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!