First Day of Sweat and Dirt

I awoke at 6:30 minutes after the sun rose. I hadn't slept well all night - the night was as hot as summer in Canada. Around 30 - 33 degrees. After eating a welcoming breakfast, Keiran and I went for a short tour to see part of the village.

The woman break those seed pods (little thick sticks hanging down) off the tree and use them as firewood.

Keiran. A pretty cool kid that is not afraid to walk almost anywhere in Malawi in bare feet. (Spoiler alert: Two days later (I am writing this post late.) Keiran, Darren, and I had to help toss some wood in a trailer. So I walked down this little path and then all the sudden a thorn went through my flipflop into my foot. It went in a little less than a half inch deep. I pulled it out and wiped off the blood. That wasn't so bad. It felt like a needle going inside of me. But the after affect was! It was two to three  times as bad as a bee sting. Did I mention I'm allergic to bee stings?

This house was what the missionaries that just left were building before they ran out of money to continue. If you walk through this patch of nature to that house, your legs would most likely be cut up pretty well and bloody, and your feet would be pierced all the way through with two inch thorns.

The goat pen.  Full of goats. There are goats running in small herds all over the village all day and night. Those goats up on the ledges just jump up from the concrete floor to that place they are standing on, to the top ledge. Just like that one goat there. The fence around the side windows keep them in.

This tree Darren is standing by is a mango tree. They had papaya, mangoes, oranges, sugarcane and a lot more.

The oranges here are green, but they are pretty good all the same.

This is the house that I will be staying at for the next two months. There are only two other houses like this. The rest are all small brick houses for the villagers. These houses are for the missionaries.

After we went walking around part of the village, Keiran and I were called up to help get a small Black Mamba baby out of the next door missionary's tub. Keiran grabbed a machete, and we both ran into the bathroom. There was the poisonous Black Mamba. It is lumpy, because it just ate something.

Before

Keiran took the machete to its head and cut it off. Fifteen minutes later, it was still trying to bite me as I carried it away in a cloth.

After

I was blogging, and Keiran came into my room with this spider. It was two inches square, and it is not poisonous in any way.

Keiran and I went over to help his mother make chili and caesar salad. The cooking was fast. I had to wash a bunch of mushrooms that they got out of Blantyre. They wash them, because Leila says that the Malawians usually grow them in manure. This is a picture of the founder of Hope Village's house with his hallway that winds back and forth. It is a really awesome house. They should have more brick houses in Canada.

Brick galore.

We went down to the entrance of Hope Village to meet the founders of Hope Village and the new missionaries that are coming in February to take over, because Darren, Leila and Keiran are leaving. They are all really nice. One of the owners is the man in grey standing beside Darren, who is standing  by the door. One of the new missionaries is the man, Brett, standing by the curtain. Jackie, a missionary who is living on the land for years now, is the one standing, looking down at the table. The woman in the chair is just visiting for a few weeks. This is more of the owner's (founder's) house. We are having dinner in his house. The power is out, so we are using little lamps and candles.

Yes, Dane. I have tried the Fanta. It is pretty good. They sell them here for $0.50 Canadian. Next thing is the ear piercing. Mum, they just put a thorn through your ear. Lol Jk. I don't know what they do here.

Lots of Orange Fanta here. Lol

So one thing that happens every day here is: Power outage. The power goes out one to two times a day. For one to fifteenish hours each time. So it is hard to keep up with blogging. Lol. I need prayer for one thing right now. The electrical company might go on strike here for one to two weeks, and I won't be able to charge my camera to take photos, and I won't be able to use a dead computer, and I won't be able to upload any blog posts, because every time the power is out, the wifi turns off everywhere here in Hope Village. So ya.... PRAY! just like, please pray :).

#candlelitnightsinmalawi