Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Life in Malawi

Well, it’s week two of my adventures in Malawi! I have a totally new appreciation for email, as the past two weeks have been full of walking 30 minutes to an hour to the next town- just to deliver a note requesting a meeting with their school. Then two days later, we make the same walk back to the school to do a presentation about human rights for the kids. It makes me laugh that I use to get frustrated with email communication at my old job in the states!  However, those walks have resulted in very fruitful conversations with our new TAYO friends, and it is actually a lot of fun walking with them and looking across the beautiful mountains and fields of tea leaves.

Speaking of tea leaves, I don’t think I will ever look at tea the same. Every day I pass fields of workers with a bucket strapped to their back, hand-picking each tea leaf and throwing it in the bucket behind them. I have seen them continuing in blazing heat, in torrential rain, and with mosquitoes all around them. The next time you drink an awesome, cold glass of sweet tea, or enjoy a cup of hot tea with a friend- think of the Malawians. Pray for the women who work in these fields, that they would know the beauty of the Lord, that someone would share with them the freedom that’s found in the Jesus Christ.

Today while sitting at TAYO before a meeting, the girls got a hold of my hair! We are close enough now that they feel comfortable enough to play with my pony tail, they’ve asked Shaila and I both if we have ever had braids. Of course, our answer was no. I told Nafae she could play with my hair anytime she felt like it, meaning- I love people playing with my hair, not necessarily braiding it. After which, she proceeded to take my clip down and braid my hair. Two girls worked on mine, and two or three worked on Shaila’s. Yea, we pretty much look awesome. One of the police officer’s we saw while walking home greeted us with “Good afternoon sisters.” I feel like we’re pretty much in ;).

I apologize that there are not pictures yet, I am trying to paint pictures with words since uploading may not ever be a possibility. I will try to do one post with just pictures soon! Thanks for staying updated, and for praying! Feel free to drop me a line and update me on your life and how I can be praying for you!