We have been in Malawi for a month now. The time has simultaneously gone incredibly fast and slow. It feels kind of like the first month after having a baby. The girls have gotten into a good rhythm. They are up and ready to play at 630am… I am not! The early mornings and the constant outside play makes bedtime amazing. Usually Nora barely makes it into bed before she falls asleep. She had a hard time transitioning to a new bedroom at first but now she is the first one asleep, tonight she crawled into bed by herself and was asleep at 6:30pm. Abby also falls asleep quickly but because of her “advanced age” she stays up a little longer and listens to an audio book or music. Emma is starting every night in her crib and ends up in bed with me around 2am. We are just grateful there is less bedtime screaming and crying than when we first arrived. I’m sure our neighbors are too because our apartment walls are pretty thin! The girls have done a great job staying under the mosquito nets. They have still gotten some mosquito bites most likely from before bed. I pray that our anti malarial meds work!
Speaking of anti malarial meds. That is a fun thing that we get to take every day. The nurse told me before we left that they were bitter so to mix it in applesauce or jelly. To say that they are bitter is a horrible understatement. I wished I had video of the girls reactions. They were crying and scraping it off their tongues. It is incredibly bitter and “spicy” as Nora describes it. I mixed Emma’s in some juice and she promptly spit it all over Robby’s shirt. Oh and the pills are a fluorescent yellow. So we do that every day. I did buy another type that you only take once a week. We will switch to that once I have used up the ones we have. It has gotten easier now because Abby has learned how to swallow the pill while. Nora has almost learned but prefers if I crush it up inside a corner of a peanut butter sandwich. The sticky peanut butter masks the taste better and she can swallow the bite of sandwich without chewing much. Emma is still a bit of a struggle because she will cheek the sandwich, go outside and spit it out.
We were able to go visit a couple orphan rescue units. Stations where local kids that have been orphaned are able to come to learn life skills such as gardening and raising livestock as well as receive basic first aid and uniforms for school. Many of these kids have some family to live with or a home to stay in but they are treated as second class or servants because their parents have died and often they have died from AIDS. for more info about the rescue units check out the teen missions website and read about the work they do.
We were able to purchase a car! We have a little white hatchback that Robby drives us around in. I am not brave enough to drive. Robby says to imagine driving in San Francisco but remove all the sidewalks and bike lanes and double the amount of pedestrians and bicycles. And then just for fun have everyone drive on the left side of the road! But he is doing a great job navigating and getting us where we need to go.
We celebrated Malawi’s Independence Day on the 6th. Everyone had the day off and we ended the night with a big part full of food, music and dancing. The kitchen prepared sheep, chicken rice and nsima, the staple of the Malawian culture. It is maize meal boiled into what looks like very sticky mashed potatoes. The girls absolutely love it and ask every day to go eat nsima with the Bible students. Abby and Nora love hanging out with all the students and the students seem to love having them around. Abby is learning to speak some Chichewa and Nora is overcoming her shyness and will occasionally talk to them. Emma tends to stick close to me but when she isn’t strapped to my back she enjoys wandering around to find a sunny spot to sit and watch everything.
Robby continues to teach the students welding. The students learn the basics and then practice fixing tools that have broken. Eventually they will move on to larger projects but right now they are doing a great job. He has also been working on the plumbing and fixing several broken pipes. Finding the supplies he needs can be challenging so he has been creative with making what he has work. I continue to enjoy his labor in our apartment as I bask in the luxury of our washer machine! It is so wonderful because I feel like all I do is laundry. The kids are absolutely filthy because I’m pretty sure they roll in the dirt. So between that and cloth diapers I am so grateful I have the washer.
We extended our visitors visas with no problem and have them now through the end of august. Then we will apply for temporary residents visa so we can stay until the end of January. Pray that that will go smoothly.
I did our first months budget totals. And it was such a wonderful feeling that even with some unexpected expenses, we have to pay out of pocket for full health care insurance in the US while we are here because we don’t qualify for a waiver under the covered California policy and we will have to pay 8 thousand in fines if we don’t have insurance…. but even with that expense our our budget was almost exactly spot on, we had a slight surplus that I will keep track of so at the end of our trip hopefully we can contribute to a project here in Malawi. God is so faithful and has blessed us so richly. Thank you everyone who has made this trip possible we thank God for you all.
Harms' Happenings 