March Update

I just got back from the village after not being able to go since Christmas. The roads were horrible but we managed to get there. I was planning on seeing if we needed to put in extra support in the windows. Well, when we arrived, we didn’t see the church. Where the church used to be, there were some crops and weeds instead.
During the rainy season, the school, many houses, and the church fell down from the rain and a strong wind. The church supposedly found itself in line of a small river that had formed from the rain. The rains piled up waist deep and eventually, strong wind knocked down a whole wall. As the men went into the storm to collect long logs to hold it up, the other wall collapsed. They have saved the materials but will have to start from the bottom once again. The government fixed their homes and hopefully will fix the school as well. They have decided that the spot they originally put the church did not work well and the chief hasn’t told them where else they can build it. It is a different chief now and I’m hoping he still allows for it to be built. It was just a building, the church is a body of believers. Even so, I hope and pray they can have shelter over their heads during the different seasons that come.
Even without a church, we sat the kids against a hut with some shad and I taught about Hannah and her prayers to God. Meanwhile, Khuzwayo was able to gather the men and woman together while he preached salvation. I enjoyed hanging out with the kids as he finished up his sermon. Makes me not want to leave.
Speaking of leaving, I ask that if you remember, or as you read this, you pray for where God is sending me next. I have a couple of amazing opportunities in America that I am looking at, as well as the option of staying here. ABC needs a dance teacher and they are hard to come by in Africa. I want to go where God can use me the most and right now, I’m just waiting to see where that is. Whatever happens, I want to do some sort of missions, whether it’s in America or across the ocean.
On a random note, I saw a goat giving birth in the village today…….. how weird.
On a serious note, malaria isn’t just traveling through ABC but also through the village that I visit and an orphanage I was in last week. Many of the men have died in the village and a little girl in the orphanage. Please keep these people in your prayers.
My students seem to be doing great and haven’t gotten malaria. I hope their parents have given them the anti-malaria pills! My students seem to get funnier to me and I’m thankful for it because I’m getting tired and ready for Spring Break.
I have choreographed all of my dances and now still need to figure out costumes… which has turned into my least favorite thing to do in this world. At least I have some help and I’m hoping to get it figured out this weekend.
A college student and I am doing a Bible study on Romans with about 10 other people. I am loving it so far and enjoy every intense discussion about Gods wrath and how he shows us grace. It helps get me through the week.
Thanks for your prayers! They mean so much to me and everyone here!

January Update

Happy February!
I have almost been back in Malawi for a month and wanted to give you some details on what has been happening.
Everyone is getting sick, including myself, with some stomach bug. Don’t worry, its not malaria. As I sit here at home while my kids are at school, its not as fun as I thought it might be. My first day of skipping school ever, and it stinks.
A new law was passed in Malawi last week. It is now illegal to “break wind” in a public place. These are the laws they’re working so hard to pass when we still never know when we’ll have petrol available for our cars.
It was my new roommates birthday on Friday so we had a surprise party! She coaches volleyball at the college so the men’s team and a couple others showed up. My friend and I made a cupcake display that we were very proud of. I’ll try to put up pictures when I get them.
The college is starting back this week and my roommate and I have planned to storm the dorms with cookies on Thursday for the girls! I’m super excited to make more college friends!
I haven’t been to the village since December. The only campus car allowed to drive on dirt roads has been broken for 2 months. I have heard rumor of it being driven around town but who knows if it is actually fixed this time.
I had a fundraiser for ballet on Saturday night. We were in an outdoor pavilion watching Princess Diaries from a projector. We made popcorn and Sobo (thick sweet liquid that you dilute with water) and sold leotards that I brought from the states. Since there aren’t any movie theaters yet around here, most of the little girls from school came. I became worried when the rain began to blow sideways into the pavilion and made the kids and leotards wet! They handled it well. I became worried again when the power went out in the middle of the movie and some girls knocked over a tall speaker on accident. Thankfully it wasn’t broken. I distracted the girls with simon says, Father Abraham, and If You’re Happy and You Know It. Finally, the power came back on and we finished the movie with the few girls who were left. It was an adventure for sure. I’m trying to raise money for our end of the year ballet costumes. We have charged the girls a small amount for the costumes each time so we haven’t been about to keep them for the school. This time, I’m hoping to buy costumes for at least one dance so that we can have them for next year. I really hope I don’t have a costume fiasco this year!
My new found food is chimanga. Chimanga is roasted corn from the side of the road. It is crunchy and chewy and reminds me of popcorn. My roommate loves it and gets it everyday for her birthday week. It only costs 30 Kwacha which is like $.20. I’ll post pictures of chimanga too when I take some!
My kids are awesome as usual. It was poring rain yesterday during recess and the kids were sad they didn’t get to go outside. I turned on DC talk and we turned our class into a dance party! It was great! We also had fun last week planting sunflowers in my backyard. Some have begun to sprout, and some will probably never come up due to poking giant holes and packing the dirt down very tight.
I could use your prayer in a couple of areas:
*for my own spiritual growth as I get busy with things that seem important
*for my students to soak in what I teach
*for everyone’s health right now
*for details to work out so I can get started on the village ministry again this year.

Thanks for all of your prayer and support!

A monthly update

Its been a long time. Sorry for that. Since my last post lots of things have happened but here are the highlights:

Last month was Reading Day.
Reading day is a day completely devoted to reading. I have been reading Pippi Longstocking to my kids so that is who I dressed up as. I ended up winning the girl teacher costume award! yay! I took the wires out of my hair half way through the day after I poked one of my barnacle like kids in the eye. Nothing bad happened, thank goodness! When I got home I desperately wanted to wash my hair but the water was only dripping out of the shower. I bucket washed it and it took me about 5 shampoo's and over an hour to get the red out. It was worth it!

I was also a part of a readers theater with some of the other teachers and played Baby Bear.


When I arrived back in August I found that the Chinchen's dedicated the old preschool room to my ballet classes! We have a couple mirrors and 2 of the barres I had made last year. I got 2 more 12foot ballet barres made and painted. Now it's feeling more like a ballet studio! I am currently working on choreographing 4 dances and teaching them for the Christmas show.


The Christmas show........
I am busy getting details ready for the show coming in only 7 weeks. My biggest job right now is figuring out angel costumes for 300 students. Something I have no experience doing. I am also working on making the flyer so that the students can have a design contest. I will choose a couple of cute ones and display them around campus. Then, the winner will be used as the program for the show.

The village program is going well! They have finished making the bricks for the church and just began putting them up. In a couple of weeks I hope they will be ready for us to put on a roof. I am praying that someone shows up in my life that can guide me through this process in a way to not confuse me completely. I am hoping to ask my growth group when it gets closer to the time to help me with this.


My growth group is a small group from my local church. We meet at my house every Monday night and discuss the sermon from Sunday. We also pray and share. I've enjoyed getting to know the people in my group and doing outreaches with them.

We are planning to do a girls outreach in a couple of weeks. We will invite the girls basketball team to my house for a chick flick and FOOD. I'm hoping we'll get a good response and can make some more girls feel welcome at the church.

Parent teacher conferences are this week. I will meet with each parent to discuss their child's report card. This is NOT my favorite time of the year, but I know it is needed.

It is getting HOT. I seemed to have forgotten how hot it was before the rains start. I'm hoping they start soon to give some relief to my hard working students. We call all become a bit grouchy when we're sweating through our clothes during math. I have a hard time staying after school when all I want to do is jump in the pool!


Chop-chops and roaches are in full bloom around here. We have killed 2 chop-chops already in the last couple of weeks. These are gross spider/crab things that I have never seen anywhere but here.


I just wanted to update you on how things are going. Please pray that all of the details are completed for the Christmas show! Pray for my sanity through it and that the kids will learn so much more then how to act and sing on key. Please pray for myself as a teacher. That I would be able to teach the information in a clear and fun way that they can all understand and remember. Almost all of the kids have moved up their reading score drastically since the first day of school!

I hope everyone on the other side of the world is having a fantastic Fall!