Every night here in Malawi, I fall asleep in my tent under a mango tree. Just outside of my tent is the sweet smell of fresh mangos, ready to be eaten. We actually have seven mango trees on our property, so we have practically unlimited numbers of mangos to eat. I lay in my tent with the sounds of the massive crickets unavoidable, before putting in my headphones to fall asleep to worship music. My favorite this week has been the new Jesus Culture album.
Every morning here in Malawi, I wake up around 5 am to the sound of the chickens being let outside. The roosters crow, the chickens make chicken noises (which actually sound a lot like raptors in Jurassic Park), and they all walk right by my tent. As much as I hate being woken up, I love that I can always look at my watch and know that I still have at least another two hours I can sleep.
There are two towns on either side of us: Mzuzu is 30 minutes one way, Nkhata Bay 30 minutes the other. The latter is right on Lake Malawi, so this is our second month in a row being close to a lake. Any time we want to leave the village to get internet and power, we catch a ride on the side of the road. That really isn’t all that unusual or exciting for us. Last month, we caught dala dalas (15 passenger city buses) everywhere. The new and fun part of the transportation here is that instead of taking buses, we usually catch rides on the back of pick up trucks! That is actual public transportation here. The pastor here who usually goes to town with us has been amazed that we actually like riding in the trucks like that, but we expained to him that it is illegal to ride like that in most of America. Plus, we love feeling the wind instead of being smooshed into a van.
Photo from our drive to town the other day.
Last week, before we left Tanzania, I asked God to take me to a place where I could be alone with Him in nature. At home, I usually spend my quiet time by the water, coffee and Bible in hand. I haven’t had much of an opportunity to do that since arriving in Africa, because it usually hasn’t been safe for us to leave the house alone. Plus, anytime we go anywhere, our pale skin draws the attention of every child in sight. So as we drove up the windy road through the mountains on Sunday night, anticipating our newest home, I was excited. The further we got out of town, the more I was confident I would be blessed with an opportunity for quiet time, away from people. As I type this blog, I am laying in my hammock, under yet another mango tree, music in my ears and free of children. God pulled through for me like He always does!
Africa is an amazing continent, but the last two months have been hard. Its been hard for most everyone on my squad, really. My last month here in Africa was supposed to be spent in Mozambique. In fact, most of my squad is still en route to their ministry locations in Mozambique. Instead, I am spending my month in a country known as ‘The Warm Heart of Africa.’ Most months on the Race are spent in the same location in a country for the whole month. However, our ministry with Harvesters International has us moving to three different locations around Malawi. Not only do we get to enjoy Malawi for the month, we get to enjoy a large portion of the country! In five day, we will be moving on to a new village, to new communities and new surroundings.
Even just five days into the month, I am feeling refreshed. I have heard amazing things about this place from previous World Racers, and I can see why! I am so overjoyed to be here, and so excited to see what God has in store for the rest of the month.
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Please keep an eye out for an important blog coming up that shares some ways you can get involved with our ministry this month!
