Online Newsletter Addendum: You Asked!

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A while back I asked people on Facebook what they'd want to hear about in our "1st Anniversary in Malawi" newsletter.  Many good questions resulted, but far less room is found in our newsletter.  So, here is the addendum to that newsletter.  Read on for your own enjoyment and curiosity - and feel free to ask more questions!

Articles in this post include:

Yay & Yuck Ducks: a paradoxical review of our first year
Funniest thing that has happened
Hmm...I don't think we're in PA anymore!
What we miss most (other than people)
What does daily life look like?
What do people's clothes look like in Malawi
What kind of weather are you having there?

Yay and Yuck Ducks:  A Paradoxical Review of our First Year
Unfamiliar with Yay and Yuck Ducks?  Read here where we explained it a bit.

Jonathan teaching his Hebrew class

Yay for the opportunity to teach at EBCoM.  It’s been a good year of growing into the job of instructor to the Bible students studying here.  

Some of the kids from Sunday School

  


Yay for the opportunity (for Becky) to teach Sunday School (ages 4-8) to the children at our regular church.  There are four teachers who rotate on a weekly basis, so Micah doesn't only get Mommy as a teacher :-)

Yay for the good days of adjustment, especially as the kids show signs of settling in a bit better.   Like when Micah actually uses Chichewa greetings or wants to go out and play with the kids on our alley.

Yuck for the days of “speed bumps” in adjustment, especially when the kids respond negatively to Malawians or when we’re homesick.  It’s just no fun.

Yay for electricity!

Yuck for unreliable electricity!  When I turn on the stove or oven, the fridge and freezer turns off for lack of enough wattage.  Huge surges and low dips turn off our appliances (they’re protected by high and low volt guards so they don’t break).  It took me at around 5 hours to do a load of laundry because the machine kept turning off and on.  Planned power outages are welcome!  We can know what to expect and plan accordingly, but having a transformer slowly die isn’t very fun!  Thankfully, after a month, it’s fixed now.

catching water during water
shortage (thankfully, it was
during rainy season!)

Yay for running water!  It’s amazingly convenient!

Yuck for 26 days of little to no running water earlier this year.  It does push you to use water differently and appreciate it when you can take a shower with water falling on your head, rather than dunking in a bucket to wash your hair :)

Yay for a beautiful house in which to live with a great yard for (attempting to) garden and play with the kids.  We have a neat view of “the village” down the hill from us. 

 

Our house and terraced lawn
(avocado and papaya trees too!)

The view from our house (before the garden was planted last year)

Yuck for all the noise (music, speakers, choruses of howling dogs, alarms, etc.) we hear from the city-village during all hours of the day and night, depending on the events going on. 

Yay for fresh mangos, bananas, papayas, pineapples and many veggies!

The mangoes you see here cost us K850 = $2.66 at the time! 
They are kinda like Malawian zucchini in how plentiful
they are in season :)

Yay for new friends.  I (Becky) have gotten to know our closest neighbors here on campus.  One has taught me how to cook Malawian food and I have taught the other one how to bake bread using an electric oven (she had one, but didn’t know how to use it – it is not very common for a Malawian family to have an oven).  I’ve also engaged with other expatriate mothers and children in various capacities.  It takes a while to form new friendships, but we’re getting there.

YUCK for being far from family and friends back home.  It is so painful not to be able to have grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins come over for a meal and to play with the kids.  We mourn the loss of a closer connection/relationship with family, especially with young children.  This is by far the biggest yuck duck of them all. 

Funniest thing that has happened

 Note: we're never good at answering this type of question:

In language lessons, when I was describing what I had cooked for dinner as “tacos,” I was told that was the word for one’s rear end.

  

We just thought this "promise" was funny...
"We manufacture, you do the farming"
Gee, thanks!

Hmm….I don’t think we’re in PA anymore

• You go to a filling station (aka gas station) to pay for electricity credits.  You take a password home, punch it into your meter and then you will have electricity to use!  If you run out, the lights (and everything else) turn off!

• You don’t have cell phone plans here.  You buy a phone.  You buy air time from a store, or more likely, a guy on the side of the street who sells air time cards.  You buy some, scratch off the code, enter into your phone and you can talk or text or use data!  If it runs out mid-conversation, it cuts you off.  Texting costs less than talking!

• Although there are robots (traffic lights) at some intersections, there are more often roundabouts (after all, this was a British Protectorate).  And of course, we drive on the left side of the road and shift with the left hand.  It’s not as difficult as it might first seem.

• Most stores, including grocery stores, close by 5pm -- 7pm at the latest!  Because many people do not have electricity and streets (outside downtown Blantyre) do not have street lights, most people stay in at home in the evenings for security and practical reasons.   

• We have a vegetable woman come to our house twice a week to sell us veggies and fruits! 

• Surges and dips in electricity that turn off our appliances.   When I’d go to make something on the stove or preheat the oven, the fridge and freezer would turn off!  We’re very thankful for volt guards here that turn off an appliance if the voltage is too high or low – otherwise, the appliance may not last more than two years!!!
•  We have scheduled power outages 2-3 times a week around 6-8pm.  Power outs aren't so bad when they're planned...it's the unpredictable unscheduled ones that are a bit harder to work around.  The power company's slogan is "Towards Power All Day, Every Day"...that's right, you read towards.  

• When coming to Malawi, we assumed we’d be learning a lot about Malawian culture.  In actuality, we’ve been learning about Malawian, British, German and Australian cultures with the prospect of Korean and Muslim cultures!
• Evening entertainment = watching the gecko on the wall slowly creep up to the huge fly-like-insect and catch it for dinner!

What we miss most (other than people)

• The seasons of Pennsylvania.
•  Libraries!!!  It’s hard not being able to check out 10 new and different books each week or so from the public library for the kids!  But, we have found a couple good used bookstores.  The books are in rough shape, but the price is right and they still serve the purpose of reading, learning and inspiring the imagination and creativity!  The only thing is, once you get the books, you own them whether you like them or not.  Public libraries allow room for error in this department.
• Moms Together – the group of moms that meets together at Grantham BIC every other week with childcare provided!  I really miss you all and the opportunity to step away from our jobs as moms to discuss, share, evaluate, reimagine how we can better parent our little ones and take care of ourselves and spouses.
• Sing ‘n Play – also at Grantham BIC – a fun time of playing with kids at different stations around the gym and connecting with moms every Friday morning.
• Taize worship services
• Small group Bible study/fellowship
• Lower stress shopping – not having vendors waiting at your door as you park at a store to sell you their produce, mops, thumb drives, windshield wipers, belts, etc.  “No thanks” doesn’t cut it for these guys!  There are also often beggars roaming the streets or waiting at red lights or parking areas to ask for money.  There are just a lot more decisions being asked of you when you go shopping, it seems – and not all are easy to make.
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips.  No chocolate chips can be found here, and most other chocolate is milk chocolate.
• U.S. money and using credit or debit cards.  For a typical trip to the grocery store the bills we pay with pile up to be around an inch thick!  Kinda crazy…and they certainly don’t fit in my wallet!  Some stores do take credit, but we haven’t done that much as there is always a conversion fee. 

What does daily life look like?

For Jonathan – get up by 5:30am to dismiss the night guard.  Then come in to a usually awake Micah who wants to snuggle on the couch for a while before breakfast and getting ready for the day.  Before breakfast, he needs to get ready for the day because right after eating, he needs to get out the door to campus devotions at 7am.  Then, if he isn’t teaching a class, he’s back to the office (in our house, past the kids who, of course want him to play instead of work) to do course prep, technology work, emailing or sermon prep.  On their respective days, he attends chapel, college prayers or counseling groups.  By lunchtime, classes are over, but each afternoon holds different activities, sometimes including instructors like the once a semester students vs. staff football (soccer) game.  On Tuesdays and Fridays we take Chichewa lessons together for an hour. 

Weekends vary with preaching assignments at BIC churches across the country (mostly southern region).  Jonathan has traveled with BIC leaders to many churches to preach as well as encourage congregations.  At least half the time he attends church with Becky and the kids here in Blantyre.

Our "marble chute" made of Duplos and
using wooden beads to roll down!

For Becky - the average day varies as any stay-at-home mother will know.  Rise with the kids (earlier than desired), play, read books, prep meals, wash dishes, do the laundry, potty train, build absolutely anything out of Duplos….well, you get the idea.  This year we’ve begun some casual preschool homeschooling which has amounted to lots of quality story reading, curiosity-driven learning and continuing to answer countless questions about this world we live in from a 4-year-old’s perspective!

Our house helper comes two mornings  a week to help out with the dishes and cleaning which has really helped us keep our heads above water as well as practice our Chichewa and ask random cultural questions.  Sometimes we'll get out to visit friends or visit one of the handful of playgrounds we've found around this area. 

What do people’s clothes look like in Malawi?

Mostly, Malawian clothes look just like what you’re used to seeing.   A lot of the clothes here come from “you” when you donate to Salvation Army or similar organization.  So, Gap, Old Navy, Nike and the Limited are spotted on a daily basis!  Most people purchase used clothing in the market rather than new garments at stores.

Pre-teen to adult aged women generally wear skirts with a chitenji wrapped over it.  A chitenji is essentially a 2 yard cut of (really neat Malawian designed) fabric wrapped around them as a layer used as an apron.  Traditional dress is seen more frequently on Sundays at church or worn by governmental officials (like the president, who is a woman).  

One thing that surprised us is how you can see a man step out of a mud brick house with a grass roof in a three piece suit, "dressed to impress!"  

What kind of weather are you having there?

We learned about how things like weather/seasons and the direction the toilet flushes are opposite in the southern hemisphere back in grade school, but now we actually know it to be true! 

When we got here last August it was starting to warm up quite a bit as we entered the really dry season and Malawian summer from September to October.  October is the hottest month of the year, waking up to 80°F and getting up to at least 100°F during the day, sometimes by 10am.

Often, an early morning temp reading...we keep the freezer
stocked with homemade papaya/banana/strawberry/mango
popsickles and get out the kiddie pool periodically!

The rainy season starts around November with much needed relief from the heat, but also bringing in mold-inducing humidity.  We’ve found mold on our wooden rolling pin, in closets, covering the car seats, on the high chair and of course on food.  “Rainy” does not convey the awesome magnitude of a downpour here.  It is amazing to watch, hear and even feel the heavy rain pound the ground and rush down the gutters (which are on the ground to catch rain from the roof and channel rain on the ground).  You can usually hear it coming across the landscape.  A downpour may last a few minutes or a few hours.

We are currently experiencing winter which runs from May through August.  It’s cool and dry with an occasional shower and cloud cover.  We didn’t believe if before coming but we do wear long sleeves, jackets, fleeces, long pants and sometimes, wool socks!  It’s that cold…er, rather, our bodies feel it as much colder than you’d think, since we’re getting used to the heat here.  “Cold” is around 55-69°F, particularly with no heating system in houses here.  We layer on the blankets at night and soak in the sun during the day! 

We have MANY friendly lizards living in our terrace walls!
They're sorta fun to have around :o)