Weekend Activities

First on the agenda for Saturday was a joint SCOM meeting. SCOM stands for Student Christians of Malawi. The meeting started at 8am. Owen, who I work with at World Relief, is actually a SCOM associate, so he invited me and the group staying at the guest house was going as well, so I knew some people involved already. SCOM takes place at individual high schools (secondary schools) as well as some universities and colleges, the joint meeting was with the schools from our local district and was basically a prayer meeting and bible study. The people staying with me at the guest house are actually very large financial supporters of SCOM, so one individual in the group gave a lesson. After the SCOM meeting, a friend and I went to a football game (soccer), which was supposed to start at 2:30pm, didn’t really start until 3:30pm (African time) so we walked around for an hour, found some friends, then watched the game, then walked to the market for some Fanta aka orange soda, very good. I think I will buy a case of that when I get home... For dinner, I went with the group from the guest house to the local secondary school principal’s house for dinner, we had nzima and I got to meet Rose (the principal’s wife) who went to Oxford before coming back to Malawi to raise a family (she stopped mid-way through her schooling), and Martha, the doctor at the local hospital, who is from the US and has been in Malawi for 10 years, with only a few trips back to the US. She is (I think) the only full-time, fully trained doctor in the hospital. They have an orthopedic doctor and nurses, but Martha’s name gets mentioned a lot as the main doctor, so I am pretty sure she is it.

On Sunday, I went to church. English service was supposed to be at 8am, knew where the church was, easy as pie. Well, it was holy communion Sunday. Let’s just leave it there.

Haha, no big deal, it just means that the service was in a different location, all in Tumbuka, and totally disorienting than what I am used to, of course. So while going to the church, a woman was nice enough to stop me and tell that it was communion Sunday and the service was moved to a different location. She then proceeded to yell across the field to multiple of people (around my age), asking people to take me to the place where the service was being held. I have no idea what she was really saying...but I do know that they kept on walking after shouting back, perhaps something like NO. But finally one group was willing to endure my presence
: ) and we walked over. So the service went well, all in Tumbuka, but I got the cues to sit and stand and pray, etc. I should of asked about how they do communion, because, well, they do it differently. Before I know it, in the service, half of the congregation is getting up to leave, some of whom I know, so I am thinking do I stay, go, what? Then the girl I came with made a motion with her hand which I took to be a go ahead and leave....so I left. Walked away not really knowing where I was going or what I was doing...yes, rather confused. Hehe, a learning experience. Then, luckily, thankfully, again thankfully, a friend I had met a SCOM caught up with me, asked if I usually took holy communion, we had some conversation clarifying what he meant, what I meant, how they do it in Malawi, and after visiting his house for about two minutes (don’t know why we went there, but it is the friendly thing to do, invite people over), we turned around and went back to the service and took communion. From this point on it went very well and very smoothly. I didn’t get up and leave any more unless I was supposed to, though I could have stayed for the next service. But 8:30am to 11am was good for me. It was a good experience, the singing was good, the service was meaningful to me, and once again I was made to go in front of an audience and introduce myself. For not liking all the attention, and usually being one to try and blend in....I have a feeling this might not be the right place.

Anyways, if you ever find yourself in front of a crowd in Mzimba, Malawi, say “monire mosse” with an accent over both the e’s, that means “hi everyone” and will make everyone pretty happy, the response is “yewo” which is a word of thanks, or hello, or other greeting. “Monere” is “greetings” and the response to that is “yewo,” “muli uli?” is “how are you?” and the response to this is “nili makola, kwali imwe?” Nili = I am, Makola = fine. Imwe is a word of respect and with kwali it asks how are you back. Makola has taken me the longest time to learn. I still forget or say it wrong. I say it wrong or my mind blanks the second I am asked....I take too long to think, I believe.

After church on Sunday, another football game (they had loudspeakers!), a local SCOM meeting, and dinner...the end of my weekend!