Fuel shortage

Today has been another ‘busy with just one thing’ day… Since we have no Malawian visa yet, our car is still registered in Zambia. This means there is a temporary export permit from Zambia and a temporary import permit from Malawi, that all expire at different times and need to be renewed at different  locations…. Cees departed at 6.50 am, dropping Joash and Rhoda at school, continuing his journey to the Malawi-Zambia border. During his drive he got his terrible migraine attack. He managed to cross the border and put the car on the side of the road to just close his eyes and crunch. After a sleep he got this car-extension organized and crossed the border back to Malawi again, he is still on his way. This one thing, necessary for us to be able to stay in Malawi, just takes a whole workday. Most of you cannot imagine how getting money or gas can also take a day. Here it does and it doesn’t help to get all frustrated, you have to get through it anyway. We need diesel for our car, without it we cannot get the kids in school, we cannot go house-hunting, shopping (I tried today to do it by foot but it’s so dangerous on the road, here no proper sidewalks) and do all the business we need to do: immigration, insurances, customs and relations for our future work.

Well, finally Malawi got the message the diesel transport was coming so in no time the whole town was filled with long lined of car’s in want for diesel… Most owners just hired a guy to watch their car and left them in the queue. We decided to take the risk to try the next day as we had seen no movement at all. So, that was another day’s job: fill a tank with diesel. Unlike most African people who consider waiting as doing something, Cees took his language study-book to avoid doing nothing and used his time standing in line to do a couple Chichewa lessons. He managed to get 70 liters!! And today Malawi is out of diesel again…

Another day went by just hopping from office to office to get our car insured in Malawi and there will still be many days spent in offices crisscross through town to get all the things done we still need to get done (workpermit, driver’s license, etc). So, don’t get impatient when we are still not writing exiting stories about our ministry here. Many little details need to be taken care of before we can actually put all our time in the ministry. However, we started to get in touch with some interesting people and projects and we pray the Lord will lead and guide us to the right people and places so that we will be instruments in His hands for His own glory!

Last week was very rough on Rhoda. As she started in grade 4, she got completely overwhelmed with everything. She had trouble understanding the American accent of her teacher (yes, accent!), understanding all the school rules and regulations, and was overloaded with homework (even the homework of the week we missed during our traveling). She lost control and just collapsed, poor girl. She is still grieving so much of leaving Zambia. The many transitions and emotions became just too much for her to handle. The school decided to put her back to grade 3 so that everything will be easy for her, she can just focus on English and the way of life here. We are hoping this step will be blessed for her. Meanwhile she got friends with a grade 3 girl and played with her on Friday. The girl got malaria on Monday and passed away on Wednesday… only 8 years old. How sad. Our times are in God’s hands and we realize every time how precious your prayers are. It can only take a mosquito bite for someone to die. As this house didn’t have nets on the beds we bought and hang them right away.

We have also used a full week to look at houses and we are glad we found one. This rental house is not far from school, out of town (which I like) and spacious. We won’t all have our own bedroom but we will have a nice guestroom (very important) and an office/study for Cees which is separate from the house so he will have less disturbances from the family. The boys can make quite a noise together! The house will be available from the 1^st of October, yet we first need our approved work permit  in order to get our belongings from Zambia across the border into Malawi. Please, pray with us this might happen soon. We long for our own place and things. Rhoda is just ‘starving’ for her guitar and myself for the washing machine! A family of six makes a lot of dirty clothes, especially here in the red soil! For now we have been living out of suitcases from the beginning of June.

Wishing you a good week too and hoping we will all be blessed in the work we need to do, whether it’s just one thing or a thousand… This will sound familiar for moms with more than one toddler at home. A police officer asked me in the shop today if I wasn’t on duty… I said, pushing my double stroller and solving another fight: ‘I am, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week’ She looked puzzled… (Most  middle and higher class people here leave the kids full time with a nanny to work outside the house.)

Much love from Malawi, the warm heart of Africa!

Mirjam