Muli Bwangi family and friends!!!...please forward to friends...
i arrived safely i think 2 and half weeks ago from my 2 day flight, and jet lag has finally left me!
hope that all is well back in the states...i havent recieved email, so no news is always good news. excuse my lack of typing ability because this keyboard is a spaz...and sorry its so long.
okay so the low down on what i have been doing across the world. still hasnt set in how far i am from home. today i was picturing that globe we used to have and playing that game where you spin it and where your finger stops that where you will go. i guess i really liked that game. cuz i think im living it. malawi is so different than home, i would say amazing, like every place i travel but that isnt descriptive.... to make a better picture..
starting with the first week here, we had cultural training, hence why i havent emailed since i got here. weird to see this thing despite it beeing from 1998, but whatever. haha. okay so once we arrived we went dirrectly to the childrens orphanage to have a welcome celemony. pretty amazing video footage. then the next day or something. we went to the market to buy food for a malawi family for a meal and the money which was less than 15 buck should buy a family of 6 a whole days worth of food. we were sent with a list in chichewa, no translators, just national interns (from malawi) to keep us out of danger... anyways we went to town on public transport and searched for food items while still keeping in buget. pretty eye opening experience. or nose opening due to the emense amount of fish kept on tables and smelled awful and when we went to buy them, they seller offered for us to taste it!! what!! no thanks!...and yeah we were supposed to buy a live chicken, our group but the others did.... and then we killled it back at our village for dinner so now i am a vegetarian..(also the food isnt what we'd call gormet, but good). which has been hard seeing every meal has meat and rice. thank God for rice! that was the bulk of the culture shock, i mean training...
our weeks are planned out, so MWF we walk to the village next to our compound called Mgwayi (yep they love the 3 consants in a row) for outreach minesty with the children: play games, sing songs, give a message, small groups.. like VBS.. then on TU and Thurs morning we also go the same village to meet with the same family each week. mine consists of a g-ma and g-pa who have always been gone... and 7 kids that stay with them in a house the size of a short full mattress but no mattress just dirt. so its been hard to experience their lives and so meaningful, prolly my favorite thing yet, i have been sititng with their daughter who is 30 max and helping her mend clothes, and playing with the abundant amount of children every where. that village over flows with smiles every time we enter and never ceases, its amazing to be able to see such joy when they have so little. Tue and Thurs afternoon ive been teaching art with Sarah to two diff age groups, younger on tues older on thurs. its been interesting to see how little they know about basic art, and the fact depite age difference they are on the same learning level... its been amazing have 2 translators each time, to help with games, explanation and flat out keeping 20 kids under control. however this week was a little diff with the older ones. seeing BOTH translators were sick. so sarah and i managed to teach a lesson and have the kids be sucessful with only a few basic phrases. the key one being, sit down (cali pansi)!
i dont know if you all know that FLood church has a another church here that they started but we have been able to go there which has been amazing! and a comfort in the mist of the chaos here. and we also have been blessed with going to a church in the same village as the art lessons (mtsiliza), also some more great videos...
the 4th of july was also celebrated here so i hope you all celbrated it there too. we even had awesome fireworks, not exactly the same laws as Cali!!! also a team of 40 from florida arrived that day and have been here since but are leaving tomorrow to be replaced with 2 more teams of like 15 or so. its nice to see some new faces every once in a while.
miss you all!!!!! email me! so i can hear some news from home, or any news seeing i havent touched a newspaper in 3 weeks almost!! ahh!
okay love you!
xoxo leslie
