March 9, 2013 – Our first week in Malawi

Lilongwe, Malawi is an amazing place! We arrived near the end of the rainy season so everything is very green and beautiful. Poverty is everywhere, though there are some very wealthy people here also. There are a lot of vehicles in the city (almost all Toyota’s) though most people walk everywhere they go.

Today our family went grocery shopping and found a good place that meets our needs for relatively fair prices. One can find pretty much anything you need here, but of course many things come with a hefty price tag. We are able to get cheese, which is almost a staple since we’re from WI! At the store we saw fresh milk today, though it’s extremely expensive. We’ve been purchasing long-life milk, which tastes just fine and does the trick. Josie loves it! We’ve been trying to find a dish rack that doesn’t cost $20 (almost 8,000 Kwacha) for a flimsy piece of plastic.

St. John the Baptist Parish, Msamba is a vibrant parish. The Masses here are all in Chichewa and on Sunday’s last about 2 hours! Currently there are two Masses, at 6am and 8:30am. It’s amazing how many people attend Mass at this parish yet how few vehicles are in the parking lot. Many of the Malawians walk to church; some walk many kilometers even in the pouring rain. At our welcoming Mass last Sunday we were introduced to the community. The church was packed, many people were sitting outside each of the 3 doors! I bet there were at least 75 people sitting outside each of the doors! The men sit on the left, the women on the right. Many of the children gather in the front and sit on the floor in front of the Alter. And the children are quite and pay attention during Mass – all 2 hours! (I hope my children will follow this example!) It was humbling how warm and welcoming the community has been to us. In many respects it reminds us of our home parish, St. Ann’s in Stoughton.

The parish has a total of 5 churches that are all part of St. John the Baptist. Tomorrow we’ll attend one of the out stations. Our home is on the property of the main parish. Fr. Romando, one of the Comboni Priests here will pick us up and take us to this Mass. We’re looking forward to this experience as it’ll give us yet another flavor of what Malawi is like. The music during the Masses is amazing, it’s indescribable. Apparently Malawian’s also have dance as part of their Mass celebration however not during Lent. We have more to look forward to experiencing when it comes to Malawian Masses!

The church community seems to be very active and involved, which is so beautiful to witness! The main church has 3 choirs who practiced today for over two hours! I’m guessing but I bet there were over one hundred children here today, we think for Catechism classes. We look forward to learning more about this as it appeared they were having a blast and loved being here! They follow us as we walk by, trying to get in front of us for their chance to say hello! We’ve spent a lot of time greeting both adults and children as we walk from place to place. The kids love to touch mine and Lily’s hair, I’m guessing they don’t see a lot of blondes with long hair here! Everyone is so friendly and warm!

Lilyanna & Josephine are adjusting well! There are several groups of kids who call out “Lilyanna, Lilyanna” as we walk past. They also come to our front porch and call for her to come out and play. Its really awesome! Some of the children speak English which has made it easier for Lily to communicate, however she too is learning Chichewa!

Unfortunately, Lily had a little tummy issue which began Friday afternoon. She still had an appetite and no fever, but was uncomfortable until about midnight. The power of prayer is amazing. Her teacher in Il, St. Louise de Merriliac, gave her a prayer shawl that we brought with us. Around midnight, Lily was still struggling and was feeling cold. I grabbed the prayer shawl, laid it on her while reminding her of how special this blanket is due to all the prayers being said for her as it was being created. Lily didn’t wake again until sunrise only to find her tummy issue was resolved. We’ll be holding this prayer shawl as well as another my dear friend Tiffany made for me very close to us as we’re here. I’m so very thankful for these wonderful gifts, and especially for all the prayers that were said for us as they were begin handmade.

Prayer is an amazing gift, we ask you to please continue to keep our family in your prayers. We feel our strength and comfort are greatly supported by your prayers as well as God’s love for us. We will continue to pray for you as well and hope to update our blog every few weeks. We don’t have our own internet connection at this point nor are we any good at keeping up a blog! Though we know we’ll have moments of loneliness and miss our family and friends back in the United States. We’ll focus on communicating through the blog rather than email or FB. But, feel free to email us (kleven4@gmail.com) or write us a message on FB. Please, keep in touch and keep praying for us!

Peace and love,

Tonya