See you 'tomorrow'...

Everyone Malawian had relish last night, even the poor. Relish is the food people eat with their Nsima (stiff maize porridge, staple food). It can be anything from stir fried veggies to boiled mice. Well, the real rains of the rain season have started and every year after those first downpours millions of termites creep out of the ground. They fly as if they are drunk and drop down everywhere. People just sweep them on heaps and fill their bags. Some try to sell part of it on the roadside to generate a little money to buy salt to flavour the termites when they fry them. I had to think of the quails God sent to the Israelites. Well, I cooked lentils instead…

Just a few small things this week reminded us of the importance of studying language and culture when you go to a new country. Of course we have an advantage of starting in a very similar culture as we lived and worked in for the past years. That’s why I am not surprised by the following things – just thankful to be able to put it in perspective.

Greetings are such an important part of life here. If you don’t greet people properly with the right questions and ask them about their family members etc. you are terribly rude! While greeting, people will hold your hands much longer than would be appropriate in our Western culture. Men will even hold hands with Cees during a whole conversation, even during a walk. That would be odd in our culture. No problem here, it’s just  culture, showing normal affection. We don’t feel uncomfortable now, we did 5 years ago.

People respond differently to certain issues. Moses burned his hand quite bad on the gas burner yesterday and I told Charity (the woman who helps me with the work in the house). She started laughing very loud! Most of you would respond differently I think... Laughing here is just a way to express sorry-feelings. After screaming a few hours, Moses fell asleep and after that he was fine. He remains with 5 big blisters on his left hand. We hope they will not puncture because punctured skin surely gets infected in these tropics with all those terrible dirty flies everywhere.

Now, people start to wonder how I manage as a mother of four kids, being far from my brothers. If something happens and decisions need to be made, how do I decide anything without my brothers? In this culture, every family matter must be resolved with the knowledge of the mother’s brothers. And on the other hand, how can Cees actually raise ‘his other children’, the children of his sisters?  Interesting discussion topics!

I will just close with some prayer requests so that we may be united in prayers.

During this whole research period different doors have opened for us from the Malawi perspective. Now it’s time for the church to consider and decide. We really long for answers as we are getting tired (emotionally and psychologically) of uncertainties. We are the kind of people who want to be busy, working with a vision in mind and a goal in view.  Pray for wisdom in the church committees and patience in our family. 

We are also still waiting to get our work permit. This means we are also still camping. I would really like to get our belongings: books, toy’s, kitchenware, bedding, furniture, fridge and stove etc… We pray the agents will deal with our papers soon. It’s a very small job to do, maybe 30 minutes work, but if it sunk to the bottom of the pile… During this crisis in Malawi nothing seems to get done but we believe God even controls such small details as ‘Molenaar-stuff-in-Zambia’. Mr. Smile (that’s his real name) promised to help us with this permit issue and he keeps saying “Tomorrow it will be ready…” That’s another thing you learn in Africa; tomorrow basically means ‘not yesterday’… tomorrow can be any day after today! Hope to see you ‘tomorrow’!

Mirjam

you name it

The man at the immigration office knows us by now. Every now and then, Cees goes there to fill the forms, talk with the agents etc… trying to pursue a work permit for us here in Malawi. Finally the man asked his question. “Why do you actually want to move from Zambia to Malawi? Everyone knows Zambia is doing much better than we do. I don’t understand!” True, Malawi is not doing well at all in different aspects, but that can never be a reason to neglect a country from mission work. Some think missionaries should not go to area’s with malaria, but can that be a responsible vision for mission work? Malaria and Aids, poverty and neglect, economic crisis, shortages of many resources – it’s all prevalent around us here. That doesn’t keep us from doing what God calls us to do! We pray the Lord for extra grace and patience to work and live here and we thank Him for the blessings we are receiving.

Last Saturday we went to Zambia to fill up on Diesel and try to extend our visa at the border, with the whole family. It was good to be in Zambia again and we met with some of our ‘old friends’ and were able to bring one of Cov.Coll. students with us to go home. It was wonderful to receive a phone call from Nelson Banda, Covenant College cook. His wife Ida delivered a healthy baby boy.  It was so funny how the name giving went. Months ago, when they told us about the pregnancy, they shared with us their wish to name the baby after one of us. When the boy arrived, Nelson went to tell Marjanne (colleague) that little Cees was born… Meanwhile we received the news and when Cees heard it was a boy he worried about the name. “They cannot give the poor child my name, in case, I will suggest them to call him Moses” (Ida and our little Moses have always been very close, he still calls for her sometimes) So, Cees sent Ida a message and when Marjanne went to the Banda house to see little Cees, she got to see little Moses instead… Nelson looked puzzled and Ida explained that Reverend Cees sent a message to call the baby not Cees but Moses (which is a common name in Zambia, the name Cees always put smiles on the Zambian faces and nobody ever told us the truth why).

Our research is progressing. There are many good options and visions and we just pray for God’s guidance. Also for us and the church to have a shared vision about the way we can minister best to this country. We also pray for generous hearts of God’s people to support the work of God’s kingdom in this poor nation. We would love and be willing to commit ourselves to God’s calling, training and equipping people to carry out God’s Word, even to the unreached in the remote villages around us. But without financial means we won’t be able to complete this task. Some people tell us to make known the needs to develop and realize His work. Maybe it’s soon time to do so. For now, we ask your honest prayers. Friends, this is a crucial time for us as a family and church, we need the Holy Spirit to follow the Lord. Thanks!

Indoors camping

It rained! Wednesday, when we were moving from our temporary apartment
to our own rental home Moses was sweating so much. I wondered what was
going on… maybe malaria? He looked fine, jumping like a kangaroo, his
favorite thing to do. Then it started to smell as it only smells in
Africa when rain is coming close. Yes, an hour later the sky turned
black and we received the first rains of the coming season. How
refreshing! The dust of the dry season which fills your nose, throat,
and cupboards all the time, settled – and turned into mud. But first
it will be dry and extremely hot before the real rains come from
Nov-Feb. These first rains are like a promise from our Creator; be
prepared, water will come to quench the dry fields.

We are camping now in the new home. Our stuff is still in Zambia
because we didn't receive our work permit yet and cannot take the
stuff across the border. However, Cees has visited Covenant College
twice and was able to take a few boxes so we do have some basic items
like bed sheets, some pots, toys and folding chairs. He even got the
washing machine which is very helpful for me. The house we rent is in
a real Malawian neighborhood, just a few miles out of the real city.
Each house is marked by high brick walls. Every morning some sales men
pass by, shouting what they are selling in a very funny voice. Obed
and Moses started copying them, calling to me "Onioni-Tomatooooo!".
There was also a wedding at one of our neighbors so we had lots of
singing and drumming in the air. I have to get used to the wandering
dogs at night, howling and crying so awfully! Our dog Lassie is such a
good dog. She doesn't join them but watches our house very well. Most
people here hire watchmen but we hope to just get a second dog. Most
watchmen fall asleep, dogs smell and sense danger before they can
actually see it.

The house we built in Zambia had screened windows but we could not
find even one house here with that. These house all have exiting
windows so it is a more complicated job to screen these windows, it
will take about 2 weeks to do it; another opportunity for Cees to
prove his carpentry skills. For now, we just had the outside of the
house sprayed, especially the septic tanks, and all of a sudden
hundreds of cockroaches and ants are trying to find a better place…
now I know a bit what it was like for the Egyptians during the ten
plagues. I try to be careful with poison though, having two little
boys around.

During Cees' visit at CC he attended the graduation of our CC
students. You can imagine how wonderful and special that was for both
him and the students. He also had to travel all the way to Lusaka to
get his personal police clearance and export clearance for our
vehicle. Because he is gone quite often, either to be in the offices,
have meetings with church leaders and search for all kinds of
necessities in town, using the car, we decided to buy a second
vehicle. An interesting job in its own but Cees found a 17 years old
Toyota Corolla for me to get the kids to and from school and do other
activities like women bible study, shopping etc. Here you can only pay
everything cash, so you can imagine the feeling when you have to pay
$2,500 cash when the biggest bill is only worth $2.00 (he carried it
in a bag). You would be surprised what a little old car he got for
that price! Vehicles are so scarce here, a friend recently sold the
car for more than he bought it for seven years ago in South Africa. So
even this little car maybe a good investment… With high fuel prices,
the heavy Lancruiser is just not economic enough.

Of course, I made my first mistakes as well… In Zambia I never ever
wore trousers, because that would be culturally inappropriate for
Christians. Here, being in town and very busy moving I was wearing
trousers just that one day… hoping to be anonymous. Now, living
without a fridge means I have to buy fresh vegetables more often. That
moving day, I quickly had to buy some veggies, was on the way, jumped
out of the car into the market. What a mistake! I heard them saying
behind my back: 'She speaks our language, she must be a missionary,
but what about the trousers…' I won't do it again, you can be sure of
that!

Well, we will hopefully be able to organize internet in our home next
week and be able to have more two-way communication. For now, I wish
you God's blessings for the coming week. One thing on my to-do list
this week is sewing curtains for the whole house.

We had a good Sunday morning with Bible study and good preaching for
which we thank the Lord.

Busy settling in

Hello friends,

Much rather I walk with bare feet over the dirt roads to the villages and sit down under a tree to chat with whoever joins me and use any opportunity to share the gospel, than sitting here behind a laptop trying to figure out the in's and out's of facebook, blog's, hyves and whatever great media means there are to improve communication…

To tell you a secret, I am about 80% illiterate regarding that internet stuff, but my husband, very pariently, is pushing and teaching me little by little, to start using these means. He knows my preferences ( visiting people and relate to them from face to face) but that is not always realistic and possible so he started this 'blog' thing. I write, he posts. Next step now is to meet friends through facebook (yes a face only… ).

Even though I might get less illiterate in time, I won't have much time to spend on this. The little ones simply don't allow me to sit down and do my own thing. I thought by this time (3 and 2 years) they would be best friends and I would have it easy…  ha, ha, no way! Yet, this moment is unique because both are sleeping and Cees took the big ones shopping (which involves more waiting then actual shopping here, so they each bring their reading books and Cees his language study book).  

The more important reason for the blog is to inform you more often in an informal way about the life and work we do. This way we hope to create more understanding for each other and knowledge of what to pray for. We are very thankful for all the prayer support.  We are here on behalf of the church, so your prayers are an essential part of mission work.

Let me just give you a glimpse of the last two week. If I hadn't jotted down some notes in my diary I wouldn't be able to tell you.  It seems every single day is packed with so many things, so much goes on in my head that I sometimes just lose track of keeping up with the shopping, for example. That in itself is a full day job because you have to go to about 15 different shops, places, markets to find the basic products you need for the week. The little boys are not very fond of it anymore. They get hot, sticky, very dirty (this dry windy hot season covers everything in a thick layer of dust) and tired of waiting everywhere. It's like weight-lifting for me; they each weight more than 30 pounds, lifting them in and out the car seat for so many times.

We spent about a whole week to find a rental house. Picking up the agent or owner, driving to the house, taking a tour and usually I would make a drawing with some specific issues like 'no hot-water boiler' or 'no space for study/office'.  We almost signed a contract for a house when we found an ad in the newspaper for a house. It said 'lovely garden' which I find very important. It is my passion to landscape and garden. Before we even built our house in Zambia I already collected all kinds of plants and trees  from villages and places and did some landscaping. Whoever visited us would enjoy our yard as we did every day. I was sad to leave it behind but glad to pass it on the new family living there now. ( I am sure Nelson the College cook will make sure the garden will be kept nice because it also became his 'pride', he sometimes gave visitors a tour through my garden...)

Now it was a 'lovely garden' indeed; I fell in love with the moment I laid eyes on it! The house is quite simple, not as big as in Zambia but the garden is indeed lovely. I don't have to start from scratch again, I can just keep going…this is really a gift from heaven. In God's loving kindness we found this house and signed the contract. The rent is even less than the house we almost signed for (see album for some pictures; there are so many because we made it for our family).  

We really want to start living there as soon as possible, it's just that we are not allowed yet to get our stuff from Zambia over the border. It can take a while… so we will just start camping there. I know how to live without a fridge and many other things. I bought 6 plates, 6 cups, forks and knives, some chairs and we are still looking for 4 matrasses. The boys are still in their pack & play I took from our trip.

Speaking of buying! If you live on the dirt floor and eat corn all day Malawi is not expensive but whenever you need some basic furniture, kitchenware, matrasses, dairy products etc Malawi is extremely expensive! Then the biggest money bill here is only worth $2, so if you have to pay $200 (everything cash, no credit cards or anything here) your wallet / purse is always too small. Just compare; 1 pack baby wipes $8, box cereal $7, gallon diesel $6.

Malawi is not doing well economically. In many ways Malawi looks at Zambia as it's bigger brother, not just because of the size! Now we make a list of products for Cees to buy in Zambia next week. He plans to go to Zambia (Lusaka) for three days to run all kinds of errands there. Our vehicle needs officially to be imported to Malawi. Cees needs a personal police clearance from Zambia to be able to start the official immigration process into Malawi (we thought we did everything for this procedure but they need this document which can only be obtained from the police in Lusaka).  Last week it took him 3 days to pick up our dog in Zambia and get her into Malawi. Not because filling in the forms etc. takes so much time. We could write a book about how the officials go about the most simple (in our eyes) jobs. Here a stamp is missing, there the forms ran out, next the man on duty disappeared, then a form needs to be signed by a person who stayed home because he didn't have gas in his car to come to work (so Cees bought him gas and got the nessesary signature 20 hours later) etc etc.

Well, the boys woke up so I must quit typing now even though this wasn't nearly half of what kept us busy. Hopefully next time I will be able to write more about the contacts we are making which can be of importance for  our ministry here. Lot's of needs, lot's of opportunities, now to know HOW to go about it is a very important part of our research.

Have a good Sunday!  

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

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