Day 19 in Malawi, September 2, 2007

This morning we went to church here on the Good Samaritan Campus. Then Thandie, Peace and I met Thandie’s brother and sister and a few other relatives and headed out to her village. We wanted to check on Thandie’s mother who collapsed earlier this week. She is such a sweet lady. We also got to spend time with Thandie’s grandmother who is 95 years old. The average lifespan for a woman here in Malawi is 37 so it really is such a huge blessing to still have her with us. She wanted me to spend the night with her and teach her English. I was able to put Thandie’s niece Kezia on my back There is no electricity or running water in Thandie’s home village. Thandie’s mother cooks outside with three large stones. They ate traditional Malawi food and I ate my traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Thandie’s mother gave me a chicken so one day this week we are going to kill it and eat it. I will probably just participate in the eating part.

On the way home our truck broke down right in front of a bar. There was Contemporary Christian Music blaring from the bar and a bunch of staggering drunk people outside singing about Jesus. It was really something else. It turns out that we have a loose timing belt and a couple of broken barings. The only other orphanage vehicle is broken down as well, something about a tire and spring….not sure exactly but heard it is going to be quite costly. We have so many projects and outings planned we really rely heavily on those two vehicles.

Praise:

Today was the first Sunday at Lighthouse Good Samaritan Church in Zomba and there were 89 adults in attendance! Praise the Lord!

Prayer Request:

Please pray for the staff’s children here at Good Samaritan. We seem to be getting battled in this area. Andrew’s (the principal of the school and vice president of the bible college) son has the mumps and his oldest daughter has been having seizures. Lloyd’s oldest son has an infection in his tooth. Henry’s son had a bad headache today (concern because could be a symptom of malaria). Peace has a bad cold, cough and chest pains and Rodney’s daughter Heather broke her arm and has been admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Today Lloyd brought little Jonathan to the hospital to visit Heather. He said the people at the hospital were really getting a kick out of seeing the two of them together. I guess Jonathan sat on the bed behind Heather and rubbed her head and her arm saying sorry, sorry you are hurt. I put a picture of the two of them on my blog a few days ago. They are the best of friends and so cute together.

Other news:

Tomorrow is the unsealing of the container! WooHoo! We have to go by the customs office tomorrow and bring one of the officials to Good Samaritan to observe the items coming off the container. We have already paid all the fees for the items on the container based on the list we provided to them, but they have to come and see if there was anything that we didn’t put on the list. Our list is accurate so I am sure that wont be a problem. I am more concerned about getting the truck off the container so that we can get the rest of the stuff out. The rest of the weeks schedule is pretty busy so we really need the container to be opened tomorrow.