You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2007.
sorry it’s such big writing!
Muli bwanji! Internet again 
Malawi is still wonderful as ever. It’s weird to be past the half-way point and the end is in sight. It makes me sad to think about leaving this place and all the amazing people I’ve met here.
Our team is doing pretty well. Some struggles here and there, but that is good in my book, because that means they are growing and we are growing as a team. It feels like a little family. We have our home and we have short-term teams as visitors. We bake amazing brownies (from scratch!) and some super good spaghetti sauce. We go to bed around 9pm..and wake up around 5am, good times! More sleep than I get at home! We went on a mid summer retreat to Lake Malawi, where it is so gorgeous! I got up every morning to watch the sunrise and it will never fail to take my breath away. It was a mellow and relaxing time with lots of sun. I think I soaked up a summer’s worth of sun in one day…I tan fast!
Since I feel like my last email was a lot of information about housing and chores and daily life, here are a couple stories…
About a week and a half ago, we were at the House of Love, one of the children’s homes here when this old woman knocked on the door, holding a tiny baby in her arms. She was asking if we could take the baby into our care because she could not care for her any longer. She was the baby’s Grandmother and had been caring for baby Bridget for the past month since the baby’s parents had passed away. COTN did some research on the family and went through social workers and the government to get the o.k. to take Bridget in and a few days later we had her in the home! It was so exciting to be there for her arrival. She is thirteen months old and also very frail. To me, she looks as if she is only a month old. I noticed that she never cries and her eyes would follow people in the room but she would never turn her head. One of the house moms told me that this is because she was too weak to turn her head and she had no energy to even cry. I was silenced. I’m happy to say that in just a week, she is much healthier and is crying and laughing too! She is in a word, precious.
I have been having so much fun with the kids and have been getting to know each one and their quirks. I’m still trying to learn how to play the djembe. It’s hilarious and I think the kids laugh at me more than anything but I’m trying Some of the kids call me Auntie Guitar which I think is even more hilarious because I really can’t play the guitar, but maybe I will so I can live up to my name! One of my dreams if I were to stay in Malawi longer was to teach the kids photography, so even though I am only here for a short time, I’ve been working with a couple kids on photography skills. It’s so fun to let them run loose with my camera and then look at all the pictures they come back with. Life through the eyes of a child is priceless, even if it is twenty pictures of themselves making ridiculous faces into the camera. I love it. The kids are always touching my hair, brushing it and even braiding it, even the boys! They tell me that I should shave my head and give them some of my hair so they can have rasta hair or dreadlocks. Hilarious.
I am beginning to fear my goodbyes with the kids and we will say our goodbyes in just two and a half weeks before we head out on our safari and debriefing. I so wish I could bring all of them home so you could meet them all. Just knowing them and seeing their smiles is enough to change you. I will post a bunch of pictures on my blog when I get back because you will smile at their smiles (shannonhannon.wordpress.com) I’m excited to be home in just a few weeks, but sad to leave here. I think I will always feel this way, a heart in two places, a world apart.
I hope you are all drinking a good amount of coffee for me! Even though we have the lovely Ricoffee, instant coffee crystals, it just isn’t the same! I am off to take a jinga (bike) home. It’s quite an experience to ride on the back of a bike taxi, having someone bike you up big hills just feels wrong, I would offer to run alongside but they refuse Miss you all, wish I could see your smiling faces! Picture mine right now!
Tionana! (see you later)
Muli bwanji! That means how are you in Chichewa! I don’t know where to begin! Malawi is exciting and fun in so many ways. Even though I have been here before, the experience is completely different. I am living in Chiwengo village and not in the capital city, so life runs at a much slower pace. Chiwengo village is so peaceful. It’s about an hour and a half north of the city. Our intern team of 14 girls is living in a house right next door to all the kiddos. It’s wonderful to be neighbors with the kids and they run freely around and in our house and we run freely around theirs, like a big family.
There are a few amenities or luxuries that I have missed… like showers and running water! Every morning a few of us have to wake up at 2:30am and fill several buckets in our house with water so we’ll have water for the day (for bucket baths, brushing teeth and flushing toilets). We have to work quick because sometimes the water only stays on for a short time and sometimes water doesn’t come on in the night at all and we have to fetch water from the boar hole (well) and carry it back in big buckets on our heads! I definitely spilled water a couple times as I would erupt in fits of laughter at myself attempting to carry water on my head! I really love it though, I feel like the things we do here, we work for and it feels earned.
A big part of our days here are spent cooking and preparing meals for the 14 of us as well as short term teams that come to stay with us. In the next few days we’ll be cooking for 55 people every meal, yikes! It’s much different than the take out and pastries I’m used to, but for the better! As for living with 14 girls, it’s been great. We get along really well and I am learning a lot about myself and community through them.
And my favorite part, the kids. I LOVE the kids. They call us Aunties which is the cutest thing and you have no idea how much it joys my heart to hear them say Auntie Shannononononnnn! It’s the greatest. I have missed their smiles to no end, so to be with them again, to hug them, twirl them and dance with them is just what I have been missing for these past two years. We get to lead devotions in the houses with the kids and read them bedtime stories, which is probably my favorite time of day. We get to share with them, sing and dance with them. I don’t have the best voice by any means but they love it when you sing them to sleep. It’s a special time of day. We have a lot of village kids in the area who are always around outside our house. We try to spend equal amounts of time with these kids as well as with the kids from Children of the Nations. A lot of our down time is spent playing Frisbee with kids; coloring and sewing clothes for the kids as a lot of their clothes have holes in them from wearing the same clothes everyday. I have been tutoring 7th grade kids in the afternoon which has been fun and they are so silly. I have never thought of myself as a teacher, but I love helping these kids learn. We are also building a library for the entire village which is more work than we anticipated. Think about cataloging an entire children’s library with hand made check out cards for each book as well as making and painting bookshelves and murals. I am really excited for it as is the rest of our team. We really wanted to have a tangible gift to leave the kids with after we leave.
Sorry if this update is a little jumbled, I feel so much pressure at these internet cafes to get in and out super fast! I miss you all so much, and I think people must be tired to hearing me talk about my awesome friends, awesome roommates, awesome family, and awesome coffee shop customers!! I am learning so much about myself, the world and the love that binds us all together, I can’t wait to share more with you all.
Much love and hugs, Shannon
