The Angry Giraffe and Co.

A Break – FINALLY!

Happy Easter to all! First I just want to say that the reason I have faith and believe in salvation is because of the holiday that was just celebrated. Although it was not really emphasized here at all I am still thankful for the death of Jesus and his resurrection from the grave. It is certainly reason to celebrate and rejoice in the gift of grace and salvation.

Because of the holiday I got a few days off of work and decided to take a much needed break. My friend here Ali (a VSO volunteer from the UK) suggested I look into Zomba Forest Lodge. She said it had a lot of "character" and that I would enjoy it. So I called and booked two nights there – Sunday and Monday – and came back Tuesday. It is an old colonial house half way up Zomba Plateau. It has been re-done into a guest house/lodge run by a man named Ronald from South Africa. He and his dog Obs live there and they have a staff that prepare the food, clean, and keep the grounds. There is no electricity although a warm shower and running water. It gets cold at night so my bed had a down comforter and there was a huge fireplace in the front room for the long evenings. Plenty of kerosene lanterns lit the rooms so I didn't even miss not having electricity.

I decided not to have an agenda while I was there so I enjoyed the beautiful flowers and grounds, laughed with the other guests who were there, read a book, took a nap, and just generally enjoyed my time there. On Monday morning I drove up to the top of the plateau (about 10 kms) and went horseback riding. It was a beautiful, cloudless day. The horse was wonderful and it was just a beautiful time. Then I ate a small lunch at a picnic spot along a creek while I read my book. (For good photos of the horses and Zomba Plateau visit http://web.mac.com//plateaustables.) I can't explain how it was but just being out in nature, with a clear blue sky, and peace and no agenda was amazing! I was a little "saddle sore" for the next couple of days, but definitely worth it!

At the lodge there were other guests – a couple from the UK, four from Norway, the South African owner, and myself. It was quite the cultural mix - made discussions around the dinner table and fireplace quite interesting. They were either there on holiday or working in Malawi with some kind of humanitarian project. The man from Norway is an orthopedic surgeon working at the government hospital in Lilongwe for a year. Another lady from the UK that came the next day is in Malawi for a year working with a project that provides meals for 350,000 children in primary (grade) schools around Malawi. It is funded by an organization in Scotland and she is running the whole thing.

Time has just flown by since this little "outing" of mine. We have been busy with 14 guests from Loma Linda, CA. Eleven of them were 4^th year medical students, along with Dr. Jim Matiko and his wife Becki. He is an orthopedic surgeon practicing in Loma Linda and their son was one of the eleven students. They just left today after being here for three weeks. They were a big help around the hospital and one of them said last night that she feels like she learned more this month than she has in all of her other rotations this year. We had fun showing them around Malawi a bit as well as eating with them, chatting, playing games, and a movie night thrown in. Dr. Matiko was a big help with several surgical cases and also got to volunteer in town at a couple of the hospitals there. He even got to attend an orthopedics conference where the highlight was treatment of crocodile bites!

One of the big things they did to help was distribute the 96 hospital beds that ADRA donated. I didn't realize how big of a job that would be but the students from Loma Linda worked hard to move the old beds out and put the new ones in their place. Some of the old ones can still be used so we are going to donate them to other mission hospitals or other facilities as well as keep some here for back up. The new beds came with nice, proper hospital mattresses too which will be a wonderful change from the 4" foam (or less) that they have been sleeping on. We are steadily working to make things a little bit nicer with new linens at the annex, new curtains (made from hospital divider curtains) and other little things around campus.

It has been busy with visitors lately. Cristy's parents were here for two weeks from West Virginia and we certainly enjoyed their visit. It was nice to have some "mom food" and I know they were especially encouraging to Cristy to have family here. Also while they were here Donna (her mom, and a nurse) helped organize injections for all of our employees for Hepatitis B vaccine. We had gotten it several months ago but hadn't been able to have staff available to give the injections. This is a huge benefit to our staff as it is good for life and something that no other hospital offers. Cristy's Dad was also a big help to her in the hospital doing rounds and some teaching. Donna also got really attached to Hobbes, her "grand-cat". He was certainly enjoying being spoiled with always a warm lap to sit on. We decided they should come and visit several times a year.

Today Faith Lukens and her husband Charles arrive from Kentucky for 10 days. Cristy and I went to Southern with her and she and Cristy lived together during med school. We are looking forward to their visit. In May there is a couple coming from Loma Linda looking at Malamulo as a possible place for mission service. They will be here for a week. We have various visitors for the day coming and going as well – ADRA Sweden is here today and back again next week to look at our water project. Also related to our water project, Wes & Chrislyn Lutz are coming with their two little ones to volunteer for 6 months to manage the installation of the new water system. They are planning to come the middle of May.

I find myself quite overwhelmed a lot with the role that I am in here – not just Malamulo but the other facilities in Malawi. There are certainly good things happening and the devil is causing some trouble. Please continue to pray for the personnel and leadership at Blantyre Adventist Hospital and Adventist Health Center in Lilongwe. I was able last week to spend some time with Florence who runs Adventist Health Services, the organization that has the 18 clinics around Malawi. Now that I have a car I am freer to spend the time in town that I need to. I hope to go in again and meet with their business manager soon. Their biggest challenge is maintenance of the buildings. They just got a 680,000 pound (~$500,000 USD) grant from the UK for a mother and children project that is running over 4 years. There are some excellent things happening there.

There and Back Again

Well, well – where do I start? I don't want to write a book here but it has been almost a month since I've written anything. The major reason is because I was gone for five days on an AMAZING road trip around the country of Malawi!! This was somewhat last minute and unplanned – thus being all the more exciting! As I've mentioned before there is a group of college students planning to come to Malawi in June. As part of the trip they will be doing evangelism/Bible teaching meetings for 7 nights in the respective locations. A volunteer evangelist, Jonathan Leonard, has agreed to work with the students and coordinate the evangelism and so to do a better job at that he came to do some site planning for two weeks. Jonathan was here last summer for 2 months and actually met me at the airport when I arrived and then left a week later. So it is nice to have someone I know to work together on preparations for this trip. So – a long story shorter – we met with the leaders of the fields (like conferences) in Blantyre and realized it was imperative not only for him to go but for me to go as well to arrange for accommodations, volunteer projects, get costs of things, take photos and make vital contacts for when the students come. We are hoping to have 60 students and sponsors spread around 5 sites in Malawi doing a simultaneous mission trip. (I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it!!) Thankfully we were able to take our new car (perfect timing on having wheels) and Blantyre Adventist Hospital fronted the money for fuel for the trip! Jonathan and I drove about 2,000 kilometers in 5 days and visited 3 of the sites that are in the Northern part of Malawi. It is a beautiful country – now I can say that officially since I've seen all but the very northern part that boarders Tanzania. Thankfully we were able to meet with many people, make good plans, and we had no mishaps with the car. It ran perfectly – even through the 20 kms of deep mud that I got to try the 4WD out on! While coming back we drove along Lake Malawi for about 200 kms and thoroughly enjoyed the view along the way. Unfortunately Jonathan didn't have his license so I ended up doing all of the driving! Needless to say I was exhausted by the end of the trip and ready to stay put for a while!

Overall it was a great trip and even better that we got along well and didn't drive each other crazy! Jonathan is doing a good job organizing and coordinating the evangelism part of the trip and it was helpful for me to go along for the other parts as well. God blessed and I'm thankful to have someone like Jonathan to work with on this project and to travel around the country with.

Here are some photos from the trip:

L to R: the man who owns the land where we are going to hold the meetings at Lakeview, the pastor, and Jonathan.

Every good trip needs a photo of the road…

We stopped to eat lunch near this field of sunflowers.

The trusty car with Lake Malawi in the background

In other news –

Cristy's parents, Steve & Donna Shank are here for a 2 week visit from West Virginia. It has been so nice to have them here! Not only for the wonderful treats they brought us – it was like Christmas when they came – but also for the time to chat, hugs, "mom" food, and the blessing of having a full house. Cristy has certainly enjoyed having her family here and this weekend they are getting away to Liwonde Game Park to stay in the lodge for a few nights. Cristy certainly deserves some days away for a rest.

Yesterday I went to the airport to pick up a group of 14 people from Loma Linda. They are eleven 4^th year med students along with an orthopedic surgeon and his wife – here for three weeks. It certainly is fun to have more "azungus" around (white people). They all seem excited to be here although last I saw them they were quite exhausted. They will be here for three weeks so they will have some good times I'm sure.

BUNKBEDS!!! We had planned to have bunkbeds made for the large group coming in June and so decided we would try to get them done for this group of 14 that just arrived. Well procrastination seemed to catch up with us and suddenly Mr. Santos, in the workshop, only had one week to make 6 sets of bunkbeds!! Needless to say he did it!! He welded 6 sets of bunkbeds which doubled our capacity in the guest house from 6 to 12 – four in each room. They were generously provided by the SIMS department at Loma Linda University who originally built the guest house many years ago. Thankfully Mr. Santos is very creative and did a WONDERFUL job in a short amount of time! They were putting together the beds and putting the new mattresses on when we got back from the airport last night.

So yes - *deep breath* - there has been a lot going on. I have to admit that I'm close to exhausted. Between not sleeping in my own bed (it's in use by the Shanks) and all of the traveling and "busy-ness" of each day I am tired! There is also turmoil continuing at the other facilities in Blantyre and Lilongwe and that worries me. I am striving for the "peace that passes understanding" but have had a hard time finding it lately. Realizing that some days are more than I can handle and being allowed to struggle through them with the support of Cristy and Don and others has been a blessing. Please pray for me here and for wisdom and patience to deal with the daily challenges that come.