Getting Settled in the Warm Heart of Africa

We're not going to lie... the first week we got here is kind of a blur. Thanks be to God for the ABC team who stocked our kitchen with necessities and provided a host family to show us the ropes. Instead of relying on our stocked up airplane snacks for food for the first few days, we were treated to homemade pizza and shephard's pie our first two nights.  The house we are staying in was completely clean and ready for us when we got here, making it easier to transition to our new home. We are also thankful that all of our supplies we sent in August on the Samaritan's Purse container made it safely.  The ABC team had already put the boxes in our house, so all that was needed was a few days of unpacking!

We were blessed to have some time to get settled in before starting our respective jobs. School began January 12th, but the first two weeks were set aside for testing from last semester, so official classes would not begin till the 26th. Donald was tasked with teaching 7th and 8th grade math courses, as well as tutoring for math after school. It was quickly brought to Donald's attention (the third day we were here) that a professor was needed for a college math course. After some scheduling issues were resolved, Donald was able to take on this course as well.  Donald has really taken to his role as a teacher and is enjoying the ups and downs a teacher experiences with his students' performances. He wants to share his experiences daily with Kelly, who is glad to hear how excited he is. Donald is also trying to fit in playing soccer with the college team.

Kelly started working at the ABC clinic under the supervision of Dr. Young, the long-time doctor at the ABC clinic. Since Kelly's medical license through the Malawi Medical Council was not completed or paid for, she was not allowed to practice as a doctor independently. That was quickly straightened out, with a side note that Kelly had to serve 6 weeks in Kamuzu Central Hospital, the regional hospital. Praise be to God because the Medical Council eventually removed this requirement due to Kelly's past work here 2 years ago with Baylor's BIPAI clinic!  It has not taken long for us to realize that being a Pediatrician has somewhat elevated Kelly to a celebrity status with the expats in Lilongwe due to the severe lack of Pediatricians in the area. She has been asked to be a personal pediatrician by people more than once!  Not only is Kelly working at the ABC clinic daily, but she has also joined Dr. Young in an epilepsy clinic outreach every other Thursday, where they travel outside the city and treat people suffering from seizures. Kelly has also joined a journal club on Wednesdays, where doctors throughout Lilongwe meet together to discuss cases they have had and struggles they are having. It has proved to be a great resource and comfort for Kelly.

With regards to our home and finding the local help required and needed, God has provided abundantly. ABC has a requirement that to live on campus, you must hire a gardener and house help. This is not only to help support the very weak Malawian economy, but also as a way to make friends with the locals. One of the best ways to prevent security issues is for missionaries to develop strong relationships with those around them. Since we live in a duplex, there was already a gardener for our house that our neighbors have employed... easy! The second day we were here, Wells, our longtime Malawian friend from when we were here two years ago, found out we were back and came to visit us. It didn't take long for him to inform us that he used to work as a cook and house keeper, and that he would love to work for us doing that. We have hired him, and he has just been truly fantastic. Not only does he do his job well, but he greats us with a big smile every day we come home from work. After we hired Wells, he brought to our attention the cost of taking public transport to our house daily (which adds up quickly!), so we decided to loan him money to buy a bike to come to work. He absolutely loves it!

 Due to our workload, we also needed to hire a nanny. After searching around, God delivered a great nanny to us. A cook who has worked for a missionary on campus for 18 years asked us to interview his daughter for the job, who was the perfect fit. She has taken great care of DR and keeps us updated throughout the day with how he is doing.

We have been here a month now and are loving it.  We have already had many very memorable experiences, and are sure more are to come!  Praise God for His providence and His perfect plan!

We Made It!

This post is a little bit delayed.  So we have actually been here two weeks now, but getting settled into our new home and our new responsibilities has taken some time.  Our travel to Malawi was great, though full of its own challenges.  We were able to say goodbye to our family at the airport in Houston and have one last meal before leaving.  They were able to help us check in our 7 checked bags (at 50 lbs each... or should I say 49.7 lbs each!) and unload our 6 carry-ons (around 30 lbs each), the stroller, and car seat.  Ya... we may have gone crazy on the packing.  Anyways, we landed in Toronto, Canada and had to unfortunately pick up all of our checked baggage since we had an overnight layover.  Figuring out how to carry all of that around was a puzzle to say the least.

God definitely came through for us in Toronto because when we went to check the bags in at the airport storage, we found out that we had to provide information that we didn't have.  The lady finally let us store them anyways, saving us from trying to get all of these to the hotel and back.  The next morning we got to the airport 3 hrs early! (A very rare thing for us).  During check-in, we were informed that we were mis-informed about their regulations.  Apparently, we were only allowed 1 carry-on each, and they could only be 23 lbs! After 2 hrs of discussions with the supervisor, God came through once again and the guy increased the allowance of our checked bags to 55 lbs so that we could repack our carry-ons and throw some heavier items in the checked baggage.  We were able to make everything meet the "revised" regulations with only paying for two extra checked bags and one extra carry-on (that he looked the other way for).  Yay God!  With 45 minutes to spare, we were blessed to have no line in security and got to the gate as the last line was loading.  Success.  To Malawi we go!

After a very long flight we landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 15 minutes after our connecting flight was supposed to leave.  Stress definitely set in as we were landing because flights to Malawi aren't common... at most once a day.  Luckily, this is Africa.  Everything moves at its own pace in Africa.  So even though we finally de-boarded 30 minutes late, we were shuttled over to the new plane only to find out we were the first people to board it!  The other passengers were even later... haha!

We finally arrived in Malawi on Wednesday, January 14th, two days after we left Houston.  After checking through customs and collecting our bags, the only casualty of war was the stroller.  I guess M.I.A. is a better term.  For as many bags as we had and what we could have lost, that is considered a win in our books. The stroller would later be located and returned to us on Friday, which is a Godsend because we use it daily now.