Evening Poetry

my church was wonderful enough to write me one letter for each day that i'm in malawi - that's alot of letters! the letters have been wonderful and an amazing encouragement, especially when i'm having a rougher-than-usual day. i opened my letter one night and found a poem written for me. thank you tito jonie (: no one's ever written me a poem before. it's wonderful and certainly my prayer that i can live it out (:

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The Lord Leads Me to Africa

My precious child you made me proud
you've heed my call no matter how hard
Away from home, in Africa you'll roam
so that the love of Christ will be known
and the way, truth and life will be shown

My gentle voice will always fill your ears
so it can wash away all of your fears
You'll feel alone in the middle of nowhere
Far away from home with a burden to bear
Yet my child, all's well for your Lord is near

Kristina, never be afraid if you face a wall
when problems seemed like a mountain tall
when it's hard to go on and follow the call
don't you give up, just move on and roll
The Lord your God will take care of it all.

When the path is dark as the African night
and nothing but troubles are what's in sight
I'll light up the sky and will make it bright
don't you worry, everything will be all right
I'll hold you tight, and I'll carry you my child.

A Day in the Life...

in case you are wondering what it's like....

6am. Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girl” is my 5 minute warning to get out of bed. I grab my Bible and journal and start the day off feeding my spiritual self. Breakfast consists of a banana with oatmeal or toast and peanut butter, but always a banana because Malawian bananas are wonderful (:

7:27am. Greet the day guard with “Mwadzuka bwanji” and begin my uphill commute to the office.

7:30am. Arrive at the office. From here my day takes 1 of 2 paths:

Office Day

Field Day

Start up the computer and create a quick to-do list for the day. I open Notepad and exercise my brain by hard coding web pages. I’m a code monkey. I wrestle with style sheets until I either get too frustrated - with things like why my in-line lists don’t appear to be in-line – or the code works. 9am. Out of frustration with broken code or pure joy with working style sheets, I make myself a half coffee/half chocolate before going back at it (: 10am. I’m freezing cold so I pay a visit to different program offices and set dates to do field visits. 12pm. Lunch time (: I ask the day guard how his family is. He tells me stories of his hardships and I smile politely. 1pm. I prepare tea and toast for the guard and we agree on a way that I can help. The office is empty, so I catch up on emails before working on something more creative: print or news articles for the site. 4pm. I message Kathleen to tell her how wonderful Rhoda’s cooking smells up here. We discuss food and potential dinner concoctions.

I wrap my chitenge 2x around my waist while waiting for the vehicle to be prepared. We drive to Miloso and pick up field staff and continue an hour to our destined village. 830am. We’re well on the village roads and hear countless children jumping, waving and shouting “Azungu azungu!” before running after the truck. 9am. We arrive at a village to a group of women welcoming us in song. The team gets to work – doing demonstrations, workshops, or well rehabilitations – and I watch, and try to snap photos that capture the true essence of the project. I snap a few pictures of the children, and join in their laughter as I show them their pictures. 1130am. The team finishes their work we take time to take what the village women have prepared – a drink or meal – before continuing to the next villages. 230pm. My stomach is starting to grumble as we wrap up at the last village and set off for Zomba. 4pm. Back to the mountains. I upload my photos and select the best ones for the website.

5pm. Pack up – I must get home before it gets too dark and I can’t see the path I’m walking.

545pm. After discussing our days, Kathleen, Kirsten and I think of something creative to make for dinner.

603pm. “OH MAN…” we say simultaneously as the power goes off right when we’ve started cooking. We stumble around for matches and candles, and continue to cook on our single gas burner.

730pm. Dinner is served (always with NALI - Malawian Hot Sauce) and dessert is one piece of chocolate (must ration the chocolate!), and a banana with peanut butter. Yum =)

815pm. Dishes are done and the ironing party starts. There is someone ironing every day.

10pm. My roommates have gone to bed already and I’m still working on something. I make a hot cup of tea and toast for the night guard and ask how his family is. He tells me they’re doing well and asks me for a Bible. English, Chichewa, “Anything will do because I have no resources”, he says. I nod my head and say that I will try to get him something.

11pm. I reflect on the day and read. I pull out my daily letter from my church that always puts a smile on my face. I thank God for the day and pray for strength and wisdom, then fall asleep with more questions in my mind than I had when the day started.

When to Take a Leap of Faith

[ Edit: As the typed the last line, there was a knock on the door and it was the gardener, wanting to introduce 2/5 of his children to us while the eldest son worked. ]

I was chatting with my guard the other day and asked how his family was. he said his 5 children were doing well but he was upset because his eldest son got "fired" from secondary school. a term at this school is 4000MKw (~$35CDN), but he could only afford half his son's tuition and the timing is particularly bad because finals are next week. Imagine not being able to afford secondary school? My heart breaks upon hearing struggles like this.

I let my emotions calm and went to seek advice from a colleague. it seemed like a story she'd heard a thousand times over and advised not to give him the money, unless of course I wanted to.

So I've been stuck in an emotional battle over the only options my mind sees fit:

1. Give the guard money
2. Don't give him money
3. Create a solution

If I give the guard the money, presumably, his son will be able to write his exams. However, there are 2 more terms in this school year. Do I give simply because I can? Going with option 1 is a quick fix, it's not sustainable. Even if I do give him the amount, how do I know it will go towards his son's education? I'm reminded of how Elizabeth Gilbert raised money for a house for a Balinese family, but was greatly deceived along the way.

Or I could harden my heart and turn my back? If I do not give the guard money, what will happen to his son? How will his future play out? I have the opportunity to create an opportunity for change. If valued, his education could equip with the skills needed to be a change maker in Malawi.

I analyze each pro and con and weigh the arguments on my scale of sustainability. I wonder if there are ever times when the pros and cons don't need to be weighed out, and I could just count on good people doing good things. If there can be times when we don't need to play out what is sustainable, what is better for the future, or even what is right, and just act?

I think these times exist. I've seen it happen. I've experienced it happening. I got to Malawi through the leaps of faith taken by family, friends, and complete strangers that I would be a good steward of their money.

If a stranger can take a leap of faith on me, surely I should be able to do the same.

But there is a third option. It's one that takes effort, but is the best one. Instead of simply giving money or holding back, there is a middle ground and it's not too difficult. Micro-lending, setting up a service or providing small-scale employment. So we're thinking something simple. Since we don't have a vehicle, we'll pay for him to buy and deliver our groceries. We're thinking AmazonFresh minus Amazon. We'll help sell this service to the neighbours as well so that he can continue to earn tuition money after we leave. This will be done on weekends so it does not cut into the school week. I dream of this service going to scale and maybe even paying his University tuition. Imagine?

So my leap of faith is in knowing that this will work. Am I doing the right thing? I'm not quite sure, but I'm doing something, and I know that that in itself is better than nothing.

heart of grace, soul of love.

"Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr

from i-heart (:

seek and find

One of the personal goals I set for myself during my time in Malawi was to "find God". Yes yes, I know who God is, what He's done, and what He commands, but I'm looking for more, a relationship with Him. I want faith that can move mountains, a heart that breaks for the lost. For the past month, I've been searching in books, the Bible, my strong-in-faith roommates, diligent co-workers, passionate friends, supporters back home, and the stories of the poor, but have yet to succeed. I realized that I was looking in all the wrong places. I'd become far-sighted, and couldn't see what was staring me in the face.

"The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart"

- Romans 10:8

Faith is personal. Romans 10:8 is a reminder that faith begins within. Before venturing off into foreign territory, look inside you or beside you.

Kathleen and I were discussing how we satisfy spiritual thirst along with physical thirst to the villages we visit? Because really, we're here to reach out to the rural villages. We realized that maybe that's not our battlefield(due to the circumstances, and also it's not quite sustainable). So who then can we reach out to? Answer: our co-workers, guards, neighbours. Opportunities are plentiful and friendships are already established. My job only requires me to go into the villages 2-3 times a week, and it's always different villages. I was trying to fight a fight that wasn't mine. Over the past few days, I've learned the following:

• My colleague doesn't his own children, but is raising an orphaned girl
• A high-schooler from my church was "encouraged" by my desire to use my math skills for change that he started reading about Waterloo and has his mind set on ActSci
  

I've focused so much on trying to share God's love to a distant crowd, that I've dismissed the work He can do within the people around me. It's humbling . For all I know, it could be my guards or colleagues who are the ones struggling to feed their families and it could be the people around me who are HIV/AIDS positive and fighting a constant battle. Is it not odd that I know the unemployment of Canada or Waterloo even, but don't even know the employment status of my neighbours? Or the outrageous stats of University graduates in Malawi, but don't even know if my co-workers can afford to send their children to University? It is odd, and I don't think it's right.

So not everyone'sprimary battlefield is in the rural villages of Malawi. It may not be mine, but today I learned that my night guard and I attend the same church. Your main battlefield could be the cashier you see daily at the coffee shop, your elderly neighbour, or even just your family. While(or before) helping those in the distance, don't make the mistake of overlooking those right in front of you.

click click

for the people who just like photos (:

i moved 2 houses down the hill on the weekend with kathleen and kirsten(med student from cambridge). we are definitely not roughing it here in malawi. our house is complete with hot water, a living room spacious enough for P90X and a washing machine. However, the power does go out frequently, making our electric stove unusuable. kathleen and i are sharing a fairly large room and i even have a bookshelf and reading lamp :D

monday july 6 was malawi republic day (a national holiday), and the eggerts were kind enough to let us tag along their visit to liwonde national park. we took the company truck, which was made for game parks and spent the morning driving through the game reserve. upon turning a corner at 40km/h, we came within 10 feet of a GIGANTIC elephant :O oh my. it flapped it's ears(bad sign) and we slowly and safely backed away. a few minutes later, we stumbled upon a little baby elephant. mike drove up a few meters so that we could get a look at the mama elephant. being a tourist, i had half my body out the window in attempts of getting a good shot. all of a sudden, the mama elephant flapped it's ears, raised it's trunk (another bad sign), trumpeted(extremely bad sign), and started charging towards us(sign to get out of there!). mike stomped on the gas pedal as jonny yelled "go go go!" and i went flying backwards, with my feet flipping over my head. sure beats african lion safari ;p

we had a marvelous lunch at mvuu lodge, and kathleen and i took a boat safari along the river in the afternoon. we saw more species of birds than i can count, water bucks, crocs, hippos, and we were particularly lucky to find a herd of 50+ elephants. it was amazing to see animals in their natural habitat.

at times i feel like i'm cheating, that i'm not embracing a truly malawian experience. but why does development work or missions have to mean roughing it? i'm learning, and i think that's what truly matters.

new house complete with a washing machine (:

liwonde game park (:

we got trumpeted and chased by a mama elephant hence the blurry photos :O

romans 2:13

[ Edit: Through this journey of 2 months, I want to be raw in sharing my accounts and emotions. I want to go beyond the emotional highs and the "amazingness" of being in Malawi and be transparent in who I am and what I'm feeling. ]

"For it is not those who hear the law that are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous."

-romans 2:13

I grew up in a Christian family, am able to recite all the books of the Bible, and know how to pray in front of a crowd, but none of these indicators prove that I'm a faithful Christian. Lots of people grow up in church, memorize the song that goes along with the books of the Bible, and have heard enough prayers to know what to say to have people "Amen" your prayers.

If I had to be completely honest, God has alot of work to do on me. I don't think I quite measure up to the faith that's required of someone in my position. And to be even more honest, I wanted to come to Malawi to find God. Whether it be through experiences of hunger or through a verse that I read, I came here ready to be broken and moulded into the person God has intended for me to be. And yes, I also came here to show God's love by doing His work.

It's very easy for me to be passive but I'm learning the urgency of breaking out of my passive comforts and executing the plans God has for me. Knowing poverty is one thing, experiencing poverty is another, and acting on poverty is yet another. If I come back with a whole notebook of lessons that God has taught and do nothing, I'd be a failure. Above hearing, I need to understand, and above seeing, I need to perceive.

This verse is a challenge not only to me, but to everyone. To everyone that knows that there is poverty in the world, there is more to knowing. To everyone that sees injustice in their community, there is more to seeing. And to everyone that hears the cries of the helpless, there is more to hearing. Knowing, seeing and hearing this holds us accountable to do something, anything, may it be small or big.

ride for africycle

for my short stay at the country directors' home, i have jonny living on the other side of my bedroom wall. at the dinner table today, he announced that he would be gone for the weekend "just in case you care or something". i asked where he was going and he said he was off to Mt Mulange (Malawi's tallest mountain), not to do the climb, but to go around it. why? because that's johnny. he seems like your typical 20-something guy, but there are a few things that are not so typical 20-something of him:

Name: Jonny Perrott
Title: Africycle Country Director (Malawi)
Job: A little bit of everything.
Age: 22 and a 1/2
Status: Single
Height: Huge
Weight: 185lbs

My name is Jonny. I say and write the word “bike” in any given day enough times that it hurts. Am I a cyclist, you ask? Answer: Yes, but I think of my self more like a Cyclogist.

I live on a mountain. Cool eh? The Ride for Africycle is a thing that excites me. What are some other things that excite me, you ask? Answer: big fires, high speed, blueprint and technical drawings, big ideas, a good poo, cool drawings, nice people, keepin’ it real, good storytelling, jokes, adventure, music . . .

I am not going to be joining any of you in the “Ride for Africycle.” But, I will be doing a version of the “Ride from Africycle”
my ride will be a self supported solo ride from July 3–5/2009.

Day One: Starting at the Africycle shop located in Zomba, Malawi. I will be riding south to Mount Mulanje (Malawi’s tallest mountain)
Day Two: Riding around the mountain
Day Three: riding back to Zomba. (home) I will also be taking pictures along the way!

jonny is one of the co-founders of africycle and has been in malawi for the past 2 years setting up their initiative here. through the "re-cycle"-ing of bikes and bike shops in both canada and malawi, africycle's vision is to "use what we’ve got to provide those without opportunities the tools and a way to begin to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty.

jonny is trying to raise $100 for his SOLO ride to and around Mount Mulange - an estimated 211km while a team back in canada bikes around lake ontario. africycle is a great initiative and is truly empowering malawians. donate to africycle here.