This month in Malawi our team is apart of Unsung Heroes, which means our mission is to find new ministry contacts here in Malawi. All month we have been meeting with people from all different ministries who are doing amazing kingdom work here. My biggest fear going into this month was that we were going to sit around all day and never do ministry work. I was surely mistaken. Although we have had quite a bit of down time, we have also been apart of really cool work here. We have seen a lot of awesome orphanages, seen many villages, and have met some amazing pastors. This month has been such a pleasant surprise and I am so thankful that I was able to end my race doing this kind of work.
The past two days have been some of my favorite days in Malawi. A few nights ago we were invited into our friend Chicken Leg’s house (that’s the name he goes by- no joke), a man who some of our guys befriended at our hostel. He works in the market here and has sold us some pretty amazing artwork. He invited us to eat dinner with his family, talk about God, and sing and dance. We took a public mini bus to get to his village and as we arrived, the five of us were circled by 30 something men all on bicycles asking (yelling) at us to get on their bikes. We looked at them like they were crazy until Chicken Legs told us to get on them. So the chaos increased as we picked what bike to get on until finally we were riding through his village. I felt like we were in a parade. The people from the village all did double takes as we drove by. Children started to point, laugh, and run to us. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever experienced- laughed the WHOLE time. When we finally arrived to his house, we sat down and met his family. They wanted us to pray with them, read some of our favorite verses in the bible, and sing African worship songs while dancing. It was a riot- I do not move like an African when dancing but I did my best. After a lot of songs and dancing, we ate down and had a delicious meal prepared by his family. We ate by candlelight because the power had gone out, which just added to the experience. It was an amazing night with Chicken Legs and his family. When we left, we were able to walk through the dark village because he told us no one could see our white skin so we would blend in (he took us on the bikes so we didn’t get surrounded by locals trying to talk to us- he wanted a quick getaway). Since the power was still out, we had to find our way through the village with just the stars’ light to guide us. He took us through winding alleyways, and very uneven roads. We all felt like we were on something as we were walking because every few feet we would trip on a rock or an uneven hill. We finally made our way back to the main road and caught a bus home to our hostel. Overall, it was a wonderful night filled with love and a lot of laughter.
The next night a few of us woke up early to travel to a remote village a few hours out of the city for a coronation ceremony for a new village head. We also planned to interview them to become a possible new ministry site for teams to come to in the future. We arrived at the bus station, got on a bus, and proceeded to sit there for 2 hours until the entire bus filled up. I was bus buddies with a lovely couple to my right and a chicken to my left. We finally left the station only to turn back to get gas. Finally we arrived 3 hours later in a village we had never been before, trying to meet with a man whom we had never met. Suddenly a man swooped us all up in a hug and introduced himself. He quickly led us to a pickup truck, so we got in the back, skirts and all, and drove with the wind in our faces to his village. We had a quick tour as we walked down the main road, and then was led into his house to change. His family gave us authentic village tribal clothing to wear at the ceremony so we could match the rest of his family. So with our African fabric and beads on, we sat down to meet the rest of his family. We had another delicious authentic Malawian meat (goat meat and all) and afterwards saw the school and orphanage. Afterwards we were led into the ceremony that thousands of villagers were attending. The ceremony started with the men of the village (wearing animal skin skirts and no shirts) dancing around the new chief, as the ladies danced in the outer circle. We were asked (pushed) into joining the ladies routine and suddenly we were center stage dancing in front of the whole village. As you can imagine, everyone got a kick out of us trying to dance. When the intro to the ceremony finished, we sat down to enjoy the rest of the ceremony. It is tradition that villagers and friends/family of the new chief and his wife will come and dance with them as they proceeded to throw money at them as a sign of respect. This lasted for hours. Finally it was the Americans’ turn! Our friend slipped us a wad of cash to throw and dance with, and suddenly we were dancing again in front of the whole village while throwing cash at the new chief and his wife. The whole thing was hysterical.
As the ceremony died down, we were led back to our friend’s house who fed us another amazing meal, talked about what we were doing in Malawi and around the world, and then met more of his family. We had to leave to be able to catch a bus back so we had to leave pretty soon after the ceremony ended. As we were leaving, we were given a huge bag of beans to take home and popcorn as a thank you. We felt so blessed by their family. We were able to pray for his family and their ministry and were walked to the main road to catch the bus. As we were walking back to the main road, we looked up and saw the brilliant African night sky- the most amazing stars I have ever seen. It took my breath away- which is pretty rare for me. It seriously stared up at the sky the whole way back to the road (luckily this time it was a flatter surface). When we got to the main road we tried to get a few buses to stop, but they were all full. Finally a man pulled over in a nice SUV and asked where we were headed. As it turns out, they were headed to the city as well and without any hesitation (sorry Mom) we got in their car. They were both wearing suits, and told us that they worked for the Malawian president. At that point anything besides a public bus was fine by us. The men turned out to be great guys (even though in retrospect we did hitchhike in the middle of God knows where Africa with strange men in suits) and bought us all Fanta mid ride. We arrived back to our site around 9 that night and when we tried to pay the two men, they refused the cash and told them to give it to someone who needed it more than them. When I finally laid down to sleep that night in my tent, I was exhausted from the day, but so content. I had just lived a life of a true Malawian. It was a perfect way to end the race. Still wearing the smile that I had on last night.
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In just under a week our team heads into our final debrief at Lake Malawi for some relaxation and togetherness before saying bye. It’s been one heck of a ride on this crazy journey around the world. I have a farewell blog coming soon!
