Smatterings

If you never thought that Africa could feel cold - well, you're wrong! It's coming into the Malawian winter. Now let me qualify that. You'll still feel warm (even hot) and maybe perspire when you're out in the sun in the middle of the day. But outside of the sun, even in the daytime, I need to where long sleeves, a light jacket, and socks. At nightime it is even colder. I am very happy I have a nice warm sleeping bag to sleep in. I think of the people living around me, and how some of their houses have no glass in the windows - nothing to keep the warm air in and the cold air out. And no fancy sleeping bag.

So now I am living just two doors down from my office. The house is on a beautiful fenced property, and the house has tiled floors! (No concrete) I have the house to myself for now. On the weekends I will be sharing with a family who weekends in Zomba. Then I was supposed to get roommates for the month of July, but who knows now since it looks like I'm going to have to move out of this house in a month since Dignitas (the actual renters of this house) have just hired some new staff. Oh how I hope for a mutually beneficial delay for the move-in! I don't want to move again (the story of my life - my parents can attest).

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a joint Chichewa/English joint service in Chinamwali to celebrate the opening of the pastor training institution by EBCM and EI. All I can say is WOW! The church I am going to in Zomba is quite conservative in terms of expression during worship. The Chinamwali service was more what I had envisionned an African church service to be. There was awesome dancing and choral singing in Chichewa. There was time for the whole church to pray. The sick were invited to come up and the pastors prayed over them. It felt sort of like what I envisioned an early church experience 2000 years ago to be like - but more expressive. One thing I didn't expect was the honour that they give to their visitors. All the visitors were invited to stand in the front, and then as the whole church erupted into song, every single man, woman, and child marched up single file to shake our hands in welcome. Think of a congo line. I was blown away, and quite humbled by the experience.

An unexpected bonus yesterday (for those who have heard of Josh MacDowell), I got to attend an evening service at the University of Malawi. Josh MacDowell spoke (he is a famous American Christian author). It was pretty cool to see him live - and in Malawi of all places! He looked exactly like I had pictured. I wonder if that's because one of his books I read when I was a kid had a profile picture or something...

Work is clickety-clacking along nicely. So far I am on schedule with my target dates. I will be finalizing my survey for my first project this week, after I get it translated and pre-test it with some people in the neighbourhood. Then I will train the field workers in how to administer the survey next Monday, and they will go to town (or 'village' should I say?) and carry it out. All in all, there will be 362 face-to-face oral surveys conducted in the next 3 weeks by 7 field staff.

Finally, after a long hiatus of 13 years, I have taken up volleyball again (recreationally of course!). I may not be the greatest gal on the court, but you know what? I'm not too bad either! And it's lots of fun - a great chance to get to know some Malawian friends, and get to know some EI co-workers better.

Well, I think that's it for now. I plan to upload some new pics soon of my new place. Tsalani bwino!