Life in Lilongwe

My Dear Friends, I'm so sorry to have taken so long to write something to you. I was waiting for a day when I didn't have something pressing but I've decided that day will not come anytime soon. I continue to work with the Whittier Area Community Church on the bulding of a new hospital ward. It has been fun communitcating with them on a daily basis as they strive to fill a container to fill our new ward with all of the equitment it will need.

I'm also decorating a baby ward which needs some TLC. As always things in Africa take time and somehow more effort than they would in the USA. As I have gone to sort though piles of rolls of fabric in a warehouse pulling roll by roll out , unwrapping the plastic to make sure you see what it really looks like and then sorting roll into piles of likes and dislikes. I walk away with my hands covered in black grime. Sneazing from the dust and thirsty from the heat. The process takes hours just to find the fabrics you want to use, let alone bringing them all together to make it look like it belongs.

I ask the store owner where I can find a drink and he says check around the corner, around the corner on a street that has more potholes than pavement is Annie's Bar and resturant. A dive with a few bottles of beer on the shelves, a fanta, sprite and coke. Take your pick, their all full of sugar and with the heat you'll be thirsty in minutes after you drink it. All I want is a bottle of water, warm or cold that doesn't much matter. I decide to drive home, opening the door I"m blasted by oven like heat. Don't want to open the windows to much for fear that someone will reach thier hand in and grab the fanny pack on my waist. I've been trying to wear a hat to protect my skin from the sun, but decide the hat holding in the heat on my head, will kill me now, where as skin cancer will at least do it slowly. I fight traffic all the way home trying to take side roads to dodge the traffic, I find myself in a dead end. Great, try again. I turn around and head back on the busy roads, three cars from the light, I wait and wait finally realizing the first car's driver has climbed out of his car and gone to Bata to buy shoes or something. So I pull out into the on coming traffic and around the two car s ahead of me so that I can get to the intersection where the main road is. I'm clear, home is just minutes away. I arrive there feeling a bit tired. Lying down on the Bony Couch( meaning the springs on the back are pushing up against the fabric like ribs on a starving child) I drink a large glass of water and then fall promptly asleep. This is a day in Africa. It's eazy to forget that there is a world out there other than your own and without a radio or TV you quickly become out of touch with that other world.

I have a lady who is helping me with keeping the house clean, cooking and laundry, i've been trying to help her and her husband get ahead, go to school and continue their personal developement. Its exciting to watch them as they stay up late at night and wake up early to prepare themselves for each days lessons. I wish I had more time to help Leah learn more about cooking. But little by little she is learning. Last week we made chicken pot pies. They turned out really tasty.

Last night I was over at the Land Lords home, had a wonderful dish from Bombay and then she shared all the things she was worried about. I asked her if we could pray together and so we did. I'm excited about what the Lord is doing in the home.

Finally, please pray that God will do a purifying work during spiritual emphasis week on the ABC Campus.
Blessings, Michelle