How rain causes power shortages!

It's Sunday and we have had no power all day. We started the day cooking on the coal pot and now it looks like it will end in the same fashion. Yesterday we had a torrential rain in the afternoon which apparently knocked down several power line poles. I'm guessing the dirt around the poles became so saturated with water that the poles just slid out of the holes and somehow damaged the lines. I called the power company and they said we might get power tonight.
Sometimes I wonder if life is easier if you don't have any of the modern convenience , not really but the inconvenience and frustrations of not having something is character refining at times. Pray for strength as we face these challenges on a daily basis.

Doctor Clark

It's 7pm,raining cats and dogs, lightening fills the sky and I'm called to check on a lady I know. Word has it she has a head ache and can't walk. The combination sounds like it could be cerebral malaria so I didn't want to chance it without checking her out. When I got out of the car to walk down the high grass, mud puddled path the rains were at their peak, I was hot so didn't mind getting wet but was a bit afraid of the lightening. My friend decided she wouldn't die during the night and would like to wait until morning . Her eyes looked ok so I decided she could wait . We drove back home and I was thankful that I didn't have to spend the evening in the hospital. I still haven 't gotten over jet lag. Mom was in bed by 7pm. Now it's my turn .

The departure date

I will be leaving Seattle on February 8th and arriving in Malawi on the 10th. Mean while we are frozen in here on the Island on and off. I am excited to go home and my families in Malawi are happy to have us come.

Happy New Year 2012

I'm cleaning out my mom's storage space. It's amazing what gets stored just because we think some day we might use it or we just aren't sure what to do with it in the first place. I'm sure our mind, and bodies are the same way.
I was on a walk with a friend of my sisters and she told me last year she and her husband made 60,000 dollars more than this year and although year they aren't doing as much as they did , they are still well fed, clothed and live in a comfortable house.
She said no matter how much they make it never seems like enough.and imagine the women I'm working with make less than a dollar a day. No it is not all relative either.
I find myself wondering how they do it. How can they keep going in such suffering. I know that they have gained new hope in the classes I have for them, so I hope and pray that it won't be long before we can gather together again and sing and learn. I'm home sick and every day I cry out:"I want to go home, Lord I want to go home" PRAY that the finances come in so we can go back soon. I just need 465 dollars a month pledged and we can go, without those fund I will have very little to use for the women.

Permaculture training and trip to see the farm

For the past two months the ladies class has been having Permaculture instruction. I will post some pictures of a planning lesson we had here in my drive way and another lesson we had on how to design your gardens and plan your living spaces. Planning is something strange in and of it self. So it was fun to see the ladies talk through where to put things. Each item took a major discussion, but in the end they all got a general idea. Over the course of the past few weeks I have take small groups of women out to see the teachers farm. His name is Biswick, which is father told me is short for Busy Working. Biswick has given these ladies hour of instructions but they had yet to see the actual result of what happens if you do the work. Because maise is a major food here he flet it was important for me to bring the ladies out to his farm before all the maise had been picked and it was critical for him to bring it in soon. Therefore for rather than small groups of ladies we decided to bring them all out at one time. There were about 25 ladies who still hadn't seen the farm. We rented a two ton truck and piled all the ladies in it. Then drove slowly to the sight. The ladies sang the whole way and it was beautiful. Once we got there we devided the ladies into two groups and Biswick took them on the tour. His brother did the other tour as he is also studying permaculture. Biswick comes from a Godly home which as it turns out is an added plus. While the ladies had their tours I wondered around to see if there wasn't anything I had missed on previous visits and then sat down with his mother and sister and helped depod beans, maise and popcorn. It was a lot of fun and the ladies were thrilled by what they had seen. They came back excited about planting trees and starting their farms. My friend told me that for a Malawian to be excited about planting a fruit tree is a big thing and Biswick gave them each a tree to bring home so they were excited. After piling back into the truck they sang all the way home. What was even my encouraging is they also sang as they walk home. You could tell that they walked away with hope in their hearts dreaming of a new future where they would have food growing year round. Fresh fruits and Vegetables.