Smiths in Malawi

sorry

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:39:00 +0000

Yeah, we're still here. I am sorry we have not posted lately. I'll catch up soon.

I am bad!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:15:00 +0000

June 19, 2010

Wow – am I bad. Over 2 months since I’ve posted anything! A lot has happened these last two months. Guess that just goes to show that time does fly when you’re having fun.

Well, it’s been a very, very busy two months. Our car is working now, we have internet access at home, we had company from the U.S., we are moved into a new mission compound, Ray is very busy with the Farming God’s Way program and helping at the feeding center, Mphatso is almost finished with this school term and I now get to play House Mama. God is good. He is so faithful and kind.

Mphatso has been living with us for a year (May) so we had a party to celebrate. I made a chocolate cake and an orange cake made with Fanta Orange pop. We had lots of people over to celebrate with us.

It took a while, but our car was finally able to be worked on and now runs. We don’t feel comfortable depending on it to go everywhere but I use it to go to the market, run some short errands, and to pick Mphatso up from school every day. That is a huge blessing – having a car to pick her up from school with because Ray is out in the village every day and it’s quite a jaunt back into town to pick her up.

I said we have internet access at home. I think the only reason we have it is because we kept bugging the people at the internet company and they finally got tired of us. They still do not have the telephone needed for internet access but knew someone who was selling their phone so we purchase it from them. It’s slow but it is a lot easier than running into town every day to get online. That saves us fuel money because town is not as close as it used to be. The internet access is slow – slower than dial-up but it works. There are certain times of the day we can’t get on the internet because there is only so much bandwidth to go around. Early mornings here seem to be the best time.

Our daughter, Jamie and our good friend, Erle, came to visit us in May. We went to the Liwonde Game Preserve and saw elephants, hippos, monkeys and other animals, including a few in our car. We had a great time and showed them a good time all around the area. They came when we were still in the small apartment with only two bedrooms and one bathroom. We borrowed beds and mattresses from a friend and converted one bedroom into a girl’s room and the other bedroom into a boy’s room. It was very tight but we managed and had a great time.

We are living on the same compound but are now living in the big house and the landlord is living in our small flat (apartment). We have 3+ bedrooms, a big sitting room (living room), 2 bathrooms, a huge kitchen and a dining room table that will seat 10 comfortably. As I said, God is good. We still have no stove so I cook on a two burner hot plate. The refrigerator we were borrowing from the landlord died so we now have no refrigeration either. However, he did leave a freezer here so I am able to put things in the freezer. But things that need refrigeration like milk and yogurt, we don’t even bother with. There is a family from Germany who is moving back to Germany in a couple of weeks and we bought their refrigerator from them so if we can hold out a bit longer, we’ll have a refrigerator. Their cooker (stove) was already purchased so we couldn’t get that. Oh well, we know eventually we’ll have a stove. Until then, when I absolutely need to bake something (Mphatso needed a cake for school for their class assembly last week and I really needed to make chocolate chip cookies yesterday), I run over to Charlie’s house and use his oven. He lives two compounds down from us so that is very convenient – to have your boss close and be able to borrow from each other. He comes over quite a bit for dinner so he reaps the benefits of the cakes and cookies he allows me to make in his oven.

Hopefully, our first mission team from the US will come in August or September so I can try my skills as House Mama. Oh yeah, I even have business cards that say, “House Mama”. It’s great. We know we will be having a pretty good size team over in October so that will be fun. We still have a lot to do in this house to get ready for a team. The water in the tubs work but the showers don’t. We have no cold water in the kitchen (imagine me complaining about no cold water). However, when we have water, the kitchen water is so hot I can’t put my hands in it wash dishes. Maybe that’s a sign that I should let someone else do them. But, we know all these things will be fixed and it will all come together before we have a team arrive. I have no doubt of that.

The landlord has many dogs for security. Two of the dogs had puppies right before we moved in so we had two litters of pups running around here. One of the moms died so he put those pups in with the other pups. Mom took to them with no problem. Now she had 7 pups to nurse. Well, she decided early on that she was not going to supply all of them so she stopped feeding any of them. Now we had 7 pups with no food. He gave away three of the pups and to date, we have 4 running around our house. Three of them were very sick. It appeared that they got into some poison or something because they would have seizures and one was foaming at the mouth. Ray sat up with those three holding them until 3:00 AM one morning. They managed to make it through the night and one recovered very quickly. The other two did not manage so well. They shook uncontrollably and one of them walked on his forearms instead of his paws. We were scared for those two. Ray took those two to the vet and as soon as he put the pups down and described the symptoms, the vet immediately told him that they have a calcium deficiency. He said to feed them a certain type of fish. So we did. Within two days, it was remarkable the difference in these two. Now, you wouldn’t know anything was ever wrong with them. They play, run about and torment the other pups. So……………how do you break pups of having me purchase special fish for them and cook it every morning? I think the answer is that you don’t. At this point, we haven’t broken them of the habit so as soon as Ray opens the doors, in trot four pups all wanting fish for breakfast. So yes, I cook for the dogs too.

The landlord also had a mama and three kittens when we moved in. The mama cat is gone but the three kittens remain. Of course, Ray immediately attached to one of the kittens so we now have a female cat named “Steve”. Whatever. So, on our property, we have three cats, a rooster, two hens, numerous baby chickens, two goats, five big dogs and four pups. Of course, we have named them all.

Ray is busy working on the Farming God’s Way program at the center. He is working with widow head of households and children head of households to fine tune what they did last year and what they are going to do this year. He is also recruiting more people to participate in the Farming God’s Way program out in that area. Since the feeding center is quite a way out of town, they don’t have access to large quantities of items needed daily to feed 350+ kids. That’s a lot of kids and a lot of necessary items. So, he helps procure needed items for them. He’ll do things like pick up large quantities of eggs, chickens, vegetables, in town and take it out to them. Mphatso and I go out to the village with him once in a while but it’s hard with her in school. Since her school break is coming up, I am sure we will travel with him more often to play with the kids.

Miqlat is also building a new feeding center. One Sunday, the entire Miqlat team that was on the ground traveled out there to visit the site and to pray over it. The kids in the village enjoyed seeing everyone.

The school year in the international schools run from September – July so Mphatso gets out of school July 2. She is excited to have a holiday (vacation) but really likes her school and has made quite a few friends. She settled right in to the class, even after arriving in the third term. They took a field trip last week and visited a crocodile farm. She got to pet a baby crocodile and informed me that the crocodiles on this farm do not eat children, they only eat chicken and nsima. She made a crocodile family out of clay. It’s cute. Her class had their class assembly a couple of weeks ago and their theme was Father’s Day. Of course, this mother cried. I think her dad did too. They all painted a picture of their father’s faces and had them in the assembly hall. I think the picture she painted looks like her Abambo (dad).

One of the large hospitals put on a run. They had a 5K, 10K and children’s fun runs. Mphatso participated in the one-lap children’s run. She had a great time and was the first in her class to cross the finish line! She was excited. Being at the run reminded me of my former running days. I kinda missed it being in all the excitement.

I said I get to play House Mama. Since this is a mission house, people here with Miqlat are free to come and go as they please. Since Charlie lives so close, he comes over for dinner quite a few nights a week. We’ve also had others working with Miqlat who don’t live so close over for dinner quite a few times. I am also able to wash clothes for Charlie because the missionary who sold Miqlat his van also left a full size Speed Queen washer and dryer. We have it sitting on the back khonde (porch). I plug it in to the electrical outlet running it through the window and we have to string a 50’ hose from the washer to the water pipe in the back yard. This is an old washer and dryer so it doesn’t work the best but it still works. That’s all I care about. It’s great when it rains because I don’t have to hang clothes outside to dry. It’s also a lot easier on our clothes. Socks are not stretched to fit a giraffe.

I purchased a sewing machine. It’s not nearly the quality of one from the US but it works. I’ve made Mphatso a couple of skirts, sewn sheets for our beds, mended quite a few things and am now working on a tablecloth for our dining room table. It’s nice to be able to do some of those things and not have to find a tailor.

This same missionary also left a braii (grill). It is wonderful. We’ve used it several times to cook outside. It is an absolute necessity during those nights we have blackouts. Yes, we still have blackouts on a regular basis and we still lose water. We lived in the small house for two months and never lost water. We move to the big house and have lost water every day since we’ve been here. We have water this morning but have been without water completely for the last 4 days. We were to the point that we only had a couple of pitchers full left to cook, clean, bathe, flush toilets, etc. I am very glad that we woke up this morning to running water.

It’s cold here. Their seasons are opposite ours in the US so it is now winter here. June and July are the coldest. We’ve been sleeping with two blankets lately but last night was a three blanket night. We are living on tea and coffee now, not cold drinks. It’s been raining for the last three days and today is not supposed to be any better. There are no heaters or air conditioners in houses here so you just put on more clothes and drink more tea (if you have water). There are many tea plantations in our area of the country and they have the best tea. I have become addicted to Malawi tea.

Whew! I'm tired now. I better go either take a nap or get some laundry done while we have water and electricity. Hopefully, it won’t be another two months before I post. Sorry about that long delay.

April 12, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:50:00 +0000

Well, we’re in our new place and while it is smaller than our other house, the benefits outweigh the size. Our flat as they call it, is attached to the main house where the owners live. They have a beautiful, beautiful garden in front and back. It is great place to sit and reflect on the Lord’s handiwork, pray and read scripture.

Our house was partial furnished. It came with a dining room table and chairs, a sofa, living room chairs, a refrigerator and a small washing machine. Now, it’s the kind of washer that you load the water into, set it to wash, drain it, put more water in to rinse, drain it again then put the clothes in the spinner. I still have to dry clothes outside but if it’s good enough for our forefathers (foremothers, I should say), then I can do it. At least I don’t have to hand wash clothes. While we have a washing machine, Mphatso still wants to wash things by hand. So she has the cleanest doll clothes and I have the cleanest wraps in the area.

We live outside of town so it takes us a while to get to town but we are close to a market. While we have a mini bus stag close by, it’s not the kind where the mini-buses sit waiting for a fare. We also have screens on our windows which is a huge plus. That keeps the mosquitoes (and lizards) out. You know how much I *hate* lizards! Mphatso laughed and laughed at me because I chased one with a broom that was on the outside of our house the other day. I wanted to let him know not to even think about coming into our house. Hopefully, he told his friends too.

We don’t have a stove so we purchased a two-burner hot plate. I am struggling with it. You don’t realize how much you use an oven until you don’t have one. A stove with oven is our first priority. My next priority is a refrigerator with a freezer. They have a refrigerator in this house. Even if it does not seal properly and it does not have a freezer, at least I can keep food cold.

We have lost power several times in our new place but have not lost water yet. We hear that we do have water issues here too but we are thankful that we have not yet.

Our car still is not starting so we are driving Miqlat’s van. Thank God for this van because we’d be here completely without transportation if we didn’t have this donated van. We did find a mechanic to look at our car and he’s still working on the problem. Hopefully, we can get it resolved soon. We will need another vehicle when school starts next week so I can pick Mphatso up from school while Ray is out in the village.

Internet access is a possibility in this house so we are researching that. I researched what we paid for internet access cards per month and it would be cheaper for us to have internet access at home. But of course, there is always a glitch – they don’t have any internet phones available right now. So, we’re checking with some people to see about finding a used one. At least it is now a possibility in this place.

Weather here has been hot. We are getting to the end of the rainy season. It has rained most days but not the long downpours we get at the beginning of the rainy season. Everything here is so green and so beautiful right now.

We weren’t here but a day when Mphatso and I wanted chips and a Fanta. Nothing better than chips (fries) cooked outside in dirty grease with shredded cabbage and tomatoes put in a small blue plastic bag and loaded with salt. That and a Fanta Orange in a bottle and we were happy campers. Oh, the small things we appreciate.

Ray’s been out to the village a couple of times and is getting information from a researching center on agricultural issues. He is really into Farming God’s Way and is learning what he can to get this program off to a good start.

We are still searching for a missionary compound to house missionaries on the ground and teams coming over – then my work begins.

I better go check to see how dry my clothes on the line are – it looks like rain.

We're back in Malawi

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:54:00 +0000

We arrived safely back in Malawi on Sat, March 27, 2010 with no issues. Praise God for that. All 12 pieces of our luggage arrived with everything intact!

We are staying with a friend for a few days. We had no water Saturday – Monday. It didn’t take us long to remember what it’s like to live with no water. When the water came back on, we didn’t care if we had to take a cold bath. It was worth it.
We looked at a place for us to live. It is smaller than the house we lived in before but it has hot water! I am happy. The person living in the place moves out this week so we can move in next week. It is mostly furnished so we will only need to find a few items. The kitchen is much, much smaller than our other kitchen so that will be a challenge for me but I’ll deal with it. As long as I can cook somewhere, even if it’s outside, I’ll be fine.

The international school we originally wanted to send Mphatso to was full at the beginning of this school year so we could not get her in there. Our new house is closer to this school so we stopped there to see about enrolling her for the last school term of this year, hoping they had an opening now. They do not have an opening in her grade but have one in the next grade up. We have an assessment schedule for her to see if she would be able to keep up with that class for the rest of the term.

Ray is happy. A four wheel drive minibus has been donated to Miqlat and we are allowed to drive it. He now feels like he’s driving a manly vehicle, not a mom-minivan.

Things are going well. We are trying to figure out what we need to move and get settled so we can begin doing the work the Lord has planned for us here.

Greetings to you all and Happy Easter!

repost

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:48:00 +0000

This is a repost.

We have been in the US for a little over a week. Mphatso loves the snow. The first time she went out in it, she did a belly flop, thinking it was like a swimming pool. It was cute.

She keeps wanting to go out and shovel more because we have "too much snow".

We are heading back to Malawi in March, 2010.

There will probably not be any posts until that time.

Have a blessed CHRISTmas and a very Happy New Year.

Our even greater God

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:58:00 +0000

We got approved for Mphatso's visa today at the embassy. We pick it up tomorrow at 2:00 PM and get on the 4:00 PM bus back to Blantyre. We arrive in Blantyre about 9:30 PM, sleep, then get up and head to the airport. We'll arrive on Dec 3.

Thanks for all your prayers and support and hopefully, we'll see some of you before the end of this week!

Praise God. Mulungu ndi wabwino (God is good).

Our Great God

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:56:00 +0000

We received Mphatso's passport today. Thank you Lord!!!!

We have an appointment with the embassy on Monday at 8:00 about a visa to travel to the U.S. If approved, it will be issued on Tuesday.

If we get the visa, we'll be back in the US on Thurs, Dec 3.

What a rushed week.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

update

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:38:00 +0000

Sorry we haven't blogged in a while. This is a pic of Mphatso and her swimming pool in our front yard. She made a crown for herself and her dolly.

I (Alice) am feeling better. Finally over the malaria. That was such a strange sickness and I am glad that I am over it.

Mphatso (pronounced mPotso) has a cold and reminds me several times a day that she is sick. She constantly wants to be held but who doesn't when they are sick. I've been keeping track of funny things she says. The other days she was singing Christmas Carols and was singing “Do you hear what I hear?”. For the line that goes, "said the wise man to the shepard boy", she said, “Is a little man better than a boy?". Ray and I just looked at each other and laughed. She is a joy.

The rainy season has started. It has rained every day for the last several days. Yesterday, it rained ALL day. That's great for crops as people are either planting or just recently planted but it is really bad for wet clothes trying to dry. Looks like rain again today. You just learn to work around the rain, the power outages, the lack of running water and lack of fuel for your vehicle. There has been a huge diesel shortage lately with trucks and mini-buses in line for hours to get diesel. The shortage appears to be starting with petrol now as Ray went to three different stations yesterday to get gas and none of them had any. We were able to get petrol this morning, however.

Our Thanksgiving this year will be much different than our Thanksgiving last year. This year, we have a friend here in Malawi who has a friend coming to visit him, who is bringing items we can't find here. I am making Thanksgiving dinner for all of us. I am excited. I enjoy doing this type of thing and I can't wait.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! The Lord has blessed us with many, many things to be thankful for. May the Lord bless you all as he has blessed us!

still or again?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:36:00 +0000

I went to the doctor again yesterday because I still am not feeling right. I thought maybe it was a change in my other meds that was making me still sick but it turns out I still have Malaria. I think I never got over it completely. He gave me some different medication so maybe this will work. I hope so. Malaria is not fun. It's a different kind of sick than I have ever been before.

M & M

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:38:00 +0000

First, let me begin by saying that I am over the malaria. Thank you Lord. And thank you all for your prayers. That was a tough sickness. I was sick and it was such a strange sickness that I had never experienced before. I was exhausted and slept all the time but worse yet, I had a headache that would not go away. It was right in the front of my head, behind my left eye. I thought at first it was sinuses but nothing would take the pain away. I tried Advil, Sudafed, Comtrex, Tylenol, panado and nothing worked. So when I went to the doctor and tested positive for malaria he gave me some malaria meds. Those meds, in combination with my diabetes meds, made me even sicker. I ended up going to the clinic at the hospital because I was not feeling better. The doctor did not test me again for malaria but told me that the malaria drugs they gave me should have taken care of the malaria virus. He said he thought my continued headaches were migranes and gave me some different pain killers and what he said were sleeping pills. He said I needed to completely relax to get rid of the migranes and I was not sleeping because my head hurt. What the “sleeping pills” ended up being were valium. I took them for 2 nights really did not want to take any more. However, I no longer have headaches and my energy level and appetite are returning. Thank you again for your prayers.

The church we have been attending has an annual worship service and picnic with another church in town in Zomba at the Zomba plateau. It was this last Sunday. The plateau is a beautiful place. The drive to the plateau was breathtaking. It really makes you appreciate how beautiful Malawi is. However, it didn’t feel like we were in Malawi. It felt like we were in Colorado driving up the mountain. Sometimes I couldn’t watch out the window we were so close to the cliff’s edge. It was a narrow road so if another car approached, one of you had to stop to let the other car pass. The only difference between a road in Colorado and this road was that we had lots of people walking with firewood on their heads or vendors trying to sell their curios, fruit or vegetables alongside the road.

The worship service was great and afterwards we had a brai. I cooked our chicken on one of the grills and had a discussion with three men from South Africa as to why Americans cook hamburger patties on the grill. To them, those are to be cooked in the kitchen. I said hamburgers on the grill are an American tradition – they are so much better on the grill than the stove and we intentionally start our grills just to make hamburgers on them. Then we started talking about “grilling” vs “barbequing” vs. “braiing”. I said we invite people over to grill out. They said someone from Australia told them that if they cook on gas, it is called barbequing. They said we make it too complicated and should just call it “brai”. Funny.

As I was making cupcakes from scratch because a cake mix over here costs about $8.00, and calico beans to take to the picnic, I was thinking it would be really nice to have some macaroni salad. Well, sure enough, the first dish I came upon at the food table was macaroni salad. I was a happy camper, as Ray says. It was great. The food reminded me of a picnic or a party at home and Mphatso was overwhelmed with all the food. She ate about every type of meat there was and picked another dish that had some type of noodles in it, along with some rice. Her three favorite foods: meat of any type (liver included), noodles and rice. I’m thinking Spaghetti Works, Famous Dave’s and a hamburger on the grill are in order.

So, what does all of this have to do with M&M’s you are thinking, right? M = malaria, M= macaroni salad. Sorry, I couldn’t resist……….but I could use some M&M’s about now!

Mphatso funny: She pointed out to me that she has a little tiny bump on her head. She said she thought she got bit by a mosquito net who said she was good chicken. I laughed and told her to go tell Bambo (Ray). She told him and he laughed and said, “Hmm, maybe”. She looked at us and said, “What’s the ploblem?” How do you not laugh? She brings such joy to us.

Good News!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:07:00 +0000

So the judge approved the adoption today and will sign the paperwork tomorrow.

We also found out that Alice has Malaria. Please pray.

try again

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:52:00 +0000

Our attorney went to meet the judge yesterday only to find out that he was called away to an emergency murder case in another city. She'll try to meet with him again on Monday.

A friend sent me the following encouraging word from K-Love yesterday, "God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. ~ James 1:12, NLT"

I needed to hear that. I have to surrender this adoption to the Lord again. I do this daily but apparently, I keep taking it back from him and think we can handle it. We can't.

Mphatso loves to play wedding. She took the picture we have of Andy & Jacque's wedding and made a dress for her dolly to look like Jacque's dress. She also made gloves and shoes for her dolly. It was adorable. Yes, the doll has bright green hair. The hair was washed and cut so many times that it finally all fell out so she sewed yarn on the doll's head. (So it wasn't exactly how Jacque looked at the wedding.)

Court Today?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:18:00 +0000

We went to court today and waited for 2 hours to see the judge. We were in with him for about 5 minutes and said he would make his ruling tomorrow at 3pm.
So now we wait again.
Please keep praying.

What a great day the Lord has made

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:05:00 +0000

God is great!!

We got a call from our attorney yesterday saying that she got us a new court date for next Wednesday, October 7. Halleluia!

We also found out that we are going to be grandparents for the first time!!!! Andy & Jacque are due May 22, 2010.

What a great God we serve. He is faithful and we are so blessed. All praise to Him!

new tentative court date

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:22:00 +0000

We have a new TENTATIVE court date set for November 16. That's the earliest the Judge has an opening.

no news

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:20:00 +0000

I am so very frustrated. We did not go to court on Monday because it was declared a holiday and we still have no word on a new court date.

Happy Anniversary to us

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:59:00 +0000

September 17, 2009

Happy Anniversary to us -- one year. I have trouble believing it has been one year since we left our jobs and our life in America and arrived in Malawi. A lot has happened in this last year. We have had the best days of our lives within this last year and also the worst days of our lives within this last year.

Please bear with me as I reflect over some of the highlights from the last year: getting to know and love the children and staff at the orphanage; all-night parties in our neighborhood; fireworks at Christmas instead of Independence Day; no water and no power (sometimes for days at the same time); mini-buses everywhere; lizards everywhere – even in my bed (yuck); friends and family visiting us here; planting or cultivating the orphanage fields; the kids eating lunch at a restaurant for the first time in their lives after we purchased shoes for them; the looks of excitement on their faces when you buy them a cold drink; some of them eating with forks for the first time; having a hot shower when we stay somewhere besides our home; 80 degrees on Christmas Day; no Thanksgiving dinner; praying and worshipping with the kids; the relationships we have developed with other missionaries we have met here; the restaurants we have “discovered”; the daily provisions the Lord has provided for the kids; meeting Miss Malawi; our dog Lukia who guards our house at night and sleeps all day; our cats Princess Fiona and Toby who think they want to stay up all night too; helping cook and serve the kids meals; taking children to the hospital (and a doctor telling me to pretend I work there so I don’t have to stand in line for prescriptions); buying the kids things we take for granted like underwear, slips, trousers; one or the other of us being sick and Ray ending up in the hospital; “Azungu” (white people) being hollered at us dozens of times a day; purchasing “everything” needed to run a house; paying way, way too much for a vehicle that is not worth half of what we paid for it; having the kids from the orphanage come over to bless our house; the excitement all over the country after the Malawi Flames beat Congo in football (soccer); the numerous engagement parties, wedding showers and weddings; “give me my money” being said by people as we drive by; going to the market with Esther to buy food in bulk for the orphanage; hiring and firing staff; getting the honor of naming two babies; two girls being bitten by the same dog; taking the kids for either HIV testing or HIV meds; watching the kids be creative and make something out of nothing; mending the kids clothes; playing with the kids; purchasing food for the kids that they don’t have on a regular basis – like eggs; the breathtaking sunsets and rainbows; ice from our refrigerator; our bad, bad haircuts (we have since found a place that can cut our hair decently); the kids trying to figure out what puzzles were; expensive price of gas here; finding Oreos and Diet Pepsi; the rainy season where it *RAINS*; spending hours and hours typing the school exams; going to the mountain to pray; going to Liwonde game preserve with some American friends and seeing elephants, monkeys and other animals; being *cold* in July; Ganizani’s father dying; the elections in Malawi; Ray’s father dying while we were here; drafting plans for a new orphanage compound; and lastly, our most recent highlight – adopting Mphatso, our beautiful 7 year old daughter.

We have learned a lot of lessons this last year and everything I mentioned above are memories that we would not trade for anything.

Please pray that the remainder of our time that the Lord has us here is fruitful.
Thanks for letting me reminisce over the last year.

We were scheduled to go to court for our adoption next Monday, September 21 but found out yesterday that the court is closing on Monday because it is a holiday. So, our attorney is trying to get a new court date now. Very, very frustrating.

Court date & school

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:46:00 +0000

September 10, 2009

We have a court date for our adoption of Mphatso - Monday, September 21, 2009 at 8:30 am. Yeah!!! Please pray that it goes well.

Mphatso started school last week at St. Andrews International Primary School. We decided that we needs to get her up to US school standards because someday when we move back to the US, she will need to integrate into the US school system. There are no American schools here but there are three British internationals schools in Blantyre. While the curriculum is a bit different than the US, the basics are the same. We thought it would be better for her to struggle now while she is young than when she is older and is set in her ways regarding school. She was in Standard 2 at the orphanage school but after they assessed her, we put her in Standard 1. The teacher sends home extra work for us to work with her on to help her catch up. She is improving and is smart.

She has spelling words every night and a reading book. This is the first week of spelling words and I noticed the improvement in her concentration in just a few days. She just doesn’t know how to learn yet so the process is struggle for her at times.

She *LOVES* her new school. They have swimming lessons twice a week, art class, music class, library, PE and computer class. She started telling everyone that Lake Malawi is at her school – she meant the pool. Esther teases her and asks her if she has caught any fish yet at school. Mphatso puts her head down and laughs.

The night before her first swimming class, we put on her swimsuit. She told me it was too small because she is not used to clothes fitting as tight as a swimsuit does. She didn’t want to wear it and was embarrassed because her legs were showing. She wanted to put something else on because girls here do not show their legs. I assured her that this was ok and that wearing this in the swimming pool was fine. She would put something else on as soon as she got out. I even had to have Lyson come in and explain to her that it was ok. I thought since he is Malawian, she would accept it coming from him. She did and is fine with her swim suit now. Such cultural things we don’t even realize that she will face.

Mphatso was excited after her first computer class because they have enough computers that they do not need to share. She assured me that her computer teacher told them that they were to go home and work on their mum or dad’s computer that night. Yeah, right. She loves the computer and is very good at working the mouse to play games or watch a movie. She also loves to look at pictures of people in America so if anyone has any pictures they want to email me, I’ll download them for her.

I don’t have any pictures of her in her school uniform on the camera we have with us so here are some other pictures of her. She made nsima one day by herself and shared it with her Abambo (dad). Ray was watching her make it then they ate together. We also met another family here who adopted a girl from Malawi. They came over to our house and the girls played together. They are playing bubbles in the back yard with Lukia. We also found a restaurant outside of town that had a tree house. Mphatso and Ray are braver than me. I preferred to stand on the ground and hold the camera.

There is also a picture of a galimoto (car) one of the orphanage boys made out of scrap wires, etc. The kids make items out of clay also so they were taking a picture of us with their camera while we took a picture of them with our camera. Peace fell asleep in church one Sunday so I snapped her picture with Lyson.

May God bless you.

Ray, Alice & Mphatso.

PS – Jamie, this blog’s for you because you complained that I don’t blog enough. Oh yeah, D1a is the best!

5 days

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:54:00 +0000

Sept 2, 2009

The water came back on yesterday afternoon. 5 days without water is a challenge. We conserved water as much as possible, saving bath water to flush toilets and wash hands. It was tough especially when you have a 7 year old who can put on clean clothes, walk out of her bedroom and be dirty. I am not sure how she does it.

The blessing is that on Day 3 and 4, the water came on during the middle of the night for a short time. At 3:00 AM, the water would come on for about an hour so either I would wake up and call Lyson or he would wake up and call me. He and Ben would fill the tubs outside the house and I would fill the tubs inside the house as well as the bathtub. This way, life could go on as normal so we could wash clothes, cook and bathe.

Apparently, everyone in the neighborhood knew the water was on in the middle of the night because I would hear people talking as they walked to fetch water. Most people in our area don’t have running water in their homes so they have to fetch it from a nearby public water source.

I will never take electricity and water for granted in the U.S. again. Although we had no electricity when we left home this morning, I thank the Lord that we have running water today.

animals everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:26:00 +0000

We took a break and went to Liwonde National Park last weekend (about 2 hours north of us) with another American family who is also adopting a child from Malawi. We had a great time.

The weather was perfect and we saw LOTS of animals. We saw elephants, monkey monkey (as Mphatso says), water buck, warthogs, impalas and hippos. The park does have lions and crocodiles but we did not see either of those animals. The animals are only enclosed by the fence or the river so they are free to roam as they choose. You are not allowed out of your car unless you have an armed escort. You can be fined K2,000 per person if they find you out of your vehicle or the safari vehicles.

We took a boat ride in an all wooden boat (would not meet US safety standards) and saw lots and lots of hippos. We actually got closer than I was comfortable with but the guides apparently knew what they were doing.

We also did a night safari in open truck. It has seating in the back of the truck so it was easy to see the animals. We were VERY close to elephants and hippos at night. It was a great time and the kids loved it.

When we returned from the night safari, there were 2 elephants about 15 feet in front of our car parked in the lot. There was probably 40 feet between us and the elephants. An armed guard came out to assist us into the lodge. While we were sleeping (or attempting to sleep) elephants were outside our window tearing up trees and they don’t chew with their mouths closed. They were so close you could hear them breathe. I kept looking out the window to see if I could see something but I never did. But we could sure hear them. One of them trumpted and it scared me. Mphatso was asleep when we got back to the room so she missed the elephants in the parking lot and the elephants outside our room.

The baobob trees in Malawi are huge. The elephants either eat the bark or tear it off so many of the baobob trees have no bark about ½ way down. Yes, Ray is standing in front of the tree and yes, we could have been fined K2,000 each for being out of the car. We had our friends watch for wild animals while we took the pic.

One of the best things about this trip was that even though the lodge had no electricity, they did have hot water and we were thrilled to take a hot shower. This was Mphatso’s second shower she has ever taken (the other one was a cold shower at our house). She had to do the “hot water shower dance” in the shower. It was cute.

We hope to be able to do this again and the next time someone comes to visit us, plan on making a trip to Liwonde.

Adoption update: We found out on Friday that the court in Blantyre had decided to take a recess the rest of August and all of September so now we don’t know when our court date will be - probably October.

July 31, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:28:00 +0000

The kids at the orphanage are doing great. The weather is still cold but I think is starting to change. We are not as cold and sleeping is much nicer.

Hope, our baby at the orphanage is gone. She is the one who was abandoned and no one knew anything about her. The government called and said they had someone who wanted to adopt her so she has left. We are all very sad. Hope was our baby.

The government also dropped off a 12 year old street child with us named Mercy. Mercy was with us for a couple of days and appeared to be integrating well into the orphanage setting. However, on Monday she put on the new clothes we bought her and said she was going to wash her clothes. She never came back. Life on the street was all she knew and what she grew up with. This was the third orphanage that the government had placed her at. She is now back on the streets. We are praying for her.

The government also dropped off a new boy with us this week. He is about 2 years old and no one knows anything about him. He showed up wearing nothing but a sweatshirt – no diaper, no pants, no shoes. (Don’t worry, he didn’t wear dresses for long – we bought him some sweatpants.) The kids named him Happiness but he is not living up to his name. He appears to be sickly and not very happy. The government is trying to find out something about him so they can place him back with his family or his village.

We have some friends from America that we met through our pastor friend here, who is also from America. These friends are also adopting a child so it’s great to be able to go through the process with them. They are adopting a girl who is about 9 years old. They live in the US but are here in Malawi for an extended period of time. Mphatso had become friends with their daughter and she wants to go visit them whenever she can. Like I said, it is wonderful to be able to share stories and go through the process with someone.

Since we are now legally foster parents for Mphatso, our attorney is now drafting up adoption papers to start the adoption process. He hopes to have the papers ready in a week or two. Please pray for a smooth and speedy process.
We also have another new addition to our family – another cat. This cat’s name is Toby. So now we have a dog, 2 cats and a child. Our house is full - full of activity. Toby is very tiny – just a few weeks old but momma died and so we now have another orphan cat.

I have taken up an old hobby – crocheting. We found a store that sells yarn – cheap quality as it is and I’ve been purchasing quite a bit of it for the girls at the orphanage. We also found some crochet hooks so if they use the inside of ball point pens as crochet hooks, that’s their choice now. There are a lot of crochet hooks floating around the orphanage. I have made several stocking caps for the kids. I’ve also made a couple of scarves and a poncho for Mphatso. Oh yeah and all the doll clothes that I have made. Every day, I get, “Amayi, skirt – dolly, hat dolly, dress dolly” so I have to make something for Mphatso’s dolly. I am now working on a small lap afghan. Crocheting large objects also keeps you warm as you are working on them. The girls at the orphanage are making purses, hats, and one is making a poncho. It is great to see them and work with them on this activity.

Anyone have any solutions for bedwetting that they want to share? We’ve limited her fluid intake from late afternoon on, get her up before we go to bed and try to get her up in the middle of the night (if we wake up). We’ve rewarded with stickers, food and now money. The money reward has lasted the longest but I think she is sleeping so soundly that she doesn’t even realize what is happening until after the fact. Any suggestions anyone has would be great. You can send me a separate email if you want so you don’t have to post a response for everyone to see. Thanks in advance!!

Blessings (madalitso) to you!

Pics: Mphatso (and Lyson) with her new poncho, Toby, Ray helping make bunk beds

Exciting news!

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:02:00 +0000

July 23, 2009

I am sorry that we have not posted this information earlier but we wanted to wait until we were a bit further in the process to make this announcement.

We have another addition to our family………a 6 or 7 year old named Mphatso. (Pronounced mpotso - emphasis on PO, which sounds like a PA.) In our October 25, 2008 blog, I mentioned a small girl who was at the orphanage because she lost both of her parents and was begging in the market. (I said in that post that she was 7 at that time but later found out she was younger than that.) We have not verified her age completely so we questions whether she really is 7. We think she’s 6 but are still working on verifying her age. However, we do know her date of birth – January 30. That’s the same day as Jamie’s birthday. So now we’ll have two daughters with the same birth day. How exciting and fun for them.

Anyway, over the period of time that we have been here, we fell in love with this child and want to adopt her. We have done a lot of praying about this and whether this is something that the Lord wants us to do. He has confirmed to us that we are to adopt her. So, when we got back to Malawi, we spoke to Esther and Bishop Stephano about it and Esther said she had been praying for this. Mphatso moved into our house two days later and has been a huge joy (and challenge sometimes) to us. She understands English much better than we understand Chichewa but we are getting better at understanding her and she is getting better with English. We no longer call in one of our staff to help interpret for us.

We went to the village where her relatives, (her granny and two aunties) live to discuss us adopting her with them. The relatives got together to discuss it. Their 5 minute discussion seemed longer and I was a bit worried but I prayed the whole time they were discussing the matter. Granny finally said that it was ok, there was no problem with us adopting her. Later, the gal who was interpreting for us told us that they were excited that Mphatso would be able to go to school and she would be taken care of. They asked that we allow her to remain in contact with them. We said absolutely – we do not want her to forget her family and where she came from. We will make sure that she keeps in contact with them. Granny gave us some sweet potatoes, which was a huge gift as these are people in the village who have literally nothing. We gave granny some money for food and I gave her a wrap I had with me. (A wrap is a piece of fabric used to wrap over your skirt to keep it out of the fire, to hold babies on your back, to haul items, to use as a blanket, etc. There are numerous other uses for a wrap but those are the basic ones. The only reason I explained what a wrap is is because I could see someone wondering why I had a wrap (food) with me in Africa and wasn’t it nice that I shared my lunch with granny. ) lol ;-}

We have met with our attorney several times and he had the aunties and the group village headman sign papers allowing us to adopt her. When you visit the village headman, you bring a gift to him. They felt a live chicken was appropriate.
Since then, we have filed paperwork with the Social Welfare Department and today, we signed the paperwork along with Bishop Stephano and were granted permission to be her foster parents. Malawi still has the law on the books that you have to live in the country for 18 months to adopt. However, Madonna’s cases have changed that and they are now looking at what is best for the child. So, it won’t be 18 months before we can adopt her. We have met with the social welfare department several times and they have verified again with the relatives that they understand what this process entails and that she will be our daughter after the process is completed.
So, now we need to have a home assessment done in Malawi and according to the Social Welfare Director, we can start the adoption process now. Still much more to do there with the process but this was a huge step today!

She is bonding very well with us and calls us “Abambo” (dad) and Amayi (mom) instead of Lay and Alicey. She is very independent and loves to wash her own clothes (by hand), wash the dishes, cook and help with anything you are doing. It didn’t take her long to discover how to sit in the bathtub and now had graduated to laying in the bathtub and “swimming”. (The kids at the orphanage stand and splash water on themselves from water in a bucket as their bath.)

Sometimes I wonder what we are doing. We are 50+ years old and adopting a child. What ARE we thinking? But after we look at her and watch her for a while, we realize why we fell in love with her. She is precious to us, even when she pouts (we’re working on that and she’s getting better). She told us the other day that she wants chemicals for her hair so she can dye her hair either green, pink or purple so she can be like Jamie. (This is really scary because no one ever told her that Jamie had all those different hair colors at different times.) We purchased a hoodie for her and when she put it on, she said she was now like Jamie. We bought her a doll, which of course, she named Jamie.

Our lives have changed here: our focus at the orphanage has changed and we are now designing the new orphanage, we have a child and a cat to go along with our dog. By the end of the week, we will probably have another cat.

We are very blessed to be here and thank the Lord daily for the changes he has made in us, for the changes he has made in our lives and in the lives of those close to us. We thank Him and praise the name of Jesus for allowing us, nobodies that we are, to be servants in His kingdom. Thank you Jesus!
Please pray for enough food for the orphanage, warm clothes and enough blankets for all the kids.

Ray, Alice, Mphatso, Lukia (dog) and Princess Fiona (cat)

PS – these are pictures of Mphatso. One she has the doily from the couch on her head, one she is carrying Jamie her baby and one she is carrying Hope (the baby at the orphanage).

Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:11:00 +0000

Happy Independence Day USA and Malawi. While we celebrate this day in the U.S. on July 4, Malawi celebrates its independence on July 6. This is 45 years as an independent nation. This is a national holiday—everything is closed.
The crowds are gathering at the stadium for a day of festivities and there were thousands of people already in line early this morning. What a great day.

We have met several other missionaries here in Malawi who are from the U.S. We had a couple of them over for dinner on Saturday night. That was great fun to talk with other Americans. This group of people have been here about as long as we have but we went back to the U.S. in March and they did not. I had Jamie send me a package of flour tortillas back with Bishop Stephano when he returned to Malawi last week and we got them in time to make enchiladas for dinner on Saturday. Our friends absolutely loved it. They said the one thing they had been craving was Mexican food. We figured that because we know that’s the one thing we cannot find over there and that is what we *really* craved when we landed in the U.S. So, we used our one package of tortillas and made enchiladas. I also made a homemade chocolate cake because finding good cake over here is absolutely impossible. It was a great time.

Today, we are going to the airport to help another American missionary pick up her team that is arriving from the U.S. So, more contact with people from the U.S.

The kids at the orphanage are doing well. We’ve replaced the fence around the orphanage as grass fences don’t last forever. This time, we used bamboo mats as fencing and it is much stronger. The carpenter is also building some bunk beds for the kids so soon, they may not have to sleep on the hard, cold concrete floor. Thank you Lord!!!

The two new young girls have integrated well into the orphanage. Hope and Eliza come to the car to greet us with the other children now and Hope always thinks I have something in my purse for her. (Well, I usually do. I carry fruit snacks with me and all the kids know it.)
Thanks for your prayers and your support. We love our time here and are very grateful that the Lord placed us here. I can’t imagine being anywhere else right now……………..even if it is cold.

Hope you all had a great independence day. We’ll celebrate independence day here in Malawi!!

Cold in Africa??

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:12:00 +0000

We keep saying that this is not what we imagined. The word “cold” and “Africa” never seemed to go together before – until now. Now we know what winter is like in Malawi. It was 51 degrees when we woke up this morning and raining. Yesterday, it made it up to 56 degrees. We are cold and the kids are even colder, sleeping on a cement floor. Most of the kids have some type of long sleeve, if only a long sleeve dress shirt, that they can put on but very few of them have adequate clothing for this time of year. We have adequate clothing (now that I found a place to purchase a pair of sweat pants!) and we are cold. There are no furnaces here so it’s not like we can just turn the heat on. And cold showers this time of year sting your body. Ray took the temperature of the water coming out of the shower at our house this morning and it was in the upper 40’s.

All of the babies and most of the younger children at the orphanage are sick. Colds, flu and congestion and headaches are the illnesses recently. We also have it in our house. We have taken several of the kids to the hospital this last week to be treated for malaria or this cold stuff that is going around. Several of the kids are on antibiotics to try and get rid of it. No wonder everyone is sick – cold weather, winds and wet. Makes a great combination for sickness.

I wrote about Hope, our youngest orphan in a previous post. We now have another baby, a bit older than Hope. We think Eliza is about 2 and Hope is about 1 ½ . Eliza is the sister of two of the other girls at the orphanage. She is Chisomo and Chifundo’s sister. I wrote about Chisomo and Chifundo last October or November when the village chief dropped them off with a note. Hope has been the center of attention both at the orphanage and around the country for the last couple of weeks, with the news media getting involved in her story. She was dropped off on the side of the road with her sack of clothes and a woman spotted her and took her home. The woman cared for her for a couple of weeks then when she was no longer able to support her, she dropped her off at the police station. The radio and newspaper have been involved in trying to find out some information on her such as her name, where she comes from, etc. but no one is coming forward to claim knowledge of her. It is so sad. She is such a good baby and so cute. She is adjusting well.

Since Hope has been the center of attention at the orphanage, Peace (our previous youngest) is jealous of all the attention Hope is getting. Well, now since Eliza arrived, Hope is jealous. Any time either Ray or I pick up Eliza, Hope is right there on your leg with arms lifted wanting you to pick her up too. Carrying two babies is tough but it can be done.

We purchased some nutritional peanut butter that has lots of vitamins and protein in it. It is targeted for sickly people and malnourished children. Hope has decided that she cannot get enough of it and if we try to give some to any of the other children, like Eliza or Peace, she has a fit. She does not want to share that peanut butter. Ray was holding Hope the other day and feeding it to her and he mentioned that this was the first time he has fed a baby. He did really well. Eliza is malnourished as most of the children are when they arrive at the orphanage so we are anxious to see how well she responds with this new peanut butter supplement also.

Life here in Malawi is good. God has blessed us in placing us here and we are grateful for all your prayers and support. The only downside to being here is that we are getting really tired of the blackouts. On Monday night, we had a blackout for almost two hours. The power came back on and then about 30 minutes later, it went back off again for another 30 minutes. Power was on when we went to bed but was off in the morning when we woke up. It seems to be an everyday occurrence recently that we lose power in the evening and again in the morning. Being as cold as it is, we have to heat water in the morning for coffee or tea so we use the charcoal burner outside – bbrrr. We’ve been drinking a lot of tea, coffee and hot chocolate recently. I’ve also been making soup quite a bit for dinner.

We are continuing the take the children three or four at a time to purchase shoes & socks and to take them to lunch. I think we’ve taken about 1/3 of the kids out since we returned the end of April. The last group we took consisted of three of the oldest girls. They got to get out of school, which they were thrilled about. We purchased school shoes, a pair of shoes to run around the orphanage in and a very small purse for each of them. We were walking around Limbe and decided that they each needed a new skirt. They were thrilled. They laughed and giggled for a long time and kept saying, “God bless you, God bless you.” He has.

One of my former bosses sent some fabric back with me and I took it to the tailor to have skirts and blouses made for some of the smaller girls who do not have anything very nice. They loved them. The tailor loved the fabric because it is so much better quality fabric than anything they can purchase here. When I stopped by to see how he was doing, he kept saying, “I have never seen fabric like this before. It is so nice.” Thanks Eva!! That was a wonderful gift for them.

The pictures are Eliza and Ray feeding Hope.

If you feel God placing it on your heart to help the orphans, please send a check to Hope International Services at P.O. Box 540825, Omaha, NE 68154. Please place a post-it-note on the check that the money is for warm clothes, blankets, food, shoes, school supplies, whatever you desire, for the orphanage. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and may God bless you as He has blessed us with these children.

Hope – another new addition

noreply@blogger.com (Ray & Alice) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:03:00 +0000

June 15, 2009

Today John the social worker for the orphanage called and asked Esther if we could take an abandoned child they found. She said she wanted to see the child and that she could stay with us at the orphanage until either her parents were found or they were able to place her in a home somewhere.

Esther had some running around to do so Ray and I headed back to the orphanage to wait for John. He showed up a few minutes after we arrived with two police officers from a nearby village, where she was found. She was very dirty and all of her clothes were either soaking wet or filthy. One of the cooks went to wash her clothes while the rest of us fed her. She was hungry and very thirsty. After she ate, one of the older girls gave her a bath and we borrowed clothes from one of the small girls so she had something dry to wear.

John thought she was 1 ½ years old but looking at her, she appears to be younger. She walks ok but she’s a bit unsteady on her feet still. She doesn’t have all her teeth but that doesn’t stop her from eating.

She seems happy and didn’t have any problems being handed from person to person and didn’t have any problems with us holding her either. Some children scream when they see us as if we are some sort of alien to them…….oh, maybe we are strange to them.
I asked John what her name is and he said they did not know but he was calling her Chisomo (Grace in English). I said I thought her name should be Hope so the kids started calling her Hope. Mphatso said we should name her Mphatso.

After a few minutes, she was sitting and playing with the other kids. She kept following one of the older boys around and other kids started teasing him – telling him that he must resemble her father and that’s why she’s following him around.

I think she’ll be fine until they decide what to do with her. She’s a cutie. Oh, what a smile. We hope you enjoy the pictures of her.

(That night, Mphatso decided that the baby needed some clothes (which she does!!) so she went through her clothes and picked out some underwear, socks and a dress for the baby. The black and white dress is one she gave to the baby. I think I’ll go to the store and look for some nappies (cloth diapers) for her as she has none. Mphatso thinks we need to go into town and buy the baby some shoes since we are buying shoes for all the rest of the kids. I think she is right.)