Monday, September 28, 2009

new tentative court date

We have a new TENTATIVE court date set for November 16. That's the earliest the Judge has an opening.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

no news

I am so very frustrated. We did not go to court on Monday because it was declared a holiday and we still have no word on a new court date.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Happy Anniversary to us








































September 17, 2009

Happy Anniversary to us -- one year. I have trouble believing it has been one year since we left our jobs and our life in America and arrived in Malawi. A lot has happened in this last year. We have had the best days of our lives within this last year and also the worst days of our lives within this last year.

Please bear with me as I reflect over some of the highlights from the last year: getting to know and love the children and staff at the orphanage; all-night parties in our neighborhood; fireworks at Christmas instead of Independence Day; no water and no power (sometimes for days at the same time); mini-buses everywhere; lizards everywhere – even in my bed (yuck); friends and family visiting us here; planting or cultivating the orphanage fields; the kids eating lunch at a restaurant for the first time in their lives after we purchased shoes for them; the looks of excitement on their faces when you buy them a cold drink; some of them eating with forks for the first time; having a hot shower when we stay somewhere besides our home; 80 degrees on Christmas Day; no Thanksgiving dinner; praying and worshipping with the kids; the relationships we have developed with other missionaries we have met here; the restaurants we have “discovered”; the daily provisions the Lord has provided for the kids; meeting Miss Malawi; our dog Lukia who guards our house at night and sleeps all day; our cats Princess Fiona and Toby who think they want to stay up all night too; helping cook and serve the kids meals; taking children to the hospital (and a doctor telling me to pretend I work there so I don’t have to stand in line for prescriptions); buying the kids things we take for granted like underwear, slips, trousers; one or the other of us being sick and Ray ending up in the hospital; “Azungu” (white people) being hollered at us dozens of times a day; purchasing “everything” needed to run a house; paying way, way too much for a vehicle that is not worth half of what we paid for it; having the kids from the orphanage come over to bless our house; the excitement all over the country after the Malawi Flames beat Congo in football (soccer); the numerous engagement parties, wedding showers and weddings; “give me my money” being said by people as we drive by; going to the market with Esther to buy food in bulk for the orphanage; hiring and firing staff; getting the honor of naming two babies; two girls being bitten by the same dog; taking the kids for either HIV testing or HIV meds; watching the kids be creative and make something out of nothing; mending the kids clothes; playing with the kids; purchasing food for the kids that they don’t have on a regular basis – like eggs; the breathtaking sunsets and rainbows; ice from our refrigerator; our bad, bad haircuts (we have since found a place that can cut our hair decently); the kids trying to figure out what puzzles were; expensive price of gas here; finding Oreos and Diet Pepsi; the rainy season where it *RAINS*; spending hours and hours typing the school exams; going to the mountain to pray; going to Liwonde game preserve with some American friends and seeing elephants, monkeys and other animals; being *cold* in July; Ganizani’s father dying; the elections in Malawi; Ray’s father dying while we were here; drafting plans for a new orphanage compound; and lastly, our most recent highlight – adopting Mphatso, our beautiful 7 year old daughter.

We have learned a lot of lessons this last year and everything I mentioned above are memories that we would not trade for anything.

Please pray that the remainder of our time that the Lord has us here is fruitful.
Thanks for letting me reminisce over the last year.

We were scheduled to go to court for our adoption next Monday, September 21 but found out yesterday that the court is closing on Monday because it is a holiday. So, our attorney is trying to get a new court date now. Very, very frustrating.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Court date & school
























September 10, 2009

We have a court date for our adoption of Mphatso - Monday, September 21, 2009 at 8:30 am. Yeah!!! Please pray that it goes well.


Mphatso started school last week at St. Andrews International Primary School. We decided that we needs to get her up to US school standards because someday when we move back to the US, she will need to integrate into the US school system. There are no American schools here but there are three British internationals schools in Blantyre. While the curriculum is a bit different than the US, the basics are the same. We thought it would be better for her to struggle now while she is young than when she is older and is set in her ways regarding school. She was in Standard 2 at the orphanage school but after they assessed her, we put her in Standard 1. The teacher sends home extra work for us to work with her on to help her catch up. She is improving and is smart.

She has spelling words every night and a reading book. This is the first week of spelling words and I noticed the improvement in her concentration in just a few days. She just doesn’t know how to learn yet so the process is struggle for her at times.

She *LOVES* her new school. They have swimming lessons twice a week, art class, music class, library, PE and computer class. She started telling everyone that Lake Malawi is at her school – she meant the pool. Esther teases her and asks her if she has caught any fish yet at school. Mphatso puts her head down and laughs.

The night before her first swimming class, we put on her swimsuit. She told me it was too small because she is not used to clothes fitting as tight as a swimsuit does. She didn’t want to wear it and was embarrassed because her legs were showing. She wanted to put something else on because girls here do not show their legs. I assured her that this was ok and that wearing this in the swimming pool was fine. She would put something else on as soon as she got out. I even had to have Lyson come in and explain to her that it was ok. I thought since he is Malawian, she would accept it coming from him. She did and is fine with her swim suit now. Such cultural things we don’t even realize that she will face.

Mphatso was excited after her first computer class because they have enough computers that they do not need to share. She assured me that her computer teacher told them that they were to go home and work on their mum or dad’s computer that night. Yeah, right. She loves the computer and is very good at working the mouse to play games or watch a movie. She also loves to look at pictures of people in America so if anyone has any pictures they want to email me, I’ll download them for her.

I don’t have any pictures of her in her school uniform on the camera we have with us so here are some other pictures of her. She made nsima one day by herself and shared it with her Abambo (dad). Ray was watching her make it then they ate together. We also met another family here who adopted a girl from Malawi. They came over to our house and the girls played together. They are playing bubbles in the back yard with Lukia. We also found a restaurant outside of town that had a tree house. Mphatso and Ray are braver than me. I preferred to stand on the ground and hold the camera.

There is also a picture of a galimoto (car) one of the orphanage boys made out of scrap wires, etc. The kids make items out of clay also so they were taking a picture of us with their camera while we took a picture of them with our camera. Peace fell asleep in church one Sunday so I snapped her picture with Lyson.

May God bless you.

Ray, Alice & Mphatso.

PS – Jamie, this blog’s for you because you complained that I don’t blog enough. Oh yeah, D1a is the best!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

5 days

Sept 2, 2009

The water came back on yesterday afternoon. 5 days without water is a challenge. We conserved water as much as possible, saving bath water to flush toilets and wash hands. It was tough especially when you have a 7 year old who can put on clean clothes, walk out of her bedroom and be dirty. I am not sure how she does it.

The blessing is that on Day 3 and 4, the water came on during the middle of the night for a short time. At 3:00 AM, the water would come on for about an hour so either I would wake up and call Lyson or he would wake up and call me. He and Ben would fill the tubs outside the house and I would fill the tubs inside the house as well as the bathtub. This way, life could go on as normal so we could wash clothes, cook and bathe.

Apparently, everyone in the neighborhood knew the water was on in the middle of the night because I would hear people talking as they walked to fetch water. Most people in our area don’t have running water in their homes so they have to fetch it from a nearby public water source.

I will never take electricity and water for granted in the U.S. again. Although we had no electricity when we left home this morning, I thank the Lord that we have running water today.
This blog was created by Frank Barrett for Ray & Alice Smith.