A Day in the Life {Journal Entry}

I have been wanting to document more of our day to day life here in Malawi. Funny, embarrassing, mundane stuff that I know I will enjoy looking back on one day. 

My past "A Day in the Life" journal entries can be found...

Here
Here
Here

&

Here

11/2013

In our first couple months, "on the field" we had our first "what!?" experience. David had taken the kids out for a bike ride. At this particular time, we were a circus show in the village (now nobody pays any attention to us). Every time we went out, everyone would chase us and point + laugh. It took a bit to get used to...especially for our kids. So on this particular day, David had 3 of our kids and was riding bikes. We had bought the boys' bikes a little big so that they could have a few years out of them and son #2 hadn't quite gotten the hang of starting off his new bike on his own. After a fall, he hadn't been able to climb back on, so he was walking with head hung down as a whole group of kids followed him and laughed. {side note: now he would totally be able to handle this situation, but at the time he was embarrassed and feeling really sad}. 

As the group of kids surrounded him, a bike taxi (njinga) was flying up on the group and totally took out one of the kids; sending her flying into the ditch with an apparent broken leg. Son #2, oblivious to the "hit and run" that happened behind him just kept walking to the house. 

The next day, a knock came to the gate. The mother of the injured child was there. She was accusing our 7 year old son of running over her daughter and breaking her leg. A crowd had gathered and they wanted us to pay for the damages done. It was definitely one of those moments we were like, "what?! 
 that is not how it went down!" After many conversations, translations, and even confessions from the bike taxi driver, our 7 year old son's name was cleared. The mom broke down in tears and said, "I am not accusing anymore, but am begging for help." In Malawi, when someone is hospitalized, a family member must go with the person to the hospital and stay with them 24/7 to care/feed for them. The mom was just desperate for transportation and food for she and her daughter for however long they were going to have to staying in the hospital. 

It was definitely one of those moments that took us  from scared, confused, angry, and  frustrated, to deep compassion. We quickly saw how an injury to a family member can deeply affect the whole family. How even "free" healthcare costs families greatly as they have to figure out a way to supply meals, take time off work (if you have a job), and come up with costly transportation. It was such a clear picture to me of how all  moms are going to do what it takes to get our kid's help. I just may never have had to be in that desperate of a situation before. 

{SIX} Birthday

These birthdays keep coming faster and faster it seems! 

Hard to believe our Asher girl is SIX!

Here is her 4th birthday

and her

5th birthday

Man, we could not love this girl more!

She just exudes LIFE and JOY!

She is our worry free girl who is fear-less!

She's the 3 year old jumping off a clip into the lake.

The 5 year old diving off the diving board with her floaties.

She's the kid that insists on going on the scary zip-line course all by herself.

She's kind and compassionate.

She loves people and has never met a stranger.

She is almost always happy and peppy!

She is also energetic...and LOUD.

She's the last one to fall asleep each night and the first one to wake up each morning.

She loves to laugh and thinks her jokes are the funniest.

We love you Asher! We hope you never change! You make life more fun for everyone!

Favorites at SIX

Favorite Colors: blue

Favorite Movie: Wild Kratts

Favorite Food: Cereal

Favorite Drink: ice water

Favorite thing to play: play on the trampoline with Esther 

Favorite Friend: Kiera and Makenzie

Favorite thing to do with mommy: "watch a movie"

Favorite thing to do with daddy: "play with him"

What do you want to be when you grown up? "a cook"

A Day in the Life {Journal Entry}

I have been wanting to document more of our day to day life here in Malawi. Funny, embarrassing, mundane stuff that I know I will enjoy looking back on one day. 
My past "A Day in the Life" journal entries can be found...

here
here
&
here

11/2013

This journal entry was one of our very first "adventures" or "cultural experiences" when moving to Malawi. We had been living here for about a month and decided to go try out the lake with our missionary team (3 families). At that time, we were serving with a sweet, young, newly wed couple and they made the brave decision to ride in our car (with our FOUR children) to the lake (about a 2 hour drive). We made the trip TO the lake and enjoyed a wonderful day swimming, snorkelling, cliff jumping and eating the local chambo (fish) and rice. We left at just the right time to head home before it got dark. The roads to the lake are pretty rough with deep potholes on the edges. Between the potholes, goats, bicycles, and walkers, you don't want to be driving on this road at dark. 

We drove down the loooong washboard dirt road and noticed that our car was starting to over heat. We pulled over to let the radiator cool down and give the other family a heads up that we were having car troubles. At this time, one of our very new-to-us daughters decided to perform one of her epic melt downs, that she used to have back then. In her defence she had only been in our family for 2.5 short months and had experienced 2 MAJOR moves. We had grown used to these and knew how to ride them out, but all the locals were very concerned about the "malawian looking child" with a bunch of Americans who clearly didn't know how to make the child stop crying. We attracted quite the crowd.

Once the fit/radiator had cooled down, we decided to get back in the car and try to make it home. A few feet down the black top road, the radiator blew. Our car was done. Next, began our long 7 hour journey back home. Yes, 7 hours to drive what should be a 2 hour trip. We found a small truck who was willing to pull us with a rope home (for a price). The only problem was that he didn't have brake lights...nor fuel. So, as we putted home in the dark, David (husband/driver) was at high alert trying to strain his eyes in case the truck pulling us was slowing down or stopping. Our brakes and power steering were pretty non-existent at this point, so it made for a stressful driving experience. Every few miles, the driver would pull over and he and his buddies would disappear into the bush looking for black market fuel. No gas stations were on this road and the ones we finally would pass were closed because......yeah, it's dark. We spent many a hour on the side of the road waiting for fuel. So thankful that the other missionary friend brought her laptop with Ducky Dynasty episodes on it to keep our kids semi-entertained. We attracted a lot of attention with every stop and adults and kids alike were all gathered around the back of our car watching Duck Dynasty with our kids.

We arrived home late that night and everyone was asleep, except tired driver. This was definitely one of our biggest life lessons of what to expect when traveling in Malawi:

Expect things not to go as expected. 
Be chill about the unexpected or you will go crazy. 
Pack extra things for your kids like food, water and entertainment in case you trip doesn't go as planned (because it never will!).
It's your choice how to deal with difficulties. You can chose joy or chose frustration. (still learning 
this one)