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!