Welcome to Malawi!

It is hard to believe that it has only been 7 days since we have arrived in Malawi. It seems like a lifetime ago that we boarded the plane in Toronto. Some things are being adjusted to very easily, others not so much. The weather is probably the easiest to adjust too, as it is unimaginable that it is winter back in Canada. Here it is warm everyday, and it rains every other, and the thought of snow actually doesn’t cross any of our minds.   The slow manner in which things are done around here definitely does take some getting used to.

Boarding the plane

So, what has this week been like? A few examples I suppose. We landed at Chileka airport in Blantyre last week Wednesday, and were completely shocked to find that all 17 suitcases, 8 hand luggages, the stroller, and the booster seat had all made it on our plane!!!   Out of the 4 previous times that I have visited Malawi, 3 times the luggage was missing, so you can understand that now we were very surprised. We were warmly greeted as Wim Akster and Charles Paundedi came to the back to help organize the visa’s and to load up all the luggage.  It was nice to see some familiar faces.  We also had a surprise as we walked out of the building, to see a couple from Tillsonburg, who attend our church in Ontario, standing there to greet us and say “welcome to Malawi”.  This couple was visiting his family in Malawi.   When we came “home” (the guest wing at Wim Akster’s house is our temporary home) we had coffee, followed by a meal which we ate together with Wim Akster and Thera Verdouw. Shortly after this we went to bed, exhausted after 21.5 hours of flying, plus driving, and waiting at the airport. We had an interesting night of sleep. Or rather, lack of sleep. Half of the kids could not sleep until 2:30, while the other half slept really well until about 2:30. Thankfully that has all straightened out after 2-3 nights.  Thursday was spent exploring some of the city of Blantyre. We did some groceries, bought some SIM cards for our phones, and took a quick stop at our rental house in Mpemba, which is just south of the city of Blantyre. On Friday I went with Clement Gopanikufa, the secretary of Timotheos Malawi, to immigration and put in the paperwork for the Employment Permit. This was all accepted, and we should hear back within a month. This was a very positive outcome, as that process can take many trips and papers, etc. Also, on Friday, a container arrived from Holland with donated school furniture and many shoeboxes filled with gifts for the orphans and students.   The container was supposed to be at Wim’s place at 8 a.m. but didn’t show up until 1 p.m.  The container also could not be unloaded unless a government official was there, for customs and duties purposes.  This government official was supposed to be there at 1, but didn’t show up until 3.   During this time there are many people sitting around, waiting, waiting, and waiting some more, but no one is upset, no one is impatient, and no one is worried. Waiting is part of life in Malawi.  On Sunday we went to church in Mbulumbudzi. This is a village where one of the Dutch projects is located. (In the Reformed Presbyterian Church they have church at 10 a.m. and have two services following each other.) There was a translator there, as there are also two of the Dutch employees attending. Church was good, although we had a fairly difficult time trying to understand the translator. His English was quite good, but he had a very Malawian accent. On Monday we went back to our patience training, as we had to go for curtains (curtains are a necessity for security).  This included arranging to pick up a tailor who then measures the windows of your house, going to a store to pick out material, measure it, cut it, and then to bring it down to the tailor who works on the front porch of the store; all this took more than 5 hours, and that’s just normal. That’s what Malawian life is about. Everything takes long, and if you accomplish something in a day, that’s great! So after a week even though it feels like we haven’t gotten a whole lot done, we still have immigration arranged as far as we can; we have a duty waiver arranged for the container, whenever that shows up; we have arranged curtains; we have arranged a painter for our rental house; we have made some headway in looking at cars; and we have made many contacts.

The “sewing street”

In regards to Timotheos we have not done too much yet. Although we have had some meetings, and made many contacts. We hope to be moving to our rental house in Mpembe in about 2 weeks, and I also hope to start working along more and more.

Front yard of our “soon-to-be” home

So far we look back at a productive week, thanks to all the help that we have received here. We are also thankful that God has made all things well until now, and pray and trust that He will continue to do so.

Greetings, The Oomen Family

Catching lizards has been one of the highlights for these boys.