The New Arrival

Mail from Malawi

 

Dear friends,

 

We stand amazed at the power of prayer we are experiencing. However tough and difficult things are, by the grace of God we manage! Even our children notice. It just makes us rejoice in our Lord and Father in heaven. Thank you, for your prayers and praise Him who hears!

One week ago we were 'raking' all our clothes, books, toys and other purchased goods together to fit it in our suitcases. The airline allows us to take 46kg each into Africa (while the other way only 23kg). So we could even take bikes for the little boys, a new printer and 5 boxes 'hagelslag'! Without a problem we checked in 12 pieces of luggage and every single one arrived here in Malawi! The journey went well, the kids are so used to traveling, they just love it and I must admit, we too – in a way. Of course, it is tiring, hectic before and after, so we usually 'enjoy' the hours in the airplane seats when nothing else needs to be done except keeping the kids at ease through the night flight.

We had a good time in The Netherlands. We rented a small townhouse, did our resource shopping for the coming year, saw dentists and doctors, met friends and relatives. We were privileged to celebrate my grandparents 65^th anniversary! My grandfather is 90 years old yet so strong. He still does all the shopping on his bike, asks interesting questions about Malawi and still much in love with his 89 year old wife! They both love the Lord and show that in many ways. What a great example. We were also very lucky to be at my youngest brother's wedding! We missed 4 of our sisters weddings and for Joash and Rhoda this was their first wedding experience. We had a wonderful day with Christ being the center of all happiness.

At this time we rent a house of missionaries on furlough and we hope to find a suitable house for ourselves before they return at the end of October. Looking for a house here means something else here… We have to do just by word of mouth and trust in God who even looks after the sparrows. Another hurdle is obtaining a work permit which is necessary to actually stay, work and live here but also for us to move our belongings from Zambia into Malawi. All we have to live from now is our luggage so we hope we can start working on this soon.

For you, to get an idea about the country we are living now, I put together a chart with some interesting facts, taken from the CIA on internet.

	America	Zambia	Malawi
Size	9.831.428 sq km	752.618 sq km	118.484 sq km 20% lake
Population	313 mil.	13 mil.	15 mil.
Pop. density	32/sq km	17/ sq km	127/ sq km
Age average	37 year	16 year	17 year
Inf mortality	6 / 1000	66 / 1000	81 / 1000
Life expectancy	78 year	52 year	51 year
HIV-Aids %	0,6 %	13, 5 %	12 %
Language	English	Chinyanja 1 of 73	Chichewa 1 of 16
Illiterate	1%	20%	40%
List poorest countries (out of 193)	186	32	13 (Zimbabwe nr. 1)
Avarage years education	16 years	7 years	7 years
GDP / capita	$47.200	$1.500	$800
Independence	4 July 1776	24 Oct 1964	6 July 1964

 

Malawi is a very poor country with many challenges and needs. Not only physically but also spiritually as some Malawians already told us. In many ways similar to the situation we were used to in Zambia. There are a few funny differences I found with Zambia. In Zambia the sales people at the market are mostly women, here mostly men. Instead of ox-carts we see many donkey-carts on the roads. Even though the language is supposed to be very similar with Zambia, for me it feels like learning another language again. As I would greet our people in Zambia with 'Mwachoma bwanji?' (good afternoon), here we say 'Maswera bwanji?' and throwing a 'bolla' (ball) there is throwing a 'mpira' here… Anyway, we found some grocery shops but also many street-sales men with snacks like 'dried mouse or bat on a stick' – the bananas looked more appealing to me still.

Joash and Rhoda feel like being thrown in the deep… from a very isolated, small, homeschool context where we used Dutch as a first language and only had a sibling as classmate, they went to the ABC Christian Academy on Monday with English as the official language, more than 17 peers in class, wearing strict uniforms and loads of homework… The Lord really helps them through, even though it's overwhelming for them. Please, continue to pray for them. We just have to allow ourselves some time to adjust to this whole new environment with different challenges, settle in, work on basic priorities like housing and permits. Meanwhile we pray to be a light shining in the darkness even in the 'village' we live in now with 70% hindu and 30% muslim people.

Receive our greetings and we pray the Lords blessings upon you,

Also on behalf of Cees and kids,

Mirjam Molenaar