Preparation

Since last Thursday, Timeyo and I have been preparing to go out and begin to survey Bore Holes.  We met with the Catechist last week to plan our trips out into the bush to survey Bore Holes.  What we decided on is to go every Monday and Friday (or so we thought).

As Friday came around I went out with Little E to check on some crops.  They were about 30 minutes away and it was on a piece of land owned by a large corporation.  What they do is lease the land each year to people to grow their crops on this.

Here is Little E walking to check on a crop of Soya Beans

Saturday and Sunday was a retreat for the Parish so the Priests were busy with that.

On Saturday though Timeyo and Clement worked on improving the quality of the clinic roof. With all of the rainstorms which we have had, the roof has generated some leaks and we are working to find them and seal them.  So the first step was to install some flashing where the roof meets an adjacent wall.

Clement in Orange and Timeyo in Blue.  Standing on the clinic roof clearing the debris to install the flashing.

As Sunday rolled around Timeyo and I celebrated mass in the morning and then we headed to Kasungu.  We needed to buy parts for an oil change and also fuel up the truck.  As we were going we got stuck behind this truck on the road.  As I looked closer I realized they were pulling two cows which were tied up on it.  One of the cows had already  be slaughtered though and the other one was just waiting it's turn.

As we went to Kasungu we got everything we needed and went to fuel up.  We put in 40 litres (8 gallons) and it ended up costing us 27,000 Kwacha.  In US terms that is $10.34 a gallon.  So just to give you an idea of the fuel situation here.

As we were leaving the gas station the truck did not want to shift into gear.  "Well great," I thought, "How are we going to get out of this one?"  We finally got the truck into gear and headed home.

The next morning I woke up around 5 to get ready to go into the bush.  but as I found out, Timeyo had gone to Kasungu to the mechanic.

And as it turned out, the clutch plate in the truck was worn down completely.  So I headed to Kasungu with Big E and we ended up waiting there all day for the guy to replace it.

Here is Father Livinus on the left and Big E on the right as we wait at the mechanic's shop.

We got everything done and headed home.

We woke up on Tuesday and headed into the bush to survey bore holes.

I am going to leave that story for Saturday though as we are preparing again to head out tomorrow to survey more.

As I side note I had to laugh about one event which happened the other day.  I was down by the river taking a few photographs with my DSLR.  When out of nowhere a giant rainstorm was upon me.  I ran back to the house, covering my camera as best as possible.  When I got back I was drenched.  I let my camera sit for about a week in the sun to let it dry out.

When I turned it back on the auto-focus did not work anymore and it is not working at all.  So what I had was only Manual Focus now.

At first I was upset because part of my camera was damaged.  Then I realized for a while that I had been looking for ways to improve my photography skills and technical abilities. 

Now being limited to only manual-focus I recognized I now have to take more time prepare to take a picture.

Realizing God's sense of humor I laughed.

Around Malawi Again

Well it has been an interesting week.  We have had no internet at all which we still cannot figure out why .  So it has been a while since I could make a post.

Things have been of a different nature here in Bowe.  People are off busy with their farms and hunger is still am issue.  I spent one day with Little E and we went out to check on some farms.  It was interesting because we went past a tobacco company who had their smokers going with the tobacco inside.
On another day we spent repairing the roof of the clinic.  There were still some leaks happening and we are working on fixing them.  While doing so I ran across this giant milipede.

Today though Timeyo and I were supposed to start recording bore holes, but there was a problem with the transmission last night so we have d spent the day at the mechanics getting it fixed.  As it turns out the clutch plate was worn out.
So we have been sitting here, waiting for everything to be done. 
And then hopefully tomorrow we will begin again.

Renewal

Well being the Year of Faith as set by the Pope and being Lent and such it seemed a time for renewal.  But I was wondering where this renewal would come from.


I had been thinking about this for a long time.

I have to say the conditions are not the best here in Malawi.  With the lack of food and constant rains it is a pretty desperate situation here and people are desperate.

Just today one of the ladies who lives around here had her house broken into and her pots, cooking oil and potatoes stolen.  Just for the fact that people are starving and they need things.  Not justifying them in their actions because there are better ways to go about things, but that is the mood here.

It is hard to find a smile.

The spirit has to be strong to withstand the sufferings of humans.  And it has been this way since I have been back.  The constant rainstorms just add to it.

So today I started the day off with a meeting with Big E and we talked about a lot of things which was great.

But it was what happened in the afternoon that was great.

At around 4 Big E, Little E and I all met up outside and just sat around and joked and talked about life.  Although a little act it was great we could take time out from rushing around and just sit and enjoy each other.  It was a renewal of life at that point, although a little act it was enough to renew the spirit.

I spent the rest of the day walking around and gazing across the beautiful landscape filled with maize, tobacco, soy beans and sun flowers.

There is my dog friend on the right.  Every time I go out now he is always by my side and gets tense when people come around.  He is a great dog but he was afraid of the maize and tobacco plants.

Ash Wednesday

As we begin this Lenten season in Malawi it is hard to come to terms that those which I see out in the villages are starving at this point.

The outdoor Church

Ash Wednesday started out like any other Wednesday.

I has spoken with Little E the night before and asked him what time mass was going to be and he told me 9 am.

Perfect I thought, I will have enough time to gather myself in the morning and do a few things before mass.  So I woke up Wednesday morning and got up and shaved and prepared myself quite well with good clothes and such.

It was about 8:45 and I thought I would head over to the church and just sit there and wait.  So I walk over to the church and strangely I do not hear any music coming from the church.

I continue on to find the church doors locked.  Well as it turns out what Little E meant was that mass was at 9 am, but, 9 am in the village.  So I completely missed it.  Well great I thought, what am I going to do now, I do not think I have ever missed Ash Wednesday mass.

Luckily Big E was heading out soon to go to the village........realizing I was heading to the village I went back to my room and changed my clothes to more mud, dirt and rain suitable clothes.

And we were off.

The problem with the rain in Malawi is that there is a lot of it.  I mean a lot.  I think one storm went for 9 hours the other day.  One of the results of these long rains is the erosion of the road.  Because of this you have to drive slower because there are more rocks, potholes and puddles/ponds/lakes.

So we went to a village which usually takes 30 minutes to get to.  This time it took just under an hour.  When we got there the people were waiting and we began mass.  Luckily we did it outside where there was good ventilation.

The congregation, I was sitting under that tree on the left and this bug came down and bit me and it really hurt.

Surprisingly mass only lasted 90 minutes.  I was kind of astonished by this but I can understand now reflecting back on it.

This is farming season and the means of survival are the crops which these people go.  How much do we need to deprive them of tending to their crops?  Mass is important, but so is living.  So there is an interesting balance which I am discovering here.

After we finished mass we packed up and left.  I quickly ran over to the church and took measurements of it so I could draft it up later.

Once we got home that was about the end of Ash Wednesday.  We watched mass from the Vatican and sat around and talked about the Pope.

Big E during his Homily as rain clouds roll in

The mood in Malawi has changed because of the farming season.   I see less people meddling about because they are always tending to their farms.  At daily mass there is a handful of people there because people are tending to their farms.

To The Orphans

Well I was not sure how many days I would have for rest before I started work again but it turned out to be 1.

Wednesday I spent a lot of time in bed sleeping, I had not recovered from the flight or from the jet lag.  I think it was harder to get accustomed to the environment because it was such a difference from Texas.

It is the rainy season now and everything is green and wet and the air is humid.  The weather changed a couple times during the day from hot to cold to mild to overcast.  So it is taking a sec for my body to get accustomed to the climate.

Thursday and Friday were great days.  We were going to go around to the schools where we had sponsored orphans that went to school there (we pay for their tuition and take care of them at school).

I was excited to do this because it would give me a chance to meet the children and also to meet the headmasters.

So on Thursday we headed off North about 2 hours to a school called Katete Girls School.  We had two orphans there which we were going to see; Princess and Andrea.

After I met them and we covered everything I walked around the school and decided to pop my head into one of the classrooms and the children were filled with delight and began singing a song to me.  This made me really happy and I was going along with them for a bit and then we had to leave.

The rest of Thursday we went around to other schools and the last one we went to the headmaster was gone because the day before one of the students had been hit by a car and they were at a funeral.

Friday we woke up and got a little bit of a later start.  We had a long drive ahead of us again.  We visited the school again where the headmaster was gone and then we headed deep into the bush.  It took about 1 1/2 hours to get to the school which is called Chulu CDSS.  The girl which we sponsor there is Angela.

I am not sure what it is about these kids but they do not like to smile for pictures.

Here is Angela, I pulled her outside to get a picture of her.

The last school we went to was Chilanga School for the Blind.  I was very excited to go here again, this would be my third trip.

The girl here, whom I have written about before is Teresa.  She lost her sight about 2 years ago but it extremely positive, happy and smart.  It is always a treat to go and see her.  She always has a smile on her face except when she takes a picture with me.

The teachers says she is excelling in school.

So that was Thursday and Friday.  Saturday we relaxed at Bowe and Sunday we relaxed also.  Right now is the CAF Finals and Nigeria is in the finals so I am finishing writing this post at halftime so I can go catch the rest of the game.

I hope to start researching architecture here soon among all the other projects and so I will begin to spend more time in the villages and speak with the people there and spend more time with them.

We are preparing for ash Wednesday and we kind of made a joke about what we were giving up.

It went something along the lines of, "Well we could fast for lent but there is so little food to eat anyways that if we did fast then we would not be eating at all."  And we laughed about it.

So I am thinking of taking something on rather than giving something up for Lent this year.

Back in Malawi

Well the title says it all, I am back in Malawi now.  I got in yesterday but have been exhausted.  I ended up sleeping until around 4 today and am now just getting to this post.

Well the break in the US was good.  I spent most of it planning for a wedding, which luckily I will never have to do again.  Araceli is planning on making a trip here before the wedding so she can get a lay of the land.

Of course I have to say that things are quite different here.

When I left in December, the rainy season had just begun and there were beginning to be big storms.  But now as I have returned the landscape has completely transformed.  It is hard for me to find a patch of dirt anywhere (okay a little dramatized).  But everything here is green green green.

When I got into Malawi yesterday and we headed to the house a storm had just rolled in and it went from about 6pm yesterday till about 5 am today.  It was quite a storm.  As I walk in the dirt outside my feet sink into the ground because of how wet it is.  

I have not ventured out too far today though, I am still tired and will rest some more.

The plane rides were not too bad.  I took the Washington > Addis Ababa route.  The most memorable part of the flight was the large lady next to me who ended up sitting with me in my seat because her's was too small.  That definitely made for an uncomfortable flight.  But luckily when I landed in Addis Ababa I just stepped off one plane and literally stepped onto the next one.  There was no lag time in-between which was nice.

I was greeted at the airport by Timeyo and Father Livinus and it was great to see them.  I fixed up my phone and got a smart card and then we headed to Bowe.

When I got to Bowe I was greeted by all of my friends:  Big E, Little E, Adada and of course the cold shower.

Since it has been storming there has not been a lot of sunlight and we have a solar water heater.  So it welcomed me with a nice shivering hug.  But it did nonetheless feel nice after that long flight.

We are all here now.  The fathers are watching  a futbol match from the CAF where Nigeria is playing.  

And I am just finishing up cleaning my room and will hopefully eat soon.

I thank everyone for their support.  I hope that in the next 2 days I can be back on my feet and will be ready to rock and roll.

I have 3 months to build a house for Araceli and I.  After our wedding in June we are honeymooning and then heading straight back to Malawi.  So since I leave in May I have to get this house built before that time.

So it is going to be a busy busy 3 months.