Day 28 - To the village

Walking into the rehab centre gets a little more difficult with each day as you know that you're counting down the days until you won't get to see these kids anymore. As we were setting up the room for therapy, one of the kids, J, walked in and climbed onto our small trampoline. We had just introduced this activity to him last week and he was a little apprehensive about it. He went from sitting on the trampoline to kneeling the last Thursday. Today, however, he pretty much initiated the activities, which was wonderful to see.

Another girl in the behavioural challenge class, B, walked in and looked like she wanted to jump on the trampoline, so we helped her on and stabilized her, and she had lots of fun. We also assessed a girl in this class to see if we can transition her to the preschool. We walked to the school to do a quick trial today and will be doing another one on Thursday. As soon as we walked in, the preschool kids, especially the ones that we know and see all the time, surrounded us and once again gave us lots of hugs. I love preschool kids.

In the afternoon, we were sent out to Kalulu village, which was about an hour ride on the minibus. Once again, we had an interesting time squishing on the minibus. It was also interesting learning about the pricing. There's no set price! The staff member we went with told us that as we were transferring to take another minibus, that a few guys came to her and asked for a few different amounts even though we were getting off at the same place. The one we took, first the guy asked for 600MK each, then went down to 450MK. In the end, we only had to pay 300MK each for that long stretch. What a deal! She was such a superstar! =)

I was very excited to go to the village. Similar to the home visit, it was such a great opportunity to see  life in Malawi. Not to say that we haven't experienced that, but it has a very different vibe and your interaction with the people is different as well. As we got off the minibus, I could feel all the eyes just looking at us. However, this was not the same as the home visit we did last week. Although I was a foreigner, I felt welcomed in this place. While walking down the path, we saw a mama goat and her two kids. The staff laughed at Luisa and I as we were so excited. We quickly grabbed our devices to take pictures of the goats. We're such city girls.

While we were waiting for some more children to show up at the nutrition and outreach clinic, more and more of the local children showed up outside. Since we hadn't started our rehab clinic yet, I went out to talk (or tried to with my limited, limited Chichewa) to those kids. Then I had about 15 kids or so who started to follow me around as I walked the grassy hill. When I noticed this, similar to our time at VOH, I started doing really silly things, and they all copied. When I sat down, I started picking at the weeds that were around. There was this thing that I did when I was a child, which was to pick up these weeds and pull straight down the stem, then the flowery parts would be like confetti in your hands. Which then you would either throw it or blow it out of your hand. The kids saw me doing this and was really interested. I let them blow the weeds out of my hand and they seemed to have lots of fun. It quickly turned into this activity where they would run and get the weeds, then wait for me to slide my fingers down the stem to pull off all the flowers to put into their hands. We'd then wait for everyone to have some in their hands and blow it off together. It was so much fun and so rewarding, how such a simple activity kept the kids engaged. I could tell that they really enjoyed it and was excited about it.

Playing with grass with the village kids.

When I went back into the room to observe what the rehab tech was doing with some of the kids, the children I was playing with all gathered at the door and looked in, waiting for me to come out to play with them. It was so funny because all of them just crowded around the front foot and blocked the doorway. Although only a few children showed up to the outreach clinic, it was such a great experience. There was this boy, P, who has cerebral palsy. His hands and knees were very calloused and rough. It reminded me of the skin of an elephant, with just how rough it is. When you interact with him and do your buddy handshake with him, he would have such a big bright smile on his face.

This is P.

This little cutie is E.

We also met this little girl, E, who is 1 of 5 children. She is 3 years old and super malnourished. Her wrist was the width of my thumb. The circumference of her leg was equal to my thumb touching the tip of my index finger (opposition).

One of the houses in the village.

Since we many minibuses were full, we started to walk on the highway back to the city (thank goodness Kathy came to pick us up soon after). View on our walk back.

Our God

Water you turned into wine, 

opened the eyes of the blind 

there's no one like you, none like You!

Into the darkness you shine 

out of the ashes we rise 

there's no one like you none like You!

Our God is greater, 

our God is stronger, 

God you are higher than any other.

Our God is Healer, 

Awesome in Power, 

Our God! Our God!

And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.

And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.

What could stand against.

Day 27 - Last week

As I laid in bed this morning, I was struggling to get up because getting up meant that it was the start of our last week here in Malawi. It just seems so surreal that we have been here for 4 weeks now. When I feel like I've started to settle in and get the hang of everything, it's almost time to leave.

We spent most of the morning trying to make a splint for this little girl. It was difficult as she was quite squirmy, so getting her hand into a good position to mold the thermoplastic was tricky. Luisa and I kept running back and forth between the kitchenette (where the pot of hot water was) and the room that she was in. After much remolding and fixing, we finally got the splint to approximately what we wanted it to look like.

Splint making. This is how we do it here.

Just before noon, like many Monday mornings, we had some wheelchairs that we needed to sort out and trial the children on. In the afternoon, we continued with our task of organizing the OT room at the school. We also saw our standard 1-4 students for therapy that afternoon. I worked with my 23 year old and played Tri-ominos. It's such a fun game and therapeutic activity for him. I can really see that he's thinking and trying to manipulate the triangle to find a spot that fits. Although he did need some help on certain tiles, he still beat me in the game.

How He Loves

He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden,

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realize just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us, oh,

Oh, how He loves us,

How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If his grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.

And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don't have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about the way...

He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves.

At night, I was in my room cleaning up and what not, Takida walked in my room and started scouting around. She has been doing that a lot lately since after the geckos, however, I haven't been visited by them for about a week or so now. Anyway, so we propped herself up to look on my bed, then all of a sudden, she jumps up onto my bed and just sits there staring at me. It was so funny! Such a silly dog.

Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside that head

Day 26 - God's Sovereignty & Prayer

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for the good, for those who are called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28

Today, we went to Lilongwe Pentecostal Church with Darcy & Brenda. Even as we were outside parking the car, I could already hear the church singing. Attending this church was such a refreshing experience. 99% of the congregants are Malawians. The praise and worship was just so full of life. People were singing at the top of their lungs as if today was the last day that they would be praising the Lord. The worship leaders were dancing, moving, and there was just so much freedom and soul in the worship. Although many of the songs, I didn't know what they meant (since it was in Chichewa), I could feel the people just singing praises and bringing glory to Him.

The message today was on the sovereignty of God and prayer. That the Lord does all that he pleases (Psalm 135:6). No man can hinder all God has purposed (Isaiah 46:9-11). If it is according to the will of God, it will be done and accomplished. Prayer, then, establishes the ordained will of God, bringing His purpose into play.

"Not all things are God-sent, but all things are God-used."

Learning to discern and pray not my, but God's will to be done. Pray with me as we learn to rest in the Lord, knowing that He has a purpose for us all. Pray for humility, charity, and courageousness.

All Heaven Declares

All heaven declares the glory of the risen Lord
Who can compare with the beauty of the Lord?
Forever He will be (Forever He will be)
The Lamb apon the throne (The Lamb apon the throne)
I gladly bow the knee (I gladly bow the knee)
And worship Him alone

I will proclaim the glory of the risen Lord
Who once was slain to reconcile man to God
Forever You will be (Forever You will be)
The Lamb upon the throne (The Lamb upon the throne)
I gladly bow my knee (I gladly bow my knee)
And worship You alone

After service, we went to a Palestinian Christian's grocery store which also sells chicken and chips. Hands down, the best fried chicken that I've ever had!

Yummy Guava and Mango Pineapple drinks. Went well with the fried chicken & chips.

Tonight, Darcy & Brenda took us out for Indian food at Huts. We had tried to go last week, but they were closed because the family was apparently away, but so glad that the owner is back. We had such great food! I love Indian food! It was so delicious!

Chai tea and Mango Lassi! Delicious!

Appys. The main courses came and we all dug in.

Day 25 – Shenanigans in Malawi

Thank you once again for all your love, birthday texts, messages, song, encouragement, prayers, food, etc. I feel so loved by you all and am so blessed to have you all in my life! Spending my birthday in Malawi has definitely been very special!

Today, we went out with Darcy and Brenda to run some errands. It was such a nice day to just go around. We first had to stop by a store that reminded me of Home Depot/Rona. We just had so much fun in this store while we waited for them.

Doesn't the mirror remind you of the one from Snow White?
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

What a fancy looking shower with all these buttons and jets.

Swinging on lampposts. Just like singing in the rain! =)

We saw plastic trees that light up...

so of course we had to take a selfie with us in the tree

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

So many doors that all connect! Fun times!

Peek-A-Boo!

Haha! Squatters and urinals! I haven't seen that sold in stores before. First time for everything.
If it helps, the store owners are Chinese from China.

Then we went to DAPP again while Darcy had the car serviced. It was definitely less chaotic compared to last week. I bought another cute dress today. Can’t wait to wear it! We also walked around the store called Game (Walmart/Target like store). Remember those mice marshmallows? Well, I debated on buying them as some of you expressed interest in trying it, but upon further inspection (by touching the package), the mice marshmallows were hard! I didn’t think it was really a wise decision to buy it just to satisfy some of your curiosity. Sorry friends! They seemed quite nasty and gross. Afterwards, we went to Papaya’s for a smoothie while Luisa had ice-cream.

We’ve also been hearing stories about lineups at the bank and ATMs running out of cash around the beginning/end of the month because that’s when people usually received their pay. Today, we were able to see the lineups first hand as we walked by to go to a store. What you see in the picture is only a small snapshot of the lineup. I would say it easily consisted of 75 -100 people lining up for the ATMs.

Here, you only see one side of the bank area. There are snaking line ups on the second floor.

We then drove out to the site of the new Agape Orphanage, the building ministry that Brenda and Darcy are involved in here. On our way there, it felt like we were going on a road trip, so Luisa and I started singing in the car. It was nice to see the site and what it looks like. We only hear stories from them during dinnertime, so now we’re able to picture it better when they talk about it. While we were waiting in the car, we also belted out some tunes. Fun times!

Before we came home, we went grocery shopping, where Lu and I went on a edible souvenir shopping spree =) It was very fun and exciting!