Almost There

June 26, 2009  (I think.)

 

We’re in Africa!  But not yet to our final destination.  

 

I’m sitting here trying to figure out the day of the week.  Let’s see, we left New York on a Thursday, so today must be….oh my gosh.  Was Thursday just yesterday?  We had an easy and uneventful flight on South African airlines, fifteen hours direct from New York, arriving in Johannesburg South Africa around 8:30 this morning.  As soon as we were able to check into the hotel we all went back to bed.  The Enforcer (that would be me) limited everyone to a 2 hour nap.  NO ONE wanted to get up again. 

 

We don’t have the time or inclination to get out and explore Jo-burg.  Mostly because we just need to regroup before we get back on a plane tomorrow, but also because it is 34 degrees here!  We didn’t pack for that!  It’s beautifully sunny though.  No worries, Malawi will be warmer.  Our first impression about this part of Africa is  “Wow.  This pretty much looks like home.”  There’s a McDonald’s, KFC, and Shell gas station right beside the hotel and the landscape looks a lot like Kansas in winter.  Everybody speaks English, of course, but the African accent can be hard to understand.  Our true African experience will begin tomorrow, I think. 

 

We spent a wonderful and busy 2 ½ days in New York with Mark’s parents.  We had a great time at Coney Island and the Mets game.  (In the new stadium!)  We visited Mark’s sister, Lynn, in her studio in Harlem where she and Nelson are putting together their fabulous looking documentary on Tibet fueling excitement for shooting our own photos and video here.  As we walked many blocks down the middle of Harlem Annie whispered to me that she felt very out of place.  Ours were the only white faces most of the time.  We just smiled and said,  “Well, get ready for Africa.”  It is an important experience to know what it feels like to be the minority, to inhabit someone else’s world, whether it be in bush Alaska, the streets of Harlem or the villages of Malawi.  It is the only way that we can grasp a little of what it is like  for people with whom we work, study, play and worship to always feel like the outsider. 

 Some pics from New York:

Annie wins at the carnival at Coney Island.

Can't tell they're going really fast, but they are!

The scene on the boardwalk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Off to an Adventure in Malawi

Mt. Mlanje, Image via Wikipedia

Adventure:  a daring and exciting activity calling for enterprise and enthusiasm.  

It's almost time to go.  We are finishing our packing and rechecking our lists.  We keep thinking of just one more thing that would be helpful to have or fun to share with the people we will be working with in Malawi.  We've had our shots, we've collected all of our anti-malarial drugs and emergency medications.  We've talked to lots of people about what to expect, how to get there, where to get money, what there will be to eat, and whether we have to worry about snakes (the answer is probably not...yay!).  We've seen videos of MCV where we will be working and of the surrounding villages.  We've seen pictures of the house 

where we will be staying and the car that we will be driving.  I even have a grocery list of the things that I need to buy in the big city before we head out into the country.  Even with all that, do we really have any idea of what it will be like or how things will turn out?  No!  But we are excited to go and find out.  

The truth is, even with all of our preparations, it is still hard to imagine that the Thorndike family is heading off to Africa to live and work for a month.  Our adventure really began many years ago.  Mark has always been a bit of an explorer and loves to travel.  I am a girl who grew up in Kansas and had never been on a plane until I was 23 years old.  But, I have accompanied Mark on several international adventures, though not without a bit of trepidation and foot dragging.  15  years ago now we made a trip to Nepal to trek in the Himalayas.  It was really and truly life changing to experience the Nepali culture up in the mountains.  Daily we saw people who had very few "extra" possessions other than basic clothing, housing, and food, but who were happy.  We knew then that we would want our kids to experience something similar.  The trip changed our world view at the ages of 31.  We didn't want our kids to wait that long.  

I don't think that my Tim (13) and Annie (11) could tell you that they know or have interacted with any

one that they would call poor.  We want them to see first hand the way that a huge proportion of the world population lives.  The people that we will be serving in Malawi are very, very poor. Malawi is currently ranked as the 5th poorest country in the world.  Most of the people around MCV have shelter and food, though not always enough.  

Let me tell you a little bit about Malawi.  If you squint hard enough at this map you will Malawi shows up as a squiggle down in the southeastern part of the country surrounded by

 Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.  Lake Malawi, the third largest lake in the world runs along it's easterb border.  Malawi is known as "the warm heart of Africa".  The people there are friendly and interested in foreigners and there is a low crime rate.  According to Mr. Sibale, the executive director for MCV, there has never been a war in Malawi. He says that sometimes there is a benefit to not having anything that anyone else wants.   Malawi has a multi-party democratic government and has none of the violence and unrest of many of its neighbors.  It is largely a rural and agricultural society.  

While in Malawi we will be living in the resort area of Palm Beach which is right on the lake and working at Malawi Children's village whose headquarters is a few kilometers away.  MCV serves AIDS orphans in a variety of ways.  The central campus is comprised of the secondary school (what we would call high school), a nursery for babies and toddlers who need special care, various vocational schools and a clinic.  Most of the AIDS orphans are living with extended family in 24 surrounding villages and receive benefits through MCV outreach workers.  There is also AIDS education for adults.  Check out their website:  www.malawichildrensvillage.com/

We are not sure yet of all of the opportunities for service that we might encounter but we definitely plan to help tutor in the secondary school, work in the nursery, visit the village with the outreach workers, and do fun activities with the elementary age children who wander into MCV in the afternoon looking for something to do.  I am taking a lot of beginning readers to help the young ones with their English skills.  (The primary kids don't speak a lot of English, but they need to speak English for the secondary school.)  Also, we will be helping in the village school in Palm Beach doing similar activities.  We might also be teaching English to adults in the evenings a few nights a week.  There is a hospital which is supported by the Icelandic government about an hour a way which is fairly well run.  Mark hopes to be able to do a few days of surgery there.  

We also have some fun planned.  There are all kinds of wonderful activities on the lake including snorkeling and kayaking, hopefully hiking some of Mt. Mlanje, and a safari i

  Lake Malawi, Image via Wikipedia  

n Zambia.  (Don't worry, we're not going to shoot anything except with our cameras.)  

So, once again we have lots of hopes and fears and dreams and concerns about this trip, but we know that it will be an adventure, a bit daring, definitely exciting and calling for enterprise and enthusiasm. It will be challenging in many ways, but ultimately hugely rewarding for all 4 of us.  We hope that you will share in the adventure with us via this blog.

Our journey begins on June 22, but due to time changes and stopovers (we get to see the grandparents in NewYork, they're taking us to Coney Island), we don't actually arrive in Malawi until June 27th.