Malawi Gone Wild

Monday, May 28, 2007

Malawi Gone Wild Antecdotes from life around here these days... Mr. Blessings: A malawian man named Blessings helps in my class for a little while each afternoon. He is great with the kids and they love him. I appreciate his point of view and the fact that he helps me grade papers! Anyway, last Saturday 15 theives came to his house. Long story short, somehow Mr. Blessings and his wife were able to keep the men out of the house, however, they were both cut up and down their hands and arms by the ponga knives, and Mr. Blessings still has a gnarley gash on his head that isn't healing properly. Their four children saw the whole thing. Whats rad, though, is that it wasn't worse - 15 men against just one? yeah for sure God was there! My students finally got to see Mr Blessings today. We had a powerful prayer time with him, I wish you could have been there! J & T: Some people I play frisbee with were robbed recently. Some men broke into their house, tied the husband up and took the wife away to rape her. She told them she had AIDS, and because she has skin problems, they believed her. Thankfully she was not raped, but I'm not sure if they has stuff stolen after all that or not. I bet they're really happy to be returning to America soon, because this is not the sort of thing that makes you glad you live in a country like this! Jessica: A friend of mine rents an appt off the side of the house of a man who owns a local resturant. Crazy stuff with their night guard, he tipped some theives off to let them know the best time to come rob Brian and Hope. When Hope came home, she found her guard and her husband tied up, with knives and guns pointed to them. She was instructed to give the theives all the money, so they made off with about $500 US and some thousand Kwacha. Jessica awoke in the middle of the night to the noises of this, but thankfully was not a part of it. I don't blame her for wanting to spend the night at our place tonight, though! so crazy... so close to home...! Gerald: In class today I was asking my Malawian students what their names meant. Limbikani's name means "stong man" or something like that, so, as he is my smallest kid, I had to give him a hard time about that. In the middle of this, Gerald pipes up "My name is Gerald Happy Rainbow!!" and that, being the funniest and most unexpected thing I've heard in a while, sent me lauging for pretty much the rest of the day. I mean, I guess no one could help it if his last name means Rainbow, but could you imagine a name like that at home?!? Ooh man I love that kid! Person Vs Mini bus: Dorothy and I saw a person get run over by a mini bus today. Literally. We saw their hand waving from under the bus, as the crowds gathered. The way people drive around here, I'm surprised that's the first time I've seen this happen. But still. Not every day that you see someone get taken out while they're walking on the side of the road. President's Wife: The President of Malawi's wife died today, and to show respect, it looks like all businesses in the country will be required to shut down until the funeral, which, they say, will be no sooner than three days from now. If we don't close school, they can take away our TEP's (international work permit-ish things). So, who knows if I even have these last two weeks with my class! So What? Well, you sure could pray for us here! I don't know if this is the theif season or what, but it sure makes me thankful for the bars I have across all the doors and windows in my house. Pray that my guard, will remain awake and alert throughout the nights. Yeah, sleeping night guards in the middle of all this chaos, cool hu? I ought to share some Mt Dew with them! Pray for the many people around here who live with this reality all the time, and who have no way to protect against it. Pray for Mr. Blessings and his family, for J & T, for Jessica, Brian and Hope, and the person who lost against the mini bus today. Ooh yeah, come to think of it, one of my students said their dad was atacked by theives when he was in his car this weekend. Where to I live again? Man... And yet, it's rad to see the hand of God moving around here in so many ways... And...dun dun dun... it's officially Mouse on a Stick season. Could have bought some from a guy on the side of the road today. Maybe I will tomorrow... I miss you all...!!