And Things Continue in Malawi

           Well, as usual, I show myself to be a very inconsistent blogger.  And there are plenty of other matters that could easily extend my procrastination, but it has been over 2 months and one of my friends gave me the gentle nudge that I really ought to communicate.  So, here we go.  Last I left you, I was sitting in Hartford, visiting Aften before continuing on to BC with her.  Now I presume most have heard through alternate means (most especially Facebook), but for those who haven’t heard, and because I cannot get tired of sharing and celebrating it, exactly 2 months ago today, we got engaged!  It was in New York City, after a little serenade (with the use of a busker’s guitar), and she said Yes!!!  If you want the full story, you’ll have to ask me personally, since to give details of my love life is not the mandate of this blog.  I will at least gratify you (and it is my joy to show off my beautiful fiancée!) with one of our engagement photos taken in Vancouver.

            I got back into Malawi on New Year’s Eve (very sadly sans Aften) and 2^nd term classes started quite promptly after that on Jan. 4^th.  Of course, all the Malawians (students, fellow staff, and those in my church) were eager to hear more about the engagement and asked if I had any pictures to show from the “chinkhoswe.”  Now, in Malawi, engagement doesn’t work the same as in Canada.  It is not a private affair of a proposal just between the man and woman, but is a big public event/ceremony that one has to save up a bunch of money for (in fact, I have been asked by a former student to support him in starting a business so that he can save up for his chinkhoswe).  It includes music, dancing, food and/or at least Cokes/Fantas, marital advice from family, and, depending on the tribe, negotiations between the uncle of the future groom and the uncle of the future bride.  As I understand it, these negotiations conclude with each uncle tearing off a leg from a roast chicken, signifying that they have conferred with each other and if the couple is to ever to have marital problems, they should come to these very same uncles for help (lest the marriage tear apart like the chicken).  So needless to say, I had to tell Malawians that while in Canadian engagements there is a nice romantic story, and the offering of a ring, there is no chinkhoswe ceremony to speak of. 

            This term has been going very well, continuing on with the same courses from last term.  I am especially loving teaching through Church History and am finding that even though I have taken courses on the History of Christianity three different times through my education, I am still learning (and re-learning) a ton in course preparations and it is really helping to solidify things even more and also see themes and discussion points that emerge to help to make it relevant for the students.  For Church History 2 (Reformation to present day), upon the students request, since one of our classes is during the last period in the day and it can often be too hot to concentrate well, we have 2 typical lecture-style classes and 1 discussion class in a week.  That discussion class is more based off of an issue or implication that rises out of the lectures and enables the students to respond practically and theologically to the course content.  I prepare some questions (which we may or may not get through), and then we arrange ourselves in a circle and go for it.  It is a class of 8 and many of them can be quite vocal and so we’ve come to a number of heated discussions that, I think at least, have prompted good thoughts and reflections.  Through the month of February we have a college inspector who is dropping into classes (unannounced) and will be giving a review of the college at the end.  He happened to come to one of these discussion classes (so far the only class of mine that he’s dropped in on), so hopefully he appreciated its pedagogical value as much as I do!

            In the course of the term so far, we have also had Spiritual Emphasis Days, Sports Fellowship, and Work Fellowship.  Spiritual Emphasis Days happen once a year and go from one Monday afternoon through the day of Tuesday, and provide a retreat of sorts from classes and an opportunity to focus on a spiritual theme together as a college, listening to a guest speaker.  The theme this year was “Running with a Purpose” and I found the teachings to be excellent, encouraging, and challenging.  Last term in Sports Fellowship the lecturers won an unprecedented victory in soccer against the students, and so coming into this term’s Sport’s Fellowship, the students were not going to hold anything back; and it showed, with them annihilating us something like 6 or 7 to 1!  Despite the slaughter, it was good fun!  Work Fellowship is another regular activity of each term where one afternoon the faculty join the students in maintenance and upkeep work around the college, which includes slashing grass (in lieu of lawnmowers), filling in potholes in the driveway, etc.  

            There were fears through the month of December, with poor rains, that in addition to the rise in prices due to other economic factors, that there would also be a poor harvest this year.  Thankfully, the rains have just come a little late this year (with the help of a cyclone off the coast of Mozambique), and have come through January in abundant supply so that the harvest looks like it will be a good one.  The last few weeks in Malawi have been especially hot and humid, leading to some discomfort and lack of energy for me, but I’m thankful that I have better adapted over the course of the past year to such things (though, I must say that I absolutely loved coming for winter back to the States and Canada – well, Vancouver, so not really winter at all, but still much cooler and more delightful for me than the heat of Malawi!).  Adding to the difficulty of the humidity is the fact that power cuts and water shortage remain a continual problem.  For example, as I write this, just 10 minutes ago the power went off and will probably come back in a couple of hours.  Since I need power for the internet, you won’t be seeing this blog until the power is back.  The water has actually been out since Sunday this week (usually it’s not this bad), but thankfully as I’ve been writing I’ve heard the sound of it begin to trickle back – ah, I get to take a shower tonight!

            I mentioned about the national economic situation in Malawi last posting and also some of the effects on the students food budget.  The situation has continued and as is normal in the rainy season before the harvest, the prices have gone up even more, and this especially on local grown foods as well.  There is the normal rise and fall, but this year things became drastic where in the course of a week in early January, the price of the staple food, maize flour, used for making nsima, doubled in price!  It has since been fluctuating and prices will vary in different markets.  Now, the students (and pretty much the whole country) eat nsima every meal (except breakfast generally), and so you can imagine the effect that would have.  The students have made even more efforts to trim their budget, but it has been insufficient and resulted in a shortfall.  As it stands, they will not have money to ride out the last 2 weeks of the term.  It is a complicated situation and opinions differ regarding what the solution is or whether any help should be given to the students, but anyway, I mention it so that you might pray for God’s hand to be over the situation and for mindsets and attitudes to be brought to Christian maturity while also physical needs (and possibly even desires) could be met.  It is an opportunity for growth not only for the students, but also for those in church leadership.  There will be an EBCoM Council meeting next Thursday and the matter will be taken up there.

            Aside from the difficulties associated with the food, I have still very much enjoyed joining the students for lunches.  It seems that over the past few weeks there has been a group of students who have particularly become consistent in joining me, and they have also made it their mission to teach me some new Chichewa words every day.  Without writing them down, I’m still very much hopeless at remembering them, but slowly-slowly things come along.  Sometimes we’ll try to speak in Chichewa – and sometimes I ask them to summarize the lectures back to me in Chichewa that I’ve just given them in English.  Other times it is just nice to chat in English and discuss things from why missionaries do things the way they do, pointing out cultural distinctives between Canada and Malawi, sharing experiences, talking about classes, and (a new one for today) them treating me as a dictionary to explain nuances between different English words – which is only fair since I use them to learn Chichewa!

            This coming Sunday is an annual event called EBCoM Sunday, when the faculty and students of EBCoM go out to the various affiliated denominations around Blantyre and lead the services and promote EBCoM.  I will be going with three students to a nearby Zambezi Evangelical Church.  They have an English and a Chichewa service, so I will be preaching in the English service and one of the students convening, while the other 2 students will preach and convene in the Chichewa service.  In the course of the morning, more information will be given about EBCoM, and then an offering will be taken to support the running of the school.  I have yet to prepare my sermon, but it should be a good time, and I know I enjoyed it last year.

            Anyway, that’s all from me for now.  No new pictures right now, but a little while back a professional photographer who’s a friend of one of the missionaries came and visited and took some pictures around our different ministries, so I’ll try to get my hands on some more of those and post them.  He also did a brief video thing of me explaining a little of what I’m up to here, so if anyone’s interested in that, it can be seen below.  Thanks for reading!  

Greg

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!