Visit to Amina's home

Dear Friends,

This afternoon we were blessed with a real cultural experience! We accompanied Elin and Paul (ROS's here) to take Amina, one of the Junior Secondary Girls, to her home. She lives at the top of a mountain overlooking many valleys down below. She lives with her Gogo (grandmother), her aunt, and two young cousins. Unfortunately our camera ran out of batteries before we got to her home, but the experience there was just incredible. Up until today we have been merely driving or walking past huts, but today we got to go inside of them, see how the Malawians live, and experience their living quarters first hand.

Amina's family property consists of several little huts arranged in a small circle. One hut is for cooking, a couple are for sleeping, one is an outhouse, and a few are for pigs to live in. The family also has two straw storage units for corn - these looks like small silos made of dried grass and straw. On their property they grow coffee, guava, bananas, sweet potatoes, and corn, of course. They also have a cage where they keep rabbits. The many chickens and roosters roam the property freely, and sleep in the hut with the family at night. Amina and her aunt spoke English, but the Gogo and the small cousins did not. They were very happy to have us come and visit their home. I guess it was probably a good thing that the camera was out of batteries - it was nice to just be a guest and not a tourist. Nick and I spoke a few words of Tumbuka to the Gogo, just enough to say hello and thank you, and to tell her that her home is lovely. Before we left, the aunt gave us a big basket of guava and sweet potato. We hesitated to take her gift, because like nearly all Malawians, they have so little to eat. Elin offered to give her money in exchange, and at this she got down on her knees, took Elin's feet in her hands, and in complete submission and humbleness asked us to accept her gift. Cultural barrier sometimes are just so overwhelming, its hard to know what to feel. It gave her great joy to be able to give us the small gift that she could, even if it seemed like such an unnecessary sacrifice. We took her gift graciously and thanked her many times. Elin eventually slipped money to Amina at the last minute - money to buy medicine for the youngest cousin, who is sick with malaria.

Driving away from their home we were very overwhelmed with emotion. As we rolled past toddlers in rags playing in the dirt, and little boys riding bicycles with big loads of wood on the back, and women drying corn in their yard, or hoeing their gardens, and gorgeous valleys and mountains lined with every shape and color of flowers and trees, goats and chickens scrambling down the roads, we kept thinking "how sad, and yet how marvelous." With all of the poverty and illness we saw, we also saw beauty beyond descriptions. We also received a warm smile from each and every person we passed, and many of them shouted kind greetings to us and shook our hands. They have so little, and yet they have so much. Perhaps that is where their joy comes from - the simplicity of life. Rebecca told Amina's aunt that she loved Malawi, and that it is so beautiful. She said to Rebecca, "but, isn't the United States more beautiful?" Rebecca tried to tell her that it is beautiful, but that there is a beauty so unique and special to Malawi, and that she loves it so much. The aunt didn't understand. Just as the poor immigrants coming to America in the 1900's thought, Malawians see the Untied States as a land of plenty. They can't see the many troubles we have of our own, they can only see the wealth. But you know, while we are here in Malawi we also tend to see only the beauty, and the poverty and illness isn't necessarily what we see first. Perhaps the grass will always be greener on the other side of the ocean for those of us who experience other cultures... all we can say is that if either of us were to spend an extended period of time in the other's culture, we might be unpleasantly surprised. Food for thought, anyway.

We do know that God created us all different, and that we are all not only beautiful, but equal in His eyes. For the thousands of dollars we have saved in our bank account and the few ears of corn Amina has to sustain her through the winter, we are equal in the sight of God the Father - each beautiful and rich in our own ways. And every time we meet another human being we should be able to see Christ in that person, because all humans are created in the image of God. All of His creation, all creatures great and small, proclaim His glory, and that goes for rural Malawians as well as rich businessmen in New York. And it goes for the coffee plants, and the chickens, and the guava fruit, and the corn, and the goats, and the orphans with which we live and work each day. Even the heavens declare the glory of God.

And so we leave you with some cute pictures of the kids from music time and also pictures of our Malawian outfits that we picked up from the Tailor shop today. Where ever you are tonight and whatever your circumstance, we ask you to praise God for His creation around you, for truly, He is present in all places, and in all times. Glory to God in the highest!




Love,

Nick and Rebecca