Starry, Sandy, Salima!!

On Friday we had lunch at Duncan and Linda's house with the Swiney family. Arica, Greg, and Spencer tried a Malawian dish called Mbewa, it's prepared by being boiled in salt and water, it's then dried and eaten whole. Apparently it has a slightly furry taste and is a little crunchy due to the bones. (Mbewa (m-bay-wa) means mice in Chichewa). Luckily we had some Sobo for our fearless members to wash this culturally unique dish down with! : ). After the Mbewa experience we had an announcement from Duncan. As the adorable couple of Duncan and Linda stood in the doorway they announced that they had news to share; being the American team that we are, all of us assumed that Linda was pregnant. Duncan went on to say that the students from Mzuzu, whom we stayed with our first full week in Malawi, had gotten us each an Independence Day Chitenje.

After lunch we picked up students and after waiting, and waiting, and waiting on the bus we made a 1.5 hour bus ride in 4 hours getting 3 times stuck in sand dunes before we reached the lodge/conference center that was our destination for the weekend. Pushing the bus out of the sand was interesting but we amused ourselves and our Malawian friends by singing in both Chichewa and English for the last hour or so. While we were waiting for the bus to be unstuck we got a magnificent glance of the night sky including the Milky Way. After arriving at the Conference Center several hours late the decision was made to cut our evening session, have supper at ten and retire for the evening. The Lodge was very near Lake Malawi and it was very windy but the sand was soft and the accommodations were comfortable.

Friday night several students accepted responsibilities for the weekend from our team Spencer was appointed time keeper by virtue of having a watch and being an American, Linda (Duncan's wife), and Greg were appointed security team, Sarah was put in charge of recreation activities, and Irena was put in charge of meals.

Weekend Menu

Breakfast: eggs, chips, sandwiches (butter, peanut butter, jam, honey (not Saturday morning)

Lunch: Chicken, rice/nsima, vegetables

Supper: (Friday): Stew, rice/nsima, cabbage (Saturday): Fish (chambo), rice/nsima, vegetables

Since mosquitoes abound near the lake we were instructed to make use of the mosquito nets, while some of us were grateful and slept wonderfully, other members of the team became entangled with the net and had odd dreams about strangers standing over them in the night. While some were entangled in the net others poked the person sleeping with them unsure who was beside them. This was a nightly occurrence for the duration of the weekend.

Saturday morning we commenced our Bible Study, a manuscript study on Genesis 12-17. Chris and Craig led while we helped teach some of the Malawian student leaders how to do manuscript study. We had good discussions and finished chapter 12 Saturday morning. The afternoon we had free, other than studying chapters 13 and 14 on our own. We napped, swam in the Lake, built sand castles with the kids, jumped on sand dunes and walked on the beach, enjoyed the hammocks and Spencer championed our team by winning the high jumping contest. After our evening session covering chapter 15 we had supper supper, (see menu). Then we played cards, went star tripping, and star gazing, and had some engaging discussions, and decided on a brief sunrise service for Sunday morning. While star gazing we learned some new Chichewa words (Nyenyezi – stars, Mwezi – moon, and Dzuwa – sun).

Sunday morning we got up at 6 to see the sunrise over the lake and learned some new Chichewa songs. After breakfast at 7 (see menu) and quiet time, we began our morning session at 8 and covered chapters 16-17, then embarked on a wrap up session, before lunch. Lunch was at 11, then we packed and disembarked after group pictures around noon. This time we took precautions against getting stuck in the sand by having everyone disembark and driving through the sand at a high rate of speed. We dropped off some students before returning to the house and preparing to host the SCOM staff for a thank you/send off celebration.

We did some unpacking and some packing before the SCOM staff in Lilongwe arrived for a send off party of hamburgers, steak, and chicken on the grill. Only meat, which for some of us was quite alright =P. There was quite the spectacle as the team attempted to open the pop bottle Malawian style. Great rejoicing took place when Arica succeeded in opening one at the end of the evening. There was some good discussion and encouragement as well as some pretty speeches by Brian, the chair person of the SCOM board of directors, and Craig, our fearless leader. We said most of our good byes and settled in for our last team meeting in Malawi and some packing as we're to leave for South Africa tomorrow at 11. That being the case this is our last blog from Malawi. : (. As such we would like to say thank you for all the email, and especially for the prayer.

Prayer Requests: Safe Travel (tomorrow and Saturday), Closure during the Team Debriefing, The SCOM secondary school conferences at the end of this month (next weekend), and the Swiney's finding a child

I hope you're prepared to see us, hear our stories, and (to our parents) smell us and put up with our laundry.

From: Arita (Arica) and Maddie (Maggie) as Grace named us.

Ndpita (Good-bye)