VBS, Painting and Underwear Distribution

Monday morning we walked to Mgwai village (our second trip to Mgwai) where we were met with the normal warm Malawi greeting (shouts of Azungu, smiling children, etc.). While at Mgwai we worked with our translators and helped fill out a number of COTN children profiles. Jake was the workhorse of our group filling out the most profiles while Jason “Butcher” Mak showed off his business acumen and efficiency skills completing the most profiles per hour. Monday afternoon we started our VBS activities at Chirombo. Through our translator Emily and using a children’s bible story book we read the Good Samaritan story to approximately 200 children. While reading the story we also acted it out to the great enjoyment of the children. After reading and acting out the Good Samaritan we organized three legged races with the kids which was a big hit! By far the best part of the day and potentially our entire trip, was distributing underwear that Kirsten was able to get donated by the students at Mira Mesa Christian School where she teaches. During our 2+ weeks in Malawi we never saw the children as excited as they were to receive the much needed underwear; their smiles, cheering, grateful reaction and even dancing ;) was a big blessing to us. Seeing the children so excited to receive something so basic was a good reminder of how much we take for granted in America. Tuesday morning we started our painting project at Njewa, painting the large meeting hall and two classrooms. The afternoon we spent at Chirombo with VBS activities; again using the children’s bible story book and a great Chichewa interpretation by Henry, we read and acted out Noah’s Ark and Jonah and the whale. The approximately 300 children in attendance really enjoyed the stories and were able to tell the group a number of lessons from the bible stories. We finished the afternoon with games, playing sharks and minnows (a favorite Malawian children’s game, but of course they have a different name for it) with the kids. Wednesday was a full day of painting, finishing the hall and two classrooms. With our translators help we finished our painting project one day ahead of schedule. The staff at Njewa greatly appreciated our work expressing their gratitude for our work over and over.

Jake's Work in Malawi

Last fall, I met Debbie Clark at a COTN info night in San Diego, which is where I learned about an ongoing fish farming project at one of the children's homes in Malawi. After speaking with several folks at COTN and learning more about the project, I decided to join a team and go with the intent to determine the current status of the fish farm and figure out ways to rejuvenate the project in going forward. Thus, for the past 4-6 months in the US, I have spoken with and even made some direct contacts with folks in Malawi doing rural aquaculture. In the past 2 weeks prior to going to Malawi, a lot of things including meetings and so forth were still up and the air which I've learned is the natural progression of things in Malawi : ). The Lord however came through as always and provided settings to meet with folks in country who have really good experience in this venture. For three days I traveled with the Malawi in country liaison, Jeremy Macias, and the Malawi farm manager, Foderick. We embarked on our journey on Wednesday a few hours late because the truck Foderick took from Chechere broke down on the way. On the way to Blantyre, we stopped for 'Bewa', which is field mice boiled in salt water for an hour and then sold generally in pairs of 3 for around 100 kwacha each. In this case we got all 3 mice for 200 kwacha which comes out to less than 1 USD. Jeremy slurped his mouse down in no time while Foderick choose the littlest and possibly sweetest one and finished his as well. After taking a bite into the head and realizing I was chewing bones and teeth and washing them down with salty stinky fur, I was only able to take 2 more bites and had to throw out half the mouse in fear of getting car sick. It didn't help I didn't have any water either. In Blantyre we met with Abudala, a native from Zimbabwe who has spent the past 5 years in Uganda doing fish farming. We also met with his 2 other project managers and got to then visit an ongoing community fish farm near Blantyre. We learned about some of the predators farmers must deal with and got to watch a 10ft + African snake slither across one of the ponds while one of the farmers quickly broke off a large limb to try and capture it. We spent the night at a lodge in Blantyre which was interesting, the water in the shower didn't work and the TV stations could only be changed if we called the receptionist and although we purchased the executive suite which holds 3 people, we were only given 2 continental free breakfasts :(. All in all it was comfy and the people were nice and it ended up not costing all that much. We then traveled to Zomba to meet Hastings, a PhD who heads a research group at the Malawi national aquaculture center. After asking approximately 500 questions and touring his facility and getting to see the fish they were raising there, he took us to his private farm about 8 km away. We viewed several ponds under construction along with about 8 ponds he was currently raising fish in. We also met the families of the workers he was employing to manage the farms. From Zomba we traveled back home to Njewa and spent the night at COTN again. In the morning we traveled to meet Lucy who is a private farmer in the Dowa district who raises baby fish, also known as fingerlings, which he sells to several nearby farmers in Malawi. From there we went to the marketplace in downtown Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, and navigated the busy alleyways to finally find the fresh fish corner where iced catfish and chambo (tilapia) could be bought. From there we traveled to Chitipi farm to take more pictures and do a soil analysis of the ground there to determine if the clay content was sufficient to have a fish pond. Some of the hired laborers quickly dug down about 3 feet and low and behold, the soil was distinctly clay which is what we needed to see. This concluded our travels and from here I will put together a final summary of all we saw with recommendations in going forward. I am hopeful that I can return to Malawi to help get this started and get some of the men or women at ICA interested and involved in the project. The most interesting part of the whole thing was seeing the names of businesses around the country. After the first 4 hours of driving, I decided to start writing some down which I've listed below. God first enterprise House of miracles and intercession Blantyre manadazi shop 'king of kings' reform enterprises Praise shop (music store) Acts shop Peace welding shop God is able phone charger Genesis shopping center Go bless investments God bless rest house Jesus is the answer butchery shop todos de depende de Deus video ( in Mozambique) God knows shop God can do anything shop God is good mini shop Jesus is the answer clinic favour investments Advent music store blessed venture Jesus is coming soon wholesale shop Lords best collection Trinity autoparts Jesus is definitely alive and His name is being glorified in this country. jake minich

How I Met My Child

When our team had downtime in the afternoon, I (Taylor) decided to walk over to a nearby village, Mgwai, to meet my sponsor girl. (Don't worry mom, I also brought someone over to translate for me.) I have been sponsoring Florence and writing letters to her for the past three years, so of course, I was excited/nervous to finally meet her! As we walked through the village, children we didn't know would walk up to us and hold our hands as if we were their best friends. They sure do know how to make you feel special! Everyone knows everyone, so it was easy to ask where Florence lives and find her house. As I walked up to her house, I recognized her right away. For a couple seconds, she looked confused as to why a white girl was walking towards her, but then jumped with excitement and gave me a huge hug! It was an incredible moment to meet her and her family and definitely something I'll never forget. She told me about her studies and that she wants to be a nurse. She loves to sing worship songs and dance, so I told her that she will have to teach me. Although I couldn't stay long, I promised I would be back soon, and then she proceeded to walk me all the way back to where I was staying. I couldn't get enough of her sweet smile and laughter as I tried to speak Chichewa to her! On Sunday morning, we went to Flood Malawi. Before we got there, I was told the church service takes place in a little Chinese restuarant, so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, the moment we walked in, it instantly felt like home. We were welcomed as brothers and sisters and it felt like one big Flood family. The worship was amazing and full of life. Everyone was on their feet and clapping along. Pastor Sean gave some humorous relationship advice and preached an awesome sermon. It was really cool to see with our own eyes the connection between our church back home and Flood Malawi, and to see the fruit of God's work thousands of miles apart. Sunday afternoon, our sponsor children came to Njewa (where we are staying during our trip) for some tea and snacks. We played "knock" (equivalent to Uno in America), sang worship songs, took pictures, and gave them their gifts that we had brought them. It was so good to spend quality time with each of them. I love just being around them even though we had a language barrier. Another great moment was when my new friend Joanna and I went into Mgwai village and cooked Ramen noodles for one of the families there. Most families in the villages only eat nsima (flour and water in a mashed potato consistency) and vegetables. Only on special occasions do they eat meat. When we told them we had noodles to cook for them, they all smiled. I am constantly amazed at how generous they are, they had asked us to have some of it before they ate. We thanked them and explained that it was for them to enjoy. We cooked 5 packets of chicken-flavored noodles and it was gone in 10 seconds flat. It was so life-giving to be able to serve this family dinner and know them. Tay Tay

Death to Mbuzi

Coming down from our excitement of arriving in Malawi, July 5th, we were introduced into the daily life of the villages.  Beginning our 'cultural immersion day', we were dropped off in a town market with a list of ten items needed to make a traditional Malawian meal.  With $3,000 kwatcha(~$10 USD), and a translator, we had to navigate the market, finding our items (in Chechewa) and get back to our van first ( Amazing Race COTN style).  Our final grocery item, mbuzi, (goat) was lead over to our van (live!) and literally thrown into the back of the van on top of the firewood.  We set off to visit our sponsor children's village, Chirombo.  Upon arrival, our team leader, Jason 'the butcher' Mak, slit the goat's throat (video to come) and it was then hung from a tree, skinned and butchered right there in front of the school!  The goat meat was divided and we brought that with our market groceries to our sponsor children families.  After meeting the family, we did some daily chores; we fetched water from the hand pump, washed dishes, mudded the front porch and prepared the traditional meal of nsima with veggies.  The  nsima (pronounced see-mah) is a combination of cornflour and hot water stirred into a sticky mashed potato consistency.  The meal is prepared indoors; starting  the fire and boiling water with a simple pot placed on bricks.  There are no pot holders to hold the scalding pot and they test the water temperature by flicking the hot water on their bare arms!  These women have such  hard lives, but they do it all with huge smiles on their faces and singing beautiful songs.  Even though my (Callie) sponsor child lives and goes to school at the COTN compound where we are staying, it was good to meet his family and see how far he has come.  His mother is a widow, with 5 children and often cares for other children in the village.  Once Yusufu finishes high school, he hopefully will continue onto college.  His mother and brothers and sisters are counting on him to get a job and provide for the family.    Spending time in the village, we also played soccer with the children and danced and sang.
Tionana,
Callie

Up Up Jesus! Down Down Devil.

After meeting at the San Diego airport and traveling to Dulles Airport (wherever that's at...no really, we weren't sure), we traveled all the way to Ethiopia. Woah, long flight! Several movies, tv shows, card games (such as B.S.), 3 meals (yes, 3) and 13 hours later we finally made it to Ethiopia. Then, off to Lilongwe the capital of Malawi! We got our passports stamped and then were warmly greeted by the extremly friendly and hospitable COTN staff.

We were jetlagged but we did not waste any time after getting to the COTN Malawi headquarters. We went to Mtsiliza, a small village nearby, and were welcomed by about 100 children with singing, dancing, laughter, and lots of smiles.

On July 3rd, we toured African Bible College (ABC), which was beautiful. Did I mention that everything is so beautiful here? I (Kirsten) have only really traveled in the United States, so everything here is new and so picturesque, and I can't seem to get enough photos of everything and everyone! Anyway, we toured through ABC's library, clinic, the fields, basketball/netball courts, and swimming pool and the elementary school.

After the ABC tour we were warmly welcomed once again in a village called Chirombo. "Azunga, azunga!" is what we hear when we travel around in the COTN van. Azunga means "white person." It is amazing how many children come running out of their houses to chase our van just to see us, hold our hands, and ask us our names.

On July 4th we shot off fireworks and sang America's National Anthem! Just kidding. We actually walked to Mgwayi (another small village) and visited 50 beautiful faces at a preschool and 250 amazing young kids at an elementary school. The Malawian children can't grab our hands and arms fast enough! It was neat hearing about the education here and the similarities and differences from the schools in America.

Anyway, between the rat (more like a cute mouse) that rummages through the pots and pans each night as we worship and do our devotions, attempting to communicate using Chichewa, the power randomly going out (sometimes while in the shower...scary), and watching the children run after the bus just to be with us awhile longer, it's been quite an adventure so far! And it is so evident that God is moving and working in this place and through his children here. We are so excited to continue this adventure and experience here!