Getting Accustomed Again

Well it has almost been a week since I have been back here in Malawi and I have to say it has been tougher than I thought to get accustomed to life here again.

Adada preparing the coals for cooking

Just the other day after morning mass I returned to my room and felt sick.  I went to sleep for 5 hours after that.  It was quite strange.

The other problem is that I have picked up a book on St. Augustine called The Restless Flame and I have been staying up too late reading that also.  It is quite a fascinating book.

So in-between discussions on philosophy with the priests I have allowed myself time to get re-acquainted with the villagers.  I have been meeting new ones and old ones.

Some of the villagers pumping water

Yesterday the boys from the school invited me to join in on a futbol match.  So I did and I realized I needed to get back into shape.  But we are playing again tonight so that will be good.

There have been a few projects which I have been working on since I have been back.  The commerce center for Bowe, the guest house for Kalembe and documenting/mapping Bowe.

But as I have learned all things take time here.

What I have learned is that I have become more comfortable with the priest's and I have found myself challenging them more philosophically.  Posing questions to them about morality and values.  Not so much to make them fumble their words or stutter or even to prove them wrong.  But to have a discussion with them about these things.  I am very happy I can do that with them.

On Sunday, Big E and I went to mass together.  The village was about an hour away.  when we got there not many people had showed up for church, but we started anyways and soon people started to trickle in.  At the head of the village asked two questions to us:

1)  Can we help finish the roof of their church.  The roof was half metal and half grass, which was not a problem until it started raining and the grass did not do much.

2)  Can we bring them water.  The closest water source for them was 4 miles away.  And they had to walk it everyday.

This was the church we went to.  You can see where the metal roof ends and the grass roof begins.

Today was a very special day.  Today we decided to go back and see the blind girl (who is being sponsored by the charity) whom we dropped of at school when I was here last time.  There were 5 of us who went.  Big E, Dinge, Amama, the girls mother and I.

The girl did not know that we were coming to visit.  So we took the 35 minute trek to the school and went into the principal's office and we all sat down while the principal went to get the girl.

We were all sitting around talking when we saw them enter and so we kept quiet.  The girl was not too sure what was going on until her mom uttered a single word and the girl jumped into her arms with a big smile yelling "mama".

We sat down and talked with her for a while and she was doing very good, a very sharp girl and was learning braille quickly.

We finally departed and headed back to Bowe.

It was good to see that and to experience it.  To see that the support which people provide from all over the world is helping this little girl.  Soon she will be able to do everything by herself and will not need to rely on people to help her around.