When the storms arrive

Student Outreach Malawi is STORM. Groups of students come every year to Malawi for a whistle stop tour, which this year is even more whistle stop, just 10 days in duration. Before they arrived, those here in Malawi were preparing, because 'the storms are coming' (Mary, cook at Fisherman's Rest). Now that they are here, Pastor Rogers of the Church of Disciples refers to us as the 'Stormy team'. In with a bang, out in a whoosh, full of impact, he's not far wrong. And in the wake of the Storm lie many emotions, memories, good times, confusing times, and unfinished thoughts, which will want finishing in the months after. So here I am, processing a few of them.

Storm 1 arrived on the 28th of June on Air Zimbabwe. Subsequently, Air Zim decommissioned their Heathrow flights, so all the rest of STORM has been air-hitching rides from South African Airlines. Nevertheless, they arrived, as did all their luggage, and proceeded to settle into Fisherman's Rest. While there they met with some village school teachers and organised to visit the school and teach one morning's school, and visited the new Fisherman's Rest trust, which runs a children's program each afternoon of the week. The program had just got underway, and the energy and manpower of the team, along with their white faces and shiny footballs, really kicked things into gear. For the team, it was a good chance to see rural Africa not as tourists but as neighbours and participants. The next day we visited Chikwawa Prison, but, lacking the official paperwork that would have allowed us access, we went for drinks in Chikwawa. As we were waiting, a whole school full of kids came by. Their teacher had died, so they were released from school and very willing to spend the morning with Storm, playing baseball and chatting. A short drive took us to Majete Game Park, where we walked with elephant, and drove through herds of nyala, impala, eland, kudu, warthog, as well as spotting a good number of hippo, crocs, and birds. The highlight of the trip was, as we were rushing back to the camp before dark, coming face to face with a huge bull-elephant coming the other way on the narrow track. He was more scared than we were, and thankfully gave way.

Wednesday we rose early and visited Tiyamike Mulungu Orphan Center in dusty Bangula. We ran games with the kids and generally got stuck in, eating in the mess hall and leading the morning devotion before waving a hurried farewell and jetting off the Simbi Village. There, Pastor Kennedy, grateful to have a car available, took us to a bush church where a Thursday morning service had been arranged to greet us. Afterwards we were invited for lunch with the pastor...time constraints meant only half of us stayed, the other group heading to Hope Village mission project to lead yet more children in the Funky Chicken and Go Bananas. I doubt the Village will ever be the same ;)

Friday we taught in Mbame and Madziabango Full Primary Schools, tiring ourselves out and being a little disappointed by the unwillingness of the children to involve themselves in classroom activities. We can only imagine that their syllabus lacks opportunity for interactivity, and they were therefore unused to it. Saturday we taught from the Bible, an overview of our relationship with God, in two interdenominational teaching centres near Fisherman's Rest. Yet again, their were children by the score hanging around outside, so those not teaching organised some group games.

Sunday, we kicked off the day at City Pentecostal Church with drama for the streetkids service, after which Tim Hofmeyr and the musicians led the international service in worship. After a large lunch, we headed to the airport, where we were hoping Bethan Carter was going to arrive and join the team. The previous night we had received a message from her that her ticket had not been printed as SAA had promised, and had heard nothing since, so had been praying. After a tantalising wait while every other passenger came through, she finally emerged, without her suitcase (which we had forgotten to pray for), much to our joy. We all went straight to the Henry Henderson Institute, with it's old church and mission buildings, and took a brief trip through the history of Blantyre. While there, we met some of the local Presbyterian missionaries, who invited us to stay and join their evening prayers, so we did.

Monday and Tuesday, the team (minus Beth and myself) went to Liwonde game park for 1st class game viewing, and then to Club Mak to see Lake Malawi at its finest. They returned home late Wednesday night and flew early Thursday morning. Simon and Vix Ewing, Beth, and I headed straight north in a hired car, aiming to visit the northern lakeshore.

In Lilongwe we ran into problems in the form of a new police speed trap. Simon was driving and the policeman took down all his details and summoned him to court the following morning. This didn't sound like much of a holiday to us, so we appealed to the head of traffic police - Simon was a visitor, the speed restrictions had just been introduced, and the speed limit sign had been obscured by a parked truck. 2 hours later we were granted grace to leave, with the possibility of being followed up later. We still had to queue for an hour to get diesel - there had been a shortage all week - but we used the time to buy ourselves dinner and supplies for the weekend. We finally left Lilongwe at about 7pm, and took 4 and a half hours to finish the trip up to Kande Beach, where we pitched camp and hit the sack.

Kande beach is a lovely resort, with little picturesque cottages on what must be one of the longest stretches of beach on Lake Malawi. On Friday, having heard nothing from the police, we rented a pedalo and headed out to a little island several hundred yards offshore, where we prayed together, snorkelled with cichlids, and dove off rocks into the lake. After pedalling back to shore and packing up, we then drove south to Nkhotakota Pottery Lodge, where they make famous clayware, and where guests can make their own mugs and plates. We declined this pleasure, however, preferring to use our time driving through the Nkhotakota reserve looking for elephants...none emerged. We took a back road to Lilongwe, stopping for lunch in Ntchisi, and avoided all police presence and the way back through the capital city. We were back in Fisherman's Rest by sunset, just as a chiperoni fog enveloped the place.

Storm 2 is now midway through, but you'll have to wait for the next installment if you want the brief on that!