunch with us. Daniel had never tried turnips or fried okra. He was very intrigued about the turnips. After lunch, I took Daniel to see the turnip green patch. He thought they reminded him of beetroot.
WBS
Lawrence and I worked much of the afternoon on scanning WBS lessons. We are having a hard time keeping up with all of the incoming lessons. Part of the issue is that we had to come up with the system from the Malawi side when we are only used to the US side of the project. I think Lawrence has created a pretty good system now.
Fresh Chicken
For dinner we are to kill the chicken and have instructions to cook more fried okra. Fried okra is becoming a family favorite! Esther heads out to kill the chicken and the neighbor sees her and says no. He takes the chicken and kills it for her. (He doesn’t know she has done this before).
Meanwhile, I boil the water and Esther uses it to pluck and clean the chicken for dinner. Talumba, a 9-year-old from next door helps her with it. Talumba cleans the intestines and wraps them around the feet to fry for dinner. This girl has great survival skills. Soon Flora comes over and helps Esther cut up the chicken for frying. I wish I was not so squeamish. I really feel like I need to know how to do this. Maybe someday.
While preparing dinner I discovered there is no cooking oil and I get a little too frustrated with this. Wanangwa brings oil and we finally finish dinner and head to bed. Tonight there is a GIANT spider and a lizard beside my bed. Lawrence tried to kill the spider but it disappeared. I am sure I cannot sleep. We look under the bed and find it dead. Whew! I am not worried. about the lizard.