San Diego

Finally, my post on our trip to San Diego!

First of all, we went to San Diego to visit our friends, Josh and Emily Ketchum.  Emily and I actually met first via email.  They were going to be living and teaching at ABC in Malawi while we were there, so we got in touch.  And then, because of lack of housing on campus, both the Ketchums and we were bumped off campus to an apartment complex (which was a scary thought!).

But it ended up being the best thing.  We got so close to Josh and Emily.  We ate with them probably twice a week, even when we both were moved on campus half year.

Em and I did all of our shopping together.  We went on a safari with my sister.  We got a pedicure once a month.  

They were our best friends there and we have missed them!

We have been planning to take this trip for a while, but someone was always pregnant.  Then we were in grad school.  Finally, we got to be reunited!

We had an absolutely amazing time.  We ate and laughed and saw TONS of cool San Diego sites.

Here are some pictures:

Jack did amazing on the plane rides.  I was super nervous, but he either played with his toys, napped, or watched movies and played games on his Kindle Fire. This picture is actually from the way back, but all four plane rides were great!

Job and Jack in their matching pj's.  Jack LOVED "Jobey."  He still asks for him at least once a day.  

Emily and I at Yogurt Mill, an El Cajone spot.  We used to always go to Mamma Mia's and get gelatto (while we were out shopping), so this was our American version.

The boys with Josh.  Jack thought he was so big sitting on this "truck."

Bech and Josh.  I love this picture, because it shows how different they are.  Josh is a surfer, so Californian.  And here Bech has on his JCrew and Gap with his masters hat.  But they get along so well.

I think this was from Ocean Beach.

I only had two things I really wanted to do:  Old Town and In N' Out Burger.  Here we are getting some yummy burgers.  In N' Out totally lived up to the hype!

Typical picture with kids!  We took the ferry from Coronado to Seaport Village.  

Jack was so excited to be on a boat!

Job and Zoe...Um, I love them.  Seriously, these are two of the sweetest, funniest kids.  We had the best time getting to know them.

At the Mission.

Job was OBSESSED with his "tick."  He wanted to take it everywhere.

Jack chowing down on some chips in Old Town.  This restaurant was so yummy!

Josh and Emily gave Jack a Mexican poncho.  Here he is thanking Emily.

And Josh.  Jack absolutely loved Emily and Josh.  He thought Josh was so cool (which he is!).

We loved being with the Ketchums again and we loved getting so see where they lived.  Now it's time for a trip down South!!!

1 year ago...

One year ago yesterday, we left Malawi. I cannot even believe that we have been home for almost a year. Maybe this seems silly to anyone reading this post, because we were only in Malawi for 11 months. But it really does change you. And I hope that I have held fast to my memories.

One thing Bech and I talked a lot about before we left last year was these changes. We didn't want to get back to America (where you can pretty much have whatever you want whenever you want it, where you can avoid poverty if you want, where you can seclude yourself from community), and fall right back into American life. And it is definitely hard. It is so easy to just think of Malawi as a fun adventure and simply go back to "normal life."

Hopefully we have changed somewhat. We are definitely much more deliberate about what we buy and where we buy it. I by nature am a stingy person, but I have become (at least somewhat) more generous.

But there are things I still want to change. I want to be much more generous with my money and time. I want to be a stronger prayer, especially for missions and missionaries.

And I want to go back to Africa, maybe not long term but at least visits. I don't know if this one will ever happen. I want, very strongly, and also feel called to be a Classics Professor. There is not much of a need for Latin and Greek in Africa. Of course, there is some, but it's obviously not the same as the need for doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.

But I know that God's plans are a lot bigger than mine, so we will just have to wait and see!

This past week, I have been missing Malawi so much. I think it is because all of the new people are there, and school just started last Monday. Plus, I picked up the yearbook from the ABC office this past week (which, by the way, looks amazing! I am so happy with how it turned out!!!).

All of those things added together make me very homesick for Malawi. I am so glad to be in Jackson in my job right now, but I also wish I could see all of my students!

You all can be in prayer for all of the new teachers right now. I remember being so terrified those first few weeks, not sure what I was doing, still trying to remember every students name, on top of living in a brand new place with total strangers. Soon, in a few months or even weeks, the new missionaries will feel so comfortable and at ease, but the first little bit is hard.

My job is still going well. We had a retreat this weekend for the core group of Millsaps Christian Fellowship. It was great! I loved getting to know some of the girls, and am so excited to spend time with them in the future! We already have a girl’s night in the works. Our first MCF large group is on Tuesday night.

Bech is enjoying his job as well. It is tiring, but not boring at all. I will have to get him to post on here about all of the “Seedsters.”

If anyone from last year is reading this blog (the Robbins, the Hirotos, the Ketchums, Andy, Megan, Vicki?), we had people over last night and taught them the “paper game” (I think some people call it “paper gossip” or “paper telephone”). And one of the guys was a better drawer than Dan or Bech. I know, I know, I didn’t even think that was possible. But this guy’s drawings were absolutely amazing! We saved them, so maybe I can upload a picture of one or two of them. We had fun, but we missed playing the paper game over at Duplex 2.

We are about to go to a concert of “Elijah” by Mendelssohn that the First Pres choir is putting on tonight instead of a Sunday night service. I am sure it will be wonderful. First Pres has a great music program that we are enjoying.

okay, so it's not pictures of our new place, but heres a video from malawi. this is taken from the car on the way home from lucius' house?

this video is from a sunday at lucius' church. i feel like both of these movies give you a little taste of malawian life....enjoy!

from England!

We are currently in Marlborough, England. We are staying at the Merlin Hotel Bed and Breakfast...named for the Merlin, who is supposed to be buried here. We just ate dinner at a pub sort of restaurant in the town. We are enjoying our mini-holiday in the UK on our way home!

I'll describe some sites we've seen, but first let me show two last Malawi pictures. The last few days were full of goodbyes. On Saturday night, we went with a LOT of other ABC missionaries to Delhi Dar Baar, a local Indian restaurant, for a nice meal out.

Because I know I have Brookhaven people reading this blog, here are some Brookhavenites, enjoying Malawi:

Becca and Emily, two of my favorite people at ABC! I'm going to miss these guys. We got to fly to Jo'burg with Josh and Emily (they are going to be back next year, they are just going home for the summer), which was great. But we both (by we, I mean Emily and I) started crying when we said goodbye in the Jo'burg airport.

Our first day here, we were exhausted! We both slept VERY little on the plane ride home. But we did drive to Wales to see Tintern Abbey. Here you can see the enormity of these Abbey ruins.

Isn't it beautiful?

We spent last night in Wells, England, at a B&B that let us look out onto the Cathedral Green (they have a old, famous Cathedral in Wells).

Today, we went to Blaise Castle. We took some video of our walk up to it for my grandparents, who are Blaises. I can't wait to tell them all about it. We are exhausted, so this is all I will write! We will be home soon!

2 days left!

We have only 2 days until we leave! I cannot even believe it! We have been so busy and will continue to be even busier. Plus, we have LOTS of goodbyes that are happening and will happen.

Here are some pictures of our empty living room:

this bed was picked up by the buyer this morning.

We are feeling a lot less stressed about the car situation. I'm not worried that it won't sell...because it will, eventually. We just wanted it to sell before we left, plus we will need some of the money pretty soon. Some of the money is our savings for this year, but some of the money is to pay our deposit on our apartment, our first month rent, etc. But I have good news. I just totaled up the money we have from checks (from ABC people we have sold stuff to), and it equals the amount we need to pay our apartment deposit! How amazing is that! So God is taking care of us, and our car will sell according to His plan, not ours.

prayer request

I have a really important prayer request: we still have not sold our car. I know I said we had. We had sold it to another ABC missionary, and that fell through. Then a Korean missionary said he wanted to buy it, and he wasn't able to get the money together (he just told us like 20 minutes ago). So now we will leave Tuesday with a car in Malawi. I am so stressed just thinking about it. It is hard enough to sell a car being in the same country...I don't even want to start thinking about having to sell our car from across the ocean. So please please please start praying. We are both already so stressed with packing and ending everything here, and the car is just one more big stressor!

1 week left!

Alright, we are in full on countdown mode! 1 week left! We have gotten a lot done, but there is still more to do.

We have sold our car and our table. We both turned final grades in today. We have somewhat packed. We are moving in with the Ketchums on Saturday (because we need to give our beds to the buyer then), so we need to be all packed by then!

The past few days have been totally filled, but very fun. Awards day went really well. Here are some of my girls getting their awards: Catarina (Portuguese), Shannon (Zimbabwean), and Se-gyo (Korean).

On Saturday, I worked on yearbook while Bech helped slaughter pigs. Ugh! Then we went to a "braai" (South African word for a cookout) at some South African friends of ours, the Le Rouxs. We had a great time spending time with this sweet family!

Then on Sunday, we went to church with Lucius. His family goes to the Catholic church in Kauma. Well this Sunday was a special Sunday, so they went to a big church service celebration at another church. Seriously, everytime we visit a Malawian church, it ends up being some sort of special celebration Sunday-->which means twice as long of a service!

The first funny part of the day was when we pulled up to pick Lucius up. We figured it would be Lucius, his wife, Esther, and his two daughters, Tadala and Jesca. When we drive up, we see three other women and two other children with them. I say to Bech, "I think they are planning on coming with us," to which he answers, "No they aren't...they wouldn't even be able to fit." Oh but they did! Jesca sat up front with me, Bech drove, and 4 adults and 3 kids sat in the backseat.

Then we got to the church. The service was from 9 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Part of the reason it was so long is that there was a parade of sorts where everyone followed the priests around (but the priests were under a tent) and sang songs. Then everyone would suddenly stop and kneel. It was very strange. I have lots of Catholic friends and have been to mass many times, but they have never done anything like this in America. Please fill me in, if you know anything about this.

The best part of church was that the President (His Excellency Bingu wa Mutharika) was there. He spoke a little at the end. It was really cool to be that close to a President.

We then went to Lucius' home to eat lunch. We stopped and bought some soft drinks and a bag of Malawian chips. Tadala loved the chips, as you can see in this picture!

Here he is: His Excellency Bingu wa Mutharika!

Here is Bech at our interhouse athletics day, last Friday. He looked hilarious!

Here I am with Annelise Stauffacher. Bech and I worked at the records and certificates table.

We will be home soon!!!!!!!!!

Today was awards day. Everything went really well. Already, though, I am having to say goodbye to students! :( Today, Cynthia left to go to England. She is going to boarding school there and the terms are different dates than ours. So I believe she will start school next week sometime.

Tomorrow is my last day with Geerten and Shalom. Geerten is just leaving early to spend the holiday with family in South Africa. Shalom's family is moving to Blantyre. And Josh and Jessie are already gone! I am going to miss these kids so much!

For you Brookhaven readers: I went by the Chinchens to welcome Claire Cox and Mary Gwen Lynch (and their friend). They are here safe and sound! They are in the "we just walked off of a 24 hour plane trip into a 3rd world country and we need sleep and to feel normal" daze...I remember that so well!

Mary Gwen's grandfather, Ed Williford, and his wife Sally have been here at ABC the past two weeks. Ed is on the board of ABC so he came for college graduation. We have loved having some fellow southerners here with us! They leave tomorrow and will be taking back 2 bags for us!!! Wow, what a blessing! We are extremely thankful!

Speaking of the Willifords, we were able to have them to dinner one night last week. Sally walked in the door and said, "I can't tell who you look more like, your mother or your father." I wish I could explain how that felt! It was amazing! We have gotten so close to everyone here, and we love our friends here so much. But at the end of the day, they (or most of them) don't know the things that make us "us": our families, our towns, our college, our favorite restaurants and stores, our churches, our elementary schools, all of the experiences throughout our lives that have shaped our personalities. And obviously the most important thing from that list is family. My parents came to visit and people said, "Oh, you look like Marley." But I look like them! And I loved being reminded of that by someone who knows my parents!

Needless to say, we are ready to see our families! I can't wait to hug my parents and my siblings. And I really can't wait to see my Nana and Papa. They are the best grandparents ever and it has been so hard not to see them for a year!!! Nana, Bech is already asking if we can go blueberry picking when we get back. Also, I want to learn how to can.

We will see you all soon!!!

2 week countdown!

We are at the 2 week mark. 2 weeks from today, around this time, we will be landing in the Johannesburg airport and saying goodbye to Josh and Emily Ketchum (at least we get to fly to South Africa with them).

We don't have much left to do! I am working on Jr. High awards day certificates. Our house is almost empty of furniture and everything is strewn on the living room floor, waiting to be packed.

This week is our last full week of school, and it's not even technically a full week. On Friday, we have an "athletics day" (which is just the British term for a field day), so we don't have any classes. Then we have next Monday, and grades are due that afternoon. So Tuesday will just be a fun day, because grades have been turned in. And Wednesday is our last day of school, but it's just until 10. So we only have 2 1/2 hours of school.

Many of my students are leaving. Several of them are going to boarding school in South Africa, others to the British school here in Lilongwe. I have one student going to boarding school in England. The other day she looked at me and said, "I am excited and sad at the same time...how is that possible?" I feel like that perfectly sums up how Bech and I feel. I am so excited to go home. I don't think I could say it enough. I miss my family so much. But at the same time, I love this place. I love my students. I am starting to feel comfortable here. I am just a huge mix of emotions all at the same time!

Finally, because I know how much more fun picture posts are, here are some pictures of some students at ABCCA. These aren't my Jr. High kids, just some of the other kids that I love and will miss!

Here's Mrs. Ketchum's 3rd grade after recess the other day. I absolutely adore this class. They are just so much fun!

Megan is in front. She did ballet and is in the 4 year old reception class. She has the funniest personality! I think she is the greatest. Today she "plaited" (as she called it) my hair. I wish I could take this little girl (and so many others) home with me, so you all could meet her! You would absolutely adore her!

Here is Megan again, joined by Simone and Kara. Kara is the one sticking out her tongue. All three of these girls took Ballet with me. Simone is a giggler but semi-calm. Kara is another story. She is always all over the place (in a good way). She has boundless energy and boundless hugs.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. We just got our May report and were blown away by your generosity! We were short on our support in April, and expected to be short in May again. But, wow! Ya'll are amazing!

We will be home so soon!!! Aghhhhh! That is such a crazy thought.

We have been insanely busy the past few days, and I think its going to just keep getting busier here.

Let me give you a rundown of our life lately:

Friday (May 29th): Ballet and Band Recital...done! It went really well!

Saturday (May 30th): Bech helped out at a school fundraiser in the morning. I went to the high school graduation in the afternoon. We went out to eat with friends that night.

Sunday (May 31st): Bech went to church and then the college baccalaureate service. I worked on yearbook all day...literally, ALL day!

Monday (June 1st): I went to the Northstar awards last night. It was really great, but sad! Everyone is leaving!

Today, we have a farewell luncheon after classes. Then I need to start packing and keep on working on the yearbook!

Wednesday: Bible study, Liwonde house practice

Thursday: Ballet party! We are watching High School Musical 3 and hanging out. Then we have the college senior banquet.

Friday: Potluck

Saturday: we are having a yard sale!

Not to mention, we have school, grades due soon, we are still working on selling our car! So please pray that we will get everything done!

security

The other night, I thought I heard something outside, and couldn't sleep for an hour or so because I was so scared. But I was reassured by how protected we are (well, for the most part).

First of all, we have guards (students at the college who are trying to earn some money for school tuition) who walk around the campus at night. Well sometimes they fall asleep, but they are still out there, which comforts me.

Also, we have a wall and gates around our campus.

Lastly, we have bars on our house. We live in one of the first houses built on campus, so our bars are a little different than the newer houses. Our main rooms (the living room, dining room, and kitchen) have windows without bars. We do have bars we put across the doors, though. Here is a picture of one of the windows. The side windows do have bars, but the center window is completely bar-less, which does not protect us against break-ins!

Ergo the gate! This gate is in the doorway from the living room to the hallway (with the bedrooms coming off of it). If you lock it, then no one can get back into the bedrooms.

Here is a view from the closed gate into the living room.

The windows in the back all have bars on them.

In case of a fire or another emergency, one of the back window bars can be unlocked and swung out. Then you have to slide the glass slats out, break the screen, and climb out.

These precautions make us feel pretty safe. The upper campus has had some break-in issues this past year, but the lower campus (where we are) has actually been fine. But, in the late 80's and 90's, the lower end of campus had a lot of break-ins.

One fun little story: When we went on spring holiday, we locked the gate to the hallway after putting some valuables in our bedroom. Bech put the gate lock key on his keychain. When we got back, he forgot to take it off of the keychain and hang it inside the hallway. Some nights we don't lock the hall gate, and we didn't that night. But then Bech heard something outside, so he got up to lock the gate (forgetting that the key was on his keychain in the kitchen).

The next morning, when the alarm went off, Bech realized that he had locked us in the back of the house. I was not very nice to him about this all (don't worry, I apologized to him later). Bech unlocked the emergency bars, pulled out the slats, and climbed out the window. He then broke the screen on one of the living room windows, and pushed off the door bar, successfully breaking into our house. So we weren't locked into our back rooms for that long. But it still wasn't a fun feeling at 5:30 in the morning!

less than one month!

First, an update on Malawi...It is winter right now and it is COLD! Okay, so I might be exaggerating a tad bit. It can still get warmish during the day. But at night and the early morning, it is pretty cold. Think late October/early November in Mississippi. I am glad I packed at least one pair of flannel pj's!

Rainy season is officially over, proven by the below pictures. Malawi looks like it did when we arrived last August. The fields are bare and starting to look pretty dusty. We can smell the fires in the morning and at night as people are cooking their nsema for meals. All of the maize has been cut down to feed the people for the next year. And the mice on a stick are back!!!

Here is a close up of mice on a stick. Men burn out the grasses in fields to catch the mice, tie the mice to a stick, then cook the mice. Some people love to eat it (Bech and I are not part of that "some people"). Actually, a few ABC missionaries have tried this "delicacy."

During the dry season, men often stand at the corner to ABC (not because of its proximity to the college, just its a good place to sell things) with the mice. YUM!

Last night, we had the Ballet and Band Recital...It was so great! I will be posting some pictures later today or tomorrow! My girls looked so beautiful and did such a great job! I was so proud of them. The power went out, but it was right before the 2nd ballet song, and the generator came on in a few minutes. Other than that, everything went smoothly.

I can now cross that off of my to-do list! I have a bunch of other things to do, though! We got a calendar of events for the next few weeks, and it is FULL! Today is high school graduation, tonight we are going to the Copper Pot with friends, tomorrow is a college function (plus I am working on the yearbook all day tomorrow)! Then next week is crazy busy! Not to mention, we have to finish selling our things and packing!

In a month from today, we will be home! Actually, I have very specific plans for today. I want to wake up in my bedroom (I mean, I'm almost 24 and married, so its kinda not really my bedroom anymore, but I still love it) in Brookhaven. I will go downstairs in my pj's and eat cheese grits, made by my mother. Then I will go to Wal-Mart. I will probably be very freaked out and overwhelmed by the enormity of Wal-Mart and all of the different options, but I haven't been shampoo shopping in a year. And one of my favorite things to do in the world is stand in the shampoo aisle of Wal-Mart and smell all of the shampoos (even though I usually end up buying the same one I had before)...Bech hates this little ritual of mine, but that's why I won't take him on my 1st day home Wal-Mart trip. But the best part of it all is that we will be with our families!!! We can't wait to see everyone!

what we've been doing lately...

We haven't been posting much, so I thought I would let you know what we've been doing lately.

First of all, we are trying to pack up our life here. The biggest thing we are working on is selling our car (pray that we will be able to before we go!). We have sold a lot of our other stuff, which is good. We brought many things from america, so we will use this money to replace what we brought.

We had elections in Malawi, and they went really well. Elections can be very scary in Africa, so we are really thankful that everything here was safe!

Lucius is almost done with his house, so Bech went out to Kauma to visit the house.

We've been teaching (only 3 1/2 more weeks of school!).

The ballet recital is this Friday...AHHH! Please pray that everything goes alright! The older girls have the dance down pat...the same definitely is not true for the youngest girls. But they look so darn cute doing the dance! I will be sure to take LOTS of pictures at the recital.

We have been to Mua. We have cooked a lot. We have been sick, twice...Once with some sort of bad cold that was going around, and right now with Malawi stomache...not fun but not that unusual here.

Okay, I'm almost late for church, so I will leave you with some pictures from the past few weeks:

Here is Lucius' maize. All of the ears are in this structure. The kernels will be taken off of the ears, dried out, then ground up to make maize flower. There is enough maize in here to make nsema for Lucius' family for the next year.

Here are some kids in Lucius' village.

Lucius and his youngest in front of his new house.

The house is almost finished...all that remains to be done are the floors and the roof.

Bech with his preschool students.

We visited Mua Mission again (we went there in early February with Josh and Mary Elizabeth). It's not as scary if you don't spend the night there, but there were still some pretty freaky carvings!

Seriously...whose mind comes up with these scary animals?

We took the mountain road from Mua to Dedza. It's beautiful! You can see the mountains, the lake, and (I think) Mozambique.

We made sushi! We only used avocado and cucumber as our middles, but it was really good!

Look at us...we are practically sushi chefs!

So the list of what we have learned to make this year: tortillas, chips, white sauce, chicken broth, soups of all kinds, bread of all kinds, sushi, etc. If you want to learn how to cook, live in a 3rd world nation.

my friend beth just did a great blog post on Malawian culture. go her website to check it out. everything she wrote about the culture here is right on. it will give you a good taste of life here.

my favorite thing she talks about is how you have to greet everyone when you meet them. and that doesn't mean just saying, "hey," and that's it. in Malawi, you need to ask how the person is, maybe even how their family is. so when i get home, don't be weirded out if i always ask how you are...i am just so accustomed to greeting people like that.

a trip to the market

sorry i am just now adding captions to this post. the pictures finished uploading right when we had to go to the jr./sr. banquet (more on that later)...so let me explain everything!

i have talked about going to the market before...there are many all over lilongwe, but this one is the BIG one! it is "across the bridge," in area 3. it is HUGE, loud, and slightly smelly (a mix of body odor, food, chickens, fish, etc.).

live chickens for sale!

i have no idea what this is. becca and i saw it in the market last week. i had never seen it before. we asked the women what it was, and they said it was made out of nsema. but nsema is white, so i'm not sure what makes it black. so i'm not sure i want to know what it's made out of!

another shot of the mystery pie!

women selling fresh peas and beans.

more beans and some potatoes

i wish i could show you what it feels to be in this market. it is an experience! it was scary the first few times, and now its kinda fun. its loud and crazy, lots going on. usually i am one of the only uzungus (whites) there. people are selling clothes, pirated dvds, toothbrushes (that aren't covered...ugh!), shoes, everything you could think of! you can by butchered cow and pig meat. you can buy live animals. so i guess you'll all just have to come visit us and see for yourself!