Sunday June 29th- African Church

I am not a church gal, but I’ve always wanted to experience a traditional African church. They look like so much fun in movies and on TV. There is a Presbyterian church at the bottom of the hill so we were planning on walking to the 8:30 service. The Chichewa service is much earlier but that one is impossible to understand so they recommended the English service at 8:30am. We weren’t exactly sure what time it started but we started walking down the hill around 8am. My gosh! I have never seen so many monkeys in my life! They were everywhere! We probably saw close to 20 as we were walking down the mountain.

Typical Malawian time, but it was close to 8:30am when we could go inside. As we waited outside I noticed a lot of cars and the people were very well dressed- their finest African dresses and heals. This church had a lot of wealthy families. Especially if they were educated well enough to attend English service, they are the wealthiest in town for sure.

It was also a very nice church. They had stained glass, electricity, lots of clocks and even a microphone and sound system. The church didn’t look too different than one you could find at home. At Malawi Institute of Education (MIE), Annie’s Lodge and at this church I felt like those building are all very similar to something at home. When I’m in those buildings, I don’t feel like I’m in Africa.

The service started and they mentioned the guests here today. They asked us to all come to the front and explain why we are here. They welcomed us to their church and were glad we came to worship with them. They told us to meet them in the next room after the service for some tea. There were 3 other guests that came up as well, and we were all the white people in the room.

A lady spoke to make announcements about some upcoming weddings. Instead of a typical congratulations, she asked if anyone knew the groom or bride and to let the church know if they have another husband or wife before their wedding date. haha

We sang a couple songs but it wasn’t anything unique. They mentioned the choir competition we walked by the day before. Their church got 1st place!

As I was leaving, I saw Jeans sister!! I briefly said hello!

After church we waited outside until the ladies invited us inside for tea. We had some tea and bread and chatted with some of the locals. They were very pleasant and it was so thoughtful of them to invite us for tea. I don’t like tea, but I had some and it actually wasn’t bad. We met a man who teachers at Chancellor College and he teaches teachers how to teach children who are blind. We all enjoyed talking with him and learning about his work.

After church, we headed over to tasty bites! I ordered a Pizza and it was very good. Its much cheaper than Annie’s Lodge. I realized that none of the Menu’s I’ve seen have appetizers, they call them “snacks”. Tasty bites is run by a Muslims family and we have made friends with all of them!

I was kinda let down by the church. I was hoping it would be more of a traditional African church… (You know with the “praise the lord/ hallelujah dancing and singing) but it wasn’t any different then anything I’ve seen before. Krista knew it was going to be just like home but she knew how excited I was so she didn’t want to burst my bubble and ruin it for me. Haha

At Tasty Bites we were talking about Obama. Apparently his father is from Kenya. Dr. Kelly says its very easy for her to distinguish a Kenyan from another black person. They have a very particular look. I haven’t been able to find something in common with all Malawians but I’m interested to find out if there are people who can pick out a Malawian.

We found out Tasty Bites have samosas. Peter brought Samosas to our party and we are obsessed. Apparently you can get them at home, but none of us have seen them before. They are a traditionally Greek food and they are filling and very cheap. We will be getting lots!

We got back to Annie’s Lodge and we were hoping to move rooms this weekend. They had a room available at the top of the mountain. We went up to take a look before we decided, and the view was out of this world! We definitely wanted to move up here. The room was smaller, but it was newer and definitely worth it. Henry and Cameron helped us carry up all of our luggage. We knew we would be moving so we never really unpacked our stuff. So it was nice to be able to unpack fully in our new room. The hill is very intense; we will be burning lots of calories. I can already feel it in my legs!

If you look out into the distance from our porch you can see Lake Chilwa. Another thing we noticed is that every hotel we have stayed at has those traditional door keys and locks. I have the hardest time opening it but Krista got the hang of it. The shower pressure and heat is also better in our new room!

Krista and I were so involved in unpacking we missed an hour of class. The VT students met at the bottom of the hill to talk about a chapter. Oops. Thankfully Amber came to get us! Dr. Kelly wanted to meet and have an overview of some topics before the week began. We sat outside and chatted. Hopefully my notes make sense:

*Banda was president for life. He never admitted the poverty in the country. It’s hard to define poverty b/c there are so many different opinions about what poverty is. Economics statistics made the country look stable because of the tea plantations.
*Its illegal to sell corn during a certain time to protect peoples corn from being stolen.
*Banda finally consented to multiparty elections b/c donors were pulling out and the country was falling apart. Now presidents can only serve two 5 year terms.
*Maluzi was the 2nd president and was elected 2 terms and tried to change the constitution to be able to allow a president to serve more than 2 terms.
*Next election is in May 2009. Mutrika is the current president and you see his face everywhere.

*We talked about how everyone in Malawi wants a government job but you don’t have to do anything for the job, just show up.
*Multiparty does not necessarily mean democracy. Malawi currently has a democracy but it’s not the democracy as we know it. There is a thought that maybe democracy isn’t the best thing for them.
*Remember how confused we were when we saw the “millennium 2000” signs in Ethiopia? Well we learned that in order to be a millennium 2000 country it means you are able to receive USA aid. You have to meet a hole long list of requirements. Last year Malawi finally made the list. Ethiopia made the list before Malawi did. I was surprised to hear that.
*We talked about a lady who is a 3rd generation Malawian but she’s not a Malawian citizen so she can’t own land. Apparently there is no concept to borrow money to build a house or start a business. You have to earn enough yourself. Throughout Malawi its very common to see houses halfway finished because they have only earned enough to complete half their house.
*IMF is when Europeans control who leads up the organization. US controls the world bank and we select the person who leads up the organization. For the most part IMF agrees but sometimes they split up who is responsible for specific countries. IMF and World Bank give loans. Malawi doesn’t want to use their money because they will eventually owe it back and pay interest. They prefer to get help from Germans, British and the Danish. Usually they forgive the interest but they are a business and they have to make money too. Money from these organizations never make it down to the villages.
*USAID does not give money to country, they give grants and they monitor every cents they give out to make sure its being put to good use. Malawians would prefer us to just give them the money.
*The Malawi constitution was passed in one day. The working is incoherent, its contradicts itself, difficult to interpret and its very specific. They have amendments and most of the amendments contradict what the constitution says. *They have set up traditional courts but they are more like tribal courts. The judges are tribal leaders- not real judges. Some of the sentences are death sentences.
*Parliament carries pistols.
*Educated people believe in witch craft.
*On July 6th we will see people wearing solid yellow and that means they are Democratic.

After our class I sat outside and enjoyed the weather while I worked on my computer. Radford girls were busy putting together big books they made for their classes. Krista and I were prepared with our weather lesson for Monday.

It was Liz’s birthday but she seemed a little off. We thought she was worried about Brian but she told us she had just found out her husband was back in the hospital. Apparently he had a kidney replacement not to long ago and they were afraid he was rejecting it. She’s been a trooper and so far everything is okay. She talks to him all the time. We don’t want her to leave but at the same time we know she wants to be with her husband.

The Canadians from Friday night came to pick some girls up to play volleyball. A handful of them went but most of us stayed back and just rested. Throughout the day no one had heard from Brian but finally Liz got a phone call. He was in Lilongwe with Peter and was going to come back Monday morning. He partied over the weekend and drank a drink that had ice and has gotten sick. This is not good news. Everyone was very worried.

As we have come to expect it, we lost power again tonight. Since everything I needed to do revolved around power, I sat around and just waited until the power came back on. Brittany and I visited Amy and Mandy as they worked on their poster by candlelight. We bought cake and celebrated Heidi’s and Liz’s birthday. ☺

P.S. I know my mom doesn’t want to hear about this but the shower this morning was miserable. For some reason it wouldn’t get warm. So I couldn’t wash my hair and I was yucky all day. Thankfully that was the only day and everyday since has been great. The pressure and heat is even better on the top of the hill.

I know this is crazy talk, but oddly enough I feel like I fit in here. I obviously sick out but it doesn’t bother me because I am accepted here and I feel comfortable. I never thought a white person could feel that way in Africa. I think our advisors are so knowledgeable and confident that they don’t put us in danger so of course we feel safe. I know that’s not always the case. Krista and I talked about this one night… we can honestly picture ourselves living here. It’s not s stretch to say it’s a possibility. Don’t freak out Mrs. Patrick and mom! It was just a thought- nothing serious! But I definitely plan to keep Malawi a part of my life. It’s a part of me and I somewhat feel attached to it. I have spent all this time, effort and money into learning about the country and culture it would be a dis-service to put that all to waste. Plus I love what the people have to teach us! These people are so happy and grateful, and when you are around these people you can’t help but be happy too! I love that, why wouldn’t I want to keep that in my life?