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.

Sauna or License Renewal office

On my way into town I was stopped by the police which by the way is a sometimes daily occurance. I knew my licence was about ready to expire but had forgotten until I saw the cops on the road. Lucky for me I had one more day to go to the office and have it renewed. So after I did my errands I drove to the Renewal office and parked in line for a car inspection. It was almost eleven so I knew my time was short. I walked into the inspection office and asked what I needed to do, partly because I had forgotten and partly because I figured if you play dumb they are more likely to help you get through the misery of the job at hand. The men told me and half guided me to the office and line I needed to be standing in. Mind you there were 6 lines and 80 or more people standing in those lines inside a room that was about ten by ten feet. The fan in the room is broken, I was in the line closest to the door so at least there was some hot fresh air coming througth the door. After a thirty minute wait, It was my turn. I waited patiently because it keeps your blood pressure down and there were already 40 men moaning, groaning and complaining not to mention yelling in the room. Apon receiving a piece of paper they sent me to the bank,which had air -con. I'm not sure how long I waited there but it wasn't long enough to cool me off. I was sent back to the first room to stand in another line. This time I was as far back in the room as you could get. It was steaming there, but there was a glass seperating the waiters and the workers. That glass had two holes in them at each station. The workers had air con, so there was some cold air coming out of the two holes. I tried to get as close to the window as I could in hopes of getting some air. Before I said a word,the man behind the window looked at me and said you need to be patient madam. To which I replied : Thats eazy for you to say sitting in Air Con. He laughed and somehow gave me mercy. I put my hand in the lower window and fanned the hole in the upper circle to get more of the air out of his room into my room. After about 20 minutes he gave me my paper. But it was time for lunch everyone in the cool room left and the "Sauna" emptied out. I knew I needed to get this done but lunch is lunch and no man works during lunch. Besides by that time I was ringing wet and tired of hot have air and listening to all the angry people. So I decided to go home and perhaps come back early in the morning. On my way home my friend called and said the guest I was expecting weren't coming, so I planned on returning to the "Sauna" after lunch. At about two I returned and took my paper to the car inspector. There was a wait there too, so I decided to turn on the radio. It was a good African Station so I listened and tapped on the drivers wheel as if it was a drumb. The guys around smiled and enjoyed the music with me. Suddenly the inspector came and started his work. He was shouting commands and I was doing my best to follow, but finally he said if you would turn your radio off it would be eazier for us to work. Of course, by this time there were 20 men all standing around watching the inspector and I and I got the giggles. Why are you laughing? he said. I told him I felt like this was a tv show so all the men slowly turned as though they hadn't been intertained watching as I tried to follow his instructions. He sent me off to buy reflectors which I think was more to give him time to have my papers ready. Now back to the Sauna I went. My guy was gone, but after a few minutes returned. A man came in the room and started yelling in my ear. I asked him why and everyone laughed . Stupid woman . He said. Then another guy was fanning himself and I asked him if he would fan a little faster. He wasn't pleased. At anyrate finally the papers were done and so was my sauna. Apon handing me the papers the man said: See you next year and smiled. It was a long painful day, but all in all it pays not to get argry and just to take it as it comes, sauna and all.

Showers and a Funeral

On the possitive side. We have Hot Water thanks to Scott Emerson an MK from Liberia days. Scott came for dinner and before we fed him, in the thirty minutes he had before sun down he climbed up on the roof of the house and hooked up the electrical wire so we could have hot water. Now to figure out how to get the solar part working.

A student at ABC contracted Malaria and in less than five days he was dead. I felt so bad for his family, but he's a fortunate guy.

We are up on the news in both Libya and Japan. Mom and I took flowers to the Japanese embassy to express our sorrow. We met both the Ambassador and his Assistant. They had a book for expressing your condolances so mom wrote a message in Japanese and I in english. We were the only two who had come in to show sympathy. I must say Malawi looks better every day when looking at the rest of the world. Thanks for your prayers for us here.