A Day in My Life

I was thankful to sleep in a tiny bit since it’s been crazy busy lately.  Somehow life has been a bit overwhelming but in a good way.  I’m enjoying it immensely and embracing the challenges.  I think if I work hard, I’ll be able to reach this year’s goals and then thoroughly enjoy the Christmas break holiday.  Sleeping in a tiny bit meant my alarm went off at 6:30 instead of 5:30.   

Water was not running this morning so I skipped my customary hot season morning shower.  Thankfully, the night wasn’t so warm anyway, so it wasn’t such a big deal.  After finishing my usual morning activities and packing my bag, I left my house shortly after 8:30.   

After making some stops in town, I headed for Luchenza, a village in the district of Thyolo.  I was supposed to be there at 10AM but didn’t arrive until 10:45.  You know, things in Malawi always seem to start late.  Most of the time, I try not to be the reason for that, but somehow, yesterday, it was me.  The nice things about that was that we could start as soon as I arrived.  Thyolo is known for getting more rain than we experience here on this side of Blantyre.  Sure enough, it was raining a bit as I entered highway M2, the road that takes you past tea estates, the big market in Bvumbwe and other interesting landmarks.  Somehow in 50 kilometres the views change multiple times.  Because of the rain, it was also foggy in spots, but thankfully the majority of the drive was clear. 

When I arrived at the feeding center where I would meet the children, I was greeted with enthusiastic singing and clapping – a characteristic way Malawians receive new visitors.  As I arrived, I realized I had been there before, probably in 2018 or 2019.  Some of the children who are in the program were probably the same ones I did the original program intakes for when we started the sponsor ship program in that area.  I remember that group being a lot of very small children, but now many have grown so much!  

We immediately started our program there with a prayer after which I was introduced and given the opportunity to try to encourage the children to use this opportunity to go to school wisely and not throw away this ‘talent’ that God has given them.   After handing out the papers, they got down to drawing pictures for their sponsors.  Those who were helping me and I circled the room helping the children read the English prompts and answer them in English as well.  When I realized it had stopped spitting rain, I called them one by one to have their picture taken.  All in all we were finished around 12:30.   

I was not allowed to leave without eating lunch. J  Good thing I love nsima! I enjoyed the meal of nsima, green vegetables and goat meat.  Hunger is the best sauce – and I was hungry!   

Before leaving, I was discussing other children we still needed to meet with the field worker from that area and we decided to visit a secondary school where 2 of our children study.  One of them was absent that day since she had gone to a funeral but we were able to get the other girl to write a letter for her sponsor.  Good thing we have to go back for the other girl, because I forgot to take a picture of the first one.  Hmmm…  

I arrived back at Stephanos as the last rays of the sun were sliding over the horizon.  After passing through the gate, the guard informed me that he noticed there was electricity all over the compound, but the office block and my house were dark.  He said I should report that to the director.  I did that and then entered my house to find that once again the running water also wasn’t running.  Thankfully I still have buckets left from last week so I could at least soak my dishes (I warmed up some leftover chicken curry from the night before since I was much too tired to cook).  Before it was time for bed, the water was running again so I could take a normal warm shower instead of heating water and taking a bucket bath.  Field days are long, but the challenge is invigorating and somehow it feels good.  Meeting new children everywhere is also a bonus.