The Evans

We have been here for a week and one day now! We feel like we have learned so much in 8 days.

Bech has been driving on the “wrong” side of the road now for almost a week and is doing great! I am learning to drive a stick shift, and am doing okay (or so Bech says). The funny thing is since I am learning how to here, I will be so confused trying to drive a stick shift back home where it is to my right.

We have figured our way around town, mostly. The streets here are sooo confusing! But we have been to most places now. We have been to the curio market, and the main market to get fresh fruit and vegetables.. We have been to Olde Town mall (well it has 6 shops…one of them a little grocery. We have also grocery shopped at Foodworths and Shoprite.

We have cooked some. I have made homemade lemonade twice. We have cooked pumpkin, potatoes, spinach, etc.

I have been working on bulletin boards for my classroom. I have the first 3 weeks of lesson plans for the 7th grade and the first month for the 8th grade. I am still working on 9th grades.

Today the men came and worked on our hot water heater. We haven’t had hot water since we arrived. We have quickly found out that when people here say “tomorrow,” as in, “We’ll be there to fix it tomorrow,” they don’t literally mean tomorrow. They mean whenever. But the Ketchums have kindly let us use their shower for the last few days. And if you are wondering how many Malawians it takes to fix a hot water heater, the answer is 6. But Jack, the main guy, just left and told us it was all fixed. Pray that it is!

No word on the container. Laura ChinChin told me last week that we would “probably” get it this week. I am putting a lot of weight into that word “probably.” It sounds more promising than maybe, right? But we are comfortable on our air mattress. We are cold at night, so we are eager for our blankets from the container.

Plus a LOT of curriculum is in there, so we need it before school starts. I have all of mine, but one teacher’s, Vicky, curriculum is all on there. She is teaching 2nd grade, but it’s the first year there have been two 2nd grades, so all her curriculum had to be ordered new. Please pray that customs okays it all soon!

One thing we haven’t really talked about yet is Malawi itself. This is actually pretty deliberate. We haven’t taken any pictures yet either. We are still just trying to take everything in. It is so hard and strange to be surrounded by such intense poverty. We know we have to reach a point, a middleground between being broken hearted by everything around us but growing accustomed to it at the same time. But we don’t want to be too used to it…we just can’t walk around broken hearted 24 hours a day. I know that sounds strange. We are just still trying to figure it all out. But we will take pictures soon of everything. We want to share it with everyone.

We love and miss everyone so much! We are thankful for all the prayer and support. All of you mean the world to us!

***I am actually posting this on the 13th, instead of the 12th. The power went out last night, so I wasn't able to post last night. But we do have hot water now!!!