Missionary Transfers and Home Teaching Malawi style

I-15 Malawi style! This is the main highway between the largest cities in the country. Hey, it IS paved! I don't know how I managed to catch a moment where there were no pedestrians, bicycles, oxcarts, herds of goats or cattle. It doesn't happen much. Pretty well everything you see of the countryside in this picture is in Mozambique. The road follows the border for quite a while and they say that it wanders in and out of the 2 countries. We are climbing the plateau at this point.

 So, why were we on a road trip??? Yesterday Sister Seiben from Raymond flew in from Zambia on her way for her transfer to Blantyre. Of course there was no flight from Lusaka to Blantyre without a very expensive leg into South Africa so President sent her to us and we kept her overnight and took her to meet the Bullocks half way. Anyway, we got a nice little diversion. It was fun to have the 5 of us Albertans together for a few minutes.

Looking down the valley on the Malawi side. It is more and more rugged as you go south. Very very picturesque. I had to take all of these on the drive back because my brand new batteries in my camera died and it seems that AAs are not available at any old roadside mango stand. We did finally find some in the town where we met the Bullocks to do the exchange. I would have been so sad to not have pictures of that drive.

Another look into Mozambique.

Apparently Wednesday is market day and was this a market! There were mountains of vegetables - cabbages, onions, tomatoes, irish potatoes, you name it. Then, coming and going from the village were the bicycles, oxcarts and people with huge baskets on their heads who brought or bought everything. The picture absolutely does not do it justice. Going to the market is quite an experience. We didn't stop here but there is one in Lilongwe that we have been to a few times. High pressure???? You have no idea! From the kids trying to sell you a plastic bag the second you set your brake till you drive away, they are on you. We are getting pretty good at smiling and saying "no, zikomo" till we find what we want.

Another interesting pile of rock. We can see some of these in the distance from the city and have been wanting to go for a drive. We really enjoyed it.

Next was the home teaching portion of the drive. James Kathayo, the former second counsellor in the Kauma Branch presidency moved back to the village in November before we got here. So often that can mean no more contact with the church but we ran into his 18 year old son, Aiden,  in Kauma on Saturday when we were visiting members with Pres. Ngwelete and got his phone number. A few hours later, Pres Padovich called to arrange for us to pick up Sis Seiben and take her to meet the Bullocks. We knew there are no coincidences with the Lord, and us meeting this young man and just hours later finding that we would be driving through the "area" (I use this term loosely as you will see) where his family had moved to, we knew we really needed to make the effort to find him. We invited the branch president and Aiden to come with us to visit the family and help us find the way. After we handed Sis Seiben over to the Bullocks, we headed back expecting to turn off the road to the city of Dedza. Well, come to find out, they live in Dedza district which is a very large area. We turned off the main highway onto a smaller one and drove through miles of farms and villages, After several kilometers the pavement ended but the road, as you can see, continued. We asked Aiden how much further and he said he thought is was about 25 km. Well, it turned out to be 31km (we clocked it on the way back) from the start of the dirt track to their house and only a couple of times could we get out of 1st or 2nd gear. We left their house just before 4:30 and going as fast as we dared, we made it back to the tar (as they call it here) at about 6:15 just as it was getting dark and the clouds were threatening. We were praying pretty hard that it would not rain, that we would have a flat tire or break an axle or anything like that. I think we might have been sleeping in the truck tonight if any one of those had happened. Another instance where we have been so blessed.

The Kathayo family. Aiden is in the pink shirt beside his father James. Notice the school letters on his little brother, Joseph's shirt. They were so thrilled that we had come all that way just to see them. They wanted to feed us supper but we didn't dare wait any longer to get on the road before dark or even worse, rain. We were able to leave them with the new manuals and Liahonas and several other pamphlets and things to keep them going and to help them to share with their family and friends. Sis Kathayo had some infection in her foot and we were able to leave here with some 1st aid advice and the tube of polysporin from our little kit. Her husband is an elder so he had given her a blessing. They are far from a clinic. We were so glad we were able to visit them.

Bro Kathayo, Pres Ngwelete, Aiden and 2 gogos (grandmothers).

Inside the Kathayo's home looking up at the underside of the thatched roof. We just had to take that picture.

A banana blossom with little bananas forming above it. They laugh at the things we take pictures of. We just tell them "we don't have these in Canada".

So typical. The houses are made of sun dried mud bricks then stuccoed. The framework for the roof is made of bamboo then sometimes they put a layer of plastic over that before they cover it with thatch but mostly not. Many do not have glass in the windows. Most have a door that they lock with a padlock when they are not home but when they are home it is usually open with a lace curtain hanging over it to keep out the flies and mosquitoes.

This is where we finally had to stop with the truck. We probably should have stopped about a kilometer sooner but by the time we realized it we couldn't turn around. I think we only ran over 1 peanut plant and had at least a centimeter between the tree trunk and the side panel. Don't tell on us! We had no idea where we would end up and if we had known, we may have chosen not to go. Sometimes ignorance is bliss (or blessing depending on who you ask). What a beautiful spot. In looking at the maps we have (there are no good maps) when we got home tonight, we had to have been within a few miles of Lake Malawi. I'm sure if we had gone over maybe even one more ridge we could have seen it.

Yes, this is where we were driving. OK for bicycles but not so great for Toyotas.