Sunday Again

 Today and yesterday have been fairly quiet for me here in Malawi. The main feature of yesterday was going with Jan Baxter on a visit to see Stalin and his family. Stalin is one of the staff at the VTC in Ekwendeni. At the moment he is waiting for a visa so that he can visit Geneva and report on is work with the young people and with AIDS prevention. Stalin has a warm and vibrant personality, and it was good to meet his wife and children - twin girls, aged five. We had a good two hours in their home. Just before we left the smaller of the twins - Leah -  decided she wanted to try out my hat and camera. She soon found how to use the viewfinder, and took one or two good shots of the room, and of her adopted gogo, Jan.


Today we went to worship at the main Baptist Church in Mzuzu. I had contacted the Pastor, George Mwase, earlier in the week, asking if I could bring greetings from Llanwenarth at the English Service at 8 in the morning. He was delighted - and asked me to preach. It was a very simple service, with about 40 people present - the ChiTumbuka service is much larger. I felt quite at home thee, not least because the text on the pulpit fall was the same as that at the church where I began my ministry in Broughton - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105)

I preached on the story of the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. It is surprising how much more that story means now that I have walked with Watson through the middle of the day, and watched women coming to a hole in the ground to draw water. The comparison between the living water that Jesus offers and the muddy water that the well offered has come alive.

In the afternoon and early evening I went walking. The afternoon was spent beside Mzuzu airport, hoping to get a picture of the great crested crane I had seen there many times as we drove by in the taxi from Ekwendeni. It is a majestic bird - but like the slender mongoose, it continues to evade the camera. The walk was enjoyable all the same - especially the sight f a flame tree in full bloom. Like the poinsettias, this has a bright red flower and no leaves - at least, not in the dry season.

Walking back to the house two sights caught my eye. On one side of the airport road a herbalist had set up his stall in the shade of one of the trees. Here he offered consultations and remedies to any who would stop to take his advice. The potions were highly coloured, and certainly no what you would get from the local homeopath back home. And passing through the market I saw another claim to offer happiness that I would doubt. It is with unsustainable claims such as these that Coke pursues its goal of capturing the soft drinks market in every corner of the globe. They certainly have done a good job of this in Malawi - I have not seen a single Pepsi bottle at any time in my stay here.


In the evening we took our usual Sunday evening walk across the causeway through the reed beds to see Joe - a local resident who runs a small business mending shoes, and who has dug a series of fish ponds out of the the reed beds. Like Bob Baxter, he has a great interest in the local bird life, and it is good to spend time in his company as the sun sets and the birds fly home to roost. It is also the time the marsh harriers and black kites quarter the area looking for food. One of the highlights of this visit was to catch a glimpse of a pair of mouse birds in the reeds.

When we got back to the house, we found that the others had opened and set up the outdoor cinema set up. This came in the container this week, and is intended as a tool for the evangelism department. Included in the equipment are a large screen (as well as the small one they were using this evening), a full set up to show cinema quality DVDs, and a generator - so they can go into communities that have no electricity. With this they will be able to show the Jesus film - based on the Gospel of Luke, and in this case dubbed into the local languages.

There will not be another post until Wednesday, as tomorrow I am heading for Namiashi to visit the Lakeside for two nights. While it will be good to have some rest and recreation, there is no internet connection in the lodge there. Hopefully, when I report back on Wednesday I will have pictures of fish eagles and sunrise over the water.

Christmas Comes Early

Today was a day of great excitement - the container that had left Strachur in June finally arrived. We had been tracking its progress across southern Africa, and at last it had reached its destination at Ekenwendeni Hospital and been released by the local customs officials. Once the doors were opened it took some time to get everyone organised, but soon teams were carrying the various parcels to cars and lorries and individual piles - each one a particular recipient of the boxes. We had taken a lorry down to the site to collect material for the new Mission House, as well as items for Ruth and Levi Nyondo - including some sewing machines for the craft centre at Hill Top. Mind, we nearly did not arrive ourselves, as there is one of the periodic shortages of fuel in the area - we had to drive to three petrol stations to find any diesel at all; and we did find some, the amount we could have was limited and only obtained after a long queue. But we had arrived to retrieve our bounty - and after a journey of 7 months, the container was cleared in two hours, as the various departments gratefully received the gifts sent with love from Strachur.

The drive back to Mzuzu was also affected by the fuel shortage. It began as a normal Malawian taxi journey as I hailed a passing vehicle to join five others on the journey to the city. But just before we reached the check-point on the edge of Mzuzu the taxi stopped. It had run out of petrol. Fortunately there was a mini-bus passing just as we stopped. Whereas the taxis carry between five and eight people, the mini-bus will carry up to 16 - and these are not like the full sized LDV's we use in Britain, but rather like modified old fashioned VW camper vans. They cost a little less than a taxi, but they are far more cramped.

But there have been other highlights in the last two days. Last night we went again to join the choir Witnesses for Christ for their Thursday night rehearsal - only this time they insisted that w also join them for an evening meal. Once more it was a treat as we sang and prayed together, joined now by their leader Flemings, who gave a strong bass lead to balance the clear soprano voice of Glory. The evening was enhanced by a power cut, which meant that for a while we were singing without the usual keyboard accompaniment with only a couple of candles to give us light - creating a very special atmosphere to the fellowship.

And after the fun of the container, this afternoon I was with the Guild - like our ladies' meeting on steroids. 63 ladies were present for the afternoon. They began with their Bible Study - a programme set out by the Livingstonia Synod, and followed by each Guild in the area. There is a set passage, and then a series of questions. These provoked a lively series of anecdotes as the responses were given. With the choir items, the main meeting took about two hours - and that was before they came to me. After the 'footing' with Watson on Monday I had intended to talk about the woman at the well, but following the Bible Study and discussion I put aside those plans, and spoke on Ephesians 6 - put on the armour of God. At the end I was presented with a ketenja - the fabric used by the women to protect their clothes from the African dust, but given so that I could have a shirt made. It was a good afternoon - if a little long. We began just after 2, and ended just before 5. 

One other image stands out clear from today. As I was walking past the pre-school play group run by the Synod, the children were playing in the yard. The day was quite hot, and one of the supervisors had a bowl full of water - which she was using to spray the children. They were having a great time, with squeals of laughter ringing around the Synod compound, proving once more that you do not need that much to have times of great joy.

Getting One's Teeth into Things

 For the last couple of days our major project has been getting the House ready. The inside is coming on in laps and bounds - most of the bedrooms are now painted and the cupboards finished. There is even a working toilet. But as yet we still do not have the power - every time John rings we are promised that the pole will come 'tomorrow', but so far tomorrow has lived up to its proverbial reputation. If the pole arrives, we should be able to move in this weekend - especially as the container should arrive tomorrow (it has cleared customs, and is now on its way from Lilongwe to Ekwendeni) - and then it will be all hands on deck.

Of course, even with all the work on the House, there has been time for other things as well. Yesterday morning I became the inaugural patient for the re-newed dental clinic at Ekwendeni. A few days ago one of my fillings fell out while I was cleaning my teeth. Fortunately there was still a sound filling below it, so there was no pain, but the arrival of two dentists from Dunoon was quite opportune. Nigel and Vicky had been working hard to get the room ready to be able to provide a basic service, and now all was set. So with Clyde, the traveling teddy from their local nursery, in attendance, the hole was filled and I paid the 600 kwacha charged to private patients (that works out about $2).

And in the evening I had plenty of opportunity to test out their work. Brendon, who worships at HTB and had a former life as a public administrator at Harrow, is here working with the hospitals run by the CCAP. And last night it was his birthday. He invited us all to the A1 Indian Restaurant, where he treated us to a very enjoyable buffet of varied fish, chicken and lamb curries. Diane - who works with early learning in the Synod, and Katherine - who doubles as a cake decorator back home in Blantyre, baked and decorated a cake with which to finish the meal. It was a very good evening together.

I thought I would end this blog with two general picture of life in Mzuzu. The first is proof that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, although you get no jacarandas in Tredegar. And the second is a reminder that there are other things as well as mosquito nets that help combat the flying beaties in the night time, although this one was taken just after dawn this morning.

Footing

Today we went 'footing' - I joined Katherine and the two dentists (Nigel and Vicky - and their traveling teddy Clyde) on a walk with Watson to see the wells he maintains to provide safe water to the local villages. But before we set out, we had a quick look in the room the dentists will be using - not least because I will be their first patient after a piece of a filling fell off one morning while I was cleaning my teeth. It left a small hole, but it is not giving me any pain. Still,  will need a temporary filling to ensure I can enjoy the rest of my time in Africa.

Footing with Watson proved to be a great day - walking about 14km around the countryside and realising just how fortunate we are to have water literally on tap. Water projects like those Watson supervises are vital to the area - it is estimated that $1 spent on providing safe water will save $8 in general medical spending (sadly I am using a keyboard with English notation but running American setting, and I have no idea where the pound symbol resides - what says it is a pound turns out to be #). Each well costs between $2800 and $4200, while repairing a shallow well costs around $140.

One of the first sights that met was us as we went footing was an image from the book of Exodus - a young man making bricks out of the local clay. The clay is mixed with water and placed into a simple former that produces two bricks at a time. The bricks are then dried for a few days, stacked into piles which have gaps at the bottom, and then fired - by placing wood in the gaps and setting light to it. They turn out surprisingly strong.

As we went around we soon learned that most of the wells in the area are shallow wells - as the water table in the lower lying areas is only 20 to 30 feet below the surface. This is fortunate - as shallow wells are cheaper to build and maintain, and easier to use; although even a deep well will only take two weeks to bring water to an area. However, all things need repair from time to time - and shallow wells seem to last about five years before major repairs are required. Watson took us to n area where such repairs were needed - with cracked concrete and metal fatigue on the pump.This left about 2000 people without the safe water they had grown used to, as once more they had to look to scrapes in the river.

We were taken to see one such scrape. It was close by the river bed in the midst of a cultivated area. The women would come five or six times a day to fill their buckets and carry them home on their heads - often a journey of more than half a kilometre. At least at the moment the water was easy to get to - there are still two months until the rainy season comes, and the level will get much lower, and may even need the hole to be dug down deeper to find even a few inches of water. It was hard to watch as the women came to fill their buckets - especially when they filled a 2lt bottle for a young child, who then proudly carried it away on her head.

Of course water is not the only problem. Access can prove difficult, especially in the wet season. Watson took us to one such community where the problem of access had been solved. At the height of the wet season the river flows up to six feet deep, and this prevents access to villages on the far side of the water - so that children cannot get to school, mothers struggle to get to hospital, and supplies cannot easily be brought in. A short while back the Raven Trust enabled a local community to build a bridge to ensure access to the village throughout the year, and to ease the journey to school even in the dry season.

Watson took us to the village, and we were introduced to the local head man. On the way to the village we soon picked up a small entourage of children coming home from school - primary schooling is free in Malawi, and the school day lasts from 7 to 1. We felt something like a collective pied piper as we walked along the path - although by the time we reached our destination, the troupe had reduced to one - the head man's daughter - as one by one the children peeled off to go to their homes.

We spent some time talking to chief - at times joyfully sharing the differences between our homelands (he could not quite get the idea of potatoes as a staple diet - here they are a luxury to be used as a special vegetable), at times listening to his woes (his wife needed some dental treatment, which will be provided in a few days when the surgery is open; more worryingly this village of about 7000 is still waiting for its turn in the programme to provide a deep well, as the water is about 45m below the surface here). Towards the end of our stay we suddenly realised that his wife had been preparing a meal for us - chicken stew, seema and cabbage. It was a privilege to share their hospitality, knowing they had so little; and it was a surprise when they did not eat with us. Although people here have so little, they are remarkably generous with what they do have.

So at the end of a long and thirsty day it was back to Ekwendeni, to sit for a while in the shade of Watson's house, and to slake out thirst with Coke and Fanta from the local store. But the tour had not finished, for as we left to find a taxi back home we were shown the deep well that served this part of the town, fetching water from nearly 50m underground. It had been a long day, and I doubt if I will ever take water for granted again.

Sunday in Mzuzu

 Another Sunday - and another power cut. Thankfully, all the thermos flasks are filled, and there is plenty of water in the buckets to wash and flush - so for most of the day the lack of power will not be an issue, even if it does mean eating our evening meal by candle-light.

Another Sunday - and another preaching engagement. Having been at a Prayer House last week (a fairly recent church plant - in fact Kaningina if where Robert Laws set up for the sort while he was in this area rather than in Livingstonia), I was at Lusangazi this week - originally a Prayer House, this congregation has built their own church and now called their own minister - the family arrived just under a year ago. So this is now a well established community - the only thing missing at the moment is the Manse - and they are well on the way to building that, with the foundations dug and the bricks fired.

However, whatever the size of church, the pattern of the service is much the same - with multiple choirs and long 'intimations'. There were some differences - the minister presided, and made sure the service was largely bi-lingual; and there was a visiting choir from his previous church, come to this church for a choir festival. These are common events. Held in the afternoon, four or five choirs will come together - not for competition, but usually to raise funds for the visiting choir. These funds will be used for transport and to provide the uniform, both expensive items in a land with little or no spare finances.

Overall, we had four choirs in the service - the visiting choir from Enko, the main choir from the church, a quartet and the Sunday School. The singing is lovely, and one occasion Katherine - who is in the house with us - got up and joined in the dancing - to the great joy of the congregation. here was a lovely touch when the visiting choir brought gifts for the minister and his wife - a sign of clear affection for their former minister as he settles in to his new calling.

The service went well, with the sermon translated by one of the teachers from the local church primary school. At first he did not want to take on the job, but he proved very able. After the service the church again provided a meal for the visitors - chicken and beef stews, rice , mixed vegetables - and seema, the local staple crop. Maize seema tastes much like polenta, and is great for mopping up the juice. It was good to be here.

By the time we were back home it was near to dusk, so once more we took out Sunday evening stroll across the marsh to see Joe. Joe is a local who Bob Baxter, one of John Chalis colleagues, met out here a few years ago. He is an odd job man, and among his odd jobs is cobbling - and suddenly Bob knew why a cobbler's last had been sent out in one of the shipments. Joe has also reclaimed some of the marsh, turning it into fish ponds - which provides a steady income, and attracts lots of birds. Talking to Joe and watching the wild fowl is a good way to spend the evening as the sun begins to set - as long as you have applied the DEET before you go. This time the main attraction was the sight of marsh harriers quartering the land to see what they could find.

The power was still off when we went to the Catholic Hostel for our evening meal - the dentists were our hosts for the night - and it was great fun sharing the evening over a candle-lit meal before heading back home to bed.

Street Evangelism

One thing that is nearly constant in Malawi is the power cut. Usually they are quite short, an hour or so of an evening, but Sunday is different - then the power often goes off between 7 and 7 (or a bit later in the evening) This has little effect in the villages - many of them have no power anyway. And it has less effect on the local population that you would think - for even in Mzuzu, the nation's third largest city, most people still cook on a wood fire. We have an electric cooker, so this week, as usual, there was no cooking done - instead, we go for an evening meal at one of the local restaurants, where they cook on wood. It also means that trying to do the Blog before church is a bad idea. But now the power is back.

Friday morning was spent in the continuing work of getting the new Mission House ready. In theory we should be out of the current house by next weekend. By then the new house should be habitable, even if there is still quite a bit if work to do. The man worry is still the pole from the local suppliers, ESCOM, for the house is still without electricity, which we need for so many things - including the internet. So we keep hoping and praying. The afternoon was a time of catching up on my diary, and getting ready for Sunday. As part of the catching up, I was given a picture taken on Thursday on the trip to Livingstonia - it was taken as I stalked the chameleon.

If Friday was a little quiet, Saturday was a complete contrast. I was joining the Mzuzu Evangelical Association. The group is led by a member of the local congregation at St Andrews, but is composed a people from all denominations in the city. About every two months they go out to presnet the gospel, with a programme of sport (volley ball or football), choirs (there are two regular ones - Redemption, from St Andrews and headed by the leader of the Association; and the Matabwa Fellowship - a group composed of people from all the churches in the area), drama, and a short (10 minutes in theory) Gospel presentation. They have been going just under a year, and sometimes draw crowds of one or two thousand.

This time was to prove a smaller affair. We went to a place known locally as Area 1B Market - a rather poor suburb on the edge of the city - just beyond some factories and a truck stop, surrounded by plots that are still being developed. As we arrived, we stopped opposite a wood shop, and I was surprised to see a young boy wielding an axe to cut mis-shaped planks into firewood. No thoughts of health and safety here.

Once we had arrived, the first thing to do was to get the ground prepared. We had the use of a Mzuzu Council building that was still under construction, with a small patch of ground between it and the main road running through the market. Stones were removed, rubbish was brushed to the side, and hole were dug to enable the volley ball posts to be put up.Then the guys played volley ball, and the crowd began to form - mainly children at first, drawn by the sound of the band tuning up and the sight of young men with a ball, but soon quite a good audience developed - most on the ground in front of the building, but some across the road, and many in the shade of buildings nearby. At its height the crowd must have numbered a few hundred, with people of all ages present.


Then the music started, as the two choirs sang with joy and gusto, and sounded very good - despite occasional strange noises form the PA system. There are very few occasions on which the people of Malawi can hear a free concert, and those who were present were certainly enjoying themselves, with many dancing away to the to the music - one even getting the musungos (Malawi for Travelers - in particular those of fairer skin) to join in. Along with the choirs, there was a young lady who had a beautiful voice - with one of her songs being I am coming, Lord in ChiTumbuka, the local language - with which the crowd joined in, and I added the base to the chorus.

Drama and preaching drove the message home, and a few responded to the call. I was then asked to give the final blessing. It was a good day - albeit a little long in the sun, leaving me slightly dehydrated by the evening.

It is interesting to reflect on the day, especially as smething similar will be happening in Blackwood on the weekend of November 10th as Chris Duffett - the BUGB President for this year - continues his Big Heated Evangelism tour of the United Kingdom. There was a spontaneity and freshness about the day that we cold not get in Britain - just imagine trying to dig a hole to put up a post on the sidewalk in Abergavenny! And there was a hunger in the crowd - one we have lost as we have been force fed with entertainment. Above all, there was a passion in the group to tell the Gospel story which we have perhaps lost in Wales. It will be interesting to go to Blackwood to compare the occasions.