A Tour of Our New Home

You can see the flowers that the Stoms had the gardener put on our door as a welcoming present. And yes, the screen door is made out of rebar, just like the bars on the windows.
Here is our living room with the Stom's old furniture, and a fireplace off to the right which you can't see.
Our kitchen which came stocked with some basics.

Our bedroom.



Our newly remodeled bathroom!

A second room which will probably become a study (aka-Dan's cave)


Well, we have made it to Malawi. After about 18 hours of traveling, we arrived at the 'strip mall' airport in Lilongwe where Jay Stoms greeted us. He took us back to the ABC campus so we could move into our new little home. Actually, the size of our house is probably twice as big as our petit apartment in the U District! We've actually upgraded!

We spent our first night having dinner with the Stoms. The power was out so we ate by candle light. It has been wonderful to spend time with them. They have been very helpful and gracious in feeding us, and providing things like shampoo and blankets, water filters and plug adapters for our US type appliances. They are our official guides for Malawi, showing us the ropes etc.

We have been here for two nights now, and I have to say it is difficult to sleep. There are a lot of people on campus. The guards make their rounds and so far, they seem to like our back porch area because the last two nights, they have sat out there talking. I'm not sure if they know that people are living in this side of the duplex or not. It's been empty for some time, so maybe they just aren't aware. Then, there are the hyenas that woop all night, which gets the dogs barkin' which makes the hyenas woop even more. Right as you are getting used to those sounds, around 5am, you can hear people chanting out in the distance calling muslums to morning prayer. Needless to say, it has been difficult getting sleep, but I hope to adjust quickly.

Yesterday, Laura and I went to town for some groceries. We went to Shop Rite where you can buy most things. I was really surprised by the prices. Everything is about double the price that you would pay in the States. I spent $60 (about 8,000 Kwatcha) and feel as though I barely got the essentials. It will be a challenge to figure out a completely new budget. The good thing is that we have a garden with fresh tomatoes and other produce. Hopefully we will save there.

Training has not started yet, in fact a lot of the teachers aren't here yet. We did have lunch with Connie, an Academy teacher, yesterday. She is going to give us a tour of the school maybe today or tomorrow. So far, life has been slow and relaxing. Dan and I are enjoying our time together.


I hope to get over to the Crisis Nursery Center soon, maybe today. I am anxious to hold some babies! Also, Laura said there is a little 2 lb. baby at the ABC Clinic nursery ward that we can go visit and sit with.


-The internet is pretty spotty at times, but we will try to update as much as possible. Thank you for your prayers!

**this was actually posted by beth