So we’re in Estonia now in Eastern Europe and the comparison between this and Africa life is hysterical. To get the point across I’m going to post a day in the life Malawi version and a day in the life Estonia version. Here’s Malawi!:
6:30am: Wake up because I’m suffocating in my tent and may die of heat exhaustion if I don’t get out immediately. Do my hair in about 2 seconds sometimes using my little camping mirror. Get out of tent. Use outdoor squatty potty with no roof or door. Head up to the Bible School (which is just an all concrete building with no actual doors or windows, mostly just open air and a roof)
Sometime between 7:30-8: Eat breakfast which was usually shima porridge (watered down maize flour and water cooked into a watery paste with a porridge consistency). Add tons of sugar. Have powdered coffee with powdered creamer and sugar. All of this was cooked/heated up on coal stoves lit with a match and fanned by hand until hot enough to cook on. Kitchen duty is an all day task.
Around 8:30-9: Group devotion with the whole squad and Zehandi staff.
Somewhere around 9ish: Teams go off to our various ministries. Mine was usually manual labor. We put up a solar panel, dug holes for fruit trees, painted the Bible School and chicken coop, moved bricks for the new library being built, etc. Let’s pretend like today is water fetching for the brick layers. First we slather on sunscreen and sometimes bug spray, then we walk down the .75 miles on a sandy road to the well. Once we get there we sit a while in the baking sun waiting for our turn. There’s usually half a dozen women or more with about 10 buckets each or women waiting for water to do their laundry right there. Eventually one woman will probably take pity on us, grab one of our 20 liter jugs and put it in front of the line. Then we manually pump the water and fill each jug. I’ll roll a chitenge to use as a cushion on my head (or if I’m feeling crafty: use 2 to make a front-facing backpack) and then load the jug on my head, all 40 lbs of it, and hike back up to the compound. Usually when I make it to the bottom of the hill at the base of the Zehandi compound, Jeff is already on his way back down to rescue me. If we have time before the well closes at 11, we do it again.
Sometime between 12:30 and 2: Lunch. We never really know when food will be ready because cooking is a serious challenge on those coals. Or sometimes we won’t have as much food as we thought so there has to be a Plan B. Lunch will probably be what we’ve lovingly referred to as “Mud Sandwiches.” It’s a sandwich with peanut butter, jelly and butter all mixed together into a mud like filling. It’s actually delicious. I’ll be bringing it home with me for sure. Sometimes there’d be an egg on the side.
2ish: Teams leave for afternoon ministry. My team was often the ATL team. ATL is Ask The Lord. Basically we all come together and pray and wait for the Lord to speak. It’s really interesting actually. I wouldn’t necessarily say it went great, but we’re new to ATL. It’s nice to have a chance to just sit and listen in silence and wait for God to move. It takes courage and boldness to speak out anything we felt or heard or saw. It could be just one word or feeling and someone else may have had the same thought in their minds. You never know what God can do through it unless you speak up.
5-7ish: Free time. This is usually spent laying on the floor of the Bible School since there’s really no where else to go to escape from the sun. Sometimes games were played or naps were had.
Sometime between 7 and 8: Dinner. This could be a lot of different things. Shima, corn maize mixed with flour into an almost mashed potato consistency, and soya (soy meat, yay!). Or maybe pasta. Or one time we had curry. We had rice a lot. I will never take cooking rice for granted in America again. We had to manually clean the rice which takes HOURS even with all hands on deck.
After dinner: Squad time or team time. Bible studies, games, whatever as long as it’s together.
Usually around 9 or 10: Off to tents to read and pass out.
Oh and if we have to travel anywhere in Malawi, it’s usually in the back of a pickup truck with about 3 times the amount of people that can safely fit. Or in a 15 passenger van with 3 times the amount of people that should safely fit. And they’ll arrive 3 hours late with 2/3rds the amount of seats you asked for. Africa time is always about 2+ hours later than you think it’s going to be for everything.
Coming soon: A Day In The Life: Estonia!!!
