Day 3
Saturday, Sept. 13
Lifeline Malawi Guesthouse, Ngodzi
We have arrived safely and glad to be in the guesthouse after travelling for over 48 hours. Our flights were all on time and uneventful, but long, especially the Washington to Addis Ababa leg. We breezed through customs at the Lilongwe Airport with our yellow team tee shirts. We wondered about all the stares, but we found out later that canary yellow is also a political party colour. We were grateful to be met by Dr. Chris Brooks, his wife Heather, and Pat and Ann Laforet. Also there to meet us was a big truckload of mosquito nets, which they had just purchased with the money we raised! We loaded our bags on top of the nets on the “lorry” (truck).
The road trip from the airport to guesthouse was as always for those new to Africa, “eye popping,” to use Myrtis’s words. The extreme poverty, the goats and bicycles along the roadside, and the happy waving children, struck us all. The country side is brown this time of year in the dry season but the jacaranda trees are in full bloom, a beautiful deep violet. And it’s much cooler than we anticipated, and with some breeze off the lake, we reached for sweaters during supper on the guesthouse veranda.
Pastor McDuff dropped by for greetings and Connie and Hank were so glad to see him and give him the photo album done up by Janet and Chelsey Lake of the 2007 team. He was thrilled. We look forward to worshipping at “our church” tomorrow morning; he already mentioned that we need to sing the Mulango Ali Pano song. We were glad to see that the cross, which had apparently been attacked by termites, was up again.
We are all turning in early this evening after Dr. Brooks gave us a pep talk and explained some of the Malawian customs. We’re all pretty sleepy; Stephen was nodding off at the supper table!
It seemed like The Shack was required team reading as we had five copies between us. Several team members used the long flights to read it. Here is a quote that struck us as we begin our mission: “If anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again.”
Saturday, Sept. 13
Lifeline Malawi Guesthouse, Ngodzi
We have arrived safely and glad to be in the guesthouse after travelling for over 48 hours. Our flights were all on time and uneventful, but long, especially the Washington to Addis Ababa leg. We breezed through customs at the Lilongwe Airport with our yellow team tee shirts. We wondered about all the stares, but we found out later that canary yellow is also a political party colour. We were grateful to be met by Dr. Chris Brooks, his wife Heather, and Pat and Ann Laforet. Also there to meet us was a big truckload of mosquito nets, which they had just purchased with the money we raised! We loaded our bags on top of the nets on the “lorry” (truck).
The road trip from the airport to guesthouse was as always for those new to Africa, “eye popping,” to use Myrtis’s words. The extreme poverty, the goats and bicycles along the roadside, and the happy waving children, struck us all. The country side is brown this time of year in the dry season but the jacaranda trees are in full bloom, a beautiful deep violet. And it’s much cooler than we anticipated, and with some breeze off the lake, we reached for sweaters during supper on the guesthouse veranda.
Pastor McDuff dropped by for greetings and Connie and Hank were so glad to see him and give him the photo album done up by Janet and Chelsey Lake of the 2007 team. He was thrilled. We look forward to worshipping at “our church” tomorrow morning; he already mentioned that we need to sing the Mulango Ali Pano song. We were glad to see that the cross, which had apparently been attacked by termites, was up again.
We are all turning in early this evening after Dr. Brooks gave us a pep talk and explained some of the Malawian customs. We’re all pretty sleepy; Stephen was nodding off at the supper table!
It seemed like The Shack was required team reading as we had five copies between us. Several team members used the long flights to read it. Here is a quote that struck us as we begin our mission: “If anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again.”
posted by Dr. Hendrik Visser at 1:46 PM
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