Lilongwe - week 3

Our car purchase was finalized on Monday and I drove first thing Tuesday morning. I didn't run off into a ditch (who needs curbs when you have 2ft drainage ditches), didn't hit a biker carrying 15 chickens on his handlebars or a pedestrian that just ran out into the road on a whim, and didn't go the wrong way around the roundabout (can't say as much for the other drivers) - feeling pretty proud of myself. We've had a really good week. I think my new found freedom has put a little spring in my step!

Ford's 4th birthday was Wednesday. We had a fun birthday breakfast (chocolate chip scones per Ford's request), opened gifts, ate gelato that afternoon at a little Italian deli and had cheeseburgers for supper (another Ford request). His favorite gift (of course) was the 250 kwacha ($2.00) cap gun that Sam picked out and bought for him at Food Zone - our closest grocery store that burns a stick of incense at each end of every isle - not appetizing. Today (Saturday) we had a Star Wars birthday party with some friends - Ford had a blast. We really appreciate our new friends making the day so much fun - Ford had a really sad moment last week when he realized that none of our family would be at his party. Somehow he had convinced himself that his grandparents were flying over for the big day. Thanks everybody for the e-cards!! Thanks, Rachel Harper, for coming dressed as Princess Leia! What we thought would be the highlight of his birthday actually turned out to be a bit of a flop. He has been asking for a chicken (pet chicken) since the first week we were here. He already had a name picked out (Yoda) just in case we agreed. So... we decided to surprise him today with a trip to the market to buy a chicken. When they got to the market John told Ford what they were going to buy and he responded, "I don't want a chicken." So Sam got a chicken for Ford's birthday. Yoda turned out to be a girl, so she became Leia because we are really hoping she will Leia some eggs. John actually chose a girl - we certainly don't need a rooster alarm clock - we have the Muslim mosque amplifying their 4:00 am chants to look forward to each morning. By this evening Ford decided that he did want the chicken after all - so he is now the rightful owner of Leia the chicken. We are not sure that Leia will be around for long - she's not looking so good. Hasn't stood up yet - maybe she's still in shock from riding to the market hanging by her feet from some fella's handlebars. We'll keep you posted.

Sam's first week at school was great. There are 31 countries represented in his school - amazing. He loves his teacher and is really enjoying getting to know his classmates. School gets out a 12:30, then they can choose which afternoon activities they want to do. Options for 1st graders are swimming, field hockey, football (soccer) and netball (basketball). He has been saying since before school started that he was going to ride his bike, but so far he as wanted us to walk him to school each day. He keeps thinking that tomorrow he will ride his bike. I'm sure after having one week under his belt he will be ready to strike off on his bike soon.

I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that our water was a bit on again off again - man has it been off again a lot lately. They are working on putting in new pipes and in the mean time broke the water line in use. We are learning to rinse in a trickle (cold trickle) and to store up on filtered water to drink. We've been advised to buy several buckets with lids to store water in for times such as these. My what we take for granted - flushing toilets, washing dishes, washing hands. They are considering the best way to fix the water problems on our end of campus - either several water towers to cover the entire hill or a small water tower per house. Either will be quite expensive and the funds will have to be raised from the States. So ........ if you feel so inclined to come to the aid of us dry and dusty people on the hill - be our guest!!!

We are realizing, after being here for three weeks, that we could easily stay here on campus most of our time and not really see the great needs that are all around us. It is such a tremendous blessing to have such a great place to live and minister to the students here - we are thankful. We are, however, praying for ways for us to love on people outside the walls of ABC. There is a crisis nursery just around the corner that cares for malnourished and often orphaned babies. There is also a ministry that exists to feed hungry children everyday. These are two things we are looking forward to being a part of. We are looking forward to our children being a part of ministry and to the conversations we will have with them as a result.

Things we are getting used to:

• boiling and filtering all our water
• having John home for lunch !! :)
• paying for everything with wads of kwacha (our car cost 1 million kwacha CASH...the largest bill is 500 kwacha)
• driving on the wrong side of the road
• buying fruit from guys on the sidewalk instead of the store - better and cheaper
• lizards in our house
• the dirtiest bath water EVER
• the purple lips of our children from constantly eating mulberries in the back yard
• nightly 6:00 pm power outage (until the generator kicks in)
• no tv .... no football!
• Ford saying often "but we still haven't seen any neat animals" - thinking that we should have lions and zebras in our yard
  
• running at 3600 ft altitude

We would love to hear from you (emilycrowjones@gmail.com and johnhjones@gmail.com) - we are loving any news from home!!