I love Sundays

      Sunday is truly a Sabbath day here. I love it. We wake up a little later than usual, take our time getting ready, have some breakfast, and then walk down the street to IBF where lots of friends and lots of still-strangers attend church.  We enjoy the service, chat with some folks, meet someone new, and walk home.  Then we have lunch. And then we do whatever we want!  There is no Sunday evening service here, which is really good for us because it allows us to truly rest. Saturdays are catch-up days, and often shopping days, which is exhausting in and of itself.  We may do laundry (which is complicated because we have no drier and apparently hanging clothes outside might earn us fly larvae in our skin later), or we may do lesson plans all day, or we may babysit or we may try to tidy things up.  It's fun, but not really a rest day.  Sundays, though...I just love them! They tend to be quieter days both on campus and in our house, too, which we all know I need in my life.
     Anyway, that wasn't originally why I was going to post. I was planning to tell you about the rest of my first week as a grown up with a (kinda) real job!  I have to say, the week went incredibly well. I'm learning still, of course.  Some things happened less smoothly than others, and some things I learned more quickly than others, but overall I'd say it was better than expected.  I went into it a bit nervous, but really feel pretty at home in the classroom most times. We did have a very laid back week, but I got to know my students better and had some fun times with them, as well as learned a lot about their academic capabilities, which was something I was totally unsure about. My students are from at least 7 different countries, which is exciting. A lot of them are ESL speakers, so we have some challenges that are somewhat unique, but it's a really neat experience for me.  My classes are also incredibly well-behaved. They're talkative at times, and giggly at others, but they respond well to correction and don't require much of it so far. I had a difficult task yesterday, because I found out 3 of my students are going to Mozambique to compete in swimming, and I had to have all their assignments for the next 2.5 weeks turned in.  But we worked that out, and hopefully they'll be able to keep up pretty well over their holiday. It's exciting for them, I know. I'm still working today on lesson plans for my 9th and 10th grade classes for the week after next, but they'll soon be finished! I'm excited about what is to come.
Your prayers are keeping us going here.  We really do feel them and appreciate them.  We have not forgotten that you are supporting us in many many ways, and your emails or facebook messages or pictures or messages through mom or dad. It's such a blessing to know that you love us and pray for us. My mailing address is on the blog now if you desire to send letters or snail mail (expect that it will take around a month to get here.)  If anyone is feeling just ridiculously generous for no apparent reason and desires to buy Season 3, 4, 6, or 7 of Gilmore Girls for us, or Season 4, 5, or 6 of Boy Meets World and mail it to us, we will send you wonderful African purses and aprons and bags and wallets and stuff. Just let us know.  ;) Zikomo!  haha
Love you, dear friends!

the obligatory first-day-of-school post

I really like the word "obligatory" when pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable. British English is taking over my world.

In other news, today was day 2 of school, and day 1 of class. So, since I know you're all waiting to hear, let the detailed account begin!
First things first,  I woke up at about 5:15 when Aly's alarm went off, took a nice lil shower, mopped up the bathroom floor, and I was on my way! I had a quick breakfast, packed a little lunch, grabbed my water bottle, and headed to school! First class of the day is 10th grade, which is also my homeroom, meaning I have them for 5 extra minutes in order to do devotionals or something along those lines. 10th grade is my "spirited" class (that's for you, Ashley Krason). They have a lot of personality, which I enjoy, but after meeting them yesterday morning, I had their assigned seats all ready to go today. So we had a prayer time during homeroom and dove right into the syllabus, which gained a few laughs and an agreement that policies were fair.  They then wrote a page-long reading bio for me, which we'll discuss tomorrow in class. Repeat that the next hour with 9th grade! I didn't meet them yesterday (nor did I have anything close to a reliable roll), so I didn't have a seating chart, but their choice to sit allllll the way across the back 2 rows of my classroom earned them a seating chart for tomorrow! They're good folks- a little less talkative than 10th grade, and a little more scared of me.  They did appreciate the monster border I put on the chalk tray though, earning brownie points for Anthony, who enjoyed it so much.  They told me their names, where they were from, and an article from their wardrobe they'd be happy to wear every day forever. (Thanks, Aly Weimer, for the cheesy and wonderful question.)  Went through the syllabus again, and asked them to please laugh when I say something they think is supposed to be funny.
On Tuesdays I am free 3rd-6th period. So I went to the library and worked on lesson plans (played Angry Birds) and did some reading, had snack with the 3rd and 4th graders, observed a few adorable library classes, had lunch with some sweet girls I teach, checked in on the Kindergarten teacher (who gets out at noon) and then played Angry Birds some more.
Then it was time for the last class of the day: 8th grade.  This class consists of 8 girls, 7 of whom were here today. Now, last year, the highschool at ABC got out at 1:30. This year they added a class, so they get out at 2:20.  So in prior years, these girls wouldn't have even been at school at this point.  Just saying. We were all feeling it, too. But we made it through, tried to have a little fun, and finished a couple minutes early. Eighth grade did not earn a seating chart, but we are going to start sitting in a circle, so as to facilitate discussion and staying awake and such.
Then I came home and took a 30 minute nap. And now you know! (cause it's Mike's super short show!)
More soon, I'm sure! 

another week!

Hello there, peoples of America....mostly Mississippi.
My week has felt pretty uneventful, so I haven't blogged, but I'll bring you up to date on this lovely lazy Sunday afternoon.
Let's see...Monday and Tuesday we had orientation for all us newbies. This consisted of things like telling us how to reach campus security, how to change a lightbulb (not really), what to do if we we're in a wreck, how to figure out who on earth the person cleaning our house is and where she came from, where and how to get money, how not to use the internet and most importantly how many drugs we can get without a prescription at the clinic. Orientation also consisted of a brief history of ABC and what we're about here, as well as some important cultural and linguistic aids.  Overall it was a quite a good two mornings, and they even fed us a traditional Malawian "Christmas Day sort of meal". It was delicious. Basically consisted of Grilled chicken, nsima (somewhere between grits and mashed potatoes), rice, and mustard greens. I ate it all. Yep, even the greens. Ima be a true southerner when I return home. (Irony? I think yes)
Wednesday was a day off. Demonstrations were planned in Malawi, and then cancelled, but everyone was cautious anyway, so the whole country pretty much slept in and watched tv all day. Joke! But really- it was pretty quiet, and we took a rest day too. I read a book for class, Aly took a nap, etc. It was a much needed break. Thursday and Friday I worked on lesson plans all day. Saturday we had new teacher orientation, and I finished lesson plans that afternoon. That evening (last night) they had a braii (basically a cook out) on campus to welcome all the new freshmen to the college. It was pretty fantastic.  And we talked to our newest friend Samuel (he's Malawian) for a while on the way home. He also helped lead worship at IBF this morning, which was neat because he'd been telling us how much he enjoyed playing guitar and piano and singing.
Basically, that's been our week. The girls also made a shopping trip, but you'll have to talk to Aly about that adventure. I stayed home and worked on lesson plans.

Thanks to all of you back home for praying. We truly feel your prayers and will need them even more as we start school bright and early at 7ish tomorrow morning. (I'm still confused about when we have to be there...hmmm)
Love you folks! I'm sure I'll have much to tell this coming week as classes begin!

Every New Day

Well, we had our first roach sighting last night. I was opening the door to use the extra bathroom door (because we STILL have NO lightbulb in 2 of the other bathrooms) and the little guy ran across the floor in front of me. I only screamed once- a very short surprised scream. Which scared Aly half to death (apparently she's never heard me scream before) but Katie rushed to the rescue and killed the villain for us!  

This morning my shower leaked tremendously (again), and having found no explanation for it, (the outside of the tub and the outside of the shower curtain aren't wet) we decided that the pipes must be leaking and it's seeping through where the tub isn't sealed well and practically flooding our bathroom. 

We also discovered that we apparently overfilled our water filter a bit and it also leaked onto the kitchen floor.

Friday we learned that you must weigh your produce, print a price sticker, and put it on the bag BEFORE going to check out at the store. We left with fewer veggies than intended.

Thursday we discovered that the lady who's been coming to clean our house every day is NOT an ABC student, she does know how to write in English, and we should pay her at the end of the month, despite having no idea where she came from. (She's very sweet though, and we appreciate her aid. She even told us what cleaning supplies she needed us to buy, since we had none.)

Every day we learn something new to do or not to do (usually by trial and error). Whether it's realizing for the 8th day in a row that even a tiny crumb left in the bottom of the sink will attract numerous ants, or still figuring out who to go to with each sort of problem (phones, maintenance, cars, lesson plans, shopping), we are learning. 

I admit that I've been quite frustrated at least once every day (usually somewhere around the 3rd spider killed), I also realize that this is humbling me.  I'm not saying I'm really happy with it, nor am I necessarily enjoying it, but I can see that I have lessons to learn.  Usually I'm the one with all the answers. I am a very observant and intuitive individual, and I rarely feel like I have to depend upon anyone.  This experience is showing me- multiple times, every day- that I am not sufficient for my needs.  Christ is all that is reliable in this world. When the power is out and we have one flashlight (a borrowed one, at that), all of a sudden it's very clear to me that no matter how much I want to fool myself, I am not in control of my life. He is my sufficiency- my portion- all I will ever need.

It's okay that I'm frustrated. It's okay that I'm on the bottom end of a gigantic learning curve. It's okay that I'm tired of ants. But it is not okay for me to release frustration on my roommates.  It is not okay for me to curl up and feel sorry for myself. And it is never okay for me to forget how much I need my Savior. 

So this is what I have for you today.  Remember how needy you are!  Just because your world is more familiar than mine...just because you'll put on your best clothes, flash a smile, and tell everyone how wonderful you're doing at church this morning...just because you can fool even yourself into thinking you've got it all together... don't make the mistake of forgetting how dependent you are on Christ. Run to Him- let Him embrace you and hold you and through realizing you're nothing without Him, realize that you are His beloved- His adopted child- His chosen one.  In Him you live, and move, and exist.  His arms are a great place to be- where every new day brings new mercies. 

promised pictures

This is a lovely picture of the dinner we (Aly and Katie) made!

This is a picture of lovely Katie enjoying the lovely dinner!

This is a picture of our first guest! His name is Craig/Russ/Wallace/we're still working on it. If you know us, you aren't surprised.

And THIS is Jill Kyser with the most beautiful sweet baby boy ever. He looks less than happy, but it's only b/c I'm a horrible camera-woman. He was loving it. Super happy lil guy. You should pray for him. He's from the crisis nursery, and he's actually 18 mos old. Hopefully he'll be getting better and bigger soon!

shifting

"Please be careful when opening the overhead compartments as contents may have shifted upon landing."
      I know that it's common procedure for the flight attendants to make this announcement, and I'm sure they'd be in a lot of trouble if they didn't, but after 4 flights in 2 days, I could quote their standard announcements along with them.  But after about 4 days in Africa, I feel like that's a pretty accurate introduction to this blog.
     Let's see, I filled you in on day 1 and all the traveling. Since then, we've accomplished a lot, and some shifting has definitely taken place. First off, I still panic every time the driver of the vehicle I inhabit makes a left turn into the left lane. It's just not right! But I am getting used to the tremendous amount of bikers and pedestrians, and I'm gaining confidence that one day I too will understand the mystery of driving in Malawi.  Second, we've learned the basics of shopping. We even made it to the market! Aly's blog has some detail for you there, if you're interested. It was fantastic, and I'm sure I'll have more to say in the future, but basically Malawian teenagers and young men bombard you begging you to buy their produce (or other random item) and give you all sorts of prices, and you have to figure out which one is not ripping you off and then bargain with him because really they're all giving you a high price. It is fantastic! It's like a strategy game. (Ok, ok, I'm a nerd, and it really is a bit stressful, but still fun!)  We have also learned the art of shopping in multiple places for different things, and are in the process of figuring out what price is reasonable for what item and where you can get that price.  It's something I am enjoying learning, and everyone does things a little differently, so we're hoping to shop with lots of different people so we can develop our own method. This is what Saturday consisted of.
     Sunday we went to the church that meets here on campus, and I really enjoyed it.  The sermon was great, the people were kind, and the music made me feel like I was at home.  We sang "At Calvary" and "In Christ Alone" in the same service. It's just brilliant. We then took a nap. And then I'm not sure what we did. Also, we've had dinner with some great people this week. Friday night was with the Eppersons, who made us tacos and gave us coke. We loved every minute of it, even though we were barely awake. Saturday was at the Kysers, who made amazing spaghetti and gave us sweet tea and brownies and let us play with their sweet kids all evening in the dark! (yay power outage!) And Sunday evening we had dinner with the Carlisles, who made us pancakes. Now, I did enjoy the other meals, but with all the traveling and the adjusting to new water and new food, etc, I just hadn't had an appetite until Sunday night. So the poor sweet family let us eat them out of house and home, and between just Aly and I, I am pretty sure there were about 12 pancakes eaten, and then they gave us coffee, and it was just really excellent. So tonight we were on our own! I am proud to say we did pretty great.  We pooled our resources and had potatoes cooked with green peppers, carrots, and onions, and then we made rice! And we had strawberries sliced and sugared for desert. It was a pretty impressive first meal in Africa. (And really it was all Aly and Katie's doing, of course!) We also were able to have Craig over, who arrived earlier the same day we did and enjoyed getting to know another new friend!
      The other big event has been getting to see our classrooms! I'll have to take pictures later, but it was super exciting. I have lots and lots and lots of work to do between now and when school starts.  If you didn't get the update, I am now teaching 8th and 9th grade language arts, and 10th grade world lit. I have some amazing resources on 8th and 9th grade from the previous teachers, but 10th grade hasn't been taught in a few years (they do this really cool online school program usually) so I am pretty low on resources here and kinda have to start from scratch.  Which is totally doable and kinda exciting. But really is going to require some hard work from me in the 2 weeks to come.
      This is about all I have for you tonight. It's about my bedtime. Oh! but I have a phone number now!! I think it will change soon, but I have a cute lil black and hot green nokia phone that is already covered in silly stickers. Expect pictures soon of dinner and the phone and my classroom and other such things soon! Until then, remember,
every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows.

an abbreviated and yet still too detailed account of my trip

Hullo friends!

I don’t have a whole whole lot to say, first because I’m really tired and make very little sense anyway, and second because I have yet to get a good start on unpacking. My room is A MESS.

But I wanted to update you on life!

So…Tuesday: went to Clinton, hung out with Aly, Liz, and Ammie. Saw lots of other awesome people we love. It was excellent.

Wednesday: slept late, had lunch with our families, and went to the airport! Thankfully Jan Harper is amazing and met us there with things we needed, and then basically got us through the gates. Things were just kinda crazy there, but after roughly 2 hours of working on it, we got checked in! Then we went back to board and found out our plane was delayed around an hour. Which made it highly likely we would miss our next flight, which was the last one out of DFW to London that night, which would make us miss our flight to Joburg, which would basically ruin our lives. Thankfully, friends prayed, God is good, and we made it! Everything worked out! Yay! So we made it onto the flight to DFW, and the flight to London, and after a restless night on the plane, we arrived in London-Heathrow tired and yucky and confused…but wait…that actually happened on

Thursday! : arrived at Heathrow, brushed our teeth, found a happy, semi-quite place with comfy chairs, and took a nap.  Then we ate bagels and bought 2 of those neck pillow thingies to ensure that our next all-nighter flight was a little easier on us. Then we sat and stared until we could get on the plane. So we flew all night, took some Dramamine, got a little more sleep, and somewhere around 6:30 am on Friday we arrived in Joburg. Which is like 11:30 pm Mississippi time.

Friday! Arrived in Johannesburg when the sun was just beginning to turn the horizon the most fantastic shades of pink, orange, and purple. It was absolutely gorgeous. My first African sunrise!  We then met up with Katie, who is now living with us, and ate a muffin. And brushed our teeth again. And then we just sat and stared. OH! and we met this church group from Montgomery, AL who know Jeremy Kyser and the whole thing was just hillarious.  They flew to Lilongwe with us. Speaking of flying...this is when the exhaustion began to overtake me. So by the time we got on the plane around 10:00 am here, I was struggling to function. I was asleep before take off and woke up just in time to land and fill out the immigration card. Seriously…I can’t remember the last time I was that tired.

So, a bit later, we landed in Lilongwe, where Kellen Hiroto helped us through baggage claim and customs stuff, then led us out to meet his wife Becca as well as the famous Jill Kyser! Yay!!! Excitement was very present, and very understated, due to the fact that I was only like 60% awake. Bus ride to campus was an adventure. There is basically no fuel in Malawi so they had to siphon fuel into the bus from other cars to be able to come pick us up. So the driver (Noah, I think) would randomly turn off the bus so we could just coast down the hills. LOVE it! The country is really beautiful, even in the middle of the dry season, where things are much browner than green. But I like it.  The landscape is just really different than what you’d see back home. But really alike in some ways (like all the brown grass…)  Anywho…we arrived at campus and there were some amazing ABC students cleaning our house for us, and we got to start unpacking and shower and stuff. And meet lots of people. And then they fed us dinner tonight. And we met lots more people. And clearly I’m getting tired and need to stop. But later you should remind me to tell you about Aly locking herself in the bathroom.

Congrats if you made it through this! Miss you folks already, but can’t wait for what God has in store here. More news from Malawi soon! Love ya!