Up to This Point

Well it has been quite eventful since Wednesday.


We woke up on Thursday and left for Lilongwe.  We wanted to get off early because there were quite a few things we wanted to handle in town.  Lilongwe is the capital of Malawi and is quite a large city.  It took us just over 2 hours drive to get there.

The priests are holding a Youth Rally in Bowe and were interested in inviting certain individuals to come out and say something to the youth.  Our first stop was at the International Aids Commission, because Big E had an appointment there..........and after we got there, the guy was in another meeting.

We could not wait because we had other things to do.  So disappointed that our scheduled meeting did not happened we left.  As we left I looked at Big E and this smile grew on his face as he told me, "Luke.........this is Malawi..........this is how it is"  So we laughed and got back into the car.

Our next stop was UNICEF and surprisingly the same thing happened here.  And with another blown appointment and some very funny jokes, we left and continued on.

We met up with a lady there who was friends with the Priests.  Her name was Theresa, and she is such a wonderful lady.  It was too late in the day for us to return home, it is like a death-wish to drive at night on the roads, so we ended up staying at Theresa's house and watching wonderful Nigerian Soap Operas all night.  We all sat around and talked and had a lot of fun the rest of the night and the following morning.

Friday morning we returned to Bowe with a stop at Kasungu to check up on some supplies and get a few quotes.  The plan is to finish the Kalembe Rectory very soon so that the priests can live out there.  Right now they are having to commute.

When we returned to Bowe, everyone was tired from that long drive.  So we just took it easy the rest of the night.

Saturday was a day of rest and so we all kept to ourselves, except when there was food and when there was  football.  Saturday was the start of the English Premiere League so we watched a few matches.


Sunday was a great day.  I got to go out with Big E this time to celebrate mass with him in a village which he had never been to.  So it was an experience for both of us.  The road to this place was made for a 4 Wheel Drive vehicle and nothing less.  The village was extremely remote.

This is the setup that they had for the church when we arrived.

The ceiling was a little low and Big E and I kept hitting our heads on it.

Big E said mass and it was a lot of fun to hear the people singing and watch them dancing.  Out of nowhere at the end of mass he asked me to give a speech which was fun to do.  We had a translator there of course, I have not mastered Chetimbuka yet.

Finally after mass was over, Big E had the translator call up all the orphans of the village.  We had brought 2 big sacks of clothes and also my Aunt Suzie had given me clothes from a group she is part of called St. Paula's Threads of Hope.

So after calling them up there we handed out as many clothes as we could.

Here is Big E giving clothes to these two babies.

Here I am handing these clothes to the girl in the blue shirt.

Not all the children were there at the end but this is most of them posing with the clothes that we gave them.

It was quite a exceptionally good feeling to give these orphans clothes.  To see these kids and how happy they were when they got these clothes.  And how beautiful all of them looked once they put them on.  It was very good to do this and I will continue to do this as much as I can with the priests.

That made us very happy to do that, and then we packed up and went and had lunch at the Agrupa's house which was a dirt filled rice accompanied by hairy fried chicken.  It was not too bad.

We finished up and headed back to Bowe.

As I was sitting at the computer once we got home typing this, the power went out.  And it stayed out from 5:30 - 9:30.  The longest yet.  For some reason the power goes out almost every night and sometimes during the day also.  I do not know where the source of power is but it is quite fickle.

But we manage.  we have a good supply of candles and many philosophy books to read so we are set.

It is now Monday night as I am finishing up this blog post, today was spent working tirelessly on floor plans for the new Guest house in Kalembe.

Tomorrow we finish sealing the roof of the clinic and then that will be done.