First weekend in Lilongwe

The World Relief office is a pretty burrow in Lilongwe's Area 10 residential district. The whole of Lilongwe is remarkably green. It is a very different city from a place like Harare in which construction seemed to have started out from a single nucleus and expanded outward like cellular reproduction. Though the infrastructure is underdeveloped Lilongwe is a well-planned city that is spread out over a large area, leaving room for trees, foliage and other greenery. The city could be taken as a rural area when viewed from afar, but looks are deceiving and the city is actually very active on the ground. Tomaida, my supervisor's wife told me that Lilongwe is unique in that it is decidedly African with very few foreign business interests. It's a good picture of Malawi itself: a poor country, but a stable one that manages its own affairs without selling out its land or resources to foreigners. Malawi keeps it real.

I've only been here a few days, but I've made some good friends that will be sad to leave when I go to my permanent situation in Salima. I am staying with my supervisor's family, Sandress and Tomaida Mziska. Sandress is a very thoughtful man who has studied philosophy and anthropology, so we have had several enlightening conversations. He is very wise, softspoken and respectable; he kind of reminds me of Mr. J.O.B Matekone in the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Novels" except way more fatherly. He told me the other day that "Anthropology is essential to the study of theology, since in theology we don't only study God, but also people." A lot of the rhetoric around the church in Malawi is focused on strengthening relationships with each other through seeking deeper closeness with God. Theology and anthropology go hand in hand here, which is, I think probably the best way to go about the latter.

Lewis is a 22-year old employee who is in Lilongwe right now for training before he goes north to the Nkhota kota office. I met him briefly on Friday just after arriving, and we hung out a lot on Saturday during an employee retreat. He acts like we've been friends for years. All I needed was to give him my name and we were best friends within minutes (I love Africa). He has taken it upon himself to guide me through a lot of the cultural hurdles that I need to jump while I'm in Malawi. He deals out information quite freely and whether he knows it or not, he has become my most valuable informant. We have promised to visit each other since Salima and Nkhota kota are not too far away.

Sandress and Tomaida attend Capital City Baptist church headed by an African-American pastor. There were a good deal of occidentals there in various professions from missions to development and business. I felt like I was back in the Forts' mission church in Harare. The building was one of those sunken triangle things with a descending ceiling and vertical windows. The sanctuary seated a couple hundred and flags hung from the ceiling. It is a nice complex with soccer fields, school buildings and a big fountain outside. It's quite a missionary oasis. We all had lunch on Sunday at the pastor's parsonage.

It felt odd to hang out with whites again. I know it's only been a few days, but living with Malawians is such a cultural immersion that the transition was acutely felt. It felt bittersweet. Suddenly I found myself back in the familiar missionary/expatriate community that I had fallen in love with back in Zimbabwe. It was my first vision of Africa, a community that I still may very well be a part of in the future. For now though, I believe Jesus wants me experience an African country through different lenses, from the perspective of its own people. It is difficult (language, dialect, customs, etc.) to adjust. It hasn't been frustrating to me yet, but mainly, uncomfortable. Feeling the difference between Malawian culture and my own breeds a certain discomfort that is not exactly painful or distressing but irksome, like nails on a chalkboard, a multitude of little worries that overwhelm a tired mind during the late hours. I will sometimes lie awake (from jet lag) and feel as if there is something wrong, but I know that nothing is. I am perfectly safe, I enjoy Malawi very much, I have already made friends, I am learning the language, doing my homework, safe and secure. Yet somehow those creeping tinges of cultural unfamiliarity can still leave me wishing for a western safety net. This desire, however is not Jesus' plan for me right now. The Malawian people have so much to teach me. I will have to be dedicated to ridding my mind of my own subconscious stubbornness in order to receive those lessons. I have grown older, more adherent to my own ways. I'm praying that Jesus will bring out the kid in me again, wide-eyed and curious. I'm not as wise as I once was.

I met a wonderful woman named Molly on the airplane who I ended up sitting by at CC Baptist. She knew the Forts, my cousins, from a long time ago. Her husband teaches at the Theology school in Lilongwe and she had just returned from her studies in America. She is so wonderful, I'm so pleased God put her in my path. Actually there were about ten to twenty people at that church that were on my plane, so it was kind of weird and cool. I at least had a conversation starter: "Hey so how 'bout that flight eh? Did you get the beef? Yeah, I should've".