Finally!

Hello everyone!
Finally, we are able to send another email (which will make this a long one). As we sit here writing this email the night before we'll actually get to send it, we write in the dark - once more without electricity.
We are in Ntcheu, which will be home until July 20th, and we are supposed to have power right now. However, the Malawian government is slow to fix three of their five hydro-power generators, so Ntcheu has been shut off from power for the night while a city south of us Liwonde gets power. Crazy the things we don't think we'll ever have to worry about.
So where have we been for the past week? Well, we have so much to tell, but we'll try to give you the highlights only. We were in a rural district near the southern portion of Lake Malawi named Songa. Songa would be perhaps what we would label as stereotypical Africa. There is no power, no running water, grass/thatch roof houses in pods of four and five, handmade brick structures, wells (if you are one of the lucky
villages), and unmaintained dirt roads. Save Orphans Ministries (SOM)
has a base in the district near the village of Songa (just part of the district). Their ministry is composed of an evangelism portion that leads Kid's Clubs in numerous villages (like mini Sunday school hours held in the afternoons after school is out), CBCC's (Community Based Care Centers - for children 3 yrs and under, like a preschool run by volunteers in the villages), Kid's Days (held once a year where 1,000 plus kids show up for an all weekend vacation Bible school activity where they are fed breakfast and lunch), and a private Secondary School and Kindergarten School on the campus of SOM. They also have an agricultural ministry (teaching sustainable farming methods), IGA groups (income generating activities), and an HIV/AIDS care ministry (testing, treatment, prevention, and counseling).
Also on SOM's campus is a guesthouse and missionary house, which is where we stayed with the team of American students and their sponsors (mostly from a collection of churches in Wisconsin and Illinois). We joined them in the activities that had been planned for them for the week; specifically building a teacher's house, leading Kid's Clubs, visiting CBCC's, and generally participating in the lifestyle of the Songa people. To give you a taste of what we did we thought we would first give you an itinerary of our daily life and then specifically describe one of our final activities in Songa.
Our normal day started at 7:00am to the sound of the roosters (actually we started hearing them around 3:00am). We ate breakfast with SOM team members around 8:00am (white sweet potatoes, bread, and granola w/ powdered milk). We had a group devotion at 9:00am with the Americans, community members, and SOM people. Then around 9:30am we headed off to either the construction site, CBCC's (biking 6 miles in the mountains on
1 speeds with terribly uncomfortable seats), or walking to Kid's Clubs.
We had lunch with everyone around 12:30pm (usually more like
1:00-1:30pm) which consisted of either goat or chicken, enseema (corn flour mush is the best way to describe this), and greens (mustard leafs, onions, tomatoes). Then around 2:00pm we either headed back to one of the projects listed above or a special activity planned for us until around 5:00pm. We usually tried to take a hot bucket shower (water boiled over the fire) before dinner, which was at 7:00pm (same menu as lunch). We had devotions again at 8:00pm and then either went to bed or watched a movie compliments of a power inverter hooked to Justin's car and a tv on the hood. These movies were really for the enjoyment of the village children who flock from km's away to see this rarity.
Life in Songa became pretty routine, and we look forward to sharing pictures with you to describe the entire beauty, serenity, and simplicity of life in Songa. Sure we struggled without power and running water, but the people of Songa and SOM made our life comfortable enough (plus Bekah got to master carrying buckets of water on her head!). SOM did a wonderful job of structuring the week in a way that allowed us to truly experience a portion of how life is carried out in Songa. For example, the final day James, the SOM agriculture coordinator, led us and the other Americans to a field along the river given to SOM by the area chief to show us how farming is done in Malawi. We cleared the land of the banana trees and prickly weeds, planned a vegetable nursery, and dug water canals to carry water from the river. At first we have to admit that we were a little confused on how the whole process would work as it didn't seem to fit into our American model of farming, but James was a patient teacher and showed us how Malawians truly care for the earth and their precious water sources. It was tiring work, but we felt like we had been given a glimpse into how difficult farming can be without irrigation, tractors, and the such. Many hours of labor go into each and every small crop.
We left Songa on Saturday morning and headed off to Mvuu Camp in the Liwonde National Park for our 24 hour safari experience. The experience only confirmed to us that Malawi is truly an amazingly beautiful country, with gorgeous mountains, sunsets, and animals (elephants, hippos, impala, crocodiles, warthogs, and beautiful birds). And though we were spoiled with our own room, electricity, running hot water, amazing meals, and cold drinks, we were made starkly aware of the way in which many tourists come to Malawi and see only that part of the country. They don't experience what life is really like for the people of Malawi. One thing we wish we could change is the way that places like Mvuu (which is owned by Dutch South Africans) make lots of money on tourists like us and never give back to the people of Malawi. For example, when their main road to the camp became impassible, people started traveling on a dirt road through rural villages. The consequence has been the tearing up of those village people's roads and a stirring up of the dust throughout their villages. The Mvuu people, however, pay nothing to upkeep this new dirt road. These type actions are what makes Justin and James (our hosts from SOM for the safari) sad and angry.
So now we are back to where we began in this email, Ntcheu. We came here this afternoon and are currently renting a room in hostel for 800 kwacha ($6) a night - for that price you can imagine what our room might look like. We will be moving into a house on Wednesday that was found for us. We will pay around 3,000 kwacha a week for the house ($20). We have no idea what it looks like yet or really what to expect, but we are grateful to the people of SOM in Ntcheu who have worked hard to prepare for us. You will read their names continuously over the next couple of weeks, so we will just list them off for you briefly. There are five of them. Lonely - the HIV/AIDS coordinator for Ntcheu and Songa areas, Naomi - the Evangelism cooridnator for Ntcheu only, James - the Agriculture coordinator for Ntcheu and Songa areas, Picard - the IGA coordinator for Ntcheu and Songa areas, and Frasier - the construction coordinator for the new HIV/AIDS therapy center in Ntcheu. Their work is vast and comprehensive, and we look forward to working with them over these next three weeks.
Please pray for us as we continue to adapt to our new surroundings, continue to miss home, and continue to struggle with being the "outsiders". We miss you all and pray for you in our daily thoughts.
We hope to hear from many of you soon with news from life back home.
Much love and blessings!
~ Nate and Bekah