It is hard to believe that we have been here almost a week!  Thank you to British Air, we left Canada five days earlier than originally expected, on March 24th.  BA has been experiencing rotating strikes, so we were able to leave Canada ‘between’ strike days, and make it all the way to Malawi without a flight hiccup.  In Johannesburg, South Africa, we lost one roll of duct tape that was in a carry-on bag.   I didn’t realize that some countries deem duct tape a security risk!  Moral of the story is, check your duct tape, or you may lose it.  Eight out of nine bags arrived in Lilongwe with us.  Bag number nine arrived a few days later.  All we lost out of our baggage was a Swiss Card, and a Swiss pocket knife, lesson again…make sure that these are packed INSIDE a checked bag – not just put in an outside zipper pocket!  Regarding the duct tape…make sure you pack it - duct tape can be a good friend overseas, and you need to guard it, as it could be a lifesaver down the road!

Here in Malawi, we are at the end of the rainy season.  Everything is lush and green!  Flowers are gorgeous, and almost everywhere you look over the countryside, it is green.  Don’t be fooled – that will change! Travelling from South Africa to Malawi, we met Rhonda Allen and her daughter from the Assemblies of God Bible College here in Lilongwe.  On the plane, we also met another AOG global workers couple, the Magaffes, who are based in Namibia, and are visiting the Allen’s for a couple of weeks.  Then, our first trip to the grocery store, and we met Gaylord and Fredna Brown, who are also AOG global workers here in Lilongwe.  Our first night in Lilongwe, Jr and Ivy Andrews had the other PAOC global workers, as well as Dr Chris and Heather Brooks (Lifeline Malawi), in for dinner, so we were able to meet all of our fellow PAOC global workers who were in the Lilongwe area.  We were able to meet Glen Haliwell a few nights later, as he stopped in on his way up north to do earthquake relief.  His vehicle was packed to the roof (yes, and on top of the roof) with badly needed supplies for families affected by the quakes up in northern Malawi.

Connie and I are busy getting to know The Village of Hope grounds, and more importantly, the staff and residents of The Village of Hope.  Currently, we have fourty four children who make VOHM their home, along with the house mothers and aunties.  The Malawian people are gracious and are grateful for what God has given them.  We are also busy learning our part of the city, and where to find places and things that are important to everyday life.  Driving a manual transmission left hand vehicle is going well, with the major re-occurring challenge of turning the wipers on instead of signaling a turn.  That will soon be engrained in my brain and will likely only be a short term challenge. Connie has done her first payroll, and everything makes sense to her.  I have been spending a lot of time meeting business contacts, and learning how you do business here.  The other activity that has been taking a fair portion of time is getting to know the faces and names of the children and staff – this is huge, as some of the names are rather English, and the rest are rather Malawian, and I have to learn how to say them.  The Malawian names don’t quite roll off my tongue very easily, but that will come!  Right now, I am waiting for a security gate to be installed, and when the installation is complete, we have to take the installers back to their place of employment.

Food shopping has been favourable.  We have not found much that cannot be had – as long as you have the funds to purchase it.  Some items are horribly expensive, and others are quite reasonable.  We will definitely be adjusting our purchases to take advantage of the more economical foods available. Other items we have needed have proved to be a bit of an adventure procuring.  We have made up to four trips to the same merchant to get what we wanted – they kept being closed at random times, without explanation – even their employees were sitting outside wondering if they were going to work that day!

The currency is taking some getting used to.  Exchange is about 140 Malawian Kwacha to $1.00 Canadian.  Soda pop works out to about 0.45 Canadian each.  Laundry detergent and personal hygiene products cost ridiculous amounts.  A regular North American wallet is useless here.  For starters, the bills are much larger, and secondly, you have to carry LOTS of them – the largest bill I have seen is 500 MK, and a tank of diesel for the truck costs about 20,000 MK. Lots to learn and get used to!

We are heading into Easter weekend, so everything is shutdown Good Friday and Monday, and we leave for meetings in Kenya on Tuesday April 6^th.  We will be returning to Lilongwe on April 14^th.  We are thankful that British Air had their problems, as their problems turned into our blessing – we are feeling quite settled because we arrived five days earlier than planned!

One thing we are really missing at this point is a mosquito net for our bed.  We hope to have one up before we leave for Kenya, as it is the silent mosquito that apparently carry Malaria, and that is one thing that both of us can do without!

Please continue to pray for God’s protection on us, The Village of Hope children and staff, and the other global workers here in Malawi, as well as our children in Canada, Lindy Buzikievich and Kara and David Eckmier.  Please also pray for us to quickly learn what we need for leading the staff at VOH, and to easily transition into life in general here in Malawi.

Blessings,

David and Connie