Back In The States....Life Is Different

Well...long time since the last blog update. Many reasons for that...but here we are. The "in-between" team arrived back in Nashville friday morning and have been getting back in the groove of things. I, personally, slept forever friday and saturday.

Things have been rather interesting getting back in the swing of things. First of all, my logic board on my laptop went out our last night in Malawi so I was without a computer the last couple of days there. Yeah, got home and went straight to mac authority to start the repair process. It is still in repair. Not a cheap repair either. Yuk...so I have commandeered my wife's mac to start trudging through some editing.

At any rate, team 2 got all of their bags ok the next day. They got off to a great start on the project and will be in Malawi through this friday and return to Nashville on Saturday of this week. I found out today that tomorrow they will be meeting with the US ambassador to Malawi at the Adziwa project site. Really cool stuff!

It has been quite hard to get back into things here. Just as I returned last time from Africa, I am finding myself continually thinking about Africa and how posh I have it here. It is keeping me centered. When I want to complain, I shortly realize that in the whole grand scheme of things, I have nothing to complain about. Things could be a LOT worse. Sobering.

I have been forced to always look on the bright side and really remember what truly matters.

As I have begun the edit process, I have come across a couple images that I want to share. Enjoy.

Team 2 Arrives...with no bags. Happy Monday!!

So today team 2 arrived on time as scheduled. The only downside to this arrival was that none of their checked baggage arrived. It is supposed to be on the incoming flight from Joberg, South Africa tomorrow. We will see.

This morning, Ken Morris and I went and visited two of the four families that are being considered as possible recipients of the house that this next team is about to finish. One of the families really struck me in an interesting way. The family was one elderly grandmother taking care of 7 children. Her daughter, who is the sole monetary support, stays with her in Kauma on the weekends but works in another area of Lilongwe during the week and cannot have her kids with her. The daughter's 4 kids live with the grandmother. Their father wants nothing to do with the children and has written them off. Two of the other children are aids orphans who lost their mother to aids and their father to a car accident. So, here is this elderly grandmother taking care of 7 children in a 2 room rented shack, no bigger than one small room in the US. The house is so small that 2 of the children have to stay with a neighbor. In Africa, were sexual abuse runs wild, the thought of sending two children to sleep at a neighbors every night, the thought is atrocious.

It will be very interesting to see how things shape up in the next couple of days. Here are a couple images from the last couple of days. One picture is of Steve, the head teacher for Adziwa school, grading papers in a run down church in Kauma that currently is one of three locations for the school. Another image is Jim O'Donnell having a great moment with one of the kids of Adziwa. The other two, well I just liked. Good objects.

Visited A Refugee Camp

So...yeah....yesterday I visited a refugee camp about an hour and a half north of Lilongwe. I was invited to go up there and tour the camp to take some pictures for a ministry called "There Is Hope" that is working with the refugees as a satellite ministry of Capital City Baptist Church in Lilongwe.

It was a soul shattering experience to say the least. Incredibly sad. This camp has been established for a long time, over 15 years I believe. It basically is this confined squatters village in the middle of no where. There is little connection with the outside world. As a result, many refugees are living isolated hopeless lives in this self contained environment. They are not treated as Malawi citizens, so they have limited jobs, if any, and very limited access to the outside world. Many refugees are hopeless because they feel like all their dreams have been lost now that they are refugees displaced by violence and upheaval in central Africa.

I met refugees from Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and so many other countries. Many of these refugees are displaced from conflict over 20 years ago and have been moved from one international refugee camp to another because they cannot return home because they have no claim to land or business because others stole property and business ownership rights when they fled originally. Basically, many of these refugees do not exist technically and it is a huge battle to get them on as citizens and rightful owners of property etc. as refugees.

Innocent, the younger man in the pictures, was a refugee from Burundi. He was born in a refugee camp after his family was displaced into the Congo after tribal conflict errupted in Burundi and his father's life was threatened by the opposing tribe. Innocent moved from Congo, tried to re-enter Burundi, but his father's property and businesses were no longer legally his as others had laid claim to them. As a result, his family was sent back to Congo to the camp. Innocent and his family were then moved to Tanzania, and then on to Zambia. Innocent then left his family and ended up at this camp in Malawi.

As God would have it, Innocent met Pastor Henry from Capital City Baptist Church in Lilongwe. Innocent had a dream to start a ministry to give hope to refugees and help them get out of the camp and engaged back in society as a citizen. Pastor Henry worked with the Malawi government and was able to get Innocent out of the camp and give him a ministry position with CCBC. Now, Innocent is taking this opportunity to start "There Is Hope" by helping out other refugees trapped in the system.

Currently, Innocent is working with 2 Rwanda young men who have scored incredibly high on their high school education exams. They both want to study medicine and help others. Innocent has been working with the boys to get them admitted to the medical university in Blantyre here in Malawi. So far, the boys are scheduled to start school in January, though funds for their education are still being raised as the boys cannot afford university because they are refugees. Confusing I know. But trust me...this is a GREAT THING!!!

More to come....

Thursday Was Amazing!

We had an absolutely amazing day today on the Adziwa project here in Malawi. The day was full of continuing to work on building houses, and playing with the children of Adziwa. We also got a chance to go and visit some of the families in Kauma village that are waiting to have their house completed in the Adziwa community. It was truly amazing.

Then those on the first team had to say goodbye to the people of Adziwa and Malawi as they will be leaving tomorrow. Here are some new pictures to view. More coming. I will probably blog again later.

From the School Today

Here is an image from the school today. I absolutely love her hair and everything about her look. Yes...it is not true photojournalism because I have edited it with slight desaturation, but I think the idea behind the image is really strong so I wanted to share.

Tuesday's Gone...

So while you guys back in the states are in the turmoil of election day, I can say that I am sitting here at 10:18pm in Lilongwe, Malawi actually online to update the twitter accounts for all to see and this blog while you, on the other hand, are in the mayhem of the election. I do not envy you at all.

So a little bit about today. Things here have been absolutely rocking my face off. Today I got a lot of great opportunities to see the hand of God at work here in Malawi. This morning, I got to go into one of the schools in Kauma village, where the Adziwa project is located, and spend some time with the children. While there, we gave all the kids new book bags with paper, crayons, and some pencils for school. We ran out before we got them to the last class so a couple of our team went back to the lodge where we are staying and got more. While they were away, I got to sit in with some 1st grade students as they learned math. I actually got to grade their quiz, which was four simple addition problems. Each kid would come up to me, hand me their paper proudly and then kneel at my feet while I was sitting down and anxiously await their score. Each child had such a peaceful and joyous look in their eyes. Funny how we as Americans think that these African children will be all down and out because of their circumstances that they live in. The reality is this: this is the world they know and they find joy in the midst of it. Ouch...lessen to be learned for me. I get mad and frustrated when I can't stop and get starbucks because money is a bit tight. Wow.

Then I got to go on walk through Kauma and pray for a couple of the families that are part of the Adziwa project but not living on-site yet as they are waiting for their home to be built. All the families had about 3 kids of their own and would adopt 2-4 other aids orphans. Some of the families were single parent families. It was quite sobering. I was blown away by the need these people have for the simple things in life...food, clean water, basic medical care, adequate living conditions, etc.

So, now with tuesday gone, I close my thoughts for tonight. Here are a couple images from the last few days that I will leave you with.

Monday, November 3 - FIRST FULL WORK DAY IN ADZIWA

We just had an absolutely amazing first full work day on the Adziwa project here in Lilongwe, Malawi. WIFI access here has been almost non-existent so blogging has been quite difficult.

At any rate, all the team is healthy and is doing well. Today, many of them worked on making bricks, and building a house for a family that has adopted aids orphans. The team also did a small children's program in the afternoon and played with the children.

I had a lot of the kids hanging on me, despite carrying 2 cameras. They were an absolute blessing! Words cannot express. Yesterday we had a great day at Capital City Baptist Church and then around Lilongwe. I, with Ted Woz and a few others, ventured into the "local" market where all the residents shop. Needless to say, the locals were surprised to see us there. Got a lot of great images and talked with a lot of amazing people who truly changed my life.

I am on a timed WIFI and need to let some others write loved ones so I must keep this short. I will upload images as I can. Miss you all.