Quick Trip to Malawi

You have to be swift on your feet to lead in the third world.  We have an opportunity to develop an exceptionally important relationship in the Malawian government.  So I am off to meet with John and Joan Childs to co-create a new future for Impact Malawi.  Pray for safety and wisdom as I make this journey. Things have been moving at a thousand miles an hour lately so I am looking forward to the airplane ride for sleep and recuperation.  I will be seeing an entirely new area of Malawi so I am very excited.  I am so thankful for the support of the Brockville Police Services as I also represent the fine city of Brockville on my journeys.  Thank you all for you kind support and prayers.

New Trip to Malawi!

We have the opportunity for a strategic introduction to government officials in Malawi in the next two weeks.  It will require immediate action on my part in order to take advantage of this opportunity.  If you want to join us in this immediate endeavor press the pay pal button for an instant donation toward this project.  We have already met our financial needs for the uniforms.  Anything after this posting will go towards this very important opportunity.

John and John Serving in Malawi

March 10, 2011

Dear Friends,

Here is a long report on our first week in Malawi.

We were taken to the airport by a very sick Kevin Smith, who was not in any kind of shape to do a 16 hour drive down and back, but he did it anyway.  John and I got to spend a restful night in a motel and headed to the airport at 7 a.m. for an 11 a.m. flight. Everything went smoothly, except for a “little” passport issue.  We said goodbye to Kevin and went to our room.  All of a sudden John said, “where are our passports?”  Before I could open my mouth he ran out the door.  He had left them on the dashboard after going across the border.  He ran and intercepted Kevin at a red light as he was about to enter the ramp to the freeway.  God loves us a lot.

The flight was easy.  Sixteen hours, then a two hour stop, then five more hours.  The head stewardess did not want Eli (our world traveling cat) on our laps, so every time we took him out of his carrier, when she discovered it, we had to put him back in.  But the good part is that we had an empty seat between us and the carrier was on the seat.  He was perfect for the entire trip.  What a cat!

Salim, our dear Muslim friend, had his driver pick us up at the airport and take us to our apartment.  The apartment complex is absolutely beautiful on the outside as you can see.  The inside was so different from where we stayed last time that our first thought was that we sure did have it good before and that this was the pits.  It is much smaller and very poorly supplied.  It didn’t seem possible that we would be able to make it work, especially in light of needing an office.  There was no hot water, and only one little drawer in the bedroom.  It has big cupboards which held a lot of potential for getting organized. We were glad to see a brand new microwave (but it didn’t have the right kind of cord to be used) and a toaster with no plug.

 We quickly decided that it would be good for us to have some inconveniences and that we would make it work. During our first few days we went about fixing it up. Everything here is really expensive so John made little waste cans out of cardboard boxes and put a plug on the toaster while I arranged suitcases and covered them with a cloth to make a kind of table in the bedroom. We found some little cardboard boxes to organize things in the bedroom and we moved furniture around and made ourselves an office area, so apart from no hot water things were looking up. Then Salim got back to town and told us that there was a switch to turn on the hot water.  Yeah, I really wasn't too keen on cold showers. He called an electrician to fix the microwave and so after buying some silverware and other small kitchen things we were all set.  On the very positive side we have air conditioning which we did not have last year, a large ceiling fan, which we did not have last year, and Eli is able to run around outside when we are out with him, which was not possible last year.  The price is the same as last time except for another positive thing which is we do not have to pay for electricity.  So, all in all, we have it better than before.  It is all fixed up and we love it.  God is good.  Will send pictures of the inside later.

I was not in the best shape when we arrived.  My back had been acting up at home for quite a while and the trip made it worse, so the first few days I could not stand up straight.  I also immediately got the runs and felt lousy.  I really wish I had John’s constitution. We had to take it easy for the first several days, out of necessity. By the way, I am feeling great now.  We have gone for a walk almost every evening which is just wonderful. Early evening, before the mosquitoes come out, is the perfect time of day over here.    

Our car is a Toyota Corolla, which is small and what we thought we wanted because we felt too rich in the villages with the Ford Ranger pick up we had last year.  But it bottoms out a lot, even in the city.  We were worried about wrecking it in the villages but Salim told us not to worry.  It is old.  The windshield has a crack that goes from one side to the other. There is no gas cap.  John tried to buy one and found they cost $50 US, so we will do with no gas cap. It makes funny noises when you make turns. We found when we took Jared, one of our workers, home that we couldn’t get down the road to his house because it was too rutted.  I expect we will be doing a lot of walking from village to village rather than driving.

We went to Hanoke to say hello to the Chief and talked with him for a bit and admired his bountiful tobacco crop.  A crop like this indicates that it has been a good rainy season.  We will spend a lot of time with this chief.  He is a Christian and is our greatest supporter in the villages. 

 Then we spent several hours talking with Jared and Evance, our two workers over here.  By the time we finished talking with them we had a better handle on the numerous needs and problems that they have been facing and need help with in our villages. None of this was a surprise to us. It was important for Jared and Evance to be able to share all that was on their hearts. You will be hearing all about the things we are going to try to deal with while we are here as the days go by.  One of the problems the mentioned was the fact that one of our nursery schools was provided with uniforms by Larry Journal and his team last year and now the others are feeling left out and wanting uniforms for their children. We passed that need on to Kevin several days ago and he has already raised enough money to buy material and have 100 uniforms made. I love it when something happens that fast.

We stopped off at the market to say hello to two friends, Henry and Isaac.  It was so good to see them.  They said they were just talking about us a few days ago, wondering when we would return.  This is a picture of us with them.  I asked Isaac, on the left, how he was and he tapped his belly and said, “I am doing really well, as you can see.” These are two young Christian men who have been a tremendous help to us over the years.  Someday I wish we could take them on a safari so they could see in real life some of the African animals they carve from pictures.

John and I are heading out to visit the organization Ripple Africa, www.rippleafrica.org., based out of the UK.  It is in the north of Malawi near a place along the lake called Nkhata Bay.  This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful areas of Malawi. They have recently built a nice nursery school and also do sustainability projects.  We want to learn as much as we can from them before we start doing anything in the villages. This will be a six or seven hour trip.  We were going to do it overnight, but Kevin wants us to spend three nights on this trip so we can begin our time here rested.  Salim gave us an ad from the newspaper with an amazing special for a lodge halfway there and his cousin told us of an inn right where we are going.  So, we are going to spend three nights at two great places.  The prices are great, too.  I am really looking forward to this and actually not feeling one bit guilty about doing it,.  It has been a long, tiring few months for me, with all the house building issues and pressures and all the things one needs to do to leave the workplace for three months.  I don’t want to come home from Malawi and be sick for months again because I am exhausted. This will be a great way to get off to a healthy start. 

We did have a very sad day yesterday.  As we were driving home in the early evening, we were held up in traffic. When we were able to get through we realized the reason was that someone had been hit by a car and killed.  From the size of the body and the foot sticking out from under the blanket covering it, this was probably a village woman.  There did not seem to be anyone with her, just the car that had hit her and a man holding a rifle. By the time of day, it was most likely one of the nearby village women heading home after selling her fruit along the road.  I wondered if she had any identification on her, and if she didn’t then how would her family know why she did not return home that night. We both know this must happen a lot, but it was so sad and sobering to actually see it.  I don’t know what more to say except it really hit us both hard. 

Remember, you can keep up with our adventures by joining the Facebook group Impact Malawi.  We are trying to post something there most days. 

May God bless and keep you.  Please keep us in your prayers.

Joan and John 

Now You Can Donate Online!

Now you can donate online to Impact Malawi. Currently we are requesting $5.00 donations to provide safe drinking water in the villages or Super Rocket Stoves. We have made it as easy as possible using a safe and secure online donation button. You can pay with a major credit card or even paypal. Click the button below to donate a school uniform to a nursery school student. Thanks so much!

2011 Impact Malawi Trip

There is exciting news for our upcoming Impact Malawi trip.  Our goal is build everything a village requires in order to be self sufficient in just 14 days.  How can we possibly accomplish this?  Through the power of Co-Creation between a massive North American team and the Malawians who will benefit so much from our labors.  Right now there are more than 35 North Americans committed to enjoying this adventure.

We will post information and inspiration on this blog as the trip advances.

We will also be posting daily Youtube video so that our supporters can see our immediate impact.

So follow us along and lend your support for this groundbreaking experience.