New Academic Year

I am now in Hartford, spending the days quite laid back while Aften is at work, but it gives me the opportunity to catch up a bit on blogging.  As I mentioned in the brief last post, things went quite well this term at EBCoM.  It is a full college this year with around 70 full-time residential students and 70 extension students.  It was great to be there for the start of an academic year as the returning students got back and we got to catch up on how the break was and also to get acquainted with the new students.  I was already familiar with several of them since I had been involved in the interviews, but now was the opportunity to get to know them better, both in class and over lunch.  It was fun to see their reactions as I joined them for lunch on the first day.  They weren’t quite sure what was going on that one of their lecturers would be eating with them.  One of the students even asked if I was a student!  Too funny!  Well, once the new students realized that I was joining them, the table I was sitting at became packed, and they began to grill me with questions about Canada and differences with Malawi.  Without fail one of their first questions is, what is the staple food in Canada?  And I have to explain to them how spoilt Canadians are that we don’t have just one staple food which we eat 2 meals a day, every day, and that Canadians love variety and wouldn’t think of eating the same thing twice in a day unless it was leftovers or something.  Another typical question is, what is Canada’s cash crop?  And again I have to explain that Canada doesn’t work like that where its economy is based on one particular crop. (For Malawi, the cash crop is tobacco, which has become a significant economic problem in recent years as global demand has gone down.  Furthermore, there was a poor crop this year, adding to Malawi’s present economic woes – see more below).  But anyway, back to the lunch table…the students were grilling me with so many question that one noticed that I wasn’t even having time to eat, and so told the others to back off a bit, and I assured the students that I would be with them every day, so there would be plenty of time to ask away, which they've been doing!  As Chichewa has become a little more familiar, it’s been a little better memorizing the students’ names.  Something like “Chikondi” or “Kachepa” or “Kaziputa” is much easier to remember if you already know the word means “love” or “go and become less” or “go and begin things” (respectively).  Others like “Mkandawire”, even if you don’t know what they mean, become easier once you’re more familiar with Chichewa.  And others, generally among first names, are just plain easy.  For example, around the table on the first day I had names like Justice, Happy, Master, Marshall, and Thompson.  Some of the new students are trying to tackle calling me by my last name (which is the normal practice in Malawi), but as they find it very difficult (and I like to think also because they are on more casual/personal terms with me) most stick with my first name, which I am completely happy with. 

The church for Misasa

Another good experience that I got to have this term was going to a church camp-out, or what they called, Misasa for the Africa Evangelical Churches (which is the denomination that SIM is partnered with and which I go to) in Blantyre.  There are 8 AEC churches in and around Blantyre, and so they came together at one of them, Soche, for a weekend camp-out.  I didn’t go the whole weekend, but I went from Saturday afternoon to Sunday and took two EBCoM students with me.  They rotate between the different churches, but this one in Soche seemed like an odd choice since the church doesn’t yet have a roof; they just put a large plastic sheet over whenever they meet.  That made the camp-out part quite interesting since we were just sleeping on the church floor.  Most of the other SIM Missionaries just came on Sunday morning for the church service to end it; I was the only one to brave spending a night.  It wasn’t the easiest thing, but I’m glad I did it.  The night wasn’t the most restful.  I was surprised to find that the Malawians, who tend to be fairly early-to-bed, were quite chatty as they all laid on the church floor.  They were cracking jokes, telling gossip, etc. with no pretences of hushed whispers.  It was after midnight before things settled down, and the morning was set to start before 6 am.  Throughout the weekend there were different sessions filled with choirs and preaching (on the topic of Giving – which tends to be a favourite topic in Malawi and with the implication being on the church offering, which tends to be a great shortcoming in Malawi).  [I’m not convinced though that more preaching on the topic changes peoples’ habits in any way though].  Anyway, there was a Lot of long hours of sitting on uncomfortable brick rows and listening to Chichewa that I could not understand.  Also, there was a generator for lights and a PA system that wasn’t working very well but was placed right by the door (both funneling a lot of noise pollution as well as general pollution into the church, with me sitting right close to the door).  So much of those two days was very hard for me, but there were other things that were very good to experience, like the baptisms on Saturday (over 20 youth), the ordination of one pastors (whom I know quite well since he also works in the SIM office), and fellowship over food (which each church arranged for their own church).

One of the difficulties of this past term is that Malawi seems to be sinking deeper into a very difficult economic situation.  I’ve mentioned before about some of the political factors contributing to it and foreign aid (and thankfully things seem to have gotten better on that front), but the Malawian Kwatcha has been devalued and is likely to be further devalued, and the prices for things are going up.  I’ve mentioned before how a lack of foreign exchange reserves in the country prevents certain things like fuel to be imported in large quantities, and the fuel crisis continues in a big way.  But this also affects other businesses and transport, and has a vicious cycle of crippling the economy.  Fuel has gone up well over 30%, but also grocery items in the stores have gone up as well, and it is really affecting people.  For the students at EBCoM there had been new arrangements set in place by their donors to increase their food allowance to better provide for them.  Things started off great with a meal of rice in the weekly menu and even a small provision for meat in the menu.  As the term went on though, the students had to scale back and scale back so that they even had to reduce their menu to alternating between two relishes – beans, and rape vegetable and an egg (i.e. they had to cut out fish because of the expense).  Their amount for food will be up slightly in the second term because of a provision from the sponsors for the normal annual peaks in costs during the rainy season, but for the third term it will go down again and is likely to be a great struggle for the students.  I was pleased with the students’ resolve not to strike like they did last year, but I sympathize with their situation especially since I know the sponsor organizations have already made their budgets for the year and cannot just increase the amount they give the students.  Please pray for the situation in Malawi!

That’s all for this post.  Some new pictures can be seen here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.550654548516.2039466.180500047&type=1&l=cbea5b0107).  I doubt I’ll have another one up before Christmas, so I’ll take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

A Visit Home

No, I have not died.  Apologies for absolutely no communication for some months now.  I think I mentioned previously how this term was going to be a busy one.  It was indeed that!  At the same time I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am happy that these courses run through the whole academic year, so I get to continue on with the same courses (with one more small addition) through the next two terms.  As of today the term is already over and most of the students have gone home already.  It has been wonderful getting to know the first year students and to have the returning students back.  I feel as though they also enjoyed the courses that they had with me and would like to think that they learned lots too!

I will be writing a longer blog post hopefully soon, but for the time-being, the other main development that I wanted to share is that I too will be going home in this term break for Christmas!  Actually, most of my trip will be spent in Hartford, Connecticut to visit my girlfriend (whom I mentioned in a previous post).  But we will then be coming together to BC.  There I will get to see a new addition to the family - my new niece, Lucy!  Now, to avoid disappointment, I need to warn you that our time in BC will be short and family-centred so it will not be possible to get together with as many as I would have liked.  Still, I am very much looking forward to seeing some of you again before I head back to Malawi.

But as for now, I must be brief, particularly because I fly out tomorrow!  In fact, in 24 hours I should be getting ready for takeoff!  Lots to do before then!

Greg, meet Tanzania

I have uploaded the pictures from Tanzania now as well.  They can be seen here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.544348665556.2038044.180500047&l=c9d7cf49c6&type=1).  I won't say anything more about it, but let the pictures speak for themselves (with comments of course).  I'll only add that the picture below is a panorama of the Ngorongoro Crater (for some reason I was not able to put it up on facebook).  Enjoy

Graduation and My Parents' Visit

As usual, I must start with apologies for long-overdue blogging, and especially when the last one was leaving you in the lurch with political unrest.  There is so much – too much! – to talk about, but it’s high time I get back into this.  Plus, the next academic year begins in less than 3 weeks, and my course-load and responsibilities are really very heavy (close to double last term with added library responsibility), so the time is now.  I hope to let pictures do most of the talking, especially for travel stuff. 

So, even though the next academic year is about to start, I never actually shared anything about graduation at the end of last academic year!  During the week of graduation the campus seemed like a completely different place from the week before.  For starters, throughout the whole term the second year students were away on term-out ministry assignments, which placed them all over Malawi and even a few in Mozambique.  On the Sunday to start the final week, they all returned to the campus.  At chapel on Monday they each had a few minutes to share a little bit about their experience, and it was magnificently encouraging!  Almost all of them were re-ignited with a passion for ministry, and this passion was contagious for the rest as they shared.  Many found new focus and direction in what they want to pursue after graduation.  Some observed for the first time and were struck by the prevalence of nominal Christianity, and in seeing it they felt keenly the need for outreach, evangelism, and discipleship.  Several whom I talked with expressed how much they could see after this term-out experience that they had something to offer – that their education to this point has equipped them to minister, yet they also felt the need to continue through their final year of studies and learn more to become better equipped.  I heard of a couple students as well who gained such a sense of passion and felt the need for ministers that instead of returning home in this break between terms, they returned of their own accord to the areas where they had been for term-out!  You can imagine then how the second years returning had a great impact on the general atmosphere around the college!  Needless to say, I was greatly encouraged and their words really helped give me renewed vision, recognizing that although I’m not doing the pastoral or evangelical work on the ground per se, my teaching role is contributing a lot to enable others to do it. 

In the final week, final grades had to be submitted in to the Academic Dean by Monday, classes ended on Tuesday, and graduation was on Friday.  Even though there were classes on Monday and Tuesday, since grades had to be in already and final exams had already been written, I used the opportunity to allow my students to raise any questions they might have, whether related to the content of the courses or not (since they were 3^rd years, this would be their last opportunity to have this sort of discussion in the classroom with their fellow students).  So, we discussed stuff like end times, military and pacifism, witch doctors and traditional doctors, etc.  Good times.

From Tuesday through to graduation on Friday it was the time for the students to party.  There were still preparations for graduation to be done and cleaning up the campus and rooms to be done, and these were, but otherwise in the evenings different clubs and groups that met throughout the year had year-end parties.  I was invited to two of these – one I was asked to come and preach at, the other was one I participated with throughout the year, and I could just come and enjoy.  It is quite interesting how the students here celebrate a year-end party.  Budgets are tight, of course, so one cannot splurge as one might in Canada, but they do splurge to the extent they are able: Cokes and Fantas and some sort of snack – mandazi (Malawian doughnuts), a bun, or biscuits.  Besides that there is singing of praise choruses, prayer, and a short sermon!  On Thursday night was the big year-end party though, and for that they really splurged.  It started off with some speeches, some singing, and a sermon.  Then we had a great chicken and rice dinner (note: their food budget for this term was very frugal, no longer even having rice once a week and certainly no meat).  There were also Cokes and Fantas a-plenty.  After all that the real fun broke out with a big dance party!  It was super fun, went on for a good couple of hours, and many were quite surprised to find me to be such an enthusiastic participant!  (I'll restrain myself from putting up video of that)  A couple of things I found particularly hilarious and entertaining: as soon as the dancing started, out came the cell phones (and a few cameras) to take pictures, and when people were having their pictures taken, they would continue dancing as they posed together (pretty much ensuring that the cell phone-quality pictures would be blurry).  Here's a video of us posing for pictures:

The Graduating Class of 2011

The next morning was the graduation ceremony itself.  It was outside under a tent, but it ended up being a very cold day and even misting a little bit.  I was reasonably cold, even in a suit, but many of the Malawians were outright shivering cold!  In the ceremony, very much like in Canada, there are grad gowns (though no hat with tassel), a procession, speeches, a sermon/address, and crossing of the stage to get the certificate/diploma.  Unlike a Canadian graduation, the procession and crossing of the stage are danced.  Also, once the graduate received his/her certificate/diploma, they were congratulated at the front with hugs by a receiving party.  It started off where just the husband or wife of the graduate would dance up to hug congratulations to him/her, but as it went on it became a whole crowd of close friends/family – making for a lot of congestion, disorder, and delay, but mostly joy!  After the ceremony the graduates lined up and everyone congratulated all of them, then there were some refreshments.  Within an hour or two, though, most of the students had left for home and the term was officially ended (though still with some very long meetings for lecturers and a staff retreat in the following week).

The break has been a very good length (2 months) and has genuinely been a good break.  From what follows you'll see that there have been several highlights.  The biggest highlight for me, though, I won't even talk about apart from this mention: I now have a girlfriend - Aften Wilson - and I am so happy!

Anyway, onward.... As I mentioned in my previous post, there was an SIM Spiritual Life Conference – basically a week-long retreat for all the SIM missionaries in Malawi.  It was in the central region of Malawi in Kasungu, and was a wonderful time of rest, fellowship with the other missionaries, and some good teaching sessions.  Howie Brant, A third-generation missionary who has spent most of his life in Ethiopia, was the speaker and brought up some very challenging content along the theme of “Expanding your Vision.”  I was especially challenged by some of his stories from his time as a missionary, such as discipling a group of 6 as communism came to power in Ethiopia and what God did through them after he was kicked out of the country.

My parents, me, and 2 other SIM short-termers, Rahel and Salome, at Lake Malawi

The day after the retreat ended, my parents arrived to visit me in Malawi.  It was an absolutely wonderful visit.  I was able to take them up to Lake Malawi, and on the 4-hour drive up there they were able to see quite a lot of the Malawian countryside.  They also came to my church.  Upon finding out that my parents were going to be there, the elders in the church decided that I should preach, so my parents didn't even have to sit through a sermon in Chichewa.  My parents also got to meet many of my friends out here, whether EBCoM lecturers, SIM missionaries, my bible study group, or others.  I think my parents were very comforted to see that I have such a strong community around me here.  Aside from just being able to enjoy their company and show them around Malawi a little bit, my parents also wanted to treat me (and themselves!) to a bit of a vacation too, so we also went up to Tanzania for a safari in the Serengeti/Ngorongoro Crater as well as a visit to Zanzibar.  I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but it was tremendous.  We saw so many animals!  And very many of them we saw very close so that even though none of us have amazing cameras, we still got some really great shots.  To just give a short list, we saw giraffes, zebras, baboons, antelope of several varieties, wildebeest, buffalo, elephants, hippos, hyenas, lions, cheetahs, and leopards!  Not bad, not bad.  Then being in Zanzibar was like shifting to an entirely different context.  There is a strong Arabic influence, the islands are 95% Muslim, and we were there during Ramadan.  Zanzibar is known as the spice islands, and we got to enjoy those first-hand while there.  We also enjoyed some fresh seafood from the night market.  After all the travels my parents proceeded on back home to Canada and I flew back into Malawi, where I was expecting to be greeted by anti-government, country-wide protests that had been scheduled for the day….

As I mentioned in the previous post, there have been some troubling things going on in Malawi during the break between terms.  The issues have not yet been resolved, but there is peace on the streets and the riots that I posted about ended by the third day after they had started.  One of the issues is a lack of foreign currency in the country, and insufficient export credit to fund the necessary imports.  This, however, has been coupled with the recent loss of foreign aid to the country due to other political issues.  It's led to an increased cost of living, which many find difficult to cope with.  One very noticeable import is fuel.  While the vast majority of Malawians don't have vehicles, for businesses and the transportation of goods it is essential.  Since the country cannot import it in large quantities, there is a general shortage, which means most fuel stations much of the time do not have either Petrol or Diesel, or both!  When one of the stations does get something, a huge line-up is bound to form fast, leaving people in the queues for hours and hours with the possibility of the fuel being out by the time they actually get to the pump.  Thankfully there has been a little relief to this the past week, so lets hope it remains that way.

A glimpse at the chaos.  Sucks for cars just wanting to drive past!

When we were traveling to Lake Malawi, we were using a diesel vehicle, which was (and still is) in short supply.  We had to resort to alternate means of getting fuel in order to get back to Blantyre – i.e. fuel purchased in and transported from Mozambique.  Whether one wants to call this “black market” or merely “a helpful service”, I leave that to you (though I prefer the former for the sake of the story!).  There were more protests scheduled for the 17^th of August (the day I returned from travelling with my parents), but because a UN delegation has been sent to help discussions between NGOs and the government, they were called off.  Should there be no headway made, though, more protests, including marches, vigils, and striking are scheduled for the 21 of September.  Please continue to pray for peaceful resolution to the situation, and a genuine desire on both sides to seek the good of the country.

Right, so I think I'll leave the rest for pictures with their comments.  I'm putting up two different albums.  The first is Malawi-related (EBCoM graduation, some other randoms, and my parents visit to Malawi), and the second is the Tanzania trip.  Sorting through pictures is taking longer than expected so the Tanzania ones are still to come, but the Malawi-related ones can be seen here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.544223281826.2037989.180500047&l=55d928fdcb&type=1).  Thanks for reading!

Riots and political unrest in Malawi

I have not mentioned too much about the political and economic scene to this point in Malawi because it is something not exactly encouraged for missionaries to do - well at least critiquing is not encouraged.  Some reports, however, inevitably appear as critiques if one lays out the facts.  While I will continue to refrain from articulating my own personal opinions, the situation is one now that cannot go without comment.  There was a scheduled protest organized by NGOs against the current government yesterday, July 20th.  It was scheduled as a peaceful protest.  Anyway, things have veered from that for various reasons.  To prevent nailing myself to any wall, I will merely direct you to a couple of BBC articles:  The latest is Malawi army deployed over anti-Mutharika protests and the earlier one is Malawi riots erupt in Lilongwe and Mzuzu. 

Anyway, your prayers over this situation would be Greatly appreciated.  There is no need at this point to worry about my safety.  I am not going into any protest crowds and staying away from the city centres during the daytime.  SIM Malawi has its retreat in the central region starting this Saturday and going for a week.  We'll be going a safe route away from the three main areas of conflict.  Hopefully within this time - or even sooner - things calm down, especially since my parents arrive to visit me immediately after this SIM retreat ends.  So, yes, please pray for Malawi, both people and government!

Malawian Wedding

“Busy” has crept in and not left me with a lot of breathing space, but now the term is over, the students are gone, most of my meetings are finished, and I can take a breath and start writing again.    

The term ended very well.  I only had to fail one student in one of my classes – Greek – and he’ll be able to re-sit an exam next year in order to get a pass.  It's one of those classes that some excel in and others struggle in.  I'm thankful that the school has decided that not all of the students will need to continue with Greek in September.  My John and 1 John and Doctrine of Last Things classes also went well through the end.  Only one student chose to compose a song for his assignment, but it was really great!  He plays the accordion, so he sang it for us and had a couple other students doing back-up vocals.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to class that day, so I don’t have a recording to share.  I suppose there are inevitably going to be some experiences that you all miss out on by not being here with me (well, let’s be honest, most of my experiences go unshared, and for those big ones that I do share, it’s certainly not the same as being here).  Just incentive for you to come out and visit me, right!?

Me celebrating Canada Day with my John and 1 John and Doctrine of Last Things class.

Anyway, the main thing that I want to do in this blog is share – though long overdue – my experience of my first Malawian wedding.  (Other things like graduation and going to Lake Malawi to follow soon.)  Akim Bakali was the lucky man, and Linly the bride.  They go to my church, Bangwe AEC (Africa Evangelical Church).  I only met the groom a couple of weeks before the wedding, but he personally invited me (and, rather ridiculously even asked if I wanted to be in his wedding party.  I accepted the wedding invitation, but declined on the other honour, which I figured was better suited for one who actually knew him).  The wedding was on a Sunday, and the ceremony was set to take place before our regular church service, and then the reception after the church service at another location.  Because our church only had a dirt floor, however, (we have since had the floor finished), which would soil the white wedding dress’ train quite a bit, it was decided that the ceremony should take place at another AEC church about a 20-30 min. drive away.  Some went there earlier via minibus, but the rest were welcome to still meet at our church and the couple rented a matola (large flat-bed truck) to transport them to the other church.  As I didn’t know how to get to the other church, I decided to join that crew (despite the mode of transport being not exactly SIM approved).  It was a fun ride with a lot of singing along the way (see video).

But I'm getting ahead of myself; first, we had to get on the truck.  Since the wedding was supposed to start at 7 am so that it could be finished and people get back to our church in time for a 10 am service, it was decided that people should meet at the church at 6:30 am to transport to the wedding.  As I look back on it now, I have to ask, who thought up this plan and did they think it would actually work?  I know my church is a tardy bunch and tend to run on ‘African time’, but I thought since the church they’re having a wedding at has a service of their own to start after the ceremony, surely they will be punctual and keep time.  A very big mistake on my part.  Since I live about 1.5 hours from my church between walking, minibus-ing, and waiting for minibuses to fill up, I had to leave at 5ish, when it was still dark.  Even then I was running a little late, and arrived at 6:40, fearing they might have left without me already.  Well, not even close.  There were three other guys there already, who assured me that neither the truck nor anyone else had yet arrived.  To make a long preamble story short, we didn’t end up leaving until around 8, an hour after the wedding was supposed to start!  Then, when we finally arrived at the wedding, it hadn’t yet started – and it wasn’t because they were waiting for us either, but because the bride wasn’t there yet.  The wedding didn’t start until after 9 – talk about African time! (though, admittedly, a number of people seemed quite upset that it was starting so late).  The service didn’t end until about 10:40, which held up both this other church’s service, and meant that most did not come back to our church for the service, which started late at 11 without us.  I was part of a group that went back and caught the tail end of it, and then went together for lunch, which was a delicious rice, chicken, and cabbage meal, with tobwa to drink.

As for the ceremony itself, some things are very similar to a typical Canadian wedding, while other things are very different.  The white dress and the suits, bridesmaids, groomsmen, ring bearer and flower girls, exchanging rings, a sermon, father taking bride down the aisle, signing of marriage certificate (though not a government document like in Canada), a couple of hymns, etc. are all things shared with Western weddings.  There are a number of quite distinct aspects though as well.  The most notable for me were that for all the processions, people danced rather than walked down the aisle, and they did this to blaringly loud music as Malawians seem to like it.  Also, throughout pretty well the whole ceremony, the bride and groom had to sit stoically at the front, hardly moving at all – not even to wipe off their own sweat.  So one of the duties of the maid of honour and best man is to wipe off their sweat for them!

 

As for the reception, it is significantly different from any North American wedding that I’ve been to.  Pretty much the entire thing was giving money to the newlyweds.  This was done by dancing up to the front (to again, blaring loud music), where the bride and groom (or just the bride, or just the groom, or the parents of one or the other) were standing, holding a large basket, and people would throw in (generally) MK 20 notes as they danced around them.  Generally, at any one time a person might throw in 4+ bills, though some as many as 20.  But people would also go up many times through the course of the afternoon.  I think I went up 4 or 5 times.  There was an MC calling up different groups of people such as relatives, coworkers, friends, people from church, etc.  Thankfully I had somebody beside me who could translate.  Under the best conditions I might be able to understand, but with the blaring music not a chance.  The following video pretty much gives a good sense of the whole afternoon. 

At one point there was a cake cutting – though it was fake and guests didn’t eat any cake.  There were brief parents of bride and groom speeches.  Right at the end pop was handed out to each person with a small snack (e.g. I got a couple of small samosas).  The surprise for me was right at the end when, despite really not knowing either the bride or groom, being the token Azungu, I was asked to do the closing prayer!  It was 5:45 by that time and I had to catch a couple of different minibuses and walk a bit home yet.  Got home safe and sound though.  All around it was a great cultural experience and I’m super thankful for the opportunity to go (again, despite not really knowing the couple at all).  I’ve posted a few pictures as well.  They’re available here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.542487959426.2037207.180500047&l=584e8e09a8).  Thank you for reading!

 

School Uniforms in Orphan Outreach

I’m finally getting around to blogging again.  The delay is certainly not because of a lack of things happening over here.  I blame busyness a little bit, but mostly I blame my procrastinating ways.  Hopefully I can make up for it with a few blogs in relatively quick succession. 

We are at the mid-term mark of the term, and I am very much enjoying my classes and my students.  I have the same group of students for John and 1 John as well as Doctrine of Last Things.  There are only 5 of them, but it works really well for discussion in class.  With that, however, it is very easy to fall behind on what I’ve planned to cover for the term.  I think the content that I prepared for the first lesson lasted through three!  Quite frequently they will pipe in with a huge and important question that requires much more than a quick answer.  Fairly often it is a little off-topic, but as they are third years (i.e. are graduating this year) and it is the last term, it is more important to answer these questions than to finish the syllabus.  Besides, education here works better contextually than systematically anyway, so it’s good to go with the flow.  I’ve also been trying new things in class like bringing a guitar to class and singing songs related to the course content (for Doctrine of Last Things it’s super easy to find choruses).  I’m opening up assignment possibilities too with options between sermons, papers, song compositions, and story-telling (within the African story-telling genre).  We’ll see what they all decide on.

A few of these pedagogical adjustments are the result of a week-long conference that I went to in Johannesburg, South Africa just before Easter.  It was a joint AIM-SIM (Africa Inland Mission and Serving In Mission) conference for those involved in theological education in southern Africa.  There were 44 people there, including both ex-pats and nationals from Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa.  I think the best part of the conference was simply meeting and talking with people from all over and learning about struggles and activities in other countries.  Hearing things like a whole Bible school (well, a school of under 10 students) being run by one man (principal, academic dean, dean of students, lecturer, etc.) has helped me see how special a place EBCoM is.  It also turns out that student-food crises are not unique to EBCoM, but seems to be an all-too-familiar story all around.  

The whole group in Jo-Bug

There were four of us who came to the conference from EBCoM – 2 nationals, the Principal and Dean of Students, and 2 SIM missionaries.  The sessions were on various topics; the main one was on Celebrating Differences, which looked at identifying and adapting to/communicating well with different personality types/communication styles.  Other sessions included Teaching Preaching and Using Music for Theological Colleges.  Anyway, it was both an enjoyable and helpful conference, and the team of us that went from EBCoM have since run a session with the rest of the EBCoM staff to share a little bit of what we’ve learned and would like to enrich EBCoM with.  (Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, unfortunately I was down in South Africa just for the conference and didn’t manage to do anything else while I was there).

Patrick

Near the beginning of April I was invited to visit the home of one of the students, Patrick, in Zomba (the former capital, only about an hour drive from Blantyre).  He and his wife have begun a small school for teaching orphan children in his area.  While he is studying, his wife and a couple others are running things, but he goes there fairly frequently on weekends.  It is very encouraging to hear of his deep love for the children and his joy in being with them.  He bends over backwards to help them, and in addition to teaching, he and his wife also provide them with a meal every day.  Anyway, he had managed to work for and raise enough money to make up some school uniforms for them, and so he invited me for the occasion when he was going to hand them out.  (School uniforms for the younger ages seems to be a Malawi-wide thing for both public and private schools.  Unlike how I think they would be received in Canada, the children here were so excited to receive them, and for most, the uniforms were in much better shape than their own clothes).  So, I took a minibus up to Zomba for the occasion.  I didn't count on having to wait about an hour for the minibus to fill before we headed out though.  Unlike buses in Vancouver, minibus usually only leave when they are full, not according to any regular schedule, and for out-of-town buses, this can take quite a while.  Patrick met me when I arrived and took me through his village, introducing me as the alendo (visitor).  They seemed to be very impressed with my little bit of Chichewa.  He showed me his small school building, which had been provided by the village headman (lower-level chief).  After lunch, we went to another place where I was left to wait and chat with another man while Patrick got everything ready for the event.  We were left to wait quite a while and I was conscious of the time since it is dark by 6 and I still had an hour-and-a-half minibus ride back to Blantyre.  I think a little after 3 Patrick came back and things were ready. 

It ended up being a fairly big event with the village headman being there as well as representatives of a couple of organizations, the kids themselves, their guardians, and their teachers.  Oh, right, and as the azungu, I was the honoured guest.  Apparently, Patrick had told people that an azungu was going to come, but people didn’t believe him.  Haha.  It was actually a little over the top at some points.  I just wanted to be there to see a little of what Patrick was up to, and I’m not one who likes to be in the spotlight, but as the “honoured guest” I was asked to do the opening prayer, make a speech, and be the one to hand out the uniforms!  (I handed out the first batch of uniforms to the teachers, who got matching chitenjis as uniforms, but then relinquished the honour of handing out to Patrick himself.  Hopefully that didn’t offend anyone).  The program itself started off with some singing from the teachers and then from the kids, and then some actions/games with the kids.

After that was time for speeches from the different representatives, the village headman, and, of course, the azungu.  Then the uniforms were handed out and pictures ensued.  The kids were super happy to be receiving the uniforms.  Sadly, there was still not quite enough for all the kids, and there were some sad faces and tears as a result.  I’m pretty sure that by now all have received uniforms though.  I made a contribution to help things along, but at the same time I didn't want to give too much and spoil the good thing that's going on - i.e. grassroots resourcefulness.

By the end of the program, the day was getting on, and I needed to get back to Blantyre, so I said my goodbyes and made my way to catch a minibus home.  I arrived back in Limbe (the sketchier part of Blantyre) already a little after dark, and still had to take two different minibuses and walk a bit home, but all went well and I arrived home safely.

That more-or-less wraps up this posting.  I will just mention in addition (and leave the rest for pictures) that I had the opportunity to go to a wildlife reserve called Nyala Park here in Malawi.  It's a little artificial in that it's a relatively small area with tons of animals in it, but it's certainly far better than any zoo.  Those pictures, along with more from Zomba and Johannesburg can be seen here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.538942389776.2036314.180500047&l=f5cfbc0c65).  Also, for your enjoyment, just below is a short video of a monkey showing off.  I hope to have a couple more posts up before too long (i.e. not after 2 months again).  Thanks for reading.

A Tricky Bantu Language Indeed

This post is primarily to share some things about the Chichewa language.  As such, no new picture album to share, but just a couple of quick notes.  I went to the DMV again the other day, and three hours later finally had my temporary drivers licence (the actual card should be ready for me to pick up within a couple of months).  The three hours involved many, many more queues, five of which were for a road test that I didn’t have to actually take but for which I still had to pay and go through the processes.  Another quick note is that the term at EBCoM has now ended, and the students have gone home for the break.  I thought it ended fairly well, but I was definitely glad I made up some course evaluation forms for the students, because the resounding feedback was that the lectures were difficult for them to follow!  When I had heard that general report part-way through the term, I made some changes and thought I had changed things well enough, but it turns out I really need to work hard at simplifying, slowing things down, and discerning how best to present the material to the students and facilitate learning.  There is a 4-week break between terms.  In this time, I will be doing a couple of day trips, will go down to Johannesburg, South Africa for a week-long theological education conference, and work on preparing next term’s courses, which for me are John and 1 John, Doctrine of Last Things, and continuing Introduction to NT Greek.  All the lecturers get a lighter load in the 3^rd term because most of the 2^nd year students are away for a term-out ministry assignment, which puts them in different ministry placements around the country. 

A few students on their way home for the break

One other random thing I thought I’d mention as I’m going to a conference in a couple of weeks and as I’m in a context where there is a deep hunger for, but generally lack of resources for good theological education, is to encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to you.  Regent College (where I did my graduate degree in Vancouver), for example, has excellent week-long or 2-week courses throughout spring and summer.  If you have any desire, whether personal or vocational, to learn more about any number of subjects related to the Christian life, including Bible studies, theology, art, history, missions, church leadership, spirituality, marketplace theology, etc., than do check out http://summer.regent-college.edu/.  Just a little plug; anyway, on to the main feature.

Since a couple months ago I have had a new private Chichewa tutor.  The one I had just up and went away for several months, so a new one was needed.  We meet twice a week for an hour each, and I am making some progress little-by-little, or as one says in Chichewa, “pang’ono-pang’ono”.  Turns out, however, that Chichewa is really quite a complex language.  Pronunciation is thankfully quite manageable, since, unlike English, it is actually consistently phonetic.  The main tricks to catch are that “l” and “r” are pronounced pretty well the same; “i” is pronounced like the long English “e” (as in teeth), and “e” in turn is pronounced like the long English “a” (as in ate); “c” except as “ch” doesn’t exist, and “th” is pronounced as just “t”.  Another important trick to note is that all syllables must end in vowels.  Just as Malawians feel they have not eaten a meal until they’ve had nsima, so they feel a word just isn’t a word without a vowel at the end.  For words designating things not native to Malawi, Chichewa has adopted the English word, though not without Chichewa-izing it.  Sometimes you see a word and have no idea what it means, and it’s not until you pronounce it according to the rules above that it makes sense.  You can probably very well figure out the meanings of the following words by sounding them out: “botolo”, “bukhu”, “tchalitchi”, “nyuzipepala”, “ofesi”, “khitchini”, “dokotala”, “kalipentala”, “thebulo”, “kalasi”, “kaloti”, “kabichi”, “anyenzi”, etc.  For those who figured out 13/13, Congratulations!  For the rest, the answers are at the bottom of this post.* 

Lest you think, though, at this point that Chichewa is easy-peasy, let me introduce you to the complexity of noun classes.  Whereas English has only one noun class, you might be familiar with the fact that French has 2 based on gender (masculine and feminine) or that German has 3 (masculine, feminine, and neuter).  For Chichewa there are 6 MAIN noun classes and additional minor ones!  Furthermore, these noun classes are of central importance to each sentence since you generally can’t even say the verb of a sentence until you know the noun class to which the subject belongs.  All adjectives, verbs, and several other components of each sentence have to agree properly with the nouns to which they connect, making sentence construction a rather complicated task. 

Additionally, verbs are such that subject-agreement, tense (past-present-future), object-agreement, voice (active and passive), mood (statement of fact, command, statement of possibility, etc.), and plenty more, are all indicated by adding components to the verb itself.  So, what might take numerous words in English can all be said in a single, though very complex, Chichewa word.  For example, “Sindidzachigulabensoko” means “I will still not buy it there again” (si=not; ndi=I; dza=will; chi=it; gula=buy (the actual verb); be=still; nso=again; ko=there).  Needless to say, when people speak very fast (which they all do), it can be hard to catch and place everything. 

I’ll conclude this blurb on the Chichewa language with one more thing that I’ve found tricky to learn: locatives.  In English, we have 2 main words that locate things, “here” and “there”.  In Chichewa, there are 12 main words!  They are composed by combining one of “in”, “on”, or “at/toward” with one of “where I am”, “near where I am”, “a distance away from me, though still visible from where I am”, or “that place that you know but is not within eyesight”.  Plenty to consider before opening one’s mouth. 

So, all that is to say, feel sorry for me, don’t judge me if I don’t speak fluent Chichewa after 2 years, and please pray for me.  Thanks for reading.

*Answers for the Chichewa-ized English words: bottle, book, church, newspaper, office, kitchen, doctor, carpenter, table, class, carrot, cabbage, onions.

Paper Sunday

I think I am getting into the bad habit of having to start all of my blog postings with apologies for not posting earlier.  Perhaps next time will be better, but no promises since it will probably only result in more apologies.  Anyway, apologies.  My lack of writing, however, has not been because of a lack of events to report. 

Things have been going pretty well as far as the classes I am teaching are concerned.  The term is quickly coming to an end and this week I will be giving both of my classes their final exams.  A not so great thing happened when I received the term papers – keep in mind, these are my first classes of my own and the first papers I have received to mark.  In the very first paper I looked at, I found plagiarism!  Certainly not the kind of thing you want to find anywhere, but especially not at a Bible college.  In coming to talk with some of the other faculty, though, while there is still little excuse for this particular student, it was explained to me that a little bit culturally, and more because of lack of study skills and educational background, the ills of plagiarism really aren’t ingrained even with EBCoM stressing them.  It is not natural, for example, for some students even to use quotation marks when quoting from the Bible.  Besides the plagiarism issue, I have found the writing level of many of the students to be quite low.  At least until I get the lay of the land a little more, though, I am grading the students according to their ideas rather than the poor grammar with which they seek to communicate them.  However, one bright point is that as I read their English, I am seeing more and more how Chichewa grammar works!  (In about a week I will give another short post describing a little more about the Chichewa language.)

A very unfortunate circumstance that rose up a couple weeks ago, was a one-day student boycott of classes because of a lack of funds for food.  As I mentioned in the first post, the students are in charge of their own food and to this point they had been managing on MK1,100 per student per week.  Food prices have gone up, however, and they were finding it difficult at that rate, such that they didn’t have enough money to complete each week.  In actual fact, though, most students receive at least 20% more money for food from their sponsors, but unknown to the sponsors, were not using all of it for food.  When the 1,100 proved to be insufficient, the students decided that a strike would be the best way to bring about a quick and favourable result.  Well, it can be an effective way, but it is certainly not a Christian way to deal with trials.  Sadly, there had been precedence for this sort of action in the past, which is why the school had chosen to put students in charge of their own food to begin with.  That the students would resort to this very poor display of Christian character has been very troubling for the faculty and for the sponsors of the students.  I mentioned in the last post that the school’s Spiritual Emphasis Days had been on “Show Me Your Faith”, taken from the book of James.  Though the students seemed to be very receptive to it at the time, evidently, it did not sink in to affect their actual behaviour when hardship arose.  The material needs of the matter have been met by an anonymous donor through the end of the term (though with somewhat of a lingering question mark over next term), but the spiritual matter will take quite a bit more time to address, especially since the material needs have been more than met for this term, which reinforces the effectiveness of bad behaviour.  Through this issue and generally, I have been coming to see more and more that quick money, while it can relieve the giver’s conscience, does little to change hearts.  It has been a huge issue, and I have not explained it in its entirety, but it has definitely been troubling, discouraging, and brought some unwanted tensions into relationships with the students.  Your prayers over the whole situation would be much appreciated.

This event at EBCoM occurred also around the same time that students at the polytechnic university in town were holding protests and strikes over financial issues.  In Malawi’s history, such student protests are not uncommon at all.  It is also very interesting and probably no coincidence that in the very core cultural narrative of the struggle for Malawian independence centred on the politico-religious figure of John Chilembwe, this same attitude and justification of protest, resistance, demand, and force stands strong.  Such matters show that there is a much wider cultural and social trend that Christians have become caught up in as well.  (though in this, Malawi is certainly not alone).

Anyway, let me shift on to lighter matters.  Just a quick note that I have not yet gone back to the DMV.  I have been avoiding it for obvious reasons, so my report on Operation Malawi Drivers Licence, Part II, will have to wait.  I now move on to the key feature of this post, which was much more enjoyable to experience than the last posts key feature.

Last Sunday I experienced my first Paper Sunday, which is also known as Big Sunday.  This is when a church holds a special and very fun and entertaining fundraiser.  The “paper” refers to money in bills as opposed to coins – getting into the big money…well, not really.  The smallest bill is MK 20, the equivalent of about 15 cents.  One of the churches that I had been to before (and is one of my favourites), Mpemba, was holding a Paper Sunday, so I made plans to go.  I also brought along an American named Tracie who’s only here for 2 months and was itching to experience a Malawian church before she leaves.  Paper Sunday was definitely a cultural experience for both of us! 

Thankfully we had been warned it was going to be a long day, though at no point did it feel too long.  We picked up the pastor and his wife, Richard and Nora Zibophe, on the way to the church at 9:30, and we didn’t leave until around 5:30!  How, you might ask, can going to church be an 8-hour day?  Well, this is how:

Although we arrived at 9:30, and church was supposed to start at 10, as is prone to happen in African churches, and especially this Sunday as odds and ends needed to be sorted out, church started late…rather late…well over an hour late.  The person who was supposed to preach didn’t show, so I was asked to preach, and thankfully I have learned to come prepared for such things by keeping a couple extra sermons in my Bible.  The service itself was shorter than usual with no offering, no choirs, and I was asked to do a shorter sermon.  After the service, though, the festivities began right away with an offering being taken by a boy as he sang with an amazing voice.  After that there was a competition of money for a clock, with the church divided into four according to where people lived.  The group that gave the most got the clock.  Through this part, and pretty well everything that followed there was an MC who had so much energy and was hilarious to watch.  

The Master of Ceremonies of Paper Sunday

 The church wanted Tracie and me to be our own Team Azungu vying for the clock.  We put money in the pot, but told them to divide it between the other four groups.  The money was counted by three people sitting around a table to do all the money counting through the afternoon – quite a job.  After one of the teams won the clock, there was a break for lunch, which was also part of the fundraising.  They certainly weren’t trying to break anyone’s back, though, because I got a very filling plate of nsima and beans with some vegetables on the side and a glass of tobwa all for MK 70 (roughly 50 cents)!  The meal was delicious and very satisfying, putting people in the mood to be generous in the continued festivities to follow.  While lunch was going on, tickets could be purchased for the raffle to be held later (MK 80 each).

Coming back into the church after lunch, it was now time for the auction.  It differed from most every Canadian auction I’ve seen on 2 accounts.  First, the items up for auction were by no means rare novelties, but every-day items like sugar, soap, a few bottles of Coke, and matches.  Second, unlike auctions as I imagine they are done most everywhere else in the world, in these, it was not just the highest bidder who had to pay.  Bids were made by actually putting money into a basin, and all the money stayed there.  Plus, people didn’t need to match a bid before they could raise.  If one person started at MK 50, another person would only need to put in MK 20 to take it, not MK 70.  If two parties were vying for an item and then one dropped out, any other person could jump in with a mere MK 20 and take it all despite the others having each put in MK 300.  So, it was a little chaotic, and people were adding to the chaos/fun by trying to take the item before the bidding was finished.  I did manage to win the bid on one of the bottles of Coke, though, which was very refreshing a couple of hours later.

Abusa Zibophe (right) in a bidding match over a bottle of Coke

After the auction was the time for choirs.  You might be thinking, “oh nice, a musical interlude between the fundraising,” but oh no, it was very much a part of the fundraising.  In a regular church service, there are usually a couple of different choirs – often a women’s choir, youth choir, and/or Sunday school choir.  They sing a song as they shuffle up to the front, sing a song or two at the front, and then go back down.

But on Paper Sunday, for as little as MK 20 you can make pretty much anything happen.  The women’s choir started and somebody paid to have a man join them up at the front and do the dancing/actions with them.  Then money was put in for another man to join them.  I thought this was absolutely hilarious until money was paid for me to go up front and join them!  I could have paid to refute the request, but decided to humour the congregation with some bad azungu dancing before paying to sit back down.

 By this time, however, the youth choir was itching to get up and sing, so they paid for the women to return to their seats, but the women paid to refute, then the youth paid more, and then the women again, but finally the youth overcame.  While the youth were up a man paid to pretend to conduct the choir, which he did with great exuberance. 

Then a woman paid to play a drum with the youth choir, which she did quite horribly but hilariously, and somebody else in the congregation quickly paid for her to go back down.

Somebody paid to have Tracie and me go up and join the choir.  Since I had been up already, I paid to refute for myself, but also to ensure that Tracie still had to go up.  The women’s choir wanted another turn, so they paid to take the youth choir down.  They didn't last long before they were taken down by the youth choir once again.  The choirs were definitely the most entertaining part of the whole afternoon.

After the choirs was the raffle draw.  There were quite a number of items.  I ended up winning a bucket and Tracie a basin.  There was also laundry soap and plates to be won, and the grand prize was a radio.  The raffle marked the end of Paper Sunday, and when all was said and done they had raised about MK 7,500.  We then completely packed our vehicle with people from the church to drop off at various points along the way.  We ended up at the Zibophe’s house where they very generously gave us each a couple cobs of fresh maize, a pumpkin, and fresh guavas all from their own field.  I got home at about 6 and was thoroughly beat, but had an absolutely tremendous day!

I think that is plenty for this blog post.  I had planned to include a little thing on the language of Chichewa, but don’t want to make this one too long, so I’ll post it in a week or so to space things out a bit.  Just one more thing before signing off.  Some of you may remember that in my first upload of pictures, I had a picture of EBCoM’s chapel, where right at the front was a picture of a white Jesus.  It’s not only not historically accurate, but also quite an unhelpful picture for African indigenous Christianity.  Before coming out here I had seen very striking pictures on the internet of a black Jesus.  That, of course, is not historically accurate either, but since the Gospel reaches out to all cultures and part of the reason for God becoming man in the first place was to reveal Himself in a way that people could identify with and understand.  Anyway, the website is jesusmafa.com, which has pictures of a Cameroon Jesus.  I printed up one of them and brought it to a Malawian artist to basically copy while adapting it to make it more Malawian.  This is the result, the story of Mary and Martha.  I like it and hope to get more pictures done.  Perhaps I can start a trend, which I think would help evangelism as well as peoples’ general perceptions of Jesus (not the God brought/imposed from the West, but the God also of Africans).

Oh, right, and more pictures can be seen here (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034923&id=180500047&l=90487545a8)

One Queue After Another

Apologies for a little delay in writing, and in advance for the fact that I have only a few new pictures to share.

     The term has been going very well so far and I am really enjoying teaching.  This week I am guest-lecturing for a few classes in Church History and teaching on early monasticism, which is reminding me how much I absolutely love Church History and wish I was teaching the whole course.  However, I am also enjoying teaching Doctrine of Scripture and Greek, and will just have to be patient for September, when I get to take up some Church History courses.  I have needed to realign some of my expectations for my classes since for Doctrine of Scripture the level of critical thinking, background knowledge, and fluency in English cannot be assumed, and for Greek the difficulty of learning a third language through one’s second language is showing itself.   Happily, though, I am quite free to go at the pace of the students and linger on certain things since there is not a set amount of content we have to get through.  

     The past two days were the college’s Spiritual Emphasis Days, which are a set of two days once a year when classes are put aside and the college comes together for spiritual renewal.  This year, one of the lecturers, Abraham Folayan, preached a series on the theme, Show Me Your Faith, taken from the book of James.  He and his wife, Ruth, have been long-time lecturers at the college, but in April they will be retiring and moving back to Nigeria, which will be a great loss to the school and they will be greatly missed.  The Spiritual Emphasis Days, though, were truly wonderful, challenging, and encouraging.  

     Speaking of departures, this past Saturday SIM Malawi had to say farewell to a dear missionary family, the Hannahs.  Ryan Hannah has been the Director of SIM in Malawi for many years and his wife, Heidi, the Personnel Coordinator.  I have really enjoyed getting to know them and their three kids over the past months.  They have felt the call to minister in a different area, though, and after some months back home in the USA, will be moving to Thailand to be missionaries there.  A couple of weekends ago we had a huge farewell weekend.  Most of the SIM missionaries across Malawi came to Blantyre, and we had a big party on the Saturday.  Including children, there were 70 in total at the party, and it was really great to meet all the missionaries that I hadn’t met yet.  Then on the Sunday there was a huge and long 4-hour church service and there were tons of people there from all over.  

     The rainy season continues, and I got some good video of what it can be like.  It’s really not as bad as you might think though, and the joy of cooler temperatures (even to the point where I can sleep well at night without a fan on me) far outweighs the inconvenience of potentially being poured on and getting one’s shoes muddy.  I don’t know if it has to do with the rainy season, but I thought the ants, though still around, had been more-or-less contained.  Last night, however, they seem to have come back with a vengeance, and some of a new, red, variety which are much more resilient to being squished.  Seeing them around is well enough, but when they start dropping on you from the ceiling or getting all in your coffee maker, it gets to be a little much.  So, I’ve sprayed Doom all around (though not in the coffee maker) and am probably doing myself no health favours by breathing it in, but whatev’s.  Oh, and speaking of Doom, my nice wicker furniture, despite being varnished, has somehow attracted some pesky termites.  The chairs are nowhere near damaged yet, but I see little trails of sawdust, which betrays the termites’ work.  I’ve sprayed the chairs with Doom a number of times, and have seen some dead termites, but the little piles of sawdust continue to form :(

 

Close to EBCoM there is a hill with a big cross on the top.  The local Catholic Church (with a sponsor from somewhere else) has put it up there with a nice hike going up.  Along the hike they have the 14 stages of the cross.  I’ve been meaning for some time to go up there, and finally went this past Saturday with a group of missionaries.  We had a gorgeous day for it and the view from the top was tremendous.

Panorama of the view from the cross

     So, now it’s time for the feature of this blog.  It is a lengthy story (and sadly no pictures), but it was definitely lengthier experiencing it, so I want no complaints.  I have now been here for 3 and a half months.  My Canadian drivers licence lasts me for 6 months in Malawi (I think...I’ve read/heard somewhere that it might only be 3 but am opting for ignorance – I’ve not yet had to show my licence to a police officer).  After that time is up, I need a Malawian one.  I had to wait until I received my Temporary Employment Permit (TEP), which arrived early January, before I could go in to get my licence.  Having received that, I decided to get the ball rolling on the Malawian DL earlier rather than later, especially since I’ve heard some horror stories about the length of time and the process for getting one.  I had heard that it can take 3 full days of standing in queues and jumping through hoops and meeting unexpected hurdles like the power/system going down right when you approach the counter, etc.  It turns out that the horror stories are well founded.

     I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles at the end of January, which I later found out was a bad idea to begin with since there were tons more people trying to get stuff done before the end of the month.  Things in Malawi like the DMV bear the residue of the Imperial British system of things, which is more concerned with orders and structures than practicalities.  So, at the DMV there are many different rooms, counters, and queues, each one with a specific duty and that duty alone.  A drivers licence, however, requires many duties to be performed, and hence, many lines to be joined.  Furthermore, there is no rhyme or reason to which room performs which tasks, and while the rooms are numbered (bear in mind, the number is not always posted at the room), the room numbers do not correspond to the order in which the rooms actually appear.  I was forewarned also, that the room somebody tells you to go to may not actually be the room you’re supposed to go to, and so to keep asking where you ought to be and if you’re in the right line. 

     So, on a Friday morning, bright and early, I made my way to the DMV, arriving at 7:15 because it opens at 7:30 and I was told an early start can potentially save you an extra day.  When the gate opened, I asked the first official which room I should start in for a Malawian drivers licence, and he said Room 3, so I lined up outside that door.  I also asked other people in the line if this was indeed the line I should be in, and they confirmed it (I say “line” loosely because until the door actually opened people just stood/sat outside in no actual order that reflected the order in which they arrived at the door).  Well, this particular door on this particular day did not open for another 45 mins.  When it did finally open and I got through the line to the counter, I was told that I must begin at Room 2!  So, I found Room 2 where the line was thankfully shorter, and when I got to the counter and showed my passport, TEP, and Canadian drivers licence, I was told that I needed a copy of each of those, but that the photocopier at the DMV was down (I had copies of my passport and TEP, but not of my Canadian DL).  So, I had to leave the DMV and find a place where I could make a photocopy.  I found an internet café soon enough that had a photocopier, so made a copy and headed back, went to Room 2 again, showed my papers and received a form to fill out.  I filled out the formed, joined the queue again, and then got my next instructions, which were to go to Room 3, Room 4, Room 6, and then back to Room 2.

     At Room 3 the lady wrote a long number at the top of my form (I imagine it was important for something) and then sent me to Room 4.  Room 4 is for the cashiers, and by far has the longest queues of all the rooms.  The line went well out the door, so joined the line.  It was here that I especially noticed that Malawians do not line up like Canadians – with a bubble of no-touchy space around each person.  Malawians line up right next to each other so that you’re either in continual contact with each other or with the slightest of movements you brush up against and bump each other (and this when it’s hot and breathing space would be most welcome).  Well, it was like that until we got to the room itself (which took about an hour), but then it turned to full-on squishing – like riding the 99 B-Line bus in Vancouver at peak-hours.  Inside of Room 4 there were 6 regular counters and 2 teller counters.  People were moving from one to the other and for some lines people were walking in directly from outside and joining (without waiting in the really long queue that I had been in), so I feared that I had waited so long for no reason.  I decided it would be best to stay behind the person who was in front of me, despite some of the other lines being shorter.  This turned out to be the right choice because counter 3, which the long line from outside was queued for, though it didn’t say it anywhere, was the quotes line, which was the first stop.  Here I was given a piece of paper indicating how much I had to pay at one of the two teller counters.  The other 5 lines were for some other purposes that everybody seemed to know (despite nothing being posted anywhere).

     So, I finally got my quote – MK1,270 (which seemed low to me…less than $10) – and lined up in the teller line.  This line moved horribly slow, and I soon found out that the system was continually up and down, which was slowing down everything.  When I was fourth from the counter, the teller took her lunch break :(  I wasn’t about to give up my spot in line, so I continued to wait.  It was then that I noticed that one of the guys in front of me looked just like a black version of Patrick Stewart, which humoured me quite a bit and the time waiting went by faster as I remembered good Star Trek episodes, only this time with a black Jean Luc Picard.  The teller came back from lunch, and eventually I was able to pay in those moments of the system being up, and finally got out of Room 4.  I decided that it was high time for me to have my own lunch somewhere.

     When I got back from lunch, I looked for Room 6, but could not find it anywhere, so asked somebody, who took me to a room that I would not have found on my own, and definitely had nowhere posted that it was Room 6.  This was the room for getting my photo taken and fingerprints done though there was nobody actively taking photos or fingerprints.  There was no formal queue, but seats around the room, and like before, the order that people sat in did not reflect the order in which they arrived.  After close to an hour of waiting a lady came in and sat at the computer for a bit and then left again saying the system was still down.  She came back again a little later and said that we should go because it was near closing time (3 pm) and the system was not coming back up, but that they would be open the next day (Saturday) from 9 to 12 and we could come back then or on Monday.  I had other commitments each day the next week, so I decided to come back Saturday morning, and hoped that I might make quicker progress with fewer crowds on a Saturday.  I was beat after a close to 8-hour day of standing in queues!

     The next day I arrived shortly after 9 and went straight to Room 6, where the system was up and there was only a short wait so that I had my photo taken and fingerprints done within half an hour.  Then I was told to come back on Monday when Room 2 would be open.  Aarg!!  But I inquired whether there was nothing more I could do that day, and the lady said that Room 2 was closed, but if I talked to Abambo (Mr.) Mbame, he might be able to help me.  I sought him out and eventually found his office, but he wasn’t there.  Another guy – very obviously Christian from his Holy Bible prominently placed on his desk and a couple of posters with Scripture passages on them – took a look at my papers and informed me that in the system I had not yet paid.  I had been unaware, but apparently after paying at the Teller the previous day, I was supposed to go to another counter (Counter 5) in Room 4 to show that I had paid and receive a different receipt for it.  So I did that now, and got that receipt.  I then went back to the guy, and he put a checkmark on my paper and told me to go to the quotations line (Counter 3) in Room 4 so that I could get another quotation to pay another MK2,000 (the first payment of MK1,270 was for an Aptitude Test that I never actually had to take, but still had to pay for).  So I got my quotation, lined up again for the teller, went again to Counter 5 to show that I had paid, got another receipt, and brought it back to the guy who was helping me but was not Abambo Mbame.  He signed the piece of paper, put my thumbprint on it, and then informed me that this was now my Learners Licence and that after 29 days I could come back to get my full licence (and I am assuming with exciting new queues to line up in and bills to pay!).  When I asked why I couldn’t get my full licence right away since I have a full and recognized Canadian DL, he said that Jesus, though he was divine, came to earth and started out as an infant (with the assumed logic that despite having my full licence, in coming to Malawi, I need to start as an infant of sorts).  It was noon, the DMV was closing, and I had done all I could to this point, so I went home.  Day 2 of Operation Malawi Drivers Licence complete, I will just have to see what exciting adventures lie in store when the 29 days are up…maybe it will include a road test, maybe an aptitude test, most likely more money, and definitely more queues!

     So, as promised, a very long story, and I have definitely come to appreciate Canadian systems and procedures, and especially the novel concept of taking a number and having a seat.  That concludes this blog post.  A few more pictures can be seen here (at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034481&id=180500047&l=f1c49a6afa). Thanks for reading.

p.s. For those inclined to prayer, I think the Islamic world could really use a lot of prayer right about now.  I’m sure most of you are keeping an eye on the things that are going on in Egypt, as well as Tunisia and Sudan, etc.  Also, in Malawi there seems to be a lot of spiritual warfare going on among the missionaries to the Muslim Yao people in and around Mangochi.  There seems to be sickness after sickness among the families there and trial after trial.