June 27-July

June 27-July 1
At the dedication luncheon the retired Rev. Mgawe invited Seon Hee Lee and boys, Mr. Kim, the present senior minister (CCAP, Church of Central Africa Presbyterian) the Rev. and Mrs. Chapota and me to dinner that night. He sent his driver for us. Mrs. Mgawe died just before I came to Nkhoma. Rev. Mgawe was playing his harmonica when we arrived, and we all enjoyed singing some familiar hymns. After a few hymns, the cook announced dinner was ready. The Rev. invited us to go next door as he ushered us into the next room. At the foot of the table was a small table with basin, and the cook was standing across the table ready with pitcher to pour warm water for each of us to wash our hands. No towel was provided. That explained to me why the children at school do not use a towel. The cook removed the table cover to present us a big meal of at least 9 different dishes, including nsima (pronounced seema). It is eaten with the fingers at almost every, if not every meal. (Nsima reminds me of mush, a very fine grain of corn meal that I remember eating as a child with pork sausage and eggs. Their nsima is much drier and is picked up with thumb, index and middle fingers and then used to scoop up other items on your plate. Some people eat the entire meal that way while others do use forks and spoons. I always take a very small helping of nsima.

With each experience I seem to learn a little more about African culture. I went to Rev. Chapota’s home to go to Rev. Mgwe’s. I told Abusa (the preacher) I would be at his home at 7:15pm to go to the 7:30 dinner. I arrived at 7:17 and both Rev. and Mrs, Chapota were sitting in their living room talking. They invited me to sit down so I did, and we continued talking. A minute or two later he told her they were invited to dinner at Mgawe’s. It was obvious this was the first she knew about the invitation. Well we talked for about 10 more minutes and then she left to tell “the kitchen” they were going out to dinner.
About 7:45 Rev. Mgawe called and asked where we were and said he would send his driver for us. We started walking and the driver picked us up not far from the Chapota’s home. TIA (This is Africa).

During the conversation that evening the Rev. Mgawe repeated a number of times the statement “God is the great chess player.” I had never heard that expression, but I have certainly seen it in action a number of times here. I’ll share a couple of examples. When I asked the contractor to come for lunch after the celebration,he express great concern about the lack of funds to pay the builders at the school their monthly salaries. I asked him how much he needed immediately. He answered 259,500 Kwachas, which is $1500.00. At the celebration the next day Mr. Kim surprised us by presenting the school a check which allowed us to pay the salaries! Another example of God placing the right person, at the right time. at the right place is about Seon Hee’s experience when taking Mr. Kim to the airport. On the way Seon Hee decided she had about 10 minutes to take Mr. Kim to meet her Korean friend who had recently built the Korean Hospital in Lilongwe and was running it. For over 2 months Seon Hee had been praying for mosquito netting for the elderly and disabled folk in our village. In a less than 10 minute stop-over at the hospital they met 2 Korean bikers traveling from South Africa north looking for a needy cause to support. Seon Hee told them about the mosquito nets needed. They were thrilled with the project and met with her after she and Hussein, the school committee chairperson, delivered Mr. Kim to the airport. They spent 2 hours in Lilongwe checking for a good buy on the nets and buying 250 of them. The Korean doctor loaned the bikers the hospital truck and driver to transport the bikers, the nets, and the bikes to Nkhoma the next day. You may read about their stay in Nkhoma in my next log.

The Americans in Nkhoma have been invited by the Ambassador to Malawi to a 4th of July celebration in Lilongwe. The party is being held in an area near Capital Hill. Four of us, Chris and Kate from the Guesthouse and Jessi and I are all looking forward to the experience which is being held on Saturday, the 3rd of July. It sounds like it will be a traditional cook-out. It’s nice that you can have cook-outs here in the middle of winter!

Yesterday was wonderful. When I got home from school, I found Rhona had brought me 4 packages and 9 cards from the hospital mailroom. They were dated from March 23 to June 6 and yet I just got each of them. We believe the hospital may be just saving mail until they feel like they have enough to deliver. Thursday at school Douglas from the hospital came with another employee to the school to tell me that I had a package that needed to be picked up. I told him I was very surprised because I had just received yesterday 4 packages and 9 letters. He responded that that must be the mail he was talking about. (TIA) Thanks for the mail. It is wonderful to hear from North Carolina and the goodies enclosed are great.