Day 11 & 12 (Tuesday & Wednesday)

This week , we ran the program for between 250 and 350 children. We've again experienced the challenge of telling a parable while competing with crying babies, clucking chickens, children squabbling over who sits where or who gets to hold their shared plastic cup, and the many children walking in who are on Malawi time (aka whenever they get there). Just like at home, we notice that some children are attentive and some aren't. They are definitely doing well learning the Chichewa memory verse (Matt 25:13) and are making progress on the, for them more difficult, English Psalter we are teaching (290:1).

Today, we got out bubbles and beach balls for the smaller ones and Jenga games and the favorite: footballs (soccer balls) for the older ones. They are excited to play with brand new soccer balls as they are more used to kicking around homemade balls made from string tightly wrapped around plastic bags. We enjoy letting the older children pick which activity they want, and, after the busy mornings of keeping the many 3 to 10 year olds entertained, we all look forward to the easier afternoons with the standard/grades 4-8. Again, we were treated to lunch: Nsima (we're still not big fans...), eggs, tomato, and cabbage. 

After our day on Tuesday, Mr. Peter took us on  an impromptu drive to the border of Mozambique.  While looking at the river that forms the border, we and a group of Malawians were surprised by a large grunt/growl sound and were amazed to see some hippos swimming in the other side of the river!  We had fun watching the hippos with the locals from the safety of the shore and watching the locals who were canoeing down the river.

Wednesday, we stopped by the Chigumukire child care center, about 20 minutes away from Nyamithuthu. This center is one of the ones with a foster home, so we dropped off some gifts for the 16 children who live there. We were also taken on a nice tour of the crop fields this center has and saw the drip irrigation system, over 500 banana trees, and many tomatoes, onions, and cabbages growing. Every afternoon, we come home pretty tired from the heat and business of each day. But our time has flown by, and it's hard to believe we only have two more days left to spend with the kids!