Category Archives: Life in Africa

Immunizations

by Rachel

A couple weeks ago, we took Abigail in to the clinic for her 4 month check-up and vaccinations.  We’re following the CDC’s recommendations for the American vaccination schedule.  Kind of.  The rotovirus and pneumacoccal vaccinations aren’t available here in Malawi, so we’ll catch up later in the States.  The only other difference in her vaccination schedule is that she gets the oral polio vaccination rather than the injectable.

Immunization Band-aid

But she does get a great giraffe band-aid!

She also gets her own health passport, which is a copy of her medical records that we take with us whenever we go to a clinic or see any doctor.  With a significant number of medical staff coming to Malawi for short-term stints (2 weeks to 2 years) there’s not a lot of consistency or order to the medical world here, so it makes sense that you carry your own medical records.

Immunizations with Health Passport

All in all, Abigail is doing great, and we thank the Lord for a healthy, very happy little girl.  Look at that face though!  We’re not sure where she got her mischievous, adventurous personality…

Home

by Rachel

(Rachel) For us, coming back to Malawi last September was coming home. During our summer in the US, we both missed things about Malawi… and were glad to return.

For missionaries, diplomats, and other expatriates, “home” can be hard to define. We make our home in a foreign country that is not our own, but we still have our “home country” where people welcome us every few years.

Which is why the IRS says our home address is Matt’s parent’s house in California. But our water bill goes to Area 47, Sector 5 in Lilongwe.

Making “Area 47” feel like home is something we’ve been working on since even before we moved here in May 2009. Our goal is to help our church grow into a self-sustaining, reproducing group of Christ-loving people – and that doesn’t happen overnight. So we didn’t want to come partially committed, camping out for a couple years or until something else came along. We want to be 100% invested here, with the marathon approach, until we’ve worked ourselves out of a job. To do that, we needed to plan to be in Malawi for a while.

Here’s a few ways we’ve been deliberately making Malawi our home:

1. We call it home. It seems like a small thing, but referring to Malawi as “home” reinforces it in our minds. Our vocabulary need to reflect our values, and it also helps remind us of our values.

Matt Studying at Desk

2. We made our house a place where we actually enjoy living. An experienced missionary advised us to bring our furniture from the States, and we’re glad we listened. (Thanks, Todd!) When you have a hard day and nothing goes the way you planned, sometimes it’s just nice to sit on a comfortable couch while you pray about your attitude. =) And we put pictures up on the walls. We’ve both moved around a lot, and it’s a big thing for us to finally put pictures of our families on the walls and know that they’ll be there for a while. All those things make our home a place where we can truly rest, and where we love inviting people.

3. We’ve made friends. We have people involved in our lives here. We’ve let people see the “real us” and we’ve shared life with them. Similarly, we also work harder to remember people we run into in the course of a day because we’ll likely be seeing them again, for many years to come – the cashier at the grocery store, the guy at the gas station who makes reed baskets, etc.

Ladies in Our Home

4. We make long-term decisions. Given the choice of a quick patch for our water heater or investing in a new one that will last for years to come, we’ll buy a new water heater. Or when we buy plane tickets to the US, they’re round trip flights originating from Malawi. We know that there are no guarantees (especially with water heaters!), but in general, we try to make decisions based on the assumption that we’ll be here for a long time.

5. We accept difficulties as challenges. We make a conscious determination that we won’t complain about the place that we live, as it’s our home now. It can be a struggle to find the best way to deal with corrupt government officials, what happens if one of our neighbors has a funeral, and how to live in a country that has malaria. But those are real issues our Malawian friends struggle with too, and we embrace those challenges as part of life here.

A World Lit Only by Fire

We temper all these things with the knowledge that this world is not our home and everything about life here could be taken from us at any moment. Africa has a way of reminding you of the uncertainty of this life. Our friends the Pretoriuses help us remember this. They were farmers in Zimbabwe and they had their farm taken from them by the government. They were given mere hours to gather up personal belongings and leave the property where they had invested everything. And this happened to them twice. Today, they have a farm an hour outside of town, with a cosy house and a beautiful garden. One day I asked Rene how she feels about investing time in the garden when she knows that it could be gone in an instant. She said that she can’t live in fear of being deported. Instead, she’ll do what she can to make their home a place where they can comfortably host people until they move, by their choice or the choice of another. Like the Pretoriuses, we hold this concept of home in an open hand.

We do plan to be in Malawi for as long as we can be useful here. And the end goal is not our comfort, but to be better servants. We long for our eternal home, the better city, where all things are made new and we see our Savior face to face. And yet, those eternal desires manifest themselves in earthly ways – like buying a big dinner table and a 4×4. We’re so thankful for the house, neighborhood, and friends the Lord has given us as a platform from which to serve. It’s good to be home.

Watching Grass Grow

by Rachel

The house we live in came with a good sized yard, which we love!  However, when we moved here, we had no idea how to grow grass.  It sounds simple, but really, it’s not that easy.  We’d never had grass of our own to grow before, never mind trying to grow it in a hot, dry African country.  But we learned a trick: tobacco stem.

Tobacco Stem

Two of Malawi’s biggest exports are tea and tobacco, likely leftovers from when the British were here.  The leaves are the part of the tobacco that goes into cigarettes, so that’s the part the farmers are interested in.  The leftovers – the stem – is just by-product, but someone made the brilliant discovery that tobacco stem not only adds nutrients back into the soil, it also works as mulch, helping the soil retain moisture.  Someday someone will wise-up and actually sell the stuff, but for now, it’s free.  You just have to pay for the delivery.

Tobacco Stem Truck

We got a lot.  I mean, it was free, right?!  And thankfully it doesn’t smell like tobacco.  It just smells like dirt and dust.

Tobacco Stem Grass

We spread it all over the lawn, and the grass is LOVING it!  We’ll let it do its thing and post some final product pictures soon.

6 Weeks later…

During our lack of internet access for the past few weeks, we’ve grown grass!

Green Grass

For all of you with brown winter grass right now, the grass is greener on the other side!

And We’re Back…

by Rachel

The current flood of posts comes to you courtesy of an extended period of very bad internet connection.  We had a great idea in November when we wrote about our intention to put more on the blog and make our newsletters a summary of what we had posted, but we didn’t really consider the fact that we live in a (slowly) developing country where internet connection is not on the list of reliable services.  So we’ve been stockpiling blog posts.

What did we do in the meantime?  We watched the blinking lights on our router.

Router Good

This is good.

Router Bad

This is bad.

See the difference?  One little light, second from the left, makes all the difference.  We don’t want to admit how many hours we’ve spent watching for that one little light to turn on.  Rachel has looked at the router so many times now that she finds herself drawn by force of habit to look at the router rather than the clock when she wants to know what time it is.

But it appears that we’re back, at least for now.  We’ll post as much as we can, but if we disappear again, you’ll know we’re waiting for that one little green light!

Love from the Kids

by Rachel

A few times now we’ve been able to write to kids about being missionaries.  Kids in  Awana Club contact a missionary every year to ask them what they do, and it’s so fun to write back to them!  Sometimes they’ll write back to us again, and sometimes they’ll draw us a picture and their mom will take a photo of it and email us a copy!

Picture from Sam Oct 09

Bonus points to the Keller family for that great idea!

We got to write back to one of these kids last week, and here’s what we wrote:

Hi Grant!

My name is Rachel. My husband Matt and I have one little girl named Abigail and we are missionaries.

We live in the country of Malawi, Africa. Do you know where Malawi is? It is very, very far away from America. We have to go on an airplane for 35 hours! Malawi is very different from America. Most of the houses have walls made out of mud and roofs made out of grass. The people here eat lots of corn, and sometimes they eat mice! (You shouldn’t eat mice. I’m sure your mom makes much better food!)

The most important thing we do in Malawi is help people learn about Jesus. Matt is a pastor at our church, so he does many things at church. He organizes Sunday School for all the kids, he meets with people in the church who want to know more about Jesus, and he teaches the big kids and adults about the Bible every week on Tuesday night, Friday night, and Sunday morning. I tell people about Jesus too. On Tuesdays I help with a Bible study for ladies, and sometimes I have special classes for the ladies to help them learn how to study their Bible better and how to be more like Jesus. Abigail is a missionary kid, but she doesn’t do much yet because she’s still a baby. But when she gets bigger, she can tell the kids about Jesus too.

Thank you for letting us tell you about Malawi. You can pray for us, that we can tell more people about Jesus and that we will be more like Jesus every day.

Rachel Floreen

Out with the Old Geyser, in with the New

by Rachel

First of all, it’s pronounced “geezer,” like the disparaging name for an old man.  And secondly, most of you will know it as a water heater… though what you see here probably in no way resembles the water heater you have in your house!

Geyser 1

That’s right, it’s a metal box.  This is our brand new geyser, just waiting to be installed.  It’s to replace the old geyser, which our plumber made by himself – it was 5 sheets of metal welded together.  But this one… it’s state of the art!

Geyser Insulation

It even has insulation!  I kind of feel bad calling this one a geyser now.  The old water heater deserved its nickname, but this one is so nice and new, and it works so well!

It lives in our roof (gravity = water pressure) and I just wish I could have been fast enough with the camera to capture the plumber and his assistant raising it to the roof outside Abigail’s room.  They didn’t bring a rope, so instead they borrowed the most “rope-like” item in our yard to hoist it up – the garden hose.

Packing it in Before We Fly Out!

by Rachel

We have internet at home again!  Wahoo!  Our router died in mid-December, so we’ve been limping along since then, pleading with our internet provider to replace the router – which they did last week!

We’re headed back to the States for furlough in just 13 days, so there’s no way we can catch you up on everything in the last few months.  But we’re taking videos and lots of pictures to upload once we get to California!  In the meantime, here’s a glimpse of what we’re up to these days…

Baby Flo's roomSetting up Baby Flo’s room.  She doesn’t have a name yet, but from the color of her wardrobe, it’s no secret that she’s a GIRL!  We can’t wait to meet her sometime around August 21st, and it’s kind of surreal that we’re leaving here as 2 of us, and returning in September as 3 of us!

Matt spells his nameLearning to spell our names.  It’s harvest season here in Malawi, and our friends out in the village invited us out to see what was happening on their farm.  And showed us the sticky seeds that they use to teach their kids how to spell their names.  If you’re wondering what the camera strap in this picture means… yes, we’re bringing back some great pictures of harvest time and village life.  Stay tuned!

Rachel and JaniqueHanging out with friends.  Janique is part of the youth group that we meet with every Wednesday evening, and she’s quickly becoming a good friend.  Knowing we’ll be gone for 3 1/2 months makes us treasure every chance we get to spend time with the wonderful people of International Bible Fellowship.


Kondi and KarenTaking pictures of all the important people in our lives.  Leaving for a short time is a great excuse to take pictures of the people who have become a big part of our lives.  Kondwani and Matt work side-by-side in the church office, and he and his family have helped us understand so many things about living in Malawi.  Ministry happens in the context of people, so we’re bringing lots of pictures back to the States to give you an idea of what (and who) Malawi looks like to us.

In a few days, we’ll start packing for the States and closing up our home for it sit nice and quietly until we return in September.  We’ll start thinking about things like Target, dozens of radio station options (in English!), freeways, friends and family, mail delivered right to your front door… all in an attempt to avoid the worst of “reverse culture shock.”  We’ll go to church that last Sunday and hug everyone, and Rachel will probably cry and blame it on being pregnant.  And then on Tuesday the 25th, we’ll get on a plane to Nairobi… to London… to LA!  California here we come!

A Day in the Life Of

by Rachel

A couple weeks ago, we decided to record what had happened in one day of our lives here in Malawi.  Before you read this, you should know that none of these things are uncommon, but they don’t always happen all on one day.  This day started a couple weeks that all blurred together in a happy, busy chaos, but now, 2 weeks later, we finally have a break (and electricity, and internet) to get this posted.  =)  Welcome to our lives…

Thursday March 4th – A Day in the Life of Matt and Rachel

2am – Rachel wakes up – pregnancy insomnia.  She drinks chocolate milk, checks her email and writes back to her Mom and sister.

3:15 – Rachel back to bed, asleep by 3:45am.

7am – Rise and shine!  Feels like it’s going to be a busy day, so deserves a little something extra – breakfast: eggs, toast, and OJ.

8:30 – Showered, laundry started, both ready to go to the church office for the morning

9am – Been to the office, back home to pick up the things we forgot – Rachel’s computer and counseling forms

9:20 – Matt drops Rachel off at the office, again, and heads to the bank to make a deposit, which almost doesn’t happen because the teller doesn’t understand the word deposit.  Deposit made, Matt back to the office by 10am.

10:35 – Rachel spends an hour counseling a girl from our church; Matt works on his sermon for this coming Sunday

11:35 – Counseling forms for Rachel, while Matt tries to get in touch with our mechanic to see if they’ve finished working on our car, which they’ve had since January 21st.  Mechanic says the car is finally fixed, and he’ll call right back to let us know what it costs and when we can pick it up

11:45 – Rachel gets a call saying that the bed we had loaned out to a family is on its way back to our house now.   The workers have it loaded in a truck and will wait for us at the main gate to African Bible College.

11:55 – Waiting at the main gate, no truck…  Matt goes off to find a Malawian friend and check our mail.

12:00 – Truck shows up, Matt stays at ABC to talk with the friend, and Rachel leads the way to the house.

12:01 – Truck runs out of gas less than 1/4 a kilometer from ABC.

12:03 – Rachel takes one of the workers to the house so that once they get gas he can come back and find the house.  But our house is hard for even Rachel to find, as in the last 3 hours road construction crews have bulldozed our front yard and dumped dozens of loads of dirt on the (tarred) road as part of “improving the road.”

Road Work in Front of Our House

12:30 – Rachel has gone back to pick up Matt who lets her know that he volunteered for us to go to the Malawian friend’s house this afternoon, as he and his wife are in urgent need of marriage counseling.  Pending items for the afternoon: 1) car to be picked up from the mechanic, time unknown – mechanic will call; 2) bed delivery, time unknown – they’ll just show up at our gate; 3) marriage counseling in a nearby village, time unknown – friend will call.

12:45 – Lunch: leftover chicken pot pie and salad from the night before.

1:15 – Prepping for afternoon marriage counseling appointment, now scheduled for 4pm; Matt makes a call and sets up a time on Sunday with another couple to do PRE-marital counseling

2pm – Rachel calls the lady who was coordinating the bed delivery, pretty sure that the workers are getting paid by the hour, and probably taking a nap on our bed on the side of the road as they wait for gas to magically appear.

2:15 – Matt gets a call from another friend in a different village who has malaria and needs a ride to the clinic for medicine.  Matt drives out to get him, passing the truck (with our bed in it) at the gas station.

2:45 – The bed arrives, but none of the workers want to get out of the truck because they’re scared of our 4 month old puppy who is already clearly a large dog.  Brave souls bring the bed inside, and said puppy ran away with only one of their shoes.  Simba graciously gave back the shoe, like it was his high and royal duty to guard it for the man.

Rachel and Simba

3pm – Matt returns from taking our friend with malaria to the clinic, we change our clothes and get ready to leave for the other village and marriage counseling.

3:15 – Mechanic calls.  We should pick our car up in half an hour, once they’ve had time to wash it.  No thanks, we’ll be by first thing in the morning.

3:30 – Off to the village

4pm – Arrive at our friends’ home in the village, knowing they are in need of urgent marriage counseling.  The house is surrounded by women, children, and cooking pots and utensils.  Are the women here to take the wife’s side?  What have we gotten into?!?

4:15 – Finally understand that the women are all from the couple’s church and are cooking for an upcoming conference.  We begin one of the more difficult counseling situations either of us have ever been in.  The issues themselves are not difficult – the language is.  The husband speaks very good English, but the wife does not.  The wife doesn’t want another person involved in the situation, so is satisfied with having her husband translate for her.

4:30 – Counseling continues; the women outside start to sing, right by the window.

5pm – Counseling continues; it starts to rain.  Conversation is drowned out as the rain quickly turns to a downpour and hammers on the single sheet of tin that is the roof and ceiling of their home.  We struggle to shout through the ruckus.  The women outside crowd on the porch, and send all the kids inside to be out of the rain.  We now have an audience of 8-10 small children sitting in the hallway watching with wide eyes the two white people who have come to this home.

6pm – The rain has let up a bit, and we have finished our time with this couple.  God’s grace is a marvel to us, as we have seen issues resolved and plans made to continue to walk together in love and grace.  We pray with them and for them as we leave.

Leaving the Village in the Rain

6:10 – Got a message from our night guard that his mom took the umbrella and he’s reluctant to walk 45 minutes in the rain to our house.  We wouldn’t want to do that either, so, since we’re still out, and our guard’s village is on the way home, we swing by the pick him up.  That would be village #3 for the day.

6:30 – Home, but the electricity’s out, so we start up the generator and get dinner in the microwave.

6:45 – Dinner: leftover chicken pot pie and salad, again.  Yes, the same thing we had for lunch, but we’re tired and this is easy, even if this is the 3rd time in 24 hours that we’ve eaten exactly the same meal.

7:20 – Power is back on, so the generator is off.  Matt decides to teach the guard how to turn on the generator so that he can do it next time, and the starter pull cord breaks off in Matt’s hand.  Glad that didn’t happen at 6:30!

7:40 – Matt starts a big theological discussion with Rachel about how to describe the trinity to someone who is not a believer.  Rachel tries to listen, but can only think about the hours she was awake in the middle of the night, and being exhausted at 16 weeks pregnant.  The trinity is too much for her right now.

8:30 – Go to bed before anything else happens.  It can all happen tomorrow…

Growth

by Rachel

A few things have changed around here, so it’s time for some updates…

Simba 4 MonthsOur cute little puppy of a couple months ago is quickly becoming a large dog.  Weighing in at around 45 pounds, Simba is now 4 months old, and this picture is a pretty accurate idea of what he spends his time doing – lying down and eating.  And if he’s not eating his food, he’ll gladly eat rocks, snails, entire maize stalks… anything that fits in his mouth!

Rachel 14 WeeksRachel is growing too, as she enters the second trimester.  Baby Flo is starting to make an appearance!

Baby Flo 14 WeeksAt 14 weeks, Baby Flo is doing great!  Matt got to come and see the ultrasound this time, and we marveled at God’s creative design as we watched Baby Flo lift up a hand to show us all 5 perfectly formed fingers – so tiny, but already there and moving around!

Green Rainy SeasonAnother thing that’s growing is grass!  The rainy season was very late this year, but it’s finally here.  We’ve had rain every day for a week now, and it’s so beautifully green!  It feels like we brought the green home with us from vacation!

Burned Voltage GuardsWhat’s growing here?  Our box of burned out electrical items!  Voltage spikes, brown outs, and all other kinds of electrical anomalies are a part of daily life here, so we try to protect our more important items (fridge, freezer, computers, etc) with voltage guards.  The guards lying on the ground are both dead due to a spike a couple weeks ago.  The one on the left has a little black hole one it where it burned completely through – but it protected Rachel’s computer!  The one on the right protected Matt’s computer, all his back-up drives, the printer, and the internet router, but when it burned up, it got so hot it burned the two holes in our wall!  On to the next set of voltage guards, and more lessons in Malawian electricity!

1 Peter WordleThe Ladies’ Bible Study on 1 Peter has been fabulous!  They’re 16 weeks into the study, and just starting chapter 4.  All the ladies have learned so much from this small book and God has grown in each of them a greater appreciation for studying His Word carefully, thoroughly, and in context.  The graphic above was generated by Wordle.net, highlighting the key words for the book of 1 Peter.

Monitor LizardAnd finally, though this has nothing to do with growth, a little glimpse into our adventurous lives here in Malawi – a Nile monitor lizard that we chased out of our kitchen last week.  He’s much smaller than other monitor lizards we’ve seen, but he made up for his size with aggression and snake-like movement!  We’re hoping this guy does NOT grow and come back for a visit!