Zosangalatsa Malawi - Day 8

Tuesday, August 31

We spent Tuesday doing various physical jobs. A large group went to Esther’s House and spent the day scrubbing toilets and other cleaning, re-hanging shower doors and other handyman jobs and organizing/straightening the supply closet. The rest of us remained at the mission house to help Cindy.

The main order of business was to repaint Cindy’s room and the hallway to compliment the remodel that the living room received this summer. We moved some furniture into other rooms and the rest into the center of hers and covered it with a tarp. Doug ran to get the paint. A long time later Doug returned with the only paint he could get—a very runny oil-based concoction. You get what you get in Malawi! A couple members of the team got started right away, but unfortunately one coat was all that got done that day. Cindy was forced to move her mattress to the dining room to sleep that night, and the paint was still wet the following day. We all hated to leave it like that, but Cindy assured us that she would get it finished after we left.

I spent a great deal of the day helping Cindy on her computer. It was time to rehire staff; new pictures needed to be uploaded and cropped, and new applications printed out for signing. I also got the privilege of going with Cindy to buy some chickens for supper. We walked out of the front gate of the mission house (it struck me later how crazy it was, two white women walking down the road like we belonged there, talking nonstop, on an afternoon stroll to buy chickens) and proceeded to walk down the road a ways to Dear Mama’s. There was a restaurant in the front (the smell of fried chicken was amazing) and broiler houses in the back. Having some exposure to Tyson broiler houses on my father-in-law’s farm, I simply had to sneak a peek at Malawi chicken houses. I was amazed at how clean they were and how similar they were to our broiler houses here, just on a much simpler and basic scale. We left there with two chickens, fresh from the butchering that morning.

The day winded down all too soon, and it was time to head to Esther’s House to join the others and say our goodbyes to our translators. Except for our safari the next day, our Malawi trip was over. A couple were ready to go home, many of us were not, and the ones that were staying were just getting started. But we all agreed the trip was amazing, truly zosangalatsa. We prayed with our translators, gave them gifts, took pictures and said goodbye for now.

I took a picture of Esther’s House at sunset, closed my eyes and breathed in my surroundings. I felt the sadness more this trip, because I understood the stakes so much better this time. There is so much to do in Malawi. There are so many needs, physical and spiritual. There is such a hunger for God, and such a desperation for the message of hope that we as Christ-followers can provide. It puts my life into a new perspective.

I pray for the opportunity to come to Malawi again. I also pray for the grace to live my own life back home to the fullest in the meantime.