And here's a group photo of the gang at the guesthouse back at St. Gabriel's.
First row: Marie and Eileen. Second row: Erin, Mark, Marideth, Penelope, Tracy, Adam, Isaac
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Home again
Back in the US, cleared customs and checked in for our delta flight back home. The only thing between us and our own bed is a layover in Cincinnati. Well, that and maybe the snowstorm here in DC. Here's hoping our plane can takeoff.
And here's a group photo of the gang at the guesthouse back at St. Gabriel's.
First row: Marie and Eileen. Second row: Erin, Mark, Marideth, Penelope, Tracy, Adam, Isaac
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
And here's a group photo of the gang at the guesthouse back at St. Gabriel's.
First row: Marie and Eileen. Second row: Erin, Mark, Marideth, Penelope, Tracy, Adam, Isaac
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Friday, January 29, 2010
So the last day of our stay here in Malawi has arrived. We spent last night at the Kiboko Town Hotel in Lilongwe, and we now have about 6 hours until our flight. Yesterday we arrived here in Lilongwe after a long drive back to Malawi from South Luangwa Park in Zambia where we were on a safari.
The safari could hardly have gone any better. Our package included round-trip transport from Lilongwe to the park (but since Namitete is on the way, they were able to pick us up there on Monday morning), three nights at a nice campsite right on the Luangwa River, and four game drives into the park (two each on Tuesday and Wednesday). Oh, and it also included all meals which were quite good. We had an excellent guide, Ackim, who had been doing this since the 80s. He was quite gifted at spotting animals that were difficult to find (particularly the leopard). Since it is the rainy season, it was more difficult to see some things because A) there was so much tall grass and B) much of the park was inaccessible due to all the water (and marshy mud) on the ground. But this made the landscape prettier and also meant much fewer other cars driving around. And we manages to see just about every animal we could have hoped for.
So enough boring typing. Here are the pictures.
The safari could hardly have gone any better. Our package included round-trip transport from Lilongwe to the park (but since Namitete is on the way, they were able to pick us up there on Monday morning), three nights at a nice campsite right on the Luangwa River, and four game drives into the park (two each on Tuesday and Wednesday). Oh, and it also included all meals which were quite good. We had an excellent guide, Ackim, who had been doing this since the 80s. He was quite gifted at spotting animals that were difficult to find (particularly the leopard). Since it is the rainy season, it was more difficult to see some things because A) there was so much tall grass and B) much of the park was inaccessible due to all the water (and marshy mud) on the ground. But this made the landscape prettier and also meant much fewer other cars driving around. And we manages to see just about every animal we could have hoped for.
So enough boring typing. Here are the pictures.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
I have been remiss in providing regular updates. It turns out that maintaining a high-quality blog takes a bit more dedication than I think I have. But hopefully I can at least make it interesting when I do post.
We are leaving St. Gabriel's today for a Safari at South Luongwa National Park in Zambia. Then on Thursday, we will go back to Lilongwe for our flight back to the states. This will likely be the last post before we return home.
It has been a rewarding and enjoyable experience living here in the peaceful village of Namitondo at St. Gabriel's hospital near Namitete, Malawi. Here are some photos for you to enjoy. Peace!
Some hospital workers - friends - Peter (above) and Sister Honesta (below)
Community Health Workers who use the cells phones for communicating with the Fontline SMS system (that's Alex to my right)
Eating nsima (staple food of Malawi) at my friend, Willis' house
We are leaving St. Gabriel's today for a Safari at South Luongwa National Park in Zambia. Then on Thursday, we will go back to Lilongwe for our flight back to the states. This will likely be the last post before we return home.
It has been a rewarding and enjoyable experience living here in the peaceful village of Namitondo at St. Gabriel's hospital near Namitete, Malawi. Here are some photos for you to enjoy. Peace!
Some hospital workers - friends - Peter (above) and Sister Honesta (below)
Community Health Workers who use the cells phones for communicating with the Fontline SMS system (that's Alex to my right)
Eating nsima (staple food of Malawi) at my friend, Willis' house
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Working and Dining
While the six of us were away last weekend, three other folks arrived at the guesthouse: Eileen, a general practitioner from Toronto, her husband Mark, and Isaac. I had mentioned Isaac in an earlier post -- he is the field director for the Frontline SMS program here at St. Gabriel's which enables community health volunteers to communicate more efficiently with the hospital via text messaging. I had emailed with him before our trip about helping out with this program. Mark is also an IT guy. Not sure exactly what he does, but it seems he has rather broad experience working mostly on software development, but also some hardware, networking, and he also knows a lot more about cell phones than I do. So he is also going to be working with Isaac. And since he and Eileen are going to be at St. Gabriel's for six months, Isaac is quite excited about having Mark around to work on various projects.
As for me, we've been having conversations about what I can accomplish just this week (since Marideth, Tracy, and I are leaving for our Zambia safari on Monday). Isaac had been wanting to do an audit of sorts to see where their system and work flow may not be working smoothly so he can effectively address any problem areas. We decided it would be feasible for me to look at the messaging history and look for any patterns of less-than-ideal communication and/or processessing. Not the most exciting stuff, but I'm very glad to be able to help out in this way. Also, I think this task will not keep me busy all day this whole week, so I expect to stop by and help Sister Honesta count pills. I had done this once last week before I got sick, and I'd like to do it again since it is a fairly arduous task to keep up with the demand, and she deserves the help.
Yesterday, we had three visitors from Columbia University who had come to interview Isaac. They are Masters students doing research for a UNICEF pilot project regarding usage of SMS technology in healthcare in developing countries. So the program here is a natural one for them to be taking a look at. They were an interesting bunch as one was from Oregon, one from Holland, and one from Israel.
Also yesterday arrived one more doctor staying here at the guesthouse: Dr. Jacob from the Netherlands. He is a friendly man who first worked at St. Gabriel's in 1971.
Shifting gears, I also need to tell the story of how I played chef for 9 people when we got back on Sunday. When you are responsible to provide meals for yourself in Malawi, you learn to get creative with mostly pretty basic ingredients. We had stopped at Shoprite in Lilongwe on our way back from the lake - not a very impressive store by western standards but a hugely impressive supermaket by Malawi standards. It had occurred to me that since potatoes, flour, and eggs are all readily available here, one dish we could make to get some variety is...gnocchi! And since we both love it, I decided to go for it. I had looked up a recipe online, we picked up the ingredients at the store, and that evening seemed the perfect time to make an attempt at it.
As you probably have guessed, I have never tried to make gnocchi before. What I discovered is that having experience with kneading bread dough is rather helpful. I think the last time I had done any kneading was in a 7th grade Home-Ec class. To make the gnocchi dough, you simply blend together softened potatoes, flour and eggs, and then knead the dough adding just enough flour as you knead to make the dough not feel tacky. I seemed to get better at the kneading as I went along, but no matter how much flour I kept adding, the dough remained very sticky. Being so new at this it's hard to say, but my guess is that my main problem was probably greatly underestimating how many pounds of potatoes I had and not blending in nearly enough flour from the beginning. Anyway, I decided I just couldn't knead the dough any longer though it obviously needed quite a bit more flour. So I just went ahead and rolled the dough into thin logs, coating 'em with a bunch of flour on the outside, and cutting 'em up into bite-sized dumplings. Then, as I started boiling them in batches, Marideth and Tracy had started working on the sauce which included tomatoes, onions, some tomato paste and some kind of tomato basil mix another person had found at the store. As I got down to the bottom of my pile of gnocchi to throw into the pot, they had pretty much ceased to be individual dumplings and become a sticky blob. Still, I just cut out formless small blobs with a fork and put 'em in to boil. They all came out very misshapen but otherwise still quite gnocchi-like. Tracy tried one and said it was good, which I didn't quite believe. Then I tried one. I decided the best description of the result was "perfectly adequate," which shocked me greatly.
So that night we all ate gnocchi (with some spaghetti as well to make sure all 9 people had enough to eat). Everyone seemed to enjoy it and was most appreciative. Despite everything, I must call my first gnocchi making adventure a success!
As for me, we've been having conversations about what I can accomplish just this week (since Marideth, Tracy, and I are leaving for our Zambia safari on Monday). Isaac had been wanting to do an audit of sorts to see where their system and work flow may not be working smoothly so he can effectively address any problem areas. We decided it would be feasible for me to look at the messaging history and look for any patterns of less-than-ideal communication and/or processessing. Not the most exciting stuff, but I'm very glad to be able to help out in this way. Also, I think this task will not keep me busy all day this whole week, so I expect to stop by and help Sister Honesta count pills. I had done this once last week before I got sick, and I'd like to do it again since it is a fairly arduous task to keep up with the demand, and she deserves the help.
Yesterday, we had three visitors from Columbia University who had come to interview Isaac. They are Masters students doing research for a UNICEF pilot project regarding usage of SMS technology in healthcare in developing countries. So the program here is a natural one for them to be taking a look at. They were an interesting bunch as one was from Oregon, one from Holland, and one from Israel.
Also yesterday arrived one more doctor staying here at the guesthouse: Dr. Jacob from the Netherlands. He is a friendly man who first worked at St. Gabriel's in 1971.
Shifting gears, I also need to tell the story of how I played chef for 9 people when we got back on Sunday. When you are responsible to provide meals for yourself in Malawi, you learn to get creative with mostly pretty basic ingredients. We had stopped at Shoprite in Lilongwe on our way back from the lake - not a very impressive store by western standards but a hugely impressive supermaket by Malawi standards. It had occurred to me that since potatoes, flour, and eggs are all readily available here, one dish we could make to get some variety is...gnocchi! And since we both love it, I decided to go for it. I had looked up a recipe online, we picked up the ingredients at the store, and that evening seemed the perfect time to make an attempt at it.
As you probably have guessed, I have never tried to make gnocchi before. What I discovered is that having experience with kneading bread dough is rather helpful. I think the last time I had done any kneading was in a 7th grade Home-Ec class. To make the gnocchi dough, you simply blend together softened potatoes, flour and eggs, and then knead the dough adding just enough flour as you knead to make the dough not feel tacky. I seemed to get better at the kneading as I went along, but no matter how much flour I kept adding, the dough remained very sticky. Being so new at this it's hard to say, but my guess is that my main problem was probably greatly underestimating how many pounds of potatoes I had and not blending in nearly enough flour from the beginning. Anyway, I decided I just couldn't knead the dough any longer though it obviously needed quite a bit more flour. So I just went ahead and rolled the dough into thin logs, coating 'em with a bunch of flour on the outside, and cutting 'em up into bite-sized dumplings. Then, as I started boiling them in batches, Marideth and Tracy had started working on the sauce which included tomatoes, onions, some tomato paste and some kind of tomato basil mix another person had found at the store. As I got down to the bottom of my pile of gnocchi to throw into the pot, they had pretty much ceased to be individual dumplings and become a sticky blob. Still, I just cut out formless small blobs with a fork and put 'em in to boil. They all came out very misshapen but otherwise still quite gnocchi-like. Tracy tried one and said it was good, which I didn't quite believe. Then I tried one. I decided the best description of the result was "perfectly adequate," which shocked me greatly.
So that night we all ate gnocchi (with some spaghetti as well to make sure all 9 people had enough to eat). Everyone seemed to enjoy it and was most appreciative. Despite everything, I must call my first gnocchi making adventure a success!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Lake Malawi
So we had a weekend getaway this weekend. At our guesthouse, previous volunteers had left a brochure for Safari Beach Lodge on the coast of Lake Malawi. It is rather a charming place to stay for a weekend. The six of us were put up in Gazebo 11. It just so happened that it had 4 single beds on the ground level and a mezzanine level with a double bed. So for Tracy and I, it was like being husband and wife again instead of being bunk mates (our room in the guesthouse just has a bunk bed).
Our lodging was up the hill from the shore and had decks overlooking the water on both levels. Very relaxing. And we had royal meals compared to the standard Malawi fare.
We had heard about the amazing food at a place called Cool Runnings within walking distance, so on Saturday, we thought we would go there for lunch. We had to walk back along the main road a good distance. After we all thought we had surely gone too far, we realized there was a sign for the place at the next turn off. So we turn down this dirt road, following the signs which take us through the dusty streets of a pretty large and lowly village. It almost seemed we had to double back half the distance we had already walked until we found the place. Here's a bummer: they only serve their own guests (they're a hotel with a restaurant). So we walked all that way for nothing. But really not for nothing since we all felt up for a good long walk anyway, but what's more is that the wondering path through the village of brick and mud walls and thatched roofs really gave us a much better sense of the place and the local lifestyle than we could have gotten had we just stayed at the Safari Beach Lodge. Walking back the direction we came, there was a place called the Red Zebra that served good food (among the items we ordered were juicy hamburgers, grilled cheese, chicken kabobs and fish).
Next we wanted to stop and check out the Livingstonia Hotel, the oldest hotel on Lake Malawi. The place was very nice, but also felt so opulent compared to the Malawi standard of living. But we sat down for drinks and shared some desserts and relaxed.
The rest of the time was basically just chilling and relaxing at our hotel and enjoying the scenery of the Lake. One crazy thing about this place -- in the mornings, we could see wispy, billowy formations out over the lake. We were trying to figure out what it might be. Could it be some kind of mist? Maybe exhaust from some barge that had gone by? But it wasn't moving or dissipating nearly fast enough to be any of these. Later in the morning, when onshore winds kicked up, you could see millions and millions of specks blowing past the trees. We discovered they were some kind of tiny insect that just get blown along in large clouds.
Also on the second morning, we got to see a family of young monkeys playing and wrestling (I think they may have been vervet monkeys). One had visited our deck the previous morning.
On the way back, we encountered some torrential downpours. Fortunately all the roads were fine and we arrived safe and sound. Later that day, Marideth, Tracy, and all discovered the hotel had left us a nice parting gift: dozens of welts that we suppose may have been caused by bedbugs.
Stay tuned -- coming soon will be stories of new housemates (arrived over the weekend) and my first attempt at cooking gnocchi...
Some sights on the way to Safari Beach Lodge
This is an Anglican Church
Our transport from Lilongwe to Senga Bay (the location of Safari Beach Lodge)
Salima, Malawi (city just before reaching Senga Bay)
The village of Senga Bay
View from our deck
Our "Gazebo"
The Safari Beach Lodge offers various reading material, such as the 2001 World Book Encyclopedia
At the beach at Safari Beach Lodge
Monkey on our deck
Walking through the village
A soccer field
On the Senga Bay beach.
Sights on the return trip:
Our lodging was up the hill from the shore and had decks overlooking the water on both levels. Very relaxing. And we had royal meals compared to the standard Malawi fare.
We had heard about the amazing food at a place called Cool Runnings within walking distance, so on Saturday, we thought we would go there for lunch. We had to walk back along the main road a good distance. After we all thought we had surely gone too far, we realized there was a sign for the place at the next turn off. So we turn down this dirt road, following the signs which take us through the dusty streets of a pretty large and lowly village. It almost seemed we had to double back half the distance we had already walked until we found the place. Here's a bummer: they only serve their own guests (they're a hotel with a restaurant). So we walked all that way for nothing. But really not for nothing since we all felt up for a good long walk anyway, but what's more is that the wondering path through the village of brick and mud walls and thatched roofs really gave us a much better sense of the place and the local lifestyle than we could have gotten had we just stayed at the Safari Beach Lodge. Walking back the direction we came, there was a place called the Red Zebra that served good food (among the items we ordered were juicy hamburgers, grilled cheese, chicken kabobs and fish).
Next we wanted to stop and check out the Livingstonia Hotel, the oldest hotel on Lake Malawi. The place was very nice, but also felt so opulent compared to the Malawi standard of living. But we sat down for drinks and shared some desserts and relaxed.
The rest of the time was basically just chilling and relaxing at our hotel and enjoying the scenery of the Lake. One crazy thing about this place -- in the mornings, we could see wispy, billowy formations out over the lake. We were trying to figure out what it might be. Could it be some kind of mist? Maybe exhaust from some barge that had gone by? But it wasn't moving or dissipating nearly fast enough to be any of these. Later in the morning, when onshore winds kicked up, you could see millions and millions of specks blowing past the trees. We discovered they were some kind of tiny insect that just get blown along in large clouds.
Also on the second morning, we got to see a family of young monkeys playing and wrestling (I think they may have been vervet monkeys). One had visited our deck the previous morning.
On the way back, we encountered some torrential downpours. Fortunately all the roads were fine and we arrived safe and sound. Later that day, Marideth, Tracy, and all discovered the hotel had left us a nice parting gift: dozens of welts that we suppose may have been caused by bedbugs.
Stay tuned -- coming soon will be stories of new housemates (arrived over the weekend) and my first attempt at cooking gnocchi...
Some sights on the way to Safari Beach Lodge
This is an Anglican Church
Our transport from Lilongwe to Senga Bay (the location of Safari Beach Lodge)
Salima, Malawi (city just before reaching Senga Bay)
The village of Senga Bay
View from our deck
Our "Gazebo"
The Safari Beach Lodge offers various reading material, such as the 2001 World Book Encyclopedia
At the beach at Safari Beach Lodge
Monkey on our deck
Walking through the village
A soccer field
On the Senga Bay beach.
Sights on the return trip:
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Sunday church
I had intended to post this last night. But I came down with a cold and turned in early. It seems lame to be sick with a cold here in the warm heart of Africa, but truth be told, I am glad not to be sick with something else!
I'm still kinda wiped out right now, but we'll give this a shot.
So I want to tell about our visit to the pentecostal church on Sunday. Our friend Willis picked us up at 9 am to take us to church (where his brother is the pastor). It was about a ten minute walk - nice to be able to wander a bit farther than we normally do with someone who knows the way back. The area is rather picturesque farm country.
We arrived at a humble brick building with a tin roof and open windows. I suppose about 300 people or so could be jam packed into it; on this morning, there were around 100 to 150. A lady in traditional garb was speaking in front of the congregation which was seated on straw mats. A couple of church leaders in western-style suits met us at the back of the room when we entered, shook our hands, and welcomed us with big smiles saying they had seats for us. I was expecting to take a seat on some of the empty straw mats, but then one of the gentlemen led us right down the aisle (lady still speaking) to the front of the room. At the front of the church were chairs lines up around the back and sides, mostly occupied by some other church leader folks. But four of the chairs on the side were empty and given to Marideth, Tracy, Willis, and me. Feeling quite conspicuous, we listened to the lady finish her talk.
After this, one of the gentlemen who greeted us got up and welcomed us in English in front of the crowd. He alternated between English and Chichewa and explained that the lady had been teaching about David and Goliath. Next it was time for some singing. They had a small drum set and an electric keyboard tucked into one of the front corners of the church. The keyboard sound was kind of "organ-synth" (best description I can come up with) which was a bit odd, but they definitely made it work. Those Africans can sure sing in church! A couple times, I almost had the impression people were just figuring out off-the-cuff which song they were going to do (there were a few people that had songbooks and would call out a number, presumably indicating a song out of the book and then the musicians would get themselves ready and start playing). One or two lines into the song, the crowd would catch on and everyone would join in with gusto, apparently familiar with the words though it looked like hardly anyone had a songbook.
After a while of this, they had a time for testimonies about what God had done in people's lives. Only a few shared, but the stories included a man who had been deaf and mute, but after he visited the church, then he had begun speaking! Another was about how God saved the pastor's life when he was in a bicycle accident on his way back from preaching in Mozambique.
Then it was time for the visitors to introduce themselves. Apart from us, there were about five other visitors. I was glad about that; it made me feel less like this service was somehow extra special since they had American visitors and more like it was nice that they had several visitors, some of whom happened to be American. The local visitors introduced themselves first. Then it was our turn and we said our names and explained we were working at the hospital for the month. Next, they had all of the visitors stand just in front of the podium/pulpit thing as they began to sing another song. During the song, every member of the congregation came up front to shake each visitor's hand. The children were the most fun; some were quite outgoing, some quite shy, but most smiled at us warmly. It was all very joyful.
We went back to our seats, and there was more singing. During one of the songs was the time for offering. One congregant stood in the middle with the offering plate as people would come forward during the song to deposit their offerings. To me it seemed a minority that were able and chose to give. I had in my pocket the money the three of us had prepared in advance to give for the offering, and so I took my turn adding our gift to the offering plate. It was small by our standards, but likely much larger than any other gift that morning.
There were maybe one or two more songs, and then it was "time for praise and worship." (Uh, what had we just been doing?) I'm really not sure, but I suppose that meant one more song that was a bit slower than the rest. At any rate, that's what occurred, and then it was time for the sermon.
The sermon was from John chapter 11, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. The delivery may have been straight out of the fiery TV preacher's handbook. The preacher was one of the suited gentlemen who had welcomed us, and another was the translator. In fact, it was somewhat entertaining to hear each line shouted in Chichewa and emphasized with copious body-english by the preacher, and then repeated in English by the translator, who mimicked each gesture and inflection.
At the end of the sermon, we had been going for about 2.5 hours. The next part of the service was time for anyone to confess sins in their life and raise their hands so they could come forward for prayer and have their demons cast out. I had somewhat expected to see something along these lines. It turned out to be not quite as strange as I had imagined, but lasted much longer. Nearly everyone who was prayed for fell down ("slain in the spirit" as they say - and they had catchers ready). A few were convulsing. This went on for nearly an hour.
When all the demons had been cast out and they were wrapping up the service, then they wanted us to speak to the congregation. Realizing that neither Marideth nor Tracy were too keen on this request, I chose to stand up and speak on behalf of all of us. I kept it short and sweet, saying this experience should remind all of us that God is the God of this whole world and that it was our privilege to have been able to worship God together with them.
They closed in prayer and then Willis took us back to our house. It had been fun, it had been awkward -- at 3.5 hours long, it had been kind of arduous, but in the end it was a fantastic, authentic experience!
I'm still kinda wiped out right now, but we'll give this a shot.
So I want to tell about our visit to the pentecostal church on Sunday. Our friend Willis picked us up at 9 am to take us to church (where his brother is the pastor). It was about a ten minute walk - nice to be able to wander a bit farther than we normally do with someone who knows the way back. The area is rather picturesque farm country.
We arrived at a humble brick building with a tin roof and open windows. I suppose about 300 people or so could be jam packed into it; on this morning, there were around 100 to 150. A lady in traditional garb was speaking in front of the congregation which was seated on straw mats. A couple of church leaders in western-style suits met us at the back of the room when we entered, shook our hands, and welcomed us with big smiles saying they had seats for us. I was expecting to take a seat on some of the empty straw mats, but then one of the gentlemen led us right down the aisle (lady still speaking) to the front of the room. At the front of the church were chairs lines up around the back and sides, mostly occupied by some other church leader folks. But four of the chairs on the side were empty and given to Marideth, Tracy, Willis, and me. Feeling quite conspicuous, we listened to the lady finish her talk.
After this, one of the gentlemen who greeted us got up and welcomed us in English in front of the crowd. He alternated between English and Chichewa and explained that the lady had been teaching about David and Goliath. Next it was time for some singing. They had a small drum set and an electric keyboard tucked into one of the front corners of the church. The keyboard sound was kind of "organ-synth" (best description I can come up with) which was a bit odd, but they definitely made it work. Those Africans can sure sing in church! A couple times, I almost had the impression people were just figuring out off-the-cuff which song they were going to do (there were a few people that had songbooks and would call out a number, presumably indicating a song out of the book and then the musicians would get themselves ready and start playing). One or two lines into the song, the crowd would catch on and everyone would join in with gusto, apparently familiar with the words though it looked like hardly anyone had a songbook.
After a while of this, they had a time for testimonies about what God had done in people's lives. Only a few shared, but the stories included a man who had been deaf and mute, but after he visited the church, then he had begun speaking! Another was about how God saved the pastor's life when he was in a bicycle accident on his way back from preaching in Mozambique.
Then it was time for the visitors to introduce themselves. Apart from us, there were about five other visitors. I was glad about that; it made me feel less like this service was somehow extra special since they had American visitors and more like it was nice that they had several visitors, some of whom happened to be American. The local visitors introduced themselves first. Then it was our turn and we said our names and explained we were working at the hospital for the month. Next, they had all of the visitors stand just in front of the podium/pulpit thing as they began to sing another song. During the song, every member of the congregation came up front to shake each visitor's hand. The children were the most fun; some were quite outgoing, some quite shy, but most smiled at us warmly. It was all very joyful.
We went back to our seats, and there was more singing. During one of the songs was the time for offering. One congregant stood in the middle with the offering plate as people would come forward during the song to deposit their offerings. To me it seemed a minority that were able and chose to give. I had in my pocket the money the three of us had prepared in advance to give for the offering, and so I took my turn adding our gift to the offering plate. It was small by our standards, but likely much larger than any other gift that morning.
There were maybe one or two more songs, and then it was "time for praise and worship." (Uh, what had we just been doing?) I'm really not sure, but I suppose that meant one more song that was a bit slower than the rest. At any rate, that's what occurred, and then it was time for the sermon.
The sermon was from John chapter 11, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. The delivery may have been straight out of the fiery TV preacher's handbook. The preacher was one of the suited gentlemen who had welcomed us, and another was the translator. In fact, it was somewhat entertaining to hear each line shouted in Chichewa and emphasized with copious body-english by the preacher, and then repeated in English by the translator, who mimicked each gesture and inflection.
At the end of the sermon, we had been going for about 2.5 hours. The next part of the service was time for anyone to confess sins in their life and raise their hands so they could come forward for prayer and have their demons cast out. I had somewhat expected to see something along these lines. It turned out to be not quite as strange as I had imagined, but lasted much longer. Nearly everyone who was prayed for fell down ("slain in the spirit" as they say - and they had catchers ready). A few were convulsing. This went on for nearly an hour.
When all the demons had been cast out and they were wrapping up the service, then they wanted us to speak to the congregation. Realizing that neither Marideth nor Tracy were too keen on this request, I chose to stand up and speak on behalf of all of us. I kept it short and sweet, saying this experience should remind all of us that God is the God of this whole world and that it was our privilege to have been able to worship God together with them.
They closed in prayer and then Willis took us back to our house. It had been fun, it had been awkward -- at 3.5 hours long, it had been kind of arduous, but in the end it was a fantastic, authentic experience!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
A Day In the Life
The following post from Tracy...
All the beds in the pediatric ward are small- the size of cribs in the U.S., and the patient plus their parent sleep in that little bed!
We cook all of our own meals because we are in a small village with no restaurants. Here are Penny and I chopping veggies...
...and Marie and Marideth. Thankfully, our guesthouse has a very nice kitchen (we even have a fridge and a freezer!).
This is the outside of our guesthouse. It is quite nice. There is a big kitchen and eating/sitting area at the front of the house, then 10 bedrooms in the back of house (and each bedroom has its own bathroom with a sink/shower/toilet).
This is what Marideth and I typically do during the day when we’re working at the hospital… Morning report is at 7:30 am, and this is a little conference with the doctors and nurses from the hospital where we review patients who were admitted overnight and discuss the more complex patients. It is actually similar to morning report at Children’s Mercy. Then, from 8:00 am until noon, we see the patients in the pediatric ward. There are about 100 to see each day, and we have usually seen 80 by noon. Almost all of the patients we see have malaria, so it is easy to move through them quickly. We come back to our guesthouse at noon to eat lunch, and we don’t have to be back to the hospital until 2:30 pm. At first, we thought that was an excessive amount of time for lunch, but seeing 80 patients every morning in a hot pediatric ward is pretty tiring, so we appreciate our long lunch! Then, from 2:30 until 5:00 pm, we see the rest of the patients and do any necessary procedures, like lumbar punctures. When we come back to the guesthouse after work, we usually head to the market to pick-up fresh ingredients for dinner, and then we cook and hang out with our housemates. Although we see about 5X as many patients per day here as we would see in the states, the overall pace of life here is much slower, so it doesn’t seem overwhelming. We have been able to do a lot of fun reading and relaxing, which we really appreciate. We hope that everyone back home is doing great! We miss you! (And I even miss the snow back in the U.S., although Marideth is quite excited about the warm weather here!!)
All the beds in the pediatric ward are small- the size of cribs in the U.S., and the patient plus their parent sleep in that little bed!
We cook all of our own meals because we are in a small village with no restaurants. Here are Penny and I chopping veggies...
...and Marie and Marideth. Thankfully, our guesthouse has a very nice kitchen (we even have a fridge and a freezer!).
This is the outside of our guesthouse. It is quite nice. There is a big kitchen and eating/sitting area at the front of the house, then 10 bedrooms in the back of house (and each bedroom has its own bathroom with a sink/shower/toilet).
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
pictures
Here is the front entrance to St. Gabriel's Hospital, Namitete, Malawi.
Marideth and Timmy (one of the two dogs that think we are their owners).
Tracy and Bobby (the other dog that thinks we're its owner). These dogs (Timmy and Bobby) were brought to Malawi by a German nun and like to hang out on the porch of our guesthouse. It's actually kind of fun- it's like having our own pets! 
Road to the nearby village where we buy stuff like bread, some produce, and bottled sprite.
We bought mangoes from these guys at the market in the village.
A picture inside the pediatric ward at St. Gabriel's. There are 2 giant rooms- the size of gymnasiums- that hold about 100 patient beds altogether, and they are always full! So, we see 100 patients a day. For patients to get medications, their parents have to line up in the middle of the room with the order sheets and get the medicines from the nurse. There is definitely more family involvement here than back at Children's Mercy! 
Our (almost) candlelit dinner last night (except for the fact that the electricity came back on just before I could take the picture). From left: Erin, Marideth, Penny, Marie, Tracy
Our (actual) candlelit dinner tonight. We were without electricity most of the day today, but managed to finish cooking dinner just before it went out again. From left: Marie, Tracy, Marideth, Penny, Erin
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