Living and Working in Chikwawa

My last blog post was 4 months ago. Really?  My apologies.  I must face the facts that  I am a poor communicator. I rarely email. I struggle to get on FaceBook. I am always months behind in responding to my emails.

I accept this is me. I thank God for his grace in my shortcomings, and that my friends and family accept this as well! And oh, how I love my friends and family. Especially anyone who is taking the time to read this blog. (:

Now, I will try to redeem myself with some Green family updates.

Chikwawa

Since my last post in May, we have been living and working on the property of Hope Village, an amazing ministry under the umbrella of a UK organization called Hope for the Nations.  You can read about the Hope Village project here:      www.hopevillagemalawi    I will also write more about this organization as my blog updates continue.

Our village borders a dry, brittle, dusty dirt road in oh-so-hot Chikwawa

So … our new home since May is in Hope Village, in the village of Ntondeza 2, in the district of Chikwawa, in the country of Malawi … in the continent of Africa, of course! We are an hour’s drive south of the city of Blantyre, down a winding mountain road into a drought-ridden, dusty, desertous and VERY hot terrain. The average temperature from October through March is about 40c, or 104F. It can get as high as 50c (122F)!  And it’s humid, not dry. That means sweat. All day. And all night!

Entrance into the Hope Village project where we work and live.

Although we live on the Hope Village property, it is unfenced and we are living within the borders of a small village called Ntondeza 2.  Our village, like all of those in Chikwawa, is among the poorest and most depressed in Malawi, due mostly to the lack of rainfall, lack of good water for agriculture (the water down here is very salty), and lack of employment opportunities.

Rhoda's house is your typical village home in Chikwawa -- just a few mud bricks and some dried grass on the roof. It is just a few hundred feet from our very comfortable Western home. 

Hard to reconcile this dichotomy.

This is Dyratu, the closest "bigger town" for shopping. 
This is a picture of the market on an off-market day.

Despite the harsh living conditions, the people in Chikwawa are cheerful, hardworking, and, most impressive – they are hopeful. They always have faith that tomorrow will be better than today.  They always pray a thankfulness for God’s daily provisions. Their perseverance is remarkable, sometimes unfathomable.

One of my favorite families in our village - this mom has spent the last 2 years making 3,500+ mud bricks in her "spare time" in order to move her family out of this crumbling home. She had to sell off 1,000 of them last year to pay for her son's school uniform.  She's still at it...

We are so happy to be living and working so close to and with Malawian people. We can leave our front door and within minutes be in the middle of your typical village with homes made from mud bricks dried grass roofs, dirty children with big smiles, strong women with pails of water on their heads, shepherds with their cattle, sheep and goats, bicycle taxis as the main transportation source and carts pulled by donkeys.  And best of all, amazing people who are teaching us amazing lessons. (These lessons would make a great book called, "So you think YOU'VE got it bad?.....")

Shepherds bring their herds onto Hope Village property for special meals. Annie, of course, feels right at home with the animals (prepping for her cows in Washington).

The adorable but oh-so-dirty little children tug at our hearts...every day.