Long Weekend

Hello Everyone!
We pray that you had a blessed long weekend and enjoyed some time with family and friends. It was a holiday weekend here in Malawi as well as they celebrate their independence day on July 6th. However, the SOM staff stayed busy and worked through the whole weekend. We joined them in their activities, which included a quarterly meeting for CBCC volunteers on Friday, a prayer session on Saturday morning, a trip to a Kid's Camp on Saturday afternoon, a chief installation ceremony on Sunday, and a trip to Lilongwe on Monday. Our email would be too long if I tried to cover everything, so I will try to cover just a few important things.
I know that there are many people in this world who do not believe that there is a God, but I believe that sometimes in life there are events that take place that make it difficult to deny God's presence. We feel that we have had a few of those experiences over the last couple of days. Mostly these are circumstances where we feel that God's protective hand was upon us. The first situation took place on Saturday afternoon when we experienced our second trip on public transport. To give you a little background on my perspective, on our first trip from Lilongwe to Songa, we saw approximately four accidents, a couple involving mini-buses. Justin, who was driving us, said that he did not like taking mini-buses because they were often overloaded and drove too fast. Therefore, my perception on mini-buses is "they are accidents waiting to happen." When we climbed on board the mini-bus in Ntcheu on Saturday afternoon at approximately 2:15pm with Naomie, we felt like we knew what to expect after our first trip. However, by 2:45 when the bus hadn't yet left the stop and impatient Nate grumbled about sweating in the plastic coated (imagine a plastic tablecloth) seats, I was starting to wonder if we had boarded the right bus. Finally at 3:00pm, when the bus was fully overloaded (six rows of four people in a van the size of an old Volkwagon van), the driver and his sidekick (the one who tries to convince people to take our bus and collects the money) decided we were ready to take off. About a half mile down the road, we had to stop for a loose basket for carrying chickens to the market that was tied to the outside of the mini-bus; the sidekick jumped out and untied it. He brought it into the mini-bus for the owner to carry above his head (don't worry, I took a picture!). This was the point when I began to pray that we made it to our destination as there was barely enough room in the bus to breathe, let alone move. About twenty minutes into our journey, I noticed that not only was our bus leaning to one side, but our driver was also driving very fast down the middle of the road. I looked over to Naomie and noticed that she had a look of fear on her face as well. She said to me, "our driver is not driving well!" I thought then, "it will only be by the grace of God that we arrive at our destination" and decided to close my eyes for the rest of the journey.
By the grace of God, we did arrive at our destination, and we all hopped and shook the stress out of our bodies. Nate and I looked at each other and both took deep breaths of relief.
Our second "hand of God" experience happened yesterday on our way to Lilongwe. We rode there with Manuel in SOM's Toyota Ranger (about a foot wider than a Chevy S10) truck (the three of us squished in the front seat for the 2 1/2 hour journey). When we drove through the police barricade on the outskirts of Lilongwe, I quickly put on my seatbelt (so as to not give the police an excuse to give us a hard time). Just past the barricade, we all heard this huge pop and then thud, thud, thud. Manuel had a look of panic on his face as he tried to slow the vehicle down as it lurched to the side of the road. I thought about the accidents we had seen on our trip (they seem to be fairly
common) and prayed that we didn't go sideways into the ditch. When we came to a jolting stop, Manuel let out a huge sigh of relief, and we all got out to inspect the damage. It seems that we were driving on a terrible tire to begin with as the tire had shredded as it burst.
Manuel said we were blessed to both be safe and to have had it happen in the location that it did. Thankfully, we were only a short ways from Justin's house, which is where the spare tires for SOM vehicles are kept. We could have easily been on a mountain when this happened. Nate and I both realized quite quickly that God had a hand in protecting us.
The last experience took place on our way back from Lilongwe and wasn't exactly one experience but the whole ride. In Lilongwe, we knew that Manuel had to pick up building supplies for the projects in Songa, but we were a little startled by how many supplies. If you can imagine this for a moment, the lumber that Manuel had to pick up was about one and a half times the length of the vehicle, so they tied this lumber, so that it stuck above the roof of the truck and reached to about a two feet off the ground at an angle. We also had heavy metal rope, glass panes, bags of plaster, paint, and a few other items. Our vehicle by the end of loading was sitting close to the wheel wells. After knowing that our tires blew on the way there, I was a little worried. Then to top it off, Manuel said that he was going to drive very slow back to Ntcheu (about 35 miles per hour), so the trip was going to take a little longer. Also, since we took off around 5:00pm, there was little daylight left, and Manuel commented on how he didn't care much for night driving. We quickly learned that he was telling the truth because as soon as the sun set he started to drive in the middle of the road. As we passed cars that were going about twice as fast as us, they turned their right blinker on, which means in Malawi that you need to get over because that driver thinks you are driving on the wrong side of the road. Literally, we felt like we were inches from the passing cars. I closed my eyes as every car passed. To top off the stress level I was feeling, we passed a three ton truck that was carrying bags of maize and people who sit on top of the maize as a mode of transportation. The truck must have been going too fast down the mountain because an accident happened, and Manuel told us that it must have been fatal because there were police involved. Let me just say that when we arrived back at our hostel at 8:30pm (3 1/2 hr trip) I stumbled out of the truck with numb legs and a thankful heart.
All of these incidents, however, are only parts of what we really experienced over the last couple of days. We feel so blessed by what we have been able to see. For example, on Sunday, we went to a chief installation ceremony. These ceremonies are rare as they only happen when a new chief is selected after an old chief has died. The ceremony was filled with traditional dances, colorful red clothing, and beautiful masks. We were honored with seats with the district (our state) government dignitaries and were fed dinner at the new chief's house. We look forward to sharing the pictures from this ceremony with all of you as they speak of a rich history and tradition enjoyed by the Ngoni people of Malawi.
Also, this morning as we walked to the office and the strong winds blew the red dust into our faces and eyes, I thought about how much our perception has changed in just the short while we have been here.
Yesterday, when we went back to Lilongwe, we were surprised by how "rich" everything looked. Only weeks earlier, we had thought that living in Lilongwe was uncomfortable, and we were skeptical of eating the food in the local restaurants. This time, though, we thought that Lilongwe looked like the lap of luxury, and we jumped for joy at the opportunity to eat in one of the same restaurants that Justin had taken us to on our first day. As we shopped in the Shoprite, we were surprised at how big the store seemed, and we felt a bit gluttonous as we purchased some familiar foods to last us the next couple of weeks (South African apples, granola cereal, oatmeal, coffee w/o the added taste of chickory, and pasta sauce). We, also, were relieved to not have the constant chant of "azungu!" from small children as we were two of many "azungu" in the city. However, I was also thankful to return to the slow pace and simplicity of Ntcheu this morning as well. I think that might be a sign of me feeling more "at home" in our surroundings here. Life is not easy for the people here in Ntcheu, but for some reason, I feel like life is more "raw" and "real" here.
Okay, that is all for today as Picard has already accused me of writing
a book :). Many blessings and prayers to you friends and family! We
love you all and keep you in our thoughts and prayers daily.
Blessings,
Nate and Bekah