Update

 

We haven't been posting because our internet connection hasn't worked for the last 1 ½ weeks so I am sending this from a friend's computer.  Here's what has been happening:

First, we purchased the lot that we wanted last week.  According to everyone here, it is truly a miracle.  Apparently buying land is not that easy and our land agent said there are people who have been on the waiting list for years so God must have been with us.  Our caregivers have also been amazed that we could buy land and such a nice lot.  We can only give God the glory as we were ignorant to the process and just let God handle it without getting too involved.  Now we are waiting for the plans from the architect which we will submit to the City Assembly.  When they approve the plans we can proceed to build.  Please pray that this approval process doesn't take months and we can start building soon.

Second, we have hired a supervisor for the nursery.  It is a woman that has been working as a fill in caregiver and a general helper to me.  She worked for the government for 20 years so she has experience in the real work force and has some supervisory experience.  She is a mature Christian with a heart for God.  I have always been impressed with her but never considered her because we were told we couldn't hire someone that already worked for us.  One day Andy mentioned that maybe we should just hire Veronica for the position.  It was like a revelation to me and I immediately felt that she was the one.  Since hiring her I have seen a change in her as she has risen to the challenge.  She takes initiative and isn't afraid to approach me with her ideas.  So far, I have been very pleased and haven't observed any negative attitudes from the other ladies.

Now that we have a supervisor we are looking for a house to rent for the nursery.  We just received our 9^th baby last week, a 6 week old little boy named Solomon, and our 2 bedrooms seem awful small.  I have also hired a young lady to be the nursery housekeeper and cook so the nannies can devote most of their time to the babies.  When Veronica and the housekeeper are both working there are 4 ladies plus nine babies all squeezed into the nursery wing.  Please pray that we can find a rental house.  Apparently Mzuzu is the fastest growing city in Malawi and housing is in high demand.  We started looking last week but they get rented as soon as they are available.           Lisa

 

Sickness Again

The weather has been turning cold this past month and right on its heels has come sickness.  Right now, everyone in the Langdon household has some sort of cold except for me (Lisa) and six out of our 8 babies also have colds.   In addition to the colds, Bridget and Sarah now have malaria and so does Mphatso. 

At the beginning of our stay here every time someone was sick our staff told us, “malaria.”  We just laughed and ignored it.  We ignored it until one of our kids actually did come down with it.  Now that 4 out of our 6 children have gotten malaria, we treat it much more seriously.  We have yet to see someone get malaria without first having some other sickness.  To our uneducated minds, it appears that when your immune system is taxed then malaria takes a hold. 

I can’t say that I have gotten use to my children getting malaria as it is a deadly disease; it is quite sobering and difficult to deal with emotionally.  We can only trust Him who is able to keep us from falling and who will “never leave us nor forsake us.”            Lisa

Mzuzu, the cold heart of Malawi

Time for a weather update.  For those of you unfamiliar with African seasons, there are basically 3 in this part of the continent.  From about September to November is the dry season, then from November to April is the rainy season, followed by the cold season  in May through August.  Now cold is a relative sort of thing.  Here in Mzuzu the cold season means lows of around 45 to 50 degrees at night and highs in the 60’s during the day time.  It is magnified by the fact there is no heat in the brick houses, so the inside temperature becomes what the average air temperature is.  The weather here over the past week has reached a quite predicable regime of wind and rain beginning during the night and continuing until noon or later, followed by brief clearing in the afternoon with a glimpse of the sun around sundown.  It’s interesting that Mzuzu seems to have it’s own microclimate as many mornings when it’s drizzling here you can look off to the south and see the edge of the cloud line about 10 miles away.  Whenever you travel it only takes a few miles to reach warmer temperatures.  This coolness is great during the dry (hot) season when places like Karonga roast at over a 100 degrees every day, but this time of year it is just like the late fall rains of November in White Salmon.  I guess we won’t get homesick for chilly fall weather, but it’s hard to believe Malawi’s motto of “the warm heart of Africa.”

 

Andy

 

Update

The longer we have been here in Malawi the fewer updates we seem to write.  I’m sure that part of it is that we have gotten busier but more than that it is because life is becoming more “normal” to us.  Next month we will have been here for a year—it is hard to imagine we are half way through our 2 year commitment. Even though we encounter many frustrations every day we have learned that they are all a part of living here and don’t think that anyone would be interested in hearing about them.    I’ll try and give a brief update on what we have been doing lately.

- We took our nannies to Lilongwe to see how the nursery there operates.  We left our children with friends (or they use to be J) and took five ladies on the first trip.  They were thrilled as most of them had never been in Lilongwe.  The ladies spent one afternoon and then the next morning assisting the Lilongwe caregivers.  We spent one night and treated them to eating out for their meals.  It was also a treat for Andy and me as it was the first time we didn’t have our children with us so we ate dinner at a very nice restaurant and enjoyed peace and quiet for a short time.  Two weeks later we returned with the remaining nannies and repeated the process.  They were so thankful for what we had done for them and we enjoyed being able to give them an opportunity they had never had before. 

- We are in the process of trying to buy a beautiful lot to build a stand alone nursery on.  As we said before buying land here is not as simple as in the states.  Since this property has no improvements on it (nothing built) it can not be sold.  The man who is working with us has been trying to get a letter of revocation which allows us to buy it regardless of improvements.  The man who the land has been allocated to is willing to sell it but needs permission from the land commission to do so (don’t ask for an explanation on all this).  Supposedly the letter has been written but will not be signed until the 10^th.  Like I said, don’t ask!  We don’t really understand how it works but we know that God can do all things and we will trust Him to complete the sale. 

- Andy tried for weeks to open a Ministry of Hope bank account where MoH can put funds to purchase the land.  Sounds simple, huh?  Not so.  I’ll let him explain why it took 2 weeks and many, many trips to the bank.

- We received a call asking if we had room for another baby as there was a 1-week old baby from Likoma Island whose mother had died.  Of course we said yes and then waited for the baby to come.  Apparently the ferry from the island only comes on Saturday night so they were going to bring the baby to the social welfare office on Monday (they had called on Wednesday).  Well it’s been 2 weeks and no baby.  When we ask about it the social welfare officer says that he doesn’t know and doesn’t do anything to find out.  This is something that is very difficult to get use to.  We would be willing to rush there and get the baby but they treat this life and death situation very casually.  With other babies, I have tried calling every day to find out where they are, offered to provide transport and it doesn’t get us anywhere so now I put it in the Lord’s hands.  I’m assuming that the baby died and it just breaks our heart.  They are never in a hurry to get these babies to us.  Maybe it’s how you react because death is all too common here but for us it is hard to accept.

- We are looking for someone to hire as nursery supervisor.  If we can a supervisor then we can move the nursery into a rental house and set it up to function independently from our house.  We would still oversee the nursery but we would have more flexibility and not tied as much as we are with it in our home.  We are unwilling to advertise as we don’t want a stream of people at our gate.  Please pray that we can find someone who will truly love babies and has a heart for this ministry.      Lisa