Serving Together, Growing Together
We have had an eventful two days! The children have warmed up to us a lot since Monday!
This year’s theme is patience and long suffering which is “kudekha” in Chichewa, so yesterday Julaine and Beth both told their respective Bible stories on Hannah and Joseph. Both Hannah and Joseph had to wait and be patient for many years! Whenever the children answer a question correctly, they are encouraged with a special response. This can be “Shuah” which is their pronunciation of “sure” followed by a thumbs up, many different kinds of clapping, or even a “coconut”. They sing, “C-O-C-O-N-U-T, uhuh? Coconutee, uhuh? Coconutee!!!”
Pastor Tsegula took time to encourage us and thank us, but then requested us to thank all the supporters back home. You have played a part in making it possible for our team to be here serving alongside the local church and team members, and both they and we are very thankful."
We ended the day with an enlightening Chichewa Phonics lesson. So far Chichewa seems to be much easier to master than English!
Our driver, Isaac, overheard us talking about sugarcane yesterday morning, and surprised us with several canes that afternoon, which we all enjoyed!
That evening, we walked over to Bep’s house to debrief the day. It was good to discuss our experiences and ask questions about the Malawian culture!
Today, Sylvia taught the story of the prodigal son and his patient Father, and Felicia taught the other group about Noah and the ark.
We spent the day doing obstacle courses, playing netball, and attempting to build play-dough-and-toothpick houses.
Overall, this experience has challenged us to be flexible and grow in many different ways. For some of us, adapting to a different way of organizing activities has taken some adjustment. Because of the language barrier, we rely on the local teachers to explain and help manage the students, which makes it that much harder to accomplish our goals. It causes us to reflect on the in-depth cultural training we were given prior to travelling to Malawi – we come into this relational and warm African culture with our North American mindset to reach certain goals and sometimes those differences take some mental adjustments. We are grateful for all the local people and the field workers who have welcomed us and helped us throughout the last couple of days.
Written by: Julaine and Beth Bleeker (with help from Felicia and Ella)