Camping, days 8-9: Zomba, Malawi (visit to a student's church - 9)

Day 8 – Saturday 25 May 2013

Travel from Nanchengwa Lodge to Zomba, Malawi

 

After 5 nights of rest and relaxation on the shore of Lake Malawi, we packed up camp on the morning of Saturday the 25th.  We were able to hit the road in a timely manner, by 9:45, heading south to the town of Zomba.  

It was a smooth drive.  It was interesting to see the obvious prevalence of Islam in this part of the country, the southern shore of Lake Malawi.  We saw mosques every 500 meters on some stretches of the road south!  There were Islamic schools and teacher training centers everywhere.

It took us about 3 1/2 hours and we arrived in Zomba around 12:30. Zomba is a large town, with the distinction of being Malawi's University town. We set up camp at a bed and breakfast called Casa Rossa which is located up the mountain, on the road leading to the top of the Zomba Plateau.  Casa Rossa is a new guesthouse in Zomba - only been open about a year - run by a friendly Italian couple.  They have a public restaurant as well, specializing in homemade Italian cuisine.  Mmmm.  A great place to stay!  :)

you can see us eating breakfast on the terrace in this photo

The camping area was terraced out of the hillside and was well equipped, with good toilet facilities, hot showers, big sinks for washing up, and even an electrical socket at each camping pitch!

a view of our camp at Casa Rossa

 The first thing we did when we arrived was eat our packed lunch (peanut butter and jam sandwiches) sitting on the ground in the camping area.  Then we unloaded everything and set up our tent.  It was a relaxing afternoon so we were able to just enjoy our surroundings.  Being located up on the road to the Plateau meant that we were removed from the hustle and bustle of the town streets below, and we had a gorgeous view from the terrace.

 The Casa Rossa restaurant does good business!  We went up to the restaurant for an early dinner.  David had ravioli and I had tortellini, and the children had chicken nuggets and chips.  It was delicious.  As usual, the kids went to bed early.  On our camping trip we found that it was a good schedule to eat dinner earlier than normal (so that we were done eating and cleaning up before it was completely dark) and then move into the tent, to avoid mosquitoes.  Often we would let the kids watch a DVD on their portable DVD player, sitting on Elijah's airbed.  It was a good way to wind down at the end of each day of playing hard outside!  

After the kids were asleep I went back up to the restaurant, finding that the dinner portion was so small that I was still very hungry.  :)   The woes of being a pregnant woman.  I ordered a 'snack' of onion soup and panzerotti (like mini calzones) with a side of chips.  Probably sounds like an odd combination, but at the time I thought the soup would warm me up and the panzerotti would fill me up!  It was cold at night up on the mountainside.

Having reached Zomba successfully, the only difficulty now was contacting Sangwani, the student whose church we would be visiting the following day.  We had his phone number, but our phone calls and text messages (from Zambian phones) weren't going through, although our phones indicated that we had service.  Sangwani tried to phone us before we left Nanchengwa, but David's phone battery died before we were able to receive his call.  So here we were in Zomba, but we had no idea where the church was or what time the service would start the next day!  We just had to trust that Sangwani would find some way to reach us before it was too late.  :)

Day 9- Sunday 26 May 2013

Zomba, Malawi -- visit to a student's church (9)

On Sunday morning we woke up to the reality that we still had not been successfully contacted by Sangwani.  David was supposed to be preaching at his church in Zomba, but we still had no idea where the church was located or what time the service would start!  

So we had our usual morning routine of feeding the children, showers, getting ready for church and hoped that he would contact us soon.  It was really nice to find out that any guests of Casa Rossa, even campers, were offered a complimentary 'tea and toast' breakfast in the restaurant each morning (you could pay to get eggs or something else if you wanted a bigger breakfast).  The coffee was fantastic and we enjoyed having free toast and hot drinks each morning with our bowls of cereal from the campsite.  :)

 We were finally able to reach Sangwani around 8am, and were told that the church service would start at 10am, and given directions to the church.

the back view of the church - they are in the process of building and are meeting in the partially completed office area

Sangwani is a member of the Reformed Baptist congregation in Zomba, and they support him as a student for the ministry.

Sangwani translated for David during the sermon

 I really enjoyed the service, which was simple and reverent, as we have found most of the Reformed Baptist churches to be.  One thing I noticed was that even the young children were joining in singing the hymns - from the book!  That is something you will never find in the poor village churches in Eastern Province.  You hardly ever see a church with any hymnbooks, but even the ones that do have a few books, most people can't read well enough to use them.  You could definitely see the difference, that the education available in Zomba is much better than in our local area.

Elijah and Ketzia did very well during the service, until part way through the sermon when I had to take Elijah out so that he could use the toilet...  Then he didn't want to go back into the church service because he knew he would have to sit still!  He threw such a fit, kicking and howling, that eventually I strapped him into his car seat so that he would calm down, and sat in the car with the kids until the sermon ended. What can you do?  :)  Sometimes, as a mom, you feel like you can never win!  Even if the kids are doing well in church, a simple toilet run can turn into an absolute rebellion!

 

a view of the inside of the church, taken afterwards while people were chatting

After church ended I was so pleased to see that people stayed around chatting - again something you don't really see that often.  Usually people leave pretty quickly, but the fellowship here was good and the congregation was friendly.  David spent a while talking to the men of the church - the pastor, the assistant pastor, and others.

After church Sangwani's wife Betty told me that they were planning to have us to their house for lunch, so we all squished into our 5-seater truck.  Betty's youngest sister Madalitso (called Mado by the family) who lives with them, sat in the front passenger seat.  We took out Ketzia's car seat and she sat on my lap, Elijah sat in his car seat, Betty held 2 1/2 yr old Keziah on her lap, and Siphiwe (5 years old) shared the seat with her mom.  It was tight, but we managed and thankfully they only live a few miles up the road!  Sangwani took the bicycle and arrived at home only a few minutes after we did.

Sangwani and David by the front of the church

 

and again around the back of the church

Sangwani, Betty, Mado, and the girls live in a small house with two bedrooms, a small storage room, and a living room.  Unlike many of the students' homes we've visited, they have electricity, so Betty has an oven and cooker and a refrigerator in the living room.  They welcomed us in, and while Betty and Mado finished preparing the food, the kids had a GREAT time playing together. 

Elijah and Siphiwe chase each other around the front garden

the little girls who share a name visiting together :) - Keziah and Ketzia!

ready to eat lunch together

Betty served us a delicious meal of rice and potatoes cooked with tomatoes and eggs.  It was tasty!

 

We really enjoyed the chance to visit with Sangwani and Betty during this afternoon together, chatting with them about life and culture and all sorts of different things. While Sangwani is our student, we have a different relationship with him -- because he is also our teacher!  Sangwani tutors us in Chichewa language lessons weekly during each term, and we are very thankful for his generosity in giving his time and energy to help us learn.  He has been in our home a lot and we have been greatly blessed by our Christian fellowship with him.  

Keziah, Betty, Mado, Siphiwe, and Sangwani in front of their home

 It was good to get to observe him and his family together in their home.  Think about it! they don't get to be together very often - only twice a year at best during the term holidays!  Sangwani's studies have taken him away from the family for the better part of 3 years now and they are looking forward to his graduation in October, Lord willing.

We visited with them until nearly 3pm, and then headed back to our campsite.  But first we arranged to see them again before we would leave Zomba later in the week!  This wasn't just a weekend visit; we decided to stay a couple of extra days in Zomba since we had traveled so far to see Sangwani and his family...

Camping, days 3-7: Nanchengwa Lodge, Lake Malawi

Day 3 – Monday 20 May

Travel from Chipata, Zambia to Nanchengwa Lodge, Lake Malawi

On Monday morning we woke up early (no alarms necessary when you have two very small children who wake up unfailingly at sunrise!) and started packing up our camp.  We had porridge for breakfast and I got the dishes washed up and made bolony and cheese sandwiches for the road.   

We ended up leaving camp around 9am, which was later than we had hoped. Sangwani was waiting for us in town by the supermarket. Sangwani is our student from Malawi, and the one whose church and family we would be visiting the next weekend.  Since we had 1 extra seat in our truck and we knew that he would need to travel home to Malawi the same time that we would be headed in that direction, it worked out nicely for us to offer him a lift for most of the way, to save him having to take the bus the whole way home.  It gave David some confidence, as well, knowing that he had someone familiar with Malawian roads since this would be our first time crossing the border and spending time in Malawi.  We were thankful for Sangwani's company!

While in town we quickly topped our fuel tank back up so that we would have an absolutely full tank for our trip, and then David and Sangwani went to one of the Indian shops to exchange money and get Malawian kwacha.  We would need some when crossing the border (it costs 5,000 Malawian Kwacha to enter Malawi).  You can change money at the border, but you run the risk of being cheated by the quick-fingered opportunistic money changers hanging out in droves at the border posts.  It's much easier and safer to just have your Malawian money ahead of time!  

Once we got the money, we then had to stop at the insurance office to insure our vehicle for the time in Malawi.  We could have done this at the border, but it was recommended by experienced expats that we get it done ahead of time.  It is a lot cheaper to insure the vehicle in Chipata than at the border, and you don't have any hassle.

Then at last we were on the road headed towards the border!  From Chipata it’s only about 20 kilometers to the border post.  First we had to park on the Zambian side and the kids and I waited in the car while David and Sangwani went into the office to deal with the paperwork.  It took them about 30 minutes.  Then we had to park on the Malawian side and deal with even more paperwork – this took about 45 minutes.  But it all went quite smoothly and everything was very straight forward.  It was really nice having Sangwani along just for the reassurance that we were doing everything properly.  He doesn’t have his own vehicle and would only normally cross the border by bus, so he couldn’t help us with the vehicle paperwork, but he could guide us through the general requirements.

And then we were in Malawi – with all our papers in order!  From the border to Lilongwe is slightly more than 1 hour’s drive.  Lilongwe is the capital city.  We didn’t really stop in Lilongwe – only long enough to withdraw more Malawian kwacha from the ATM (you get a better exchange rate this way, through the bank, than on the street).  

 From there we headed south towards Dedza.  The countryside was very scenic and we really enjoyed the drive.   

We must have reached Dedza somewhere around 3:30pm.  That was where we dropped off Sangwani, who would find a bus going further south to his home in Zomba.  

 

a hillside village we passed

 From Dedza we headed due east, over the Dedza Pass, towards the shore of Lake Malawi.  The Dedza Pass was absolutely stunning.  The road twisted sharply up and then down over a mountain, and the views were spectacular! The road was challenging to drive because of all of the sharp winding corners and steep drops (no guard rails!).

Along the side of the road were little shelters where people were selling handcrafted wooden toys, like trucks, and airplanes.  We were feeling short on time so didn’t stop, but the toys looked really lovely.  I wish I had gotten a photo.

The sun was getting lower and lower as we descended the Dedza Pass, and we still had a sizable distance ahead of us before we reached our destination, so we were getting slightly nervous.  And then we took a wrong turn.  We were following the directions printed out from Google Maps, and apparently a road had not been updated on the map.  We turned where it directed, and immediately were on a dirt road bouncing through villages. It was obviously NOT a main thoroughfare, and after a kilometer or two, it wasn’t even a road anymore – it wasn’t passable!  So we turned around, asked directions from an ambulance, and headed back to the main road.  It turned out that the main road we were looking for was very well signposted 200 meters up from where we had taken the wrong turn. :) So it was easily solved, and thankfully we didn’t go wrong again after that.

From there it was a  straight shot, a bit more than an hour on the road, and we found the place easily. We were camping at Nanchengwa Lodge, a small family-run place on the southern shore of Lake Malawi, about halfway between Monkey Bay and Mangochi.  They were a couple of kilometers off the main road, right next to a village (but privacy and security provided by a fence).  You could camp under the trees on the grass, or closer to the beach but still on the grass.  We chose to be closer to the beach.  We camped on a ledge just behind the beach houses and next to the toilet facilities.  We chose the spot quickly when we arrived, because it was after 5:30pm and the sun was literally going down, so we only had a few minutes of daylight to start setting up camp.  It had been a long day and the kids were tired and hungry, so I went down to the beach-side bar with Henry, the staff member who welcomed us, to order dinner while David started setting up the tent. 

our camp at Nanchengwa

 

another view of our camp

 It was such a relaxing environment – quiet, with the sound of the waves lapping against the shore so close to our tent!  We managed to get camp set up quite quickly, and the beds inflated, and then Henry came to tell us that our dinner was ready.  We ate in the inside dining area up at the lodge - the kids had chicken schnitzel and chips, I had T-bone steak and chips, and David had vegetable curry and rice.   

Henry told us that we were free to use the inside bathroom connected to the dorm rooms, if we wanted a bathtub to bathe the children (easier than using the camp showers).  We felt heartily welcomed in this low-key, family-friendly atmosphere! After a very long day of driving, we all went to sleep early that night!

Days 4, 5, 6, 7 – Tuesday 21 May to Friday 24 May

Nanchengwa Lodge

 

This was a real holiday for us!  Unlike previous holidays when we've ended up being out and about just about every day to see or do something, this was a genuine effort to relax.  We spent the whole time at Nanchengwa relaxing on the beach.  :) 

 

the private beach at Nanchengwa (we were camped under the trees between the two beach chalets you can see) - the village property starts where the trees end

Thanks to our 'early birds,' we were up every morning in time to see the sunrise.  :)

sunrise over the lake

Four full days of sand, sunshine, and the relaxing sound of waves lapping against the shore.

Three out of the four days that we were there, the surf was so low that the kids were comfortable and adventurous enough to plunge in and play in the lake!

 

 It was nice to sit and read (there was a small collection of books in the guesthouse for visitors to browse through) on the beach, watching the kids having a great time playing.

building sand castles with daddy

David and Elijah climbed onto the big rock at the end of the beach.

Some nights after the children were in bed (which was normally by 6:30pm), David and I were able to walk on the beach in the moonlight.  :)  Funny story about that - one night, quite a while after the children had gone to bed, we had strolled a short ways down the beach, as far as the pier, and were standing there chatting when I suddenly saw a small shadowy figure wandering up on the guesthouse patio.  'David, I think that's Elijah!'  We quickly went up to investigate and found that it WAS Elijah.  He had woken up and come looking for us, and had the sense to realize where we would probably be.  We were thankful that he wasn't screaming in panic!  The funniest thing was that we realized he was tall enough to zip the tent open - we had actually left the tent zipped up where we thought he couldn't reach it, but he was clever and taller than we thought.

the view down the beach towards the public village beach

the beach was the center of village life -- all day long there were villagers bathing, washing dishes or clothes, fishing, swimming, and lots of construction going on at the site of a new hotel (background)

We only ventured into the village once, on Friday afternoon, to buy bread for sandwiches for our trip the next day.  As soon as we walked out of the lodge gate, we were swarmed by a large crowd of children (at least thirty of them!) who attached themselves to our party and escorted us through the village. My Chichewa is at least good enough to ask where the shop is to buy bread...  It must have seemed to the villagers that the traveling circus was in town!  This whole funny family of azungus walking through their village!

we frequently saw the villagers' fishing boats going out on the lake

Our camp was frequently visited by monkeys, of which there was a whole troop living in the trees surrounding the lodge.  They were very bold and would steal food right off the picnic table in our campsite, so we had to be very careful not to leave anything unattended.  Even so, we still lost a few onions, and a couple of fritters which were my breakfast!

 During the 5 nights we camped there, we were the only guests!  There were two families which stopped by for lunch, but no other lodge guests.  This meant that we had the whole place to ourselves!  It was peaceful and totally refreshing.  The campground facilities were nice -- we had a good grassy spot to pitch our tent, the toilet facilities were above average, there were warm showers, and plenty of filtered drinking water available in the guesthouse.  We were free to cook food for ourselves (which we did, using up food we had purchased in Chipata) or order from the kitchen - which we also did.  The food was good and inexpensive!

We were up with the sunrise every morning, played with the kids all day, and went to bed VERY early every night.  I am not kidding.  We were in bed by 8pm!

It was a lovely, lovely time.

After 5 restful nights, on Saturday morning the 25th of May, we packed up camp to head 4 hours south to the town of Zomba, to spend a weekend with Sangwani and his family!

 

Camping, days 1 & 2: Weekend in Chipata, Zambia (and visit to a student's church - 8)

On Saturday the 18th of May we finished loading up our camping equipment and stuff into the back of our truck and headed out.We aimed for leaving the house at 8am, but ended up pulling out right at 8:40.  Packing the vehicle took some extra time.  In the end we were loaded 'to the gills'!

We hit the road to Chipata, 2 hours east of where we live.  On our way we received a call from our student, Levy, whose village congregation we would be visiting the next day. He was in Chipata waiting to meet us. So when we arrived, around 10:45, we drove into town and met him by the side of the road to discuss arrangements for the following day’s visit.  Here we found out that another student, Sangwani, would be joining us for the church visit as well.  They would both meet us by the side of the road at the same supermarket at 8:30am the next day so that we could drive to Levy’s village together.  

(Some of you will remember Levy from this post -- during his time at the College he has started a church plant in the nearest village to the College which was without a church.  This was our opportunity to visit him in his home congregation.)

By the time we had finished sorting all the arrangements with Levy and Sangwani, it was after 11am, so we headed a few kilometers out of town to Mama Rulas, a bed & breakfast where we would be camping for the next 2 nights. Then it was time to survey our surroundings and decide where to put up our tent. We have a large 6-person tent, tall enough to stand up in.  We bought it the first year we were here in Zambia, to take a10day camping trip through the north of Zambia with our colleagues, and it has been worth its weight in gold to us!  Camping is by far the most affordable way to travel around Zambia. 

the camping area - showers and toilets on the right, restaurant in the center

 While David was deciding where to put our tent, I walked up to the open-air restaurant, just at the edge of the camping area, and ordered lunch so that it would be ready for us.  We got the tent set up in a shady, grassy area which seemed to be the best spot in the camping pitch.  Lunch was chicken pizza for David and me and cheese toasties for the children.  We got the air mattresses inflated and beds put together, and all went down for an afternoon snooze!  It was a good way to get our holiday started!  

setting up our camp at Mama Rula's (photo taken before we put the rain cover over the tent)

 When we got up from our snooze, we headed back into town to do some shopping for our upcoming travel into Malawi.  We went to the main supermarket and spent almost an hour getting what we needed.  Then it was time for our dinner engagement.  We have never had opportunity to meet any of the other missionary families in Chipata, but recently we met the only other expat family in our area (Petauke) and they gave us a couple of contact details for families with young children in Chipata.  When we texted to say that we would be passing through and would love to meet up, one family responded and invited us for dinner on Saturday night!  So we drove up to their house and had a lovely evening with them.  Kevin & Savannah have two little girls (aged 3 and 9 mos.) and Elijah and Ketzia had a great time playing with them.  Savannah spoiled us with a tasty meal of lasagna, salad, green beans and bread, and homemade icecream (with pumpkin bread that I had brought) for dessert!  It was so tasty, and the fellowship was very enjoyable.  They are southern Baptists working with church planting in the Chipata area. We enjoyed visiting with them until the children’s bedtime.  On the way back to the campsite we filled up our tank with diesel for our big trip on Monday.

the kids enjoying camping :)

Day 2 – Sunday 19 May

Visit to a student's church (8)

This morning we woke up to see monkeys swinging from the trees around the campsite! They didn’t approach our camp, but it was fun to see.  (The dogs keep them mostly in the trees.)  I fixed a breakfast of eggs and bacon, with pumpkin muffins I had baked to use up a pumpkin before we left.  We carry a 2-burner gas stove and a small bottle of cooking gas while we are camping.  This helps cut down on our expenses by cooking our own food when we are able.  This particular campsite was well equipped with toilet and shower facilities (although the showers kept running out of hot water!) and the water from the taps was safe to drink.

We left the campsite around 8:15am to meet Levy and Sangwani in town. They were supposed to meet us at 8:30, but only Sangwani was waiting there when we arrived at the designated spot.  We waited for quite a while for Levy, who finally showed up at 9am!  Unfortunately his wife (who was at our recent women’s conference) had to suddenly travel out of town for her father’s funeral far away in Kitwe, so she wasn’t around for our visit.

Ah well, Levy's late arrival just showed us that the day’s events would be off to a flexible start. :)

We drove back up the road, past the campsite where we were staying, and took the turn-off towards Lundazi which is 2 ½ hours north, up the road.  But we didn’t go that far – we drove maybe 10 kilometers, or maybe a bit more, and then turned off the main road.  And that’s when it got interesting.  :)  The first part of the drive wasn’t bad -- the dirt road was quite good as we wound past villages.  We were driving through a beautiful valley surrounded by very scenic hills with large buttresses of hills made of stone boulders cropping up randomly in the plain.

what parts of the road looked like

 But soon the road became very interesting.  :)  Levy was quite funny because he gave us no warning at all – just suddenly said  very calmly, ‘and now there is a bridge.’ Which we quickly learned did NOT mean there was an actual bridge, only that we would have to cross some form of water – with or without a bridge!  We forded streams something like 5 or 6 times – 3 of which had bridges and the rest didn’t.  The road was EXTREMELY bad – very rutted, very narrow, very bumpy.  We were all bruised afterwards – especially those of us in the back seat because we kept smashing into Elijah’s car seat, which is not very comfortable!  Sangwani was sitting on the left, Elijah was in his car seat in the middle and I was on the right, holding Ketzia on my lap.  Levy was in the front passenger seat directing David.  We drove further and further and further into the bush and the road just kept getting worse and worse!  We kept thinking we must be almost there, but nope… At one point we turned a corner and suddenly came upon a stretch of road which was entirely under water/mud.  The only thing to do is to keep driving, as steadily as possible, always moving forward, and DO NOT STOP so you don’t get stuck!!

the road under water

 Finally we reached Levy’s village, around 9:40 or 9:45 (so it took slightly over an hour to get there).  On the right side of the road were two simple church buildings.  The first one didn’t seem to be in use at all.  I think they told us it is a Roman Catholic building and they have meetings on a different day of the week.  Levy’s church, of course, was empty.  No one was there for church yet.  Levy directed us to park behind his house, which was just across the street from the church, and then welcomed us into his home.  His home is in the process of being renovated, so only 1 ½ rooms are currently livable!  He welcomed us into his ‘living room’ which was a tiny, tiny room with a small table, 4 chairs and a couple of mats on the floor.  There was a small rickety shelf in one corner with some tin dishes on it.  The front door was very low so we had to duck to come inside, and there was no window.  He told us that he had bricked up the window because of thieves who had come before and stolen everything – his T.V. and other possessions.  There was an even smaller doorway into a sleeping room which was also doubling as a storage room.  The front door opened in what was currently a courtyard, because it was without a roof.  Eventually it will be the main living area of the house, but there is no roof, floor, windows, or door at present.  It is always sobering to see the very simple, impoverished living conditions of most of our students, but some of them in particular are in very poor surroundings.

visiting in Levy's house - Levy in center, Sangwani on the right

 Then Levy took us over to see the church, but there was still no one there. So he sent someone to start rounding up the congregation, and meanwhile he took us back to his house and insisted on serving us tea and bread!  The tea was made with milk fresh from the cow – a first experience for us.  Levy had a loaf of bread and some margarine specially for us, and some homemade peanut butter.  It was very kind of him to extend such hospitality to us.

a view of the church building from Levy's house

inside the church

After finishing our snack, we went back over to the church where people were beginning to gather and the service eventually started.  By this time it was 11am!  (Reminiscent of the previous week’s church visit…)  Levy is the pastor of a Pentecostal congregation.  (In his absence, when he is studying at the College, the congregation is under the oversight of an elder.)   

women pounding maize in the village, oblivious to the idea of stopping work to attending church

 They began the service by singing choruses with lots of clapping.  A woman from the congregation came up and led a song which then morphed into a ‘chaos prayer’ – which seems to be in the identifying factor of ‘Pentecostal’ congregations here (although it is also done by other denominations as well).  An offering was taken, there was another time of choruses, another time of chaos prayer.  In the midst of all of this I had to take Elijah to the toilet something like 3 times – back at our truck which was parked at Levy’s house.   

Elijah sitting in the doorway of the church

 Then they had the Scripture reading – from Matt. 28 – and David preached the sermon.  I had to take Elijah out again for another potty break, and basically struggled to keep the kids settled. 

 

 

 

David preaching, with Sangwani translating (Levy seated in the back)

When David was on his last sermon point I had to take them outside.   

 

what the surrounding area looked like

 By that time it was past noon and the kids were exhausted AND hungry.  Ketzia had had no morning nap so… she was crying again, inconsolable.  I couldn’t get her to go to sleep, so we just found a place to sit in the shade by Levy’s house.  Ketzia started chasing the goats and went into the thornbushes, because she wasn’t listening to me, so then I was picking thorns out of her little cardigan.  And then Elijah, for whose sake I had missed large portions of the service on ‘potty runs,’ decided that he was going to MESS IN HIS PANTS during a church outing for the first time since he was potty trained!!  Arrrgh.  So I had to get him cleaned up, and his clothes changed, and by the time we were finished, the service was over.  Sangwani came over to fetch the camera on David’s behalf.  When I got myself and the kids back over to the church, the congregation was outside singing while David was getting a congregational photo.

Then they did something we were NOT expecting – they asked us to come back inside the church.  We sat down, not knowing what the plan was, and then they started singing again. And Levy said something about ‘time for the gift.’  Since nothing happened and everyone kept singing, I started getting worried that he meant that someone was going to claim to have the ‘gift of the Spirit’ and start speaking in tongues or something.  :)  But after a bit of singing suddenly we realized  that they were going to give gifts to us!  People from the congregation started coming forward with parcels—bags of groundnuts (peanuts), huge stalks of sugar cane, huge bunches of green bananas, it was incredible.  They were SO generous.  In the end we had a big pile of huge sugar cane stalks, two big bunches of bananas, 3 or 4 bags of peanuts, a large bag (10 kilos maybe) of sweet potatoes!

Ketzia with the gift from the congregation

 After presenting us with the gift, the congregation carried everything over to our truck and loaded it into the back.  Then we were taken back inside Levy's house for a meal of nshima with chicken, rice, potatoes and veg.

Levy outside the back of his house

After the meal Levy told David that there was a man in the village who was extremely sick and his relatives had asked the visiting preacher to come and pray for him.  So David went along with Levy and Sangwani to the house of the sick man, and I waited with the kids.  While we were waiting, Elijah cut his lip with a stick, and Ketzia was so tired that she literally screamed the entire time David was away until she finally fell asleep in my arms from sheer exhaustion.  :)  David was gone for about 30 minutes.  When he came back he reported that the man he had prayed for looked really, really bad -- he had a huge growth on his neck and looked like he would die at any moment.  When we came back through Chipata 2 weeks later we learned that this man had been taken to the hospital in Lusaka and passed away there.

Then it was time to head back to our camp.  A girl from Chipata asked for a lift back to town, so Sangwani took the front seat and we all squeezed into the back again.  Ketzia still asleep on my lap.  And back down the horrible road we went lurching and bumping.  :) 

 

 

 

 

 

one of the 'bridges' we had to ford

another portion of the road

At last we were back in the town of Chipata, where we dropped off Sangwani and the girl from the village and then headed back to our campsite, tired after a long day full of new experiences.

The end of the story is... remember how I said that the back of our truck was chock-full with camping equipment?  :)  Well, we came back from visiting Levy's church with this huge gift of massive stalks of sugar cane, loads of bananas, etc. and our first concern was 'Where on earth are we going to fit all these things??'  We had absolutely NO space.  So in the end, we asked around at the campsite where we were staying and found out about a local school for deaf and blind children, and donated all the food to them!  It was nice to know that even though we couldn't benefit from the generosity of these villagers ourselves, we could at least pass the blessing on to others who would really appreciate it.