The final night...

Well, things are coming to a close.  Today we did the dedication of the library.  We expected about 100 people and then found out that there were three funerals in surrounding villages this morning.  We started the ceremony and as time went on, people trickled in as they walked down the dirt roads to the build site.  We ended with probably over 100... all of them eager to be there.

The school serves 41 villages and over 1000 kids as of the June enrollment... all of them walking to school normally.. Several village chiefs showed up... weathered old men who walked in wearing mismatched clothing, suit coats, and some barefooted.  Their faced told stories of long hard lives.  Dark skin, tangled hair, deeply wrinkled skin, sunken jaundice eyes... dry chapped hands and feet covered with hard leather skin.

The kids were excited that we were there and after playing, sat eagerly as Jimi, Timothy, Lawrence, and a village chief spoke for all of the chiefs.  Once the speaking was done, a group of dancers from the Makalani village walked out from behind one school house and gave us a surprise dance with native headdress, and beating dried animal skins.  Very interesting!

Once the dedication was made to Annie Grace (the child who died in February of AIDS at age four) the ribbons on the door were cut and the spectators got to enter.  The children eagerly lined up for cookies and Gatorade... a treat they do not often get.

The time came to depart and we had to load up.  Saying goodbye and seeing the little faces as we drove away made your stomach turn... Do they know we wont be back tomorrow?  It bothers me.  Sam smiled so big in his wheelchair, and Jimi gave him a big hug.  Left sitting there wearing Jimi's St. Louis Cardinals hat.  It brings tears to my eyes to think about it.

We unloaded the loot we had in our bags... balls, frisbees, candy, books and drove down the red dust road, bouncing through the ruts one last time on this trip.  Its good to have done this, but it is sickening at the same time.  They need so much more, and we have so little to give.  We will all go back to our lives, our homes, our hot water, our beds, our loved ones... and they will wake up tomorrow to the cold Africa air, filled with dust to continue another day in their lives.  One more day that looks just like yesterday.  The only thing in the future is hope, and somehow they guarantee happiness amidst the agony they live in.

After lunch we drove to Derek's ranch about 50 km away.  He is the local contractor that organized the build.  Without his generosity and contribution it would not have been possible.  He invited us for "high tea."  He is third generation removed from Scotland and moved to Africa.  They own about 3000 acres where he farms and has businesses in building, livestock, tobacco, hunting and safari expedition.  His groomed yard hosted us with his wife, two small blond daughters, ducks, dogs, rabbits and the shade of a beautiful afternoon.  While it was wonderful, it wreaks of the third world... where you either "have" or "have not."  The drive back home took us through more mud hut villages, roadside shops, butchers, goats running loose and pedestrians all along the way.

As of the moment, we are at a dining establishment in Lilongwe "Kip's Summer Place" the same place we were for John the Irishman's birthday.  We will eat and celebrate Jacquie's birthday.  (I think she is 29 or so.)  :)

(Look at it in Google maps)

When tomorrow comes, we will organize our things and begin out long journey home, going backwards in time.  We fly out at 3:05pm and will fly a total of 23 1/2 hours with our longest trip being 17hrs and 25 minutes.  We will arrive in Kansas City at 4:19pm (I believe.)

Everyone is still well and in good spirits. A part of us wants to come home, and a big part of our hearts want to stay.  This will not be my last trip to Malawi Africa, and for sure not my last trip for Be The Change Volunteers.  Maybe you can join next time and experience this for another person, and for yourself.

I will end this and get back to the dinner group.  God bless all of you for the love and prayers you have sent.  Send a few more prayers for this final journey.

I will miss these people of Africa, the faces I know with names I do not know.  I will miss my fellow travelers and the feelings we share.  I have so many new friends for life... I am so grateful, I cannot ask for anything more in my life.  (Except some hot water.)

The blog will not end... I will compose on the flight and post when we get to Washington D.C. Sunday morning.  The blog will continue, more pictures, more thoughts.... and live on for future missions.  Something this good cannot just die.

Goodnight....

--Dusty

Posting early WITH pictures today!

I'm going to try to write this as the days goes on, so I will be caught us as we go.  Remember, if you comment and you are not signed in, please sign your name so we know who you are!

We got electricity back last night in time for supper.  I swear I am getting fat.  I'm really not hungry for potatoes anymore... they love sliced potatoes aka "fries."  We eat tons of rice, fried chicken (which is good, except for the foot that they throw in.)  We also usually have small T-bone steaks similar to beef jerky, spaghetti noodles, and a potato and carrot salad.

After we ate, a group played some rowdy spoons and our Mzungu friend, Sydney showed up with cinnamon bread she had baked.  Yum... we devoured it in minutes.

The crew turned in early except for some who were practicing for the BTCV Idol talent show that will take place Thursday evening at the lodge... more details on that later!

It got down to about 40 degrees last night and we awoke to... guess what... yep, no electricity!  Grant and Jimi were cooking french toast over an open flame as they had promised Mark, David and Stevie the morning off from cooking, to be our guests.  They work at the lodge and fix our morning and evening meals, often starting at 4:30am.

We all ate and loaded up for the build site and arrived to several happy little kid faces on site.  The kids are out of school so the hundreds that encircled us the first morning are spread out across several villages.  The group this morning included one little guy named Sam in a wheel chair.  Someone had gotten him a good chair but it was sad to see what he probably had to go through living in a dirt road village.  He was happy to see the library had a ramp so he could get into it too.  I think only one of the other classrooms had a ramp when I looked around. 

As we worked shoveling and spreading gravel, some of the contractor's crew worked on pointing more of the exterior brick and we took time to play with the kids... soccer, hop scotch... all the good stuff!  :)

 Jimi and Sam doing the hop scotch...

Janet helped with some laundry for the teachers

  Abbi... the hop scotch expert.

Some of the kids started a soccer game beside the build.  Jimi grabbed Sam in him wheel chair and jumped in the game pushing the wheelchair so Sam could hit the ball with his hands.  I took some video that I will post when we get home.  It was hard to stand there and watch the laughing and expressions on Sam's face as Jimi wore himself out running everywhere around that soccer field.  I guarantee it is a day that Sam will probably remember the rest of his life... somebody took the time to show him the love, to let him get in a soccer game.  It was awesome.

Sam

Grant and I took some homemade saw horses over to the village and part of the crew went over there to do some painting at the Invest Resource Center in the village.  Megan was going to use her mad artistic skill to paint the name on the building.

Lawrence hauled Grant, Cristi and me over to the lodge where we prayed the electricity would be back on.  We were lucky and got the rest of our boards cut so the shelves can be hauled over to the library and assembled.

I got a chance to run to the internet cafe to post a few pictures that were on my phone but the computer kept locking up and the internet was intermittent.... but I did get some pictures added.

Once again, excuse the typos and poor structure of some of these posts.   The keyboard on the phone is horrible and the screen is too small to successfully proof read these posts.  Spell check somehow makes up its own mind when it wants too.  One project of mind when I get home will be to fix the blog, add pictures and video and make it more readable!

I'm posting this early this evening because I am doing it from the computer... take care be safe, keep the prayers coming and have your conversations with God.  He has really never been so evident in my life.

What a weekend!!!

It started out Friday as we left the lodge about 4pm in two small vans and set out to get fuel.  That was a success!  Lawrence was driving our van and got us into a filling station with minimal wait.

As we set off down the road, it was about dusk.  It is cool and dry here now and its been cloudy the past few days.  At night it is in the 50s and in the day, it gets up a little over 80.  The sun rises right about 6am and sets about 5:30 according to my GPS... and sure enough, its right again.  (I'm sad to say, I've been awake voluntarily for sunrise everyday... a shocker for those who know me.)


Anyway, we set off for lake Malawi which is about 75 miles away, about an hour and a half on these roads... thats because dodging all the kids, goats, bicycles and general population walking on the roadway.  Not to mention everybody drives on the wrong side of the road here.  The entire way, there were people along the road.  The countryside was pretty but too dark to get pictures.  :(

There were a lot of rolling hills and in the distance, odd shaped mountains.  Not really in a mountain range but rather a few random mountains peaking up by themselves.

Every so often, we would have to stop at a police roadblock where they actually had gates across the road.  I'm not sure of the propose because they always just opened they gate and we went through, no questions asked.

Sooo... We drive for what seemed like forever dodging all the people in the road until we come to a dirt road.  (Believe it or not, many of the main roads here are really good paved roads.)  As we head off the beaten path, the hopes of some luxurious resort are quickly fading.... luxurious just meaning the presence of hot water.  Within a mile or two, we turn into the "Lakeside Resort."  A few of us walk into the reception area where the guy clicks a switch and turns on one of those illuminated picture frames of a jungle waterfall, emitting the sounds of tranquility.... chirping birds and water raining down.  He looks at it and grins with pride.
Now let me be honest... This was a really nice gesture but I think this thing had probably sat out in the sun and been rained on for a few summers worth of garage sales before he scored this prize.  The once beautiful green jungle foliage was now faded to aqua green and then entire thing was cloudy as if it where out of focus.  I believe the speaker has been rained on, or possibly submerged as the tweeting sounds of the bird actually sounded more like the squeak of the bathroom door that is right next to where I've been sleeping or the floor all week.  The tranquil jungle rain and waterfall sounds have somehow morphed into more of a static and hiss but... if you closed your eyes, you can ALMOST imagine it is not a hiss and a squeak.  No luck in actually making the sounds out to be a waterfall and birds... Id never know what it was supposed to be if I hadn't seen one 25 years ago in a truck stop in Oklahoma.  None the less, this guy is proud, and I am respectfully in awe.  After all, this is his castle.

So John (the Irishman) and I go to the first room as the guy unlocks it.  We go in and see two beds for the three of us.  Yay!  We get to bond... Some more. I guess Grant and I will be sleeping together.  (Its just real good that we are all very secure with our masculinity.)

I go to the bathroom and turn on the light.  The first thing I notice is a really nice set of roots growing out of the baseboard by the toilet.  I turn to the shower and grab the knob on the left and give it a twist.  With a spitting crackle, the shower sprays ice cold water all over my shirt sleeve.  I step back and wait... and step back some more since the flowered shower curtain is about 8 inches too short.  I wait, and I wait.  I step out and check on John.  He is standing arms crossed looking at the TV.  Aljazeera news is on.  Its either that, or Aljazeera news.  Nope... no HBO in this place.

I go back the the shower and I stick my hand in.  Is it still cold?  Can my imagination pull some luke warm change out of it?  (You know the feeling when you really HOPE the water is getting warmer, and its not.)  So, I go back to John and tell him I think it MIGHT be getting warm, because I'm hoping that, and I think God might not let John down if I start that story.

Pretty soon John walks out to go look at the others rooms.  Within seconds, he comes running down the sidewalk yelling at me to "get yer stuff, wee'rre a'moovin'!" in his hilarious Irish accent that I just love.
Turns out John has found where everyone else is staying, and it faces the lake, with its crashing waves and wind nearly at the doorstep.  The room is three times the size, has two beds and a bunk bed and... you guessed it, hot water.  (And smaller roots growing out of the bathroom baseboard.)

When the night finally settled, Max moved into the room with myself and Grant and John went into an identical room just next door with Doug and Glen.  Nobody had to top-bunk it this way.

We all explored around the best we could in the dark, all amazed by the lake.  It had sand, and waves, and it was less than 100 feet away.  This place is gonna be okay!

Jimi ordered us food and we all ate, excited to be somewhere new and everybody had a bed and hopefully hot water.  We ate, jabbered and went to sleep.

I decided a sunrise in the morning would be a good camera shot so I set my watch for 5:20 and got up.  The lake runs mostly north/south and across the lake to the east is Mozambique, so I am stoked to get some really cool pictures.

I wake up and go out with my tripod to the beach.  As it turns out, the wind coming off the water is kinda cold and about 30mph.  Not real conducive to holding the camera still, and...its really cloudy.  I wait it out and get some pretty cool pics, I hope.  Grant, Lynda and Doug also ventured out and we eventually walked down the beach.  Turns out it was very nice, and relaxing.

Then, we run into Coconut.  Coconut just happens to have a bag of stuff to sell on the beach and suckers a few of us into ordering some cross necklaces and such from him that he is going to carve.  We order the necklaces and buy a few trinkets that seem pretty cheap.  By the time we walk back down to our resort, word is apparently spreading that we are in the area as the local peddlers are migrating into out cozy little resort courtyard.  Everywhere we go that day, they go.  Arriving with more and more stuff, and as the day goes on, the stuff gets better and better... and cheaper.

Turns out Coconut wasn't the only, or the best deal in town.  Who names their kid Coconut anyway?  He didn't even answer to the name when you said it.  Grrrr.

Turns out the day went pretty quick. After HOT showers,  we all walked down the beach to another resort where there was a large beach and messed around.  A bunch of us got in the water... even though this huge lake allegedly has those skin boring parasites in it...I think we all escaped being attacked.  We ate a buffet lunch with some real authentic food like some fish with big teeth that really smelled like fish, nsima, rice, chicken, and all the African fixins.

We lounged around, played ball with the local kids on the beach, bought more junk from the roaming beach peddlers, and headed back to our resort.

About 3:30 we loaded on a tiny little boat... well, most of us did, a few stayed behind in case we sank so all of our families could be properly notified, and we rode out and around a small island.  Turns out bald eagles live in Africa and fly all over the place.  We probably saw three or four on the trip.  Our boat ride was fun, the boat was small, the waves were big and a few people got a little wet, but it was a good time!
Upon our return, the peddler's merchandise multiplied and got cheaper.  Turns out they TRADE stuff.  They love clothes, shoes, and anything you can pull out of your bag.  Several people traded flip flops and the like for bracelets and such.  I ended up losing my sandals, a cheap Timex watch, a Walmart brand multi tool and a little cash for a really awesome carving of a fisherman that stands about 3ft tall.  I traded those size 13 shoes to probably the only guy around big enough to fit them.  (They don't grow Malawians very big at all.)

 (Notice all the bare feet in the pictures...  The shoes got traded for loot!)

We ended the night with a great supper together and Kayla, Mikayla, Abby, Max, and Megan doing some BTCV! art in front of my camera.


We retired and I woke up again to take sunrise pictures to find wind and clouds again.  We had breakfast and gathered for our own little church service where Timothy gave a great talk about having God in our hearts.  Lawrence followed up with some great prayer and songs... even some of the peddlers joined us, even Coconut.

The last of the peddling was done and we headed out only to stop in the roadside markets.  (We figured out where the peddlers get their stuff!)  Everyone got some really cool stuff to include drums, statues, baskets, and bracelets.  I even traded a package of AA batteries for a hand carved African mask.  :)

We got back to Lilongwe around 2pm and had pizza.  We were all exhausted from such a great time together.  Its obvious we all have the same appreciation for the situation we are in and love meeting the local Africans and interacting with them.  They treat us so good, so friendly, so warm and genuine.
They may not have much it water, but their warm hearts make up for it.

I'm thankful for this experience of a lifetime, with such great people.  I couldn't ask for more in my life... well, I could, but I don't feel the need.  God provides all I will ever need and this experience reaffirms that every day.

Well, the dogs are barking so, that's my sign... we're back in Lilongwe and its time to sleep.

I will add pictures to this post hopefully tomorrow, so check back!

Goodnight, and don't forget your conversations with God.  :)

We arrived!

We made it to Lake Malawi just after dark and our rooms are right on the shore.  Waves are crashing right outside our door.
I have bad service and data is $5 a megabyte here so I will make bigger posts with pics when we get back to Lelongwe.
Everyone is happy and I think the showers are at least warm.
Im going to get up early to try and get pics of the sunrise over the lake.
Goodnight... don't forget conversations with God.
:)