March 4-8

It’s not true that you will received a sheet when you arrive at the airport that will allow you to stay in Malawi up to 2 years. They merely stamp you passport as of the date you enter Malawi. After 30 days of being in the country you have to go to immigration to purchase 60 more days, then after that time you must file for an extension which becomes quite confusing and complicated or you can just leave the country for one night and reenter the next day to receive another 30 days, etc., etc., etc. It just keeps on repeating itself. The later choice seems to be the popular way to accomplish the task. Last Thursday I went to immigration office in Lilongwe to purchase 60 days. That was an experience! You approach the building with lots of people standing at the door. Thinking that’s the line you fall into place. Sometime later you discover that’s just people standing around talking. So you push ahead to get inside of the building and there you find 2 men behind desks. Both men are reading the newspaper with 8-10 people waiting to see one of them. We waited and when we got to the chair at one of their desks, the man took my passport and gave me a sheet to fill out. Then he told me to go the the next building to pay for the 60 days and come back and he would return my passport. At the next building, I had same confusing process getting to the window to pay, and when I did finally get there the guy charged me 10,000 kwachas and sent me back to the first man without any receipt. After another wait, I was thankful to get my passport returned marked with 60 additional days to remain in Malawi. On May 3rd we are considering going to the closest town across the border to spend one night and then return to start the process all over again for my next extension.
The Malawian 5 minutes is anytime after the announced time. The people are just not in a hurry to go anywhere or to do anything. They feel it’s fine to go or not go according to how you feel at the moment. That includes workers in hospital and teachers in schools. Today was first day back to school after a 2 week holiday. One teacher just decided not to come to school today. The 3 year old class had 2 new students starting their first day of school today and no teacher! I had a busy morning teaching the class with the help of the maintenance man who translated English into Chichewi so the children could understand some instructions. I had stuffed the bean bags that Covenant Village ladies made for us and I took them to the school this morning. The class had a grand time singing about the beans bags, throwing and catching them, marching around the room with them on their heads, putting them on their different body parts as we sang about it all. It was a most rewarding experience for a weary teacher. Beverly, tell the ladies how successful the bean bags are!
We continue to loose electricity about three times a week usually around dinner time. We are fortunate to have gas back up burners. Ruth from the Guesthouse had dinner with us tonight. There are only 4 guests there at present and the three boys were off to dinner elsewhere. We had corn beef(canned) and cabbage, squash, fresh green beans from the local market and cucumber, tomatoes, and onion salad. We also had homemade loaf bread dipped in olive oil with spices. Good meal! Well, that’s a lot about daily living here in Malawi, so I’ll sign off and go to bed.