Completed First Week of Class

Thursday we continued with our teaching and were glad to have electricity the whole time! Apparently sometimes they announce the times of the load shutting in the newspaper, but I haven’t seen any schedule yet, so we’re just taking it day by day.  The students are already progressing well with their typing and becoming more familiar with moving around the desktop and working in Microsoft Word. 

Thursday evening Laura and I joined Melissa and the missionaries for an Ethiopian dinner at a restaurant called the Queen of Sheba’s. It was a neat experience. There are two main platters of bread similar to a spongy flat pancake which is called Injera. Then there are several bowls of sides which you lay out on top of the Injera. There are separate rolls of Injera and each person takes one and uses it to scoop up a bite of the dish they’d like. We had several lentil dishes, cabbage, tomato, cheese and chicken. After eating all the food on the plate, you finish by eating the Injera on the platter- literally eating your plate! Yum!

Friday we did not teach because there was a church service to close the week of the continuing education classes for the pastors. We attended the service at 11. All of the songs except for one were sung in Chichewa and it was amazing hearing the church full of Zambian and Malawian pastors singing acapella in Chichewa. We followed along as best we could in the Chichewa songbook and luckily the sermon was in English. Again the LBI choir sang and they wore their deep purple robes; it was amazing hearing them! At the end of the service, they called up 3 pastors who just finished their studies and were receiving their certificate of divinity. Each pastor received a gift of a wooden communion table to serve individual cup at their church. So that was neat to see!

Saturday we enjoyed a beautiful day at Lake Malawi. It is about an hour and a half drive from Lilongwe and the drive is beautiful; both the people and the landscape. It is so interesting seeing the villages we pass through and the people- I’m still amazed at how the women balance things on their heads, and how the men balance materials on their bikes: firewood, baskets of vegetables, chickens hanging from the handlebars, huge bags of grains...

It was beautiful weather at the beach: sunny and warm enough that I went swimming in the lake. It was clear and so warm! Pastor Nitz and family brought a grill along so we enjoyed grilling lunch there and relaxing for the day.

Tomorrow starts our second week of class. We couldn’t get a hold of the taxi driver, so we’re leaving early in the morning to get some exercise and walk there.

Ready for a new week!