It has been a busy few weeks. Forgive me for taking so long between entries this time -- I've gotten several "gentle reminders" from our families that they would like to know what in the world is going on over here. Well, a lot!!! I'll try hit the highlights...........
John spent most of October preparing for the Grand Opening of the new Pediatric Ward. Whittier Area Church out of California raised the money to build, furnish, and supply this new ward in a one-time special offering. Not only did they raise the money, but they came twice to Malawi to work tirelessly on the finishing touches. To God be the glory great things He has done. It is a beautiful building and beautifully equipped. We are now praying for the staff to run it and ask for you to pray the same. There is a Pediatrician and his family looking to come in January - please pray that they are able to sell their house in the US so that they can come. We do not have the staff needed to run it at present, so it will be quite a task for John until they come. They actually are taking care of their first patient right now - a 3wk old, 2.5 lb. baby. His mother had HIV and died a couple of days after birth. He is doing pretty well - they are working to get him feeding by mouth rather than requiring NG Tube. Running a NICU right from the start!
The highlight of the past few weeks was our precious visitors!!!!!!!!!! Mom and Dad arrived on Oct. 30. -- what a sweet reunion we had!!! As you can see in the pictures, the children worked very hard making "Grandmom" and "Granddad" signs to hold up at the airport and a banner for the front of our house. We were able to watch their plane land from an observation deck. Since it was one of only three planes landing that day, it was easy to spot which one was theirs'. I got in trouble for taking a picture of the children waiting for the plane. Apparently "Security" doesn't allow picture taking on the observation deck. Each and everyday they were here was filled with just the right amount of playing and sightseeing. They got here in time to attend the grand opening of the Pediatric Ward, which was great. We visited the crisis nursery and held the babies. I don't think I've written about the crisis nursery in past blogs -- It is a little house just a few minutes from the ABC campus. It takes care of babies whose families are unable to care for them, usually because the mother has died. Last time we were there, I was told that all of the babies' mothers were dead except for one, and hers was in a mental ward. Most of them will be returned to their families at some point, but need care while the families are deciding who will take the baby. Some are adopted, but the Malawian govt really pushes for the babies to be with some family member. Many arrive malnourished and/or sick. Sam loves to go with me and loves playing with the little ones that can sit up. He even chooses to skip soccer practice to go sometimes. Ford went for the first time while Mom and Dad were here and got a big kick out of Delori, a 1 year old that walks around like she owns the place. He tried to keep her from wandering outside and she hit him and yelled "no!!" at Sam. She's a mess! One of our friends here adopted her daughter from that nursery and takes her back often to play with the babies. Amazing to see God work in little lives. We've not been able to go to the nursery as much as we would like. With four small kiddos, and a whole new set of African viruses, it seems that we can't stay well enough to go regularly. We don't dare risk passing anything on to these babies, so we have to be careful. We will just grab the opportunities to go when the Lord gives them.
Other things that were particularly fun because Mom and Dad were here.....
-- Watching and playing in what we thought was our first rain of the rainy season. We found out this week that it was only a light shower, but it surely was exciting and refreshing.
-- Taking them on the grocery store rounds, trying to find all the ingredients for a given recipe. Dad thought we practically lived at grocery stores.
-- Going to the different outdoor markets - only the guys made the trip to the meat market and paid a toll to cross a footbridge.
--Attempting to go to Cafe Delight (kids' favorite) to get soft serve ice cream, but the power was out.
-- catching geckos and frogs
-- having an audience at swimming lessons and soccer practice
-- ummm... basically everything was particularly fun with them here.
The highlight of their visit was definitely going to Lujeri Tea Estate at Mulanje. It was about a 5-6 hour drive from Lilongwe - beautiful drive, giving them a good picture of life outside the city. We passed many many villages with markets and surrounding fields being prepared for planting. Thankfully, the drive was uneventful, just the normal obstacles of travelling here. There are police roadblocks every so often that serve little purpose that we can see. Normally, you just stop, wave at the police, they wave you through and you keep going. One barricade just happened to have a great little market along side the road that Dad and I took a couple of pictures of. A policeman saw us taking pictures and seized the opportunity to exercise his authority. He made us stop and kept asking us why we were taking pictures and telling us that it is "not allowed to take pictures of police stop". He made us scroll through our pictures and erase the ones of the market. Anyway, after a stop at Dedza Pottery, we arrived at Lujeri just in time for supper. The pictures just don't even come close to doing justice to the beauty of the tea estate. Rolling hills of tea plants surrounded by magnificent mountains - it was breathtaking. We tried to go on a hike the next day but after two hours of driving around lost ON the tea estate we gave up on finding the trail head. So we pulled over under a big tree in a spot that looked as private as we could find. In about 2 minutes we had a audience of about 10 women who stood about 3 feet from us and watched us eat our picnic - talking and laughing the whole time. It was a bit unnerving. We forget that what we do/eat/wear is as fascinating to them as they are to us - especially to people that live in small villages hours from any city. It was not a leisurely picnic - but a learning experience. We did, however, get better directions and make a great hike the next day. It took us through tea fields and a small village, to a beautiful swimming hole. We had questioned every one's suggestion that we needed a guide, but, man, did we ever need Freddy. He was awesome. We loved walking through the village - the people were so gracious and the children precious. We drew quite a crowd of little ones - all hoping we would leave them with some sort of souvenir. We saw several children walking around carrying huge knives - such a strange sight to our safety conscious American eyes. After three fun and rest filled days in the mountains, we headed back to Lilongwe and, sadly, to send Mom and Dad off after a very short 10 days.
John spent most of October preparing for the Grand Opening of the new Pediatric Ward. Whittier Area Church out of California raised the money to build, furnish, and supply this new ward in a one-time special offering. Not only did they raise the money, but they came twice to Malawi to work tirelessly on the finishing touches. To God be the glory great things He has done. It is a beautiful building and beautifully equipped. We are now praying for the staff to run it and ask for you to pray the same. There is a Pediatrician and his family looking to come in January - please pray that they are able to sell their house in the US so that they can come. We do not have the staff needed to run it at present, so it will be quite a task for John until they come. They actually are taking care of their first patient right now - a 3wk old, 2.5 lb. baby. His mother had HIV and died a couple of days after birth. He is doing pretty well - they are working to get him feeding by mouth rather than requiring NG Tube. Running a NICU right from the start!
The highlight of the past few weeks was our precious visitors!!!!!!!!!! Mom and Dad arrived on Oct. 30. -- what a sweet reunion we had!!! As you can see in the pictures, the children worked very hard making "Grandmom" and "Granddad" signs to hold up at the airport and a banner for the front of our house. We were able to watch their plane land from an observation deck. Since it was one of only three planes landing that day, it was easy to spot which one was theirs'. I got in trouble for taking a picture of the children waiting for the plane. Apparently "Security" doesn't allow picture taking on the observation deck. Each and everyday they were here was filled with just the right amount of playing and sightseeing. They got here in time to attend the grand opening of the Pediatric Ward, which was great. We visited the crisis nursery and held the babies. I don't think I've written about the crisis nursery in past blogs -- It is a little house just a few minutes from the ABC campus. It takes care of babies whose families are unable to care for them, usually because the mother has died. Last time we were there, I was told that all of the babies' mothers were dead except for one, and hers was in a mental ward. Most of them will be returned to their families at some point, but need care while the families are deciding who will take the baby. Some are adopted, but the Malawian govt really pushes for the babies to be with some family member. Many arrive malnourished and/or sick. Sam loves to go with me and loves playing with the little ones that can sit up. He even chooses to skip soccer practice to go sometimes. Ford went for the first time while Mom and Dad were here and got a big kick out of Delori, a 1 year old that walks around like she owns the place. He tried to keep her from wandering outside and she hit him and yelled "no!!" at Sam. She's a mess! One of our friends here adopted her daughter from that nursery and takes her back often to play with the babies. Amazing to see God work in little lives. We've not been able to go to the nursery as much as we would like. With four small kiddos, and a whole new set of African viruses, it seems that we can't stay well enough to go regularly. We don't dare risk passing anything on to these babies, so we have to be careful. We will just grab the opportunities to go when the Lord gives them.
Other things that were particularly fun because Mom and Dad were here.....
-- Watching and playing in what we thought was our first rain of the rainy season. We found out this week that it was only a light shower, but it surely was exciting and refreshing.
-- Taking them on the grocery store rounds, trying to find all the ingredients for a given recipe. Dad thought we practically lived at grocery stores.
-- Going to the different outdoor markets - only the guys made the trip to the meat market and paid a toll to cross a footbridge.
--Attempting to go to Cafe Delight (kids' favorite) to get soft serve ice cream, but the power was out.
-- catching geckos and frogs
-- having an audience at swimming lessons and soccer practice
-- ummm... basically everything was particularly fun with them here.
The highlight of their visit was definitely going to Lujeri Tea Estate at Mulanje. It was about a 5-6 hour drive from Lilongwe - beautiful drive, giving them a good picture of life outside the city. We passed many many villages with markets and surrounding fields being prepared for planting. Thankfully, the drive was uneventful, just the normal obstacles of travelling here. There are police roadblocks every so often that serve little purpose that we can see. Normally, you just stop, wave at the police, they wave you through and you keep going. One barricade just happened to have a great little market along side the road that Dad and I took a couple of pictures of. A policeman saw us taking pictures and seized the opportunity to exercise his authority. He made us stop and kept asking us why we were taking pictures and telling us that it is "not allowed to take pictures of police stop". He made us scroll through our pictures and erase the ones of the market. Anyway, after a stop at Dedza Pottery, we arrived at Lujeri just in time for supper. The pictures just don't even come close to doing justice to the beauty of the tea estate. Rolling hills of tea plants surrounded by magnificent mountains - it was breathtaking. We tried to go on a hike the next day but after two hours of driving around lost ON the tea estate we gave up on finding the trail head. So we pulled over under a big tree in a spot that looked as private as we could find. In about 2 minutes we had a audience of about 10 women who stood about 3 feet from us and watched us eat our picnic - talking and laughing the whole time. It was a bit unnerving. We forget that what we do/eat/wear is as fascinating to them as they are to us - especially to people that live in small villages hours from any city. It was not a leisurely picnic - but a learning experience. We did, however, get better directions and make a great hike the next day. It took us through tea fields and a small village, to a beautiful swimming hole. We had questioned every one's suggestion that we needed a guide, but, man, did we ever need Freddy. He was awesome. We loved walking through the village - the people were so gracious and the children precious. We drew quite a crowd of little ones - all hoping we would leave them with some sort of souvenir. We saw several children walking around carrying huge knives - such a strange sight to our safety conscious American eyes. After three fun and rest filled days in the mountains, we headed back to Lilongwe and, sadly, to send Mom and Dad off after a very short 10 days.
We were doubly blessed......... the day Mom and Dad left, John's brother, Hank arrived -- a bit unconventionally I might add. He had been in Kenya with his church working on a well project. Then spent a few days in Zambia/Victoria Falls white water rafting on the Zambeze River (went down a class 5 rapid on a boogie board - NUTS!!) and then made his way by taxi and large bus to the border of Malawi, then by mini-bus across Malawi to the 7-11 station in Lilongwe, where he called John to come pick him up. He basically (figuratively and literally) followed his nose across two African countries to get here. It was a great sight to see him walk through our front door - quite honestly, we had been a bit on the nervous side. We had a great time giving him the whirlwind tour of life in Lilongwe and then headed to Lake Malawi for a night. The children wanted to take him to Safari Beach Lodge (you may remember from a past blog entry) so that he could see the baboons. So we gave it one more try (our last), finally saw 3 baboons as we were loading up the car to leave after having spent the hottest night in the history of mankind. We made our way over to the beach and spent a great day playing in the lake. One of the highlights of his visit was when he and John went to a local market that we'd not been to yet. Honestly, everything was available there. Local fish next to automotive parts next to stationary supplies/printer toner next to mangos next to suits/sports coats next to mops next to live chickens. The guys had such a great time, and really wished their dad was with them...he would have loved the selection. Hank also got to try the Malawian staple: nsima. Sort of like thick grits. He at least said that he liked it! It was such a blessing to have him here. We had a more than wonderful time with all our company - it just made us miss them all the more when they were gone.
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1 comment:
I'm so glad to read an update. I know that your parents had a great time. I can't wait to hear all about their adventure while we are in Ft. Payne for Christmas. We miss y'all and think about you often.
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