Shawna's Malawi Update

Hello everybody,


Thank you so much for your emails of notes of encouragement. It's so good to hear from you all back at home. This is just a little more about my stay. I hope it's not too repetitive.
On Fridays, we have a widow's program. The past couple of Fridays we have mended clothes, crocheted, and knit with them. So the first time I did here was the first time I sewed ever. So the first garment I did didn't even turn inside out. Good land huh? I'm a little better now. I at least turn it inside out. It's really neat. The widows program is one of my favorite things. We sing worship songs together and have a short devotion and then do our activities. We've been going to their houses during the week to help them with everyday tasks so it's been good getting to know them all and forming those relationships. While I'm not a good tailor, I'm apparently good at smearing African cement (mud). You smear it on porches with your hands and it forms a hard outer layer. IT is so fun. I've only done it twice though. Another girl and I were doing it and they told her to stop and sew something else cause she wasn't doing it right. ha. The first time I was rubbing a smooth rock over it after I had smeared it with my hand and I had to get up on the porch but my shoes were taking it all off so I took my shoes off and then I remembered that there's a rule about not even wearing flip flops in the villages or you may get worms. ha oops. We all get really dirty, but somehow I'm the dirtiest so I'm called Pig Pen.

Our schedule is constantly changing, but we're still going to Mtsiliza to teach and help with the feeding program as well as working with the older girls. Teaching has gotten better. I now have a book so that's good.

We've been to Lake Malawi twice now. It is soo pretty. It looks like an ocean it's so big. And in the far distance you can see mountains and that's Mozambique. A couple of girls got caught in a current. I did too, but for some reason I was able to get out before they did. It was kinda scary, but mostly funny. haha of course

I really enjoy going to church here especially the songs and dancing. The kids love it when they can teach you a song. And I love learning it. The kids are so full of joy and so appreciative of everything. It's really different. There are so many children here and such a huge gap with the older people because of AIDS and Malaria. There was a funeral in the village Mtsiliza the other day. When there is a funeral, no one can sing or play games because it's disrespectful. Then there are whistles blowing that signifies the death and for people to come and spend the night with the family that night. Those two days weren't all that fun just because we couldn't do that much with the kids. And at first I was thinking that's so weird, but we have the receiving of family and friends and then the funeral, and we used to do the quiet thing.

It's funny how much we are different, but how much we are alike at the same time, especially me from TN. The other people were really excited about eating chicken livers, and I was like do you not eat those at home? They've been eating chicken feet, but I haven't done that yet. You have to bite the toenails off. I do love nsima though. One of my favorites is sugar cane. So good.

One of the hardest things here is just communication. Some times with the Malawians-it can be so exhausting to just have a conversation. But the main communication problems are with the fellow Americans. We've been late to places or just left at some place for a long time just because the people over us have miscommunicated with one another. But it's really not that bad. And that's so good to be like the only problem.

It has (and is) such a blessing to be here. I love it. It keeps going by so fast. The people here are amazing. The Christians are very strong and encouraging. I believe I've made some life long friends here. It's really neat to realize more and more about how big God is (which I'll never get even close to fully understanding). Thank you for your prayers and notes of encouragement. Please continue to pray for the people here and the rest of my time here.

Thank you,
I love you,
Shawna

PS Bill Clinton was here in Lilongwe the other day. How random is that? ha