Meeting Our Dreams Face-to-Face

After departing Lake Malawi, our hearts were filled with excitement as we knew the meeting of Mtendere Village was soon to come. Before traveling to the village, we stopped at the wood carver’s market where Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was seen once again. Their needs, versus our wants played a large part of the “shopping” experience. As many of the men running the shops were eager to have our money for their hand crafted works of art, they were even more interested in our personal belongings. A feeling of emotion and guilt set in when we pulled away, as they were still continuing to plea for our business. The special talent of creating such beautiful works of art is most definitely another sign of the creative soul found in Malawi.

The last stop before meeting Mtendere Village was at Blessings Hospital, which became a unique experience, especially for Carrie Darling and Christy Armington. Carrie Darling is the wonderful world traveling, eleven year emergency room nurse who is accompanying us on the trip. Christy, the author of this blog entry, is an emergency medical technician who also has worked at an emergency room for the past five years. These two were not only able to experience the visit with the group, but had many additional thoughts and feelings of Blessings Hospital, as compared to hospitals back home.

As we entered the hospital, we were able to learn of the detailed history the hospital holds. Even though it is not currently being used for financial difficulties, the plaques of remembrance of those who made it possible for this hospital to first open their doors. The people of Mtendere Village plan to re-open the hospital in July in order to serve the patients of Malawi. Much like a new, loving and eager teacher with an empty classroom, this hospital remains filled with hope and potential, and is beginning all over again.

After Blessings Hospital, we traveled to the Mtendere Village. Unexpected of what was to come, we traveled down as a group to discover the true heart of Africa. For the first time, we felt the open hearts and welcoming smiles of the house mothers, teachers, and children. Time stood still as the children welcomed us with a heart opening song as a greeting for our journey. As the sky cleared, showing the sun’s rays, the children shone through their roles as students and became teachers. They showed us how to not only embrace, but love and truly believe what was surrounding us.

Immersed in a New Culture

Venturing to what we would imagine to be vacation was not part of the trip, or so we believed. As we arrived at Safari Beach Lodge on Lake Malawi, our disbeliefs became reality. Emily Kline, with her warm and contagious smile, was only able to describe the unforgettable view of Lake Malawi by saying “Are you kidding me!!!” However, once we settled, it became harder and harder to imagine what our eyes had before us in comparison to the lifestyles we encountered on our journey there.

While traveling to Lake Malawi, we stopped at a small village, where we first saw the true hardships and different characteristics in comparison to ours at home. Graciously greeting complete strangers into their homes is not something one would typically expect, but no other words are able to describe how this family of Malawi accepted us. As many of us were unable to predict what we would experience, it was obvious from the start, the simplicity of true love is what carries them in life.

After settling into our gazebos at Lake Malawi, we enjoyed a lunch buffet and headed down to the beach area. Separating the beautiful, luxurious view from the fish market was straw-built wall, tied together with twine. After entering the fish market, it was obvious that we were not only in a different village, but a different world.

On our arrival, we felt as drawn to the children as they were to us. We were greeted by the friends of the village and their positive energy. Though the language differences seemed to create some difficulties, the body language spoke for itself. The universal smile was displayed from both the families of the village, and our engaged minds. The lifestyle led was flexible, but demanding. The demand from the adults of the village to feed their children enabled most children to embrace heavy responsibilities. Caring for an infant at five years old is not something we would see in America, but here it is a large part of life. Just as we have heard in our Ball State classrooms, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is more evident than ever imagined here. The basic needs of food and shelter is the first step for few, but the only for others.

Before leaving the village we viewed an amazing display of musical intelligence as the children danced their hearts out to music played through a radio with the use of a generator. We finished out our day by gathering as a family by the pool, reflecting on the day we had experienced. By sharing the same desire to experience a larger scope of the world in which we live, we also were able to find some personal and professional goals to focus on individually throughout our venture. The beauty and spirit felt during our musical entertainment after our dinner is something that can only be described on our return home. However, pictures WILL be provided!

Our Journey Begins to Fulfill Lifelong Dreams

We are here. We made it safely to Malawi, Africa and are reminded why this is truly called, “The Warm Heart of Africa.” It definitely lives up to its name. Our journey began with all of us bright-eyed and excited at three o’clock on a Monday morning, sitting on the floor of the Indianapolis airport. We patiently waited and made small talk with the people whom of which we would be spending the next seventeen days, in a country far away from our Hoosier homes. You would think being at the airport three hours ahead of time to catch a flight should be more than enough time to make the six o’clock plane to Washington D.C. We found this to be our first challenge of our journey.

Tony Kline, one our professors and wonderful leaders, called us up to the United Airlines desk one by one to weigh our bags and show our passports. We were successful until one of our classmates, Catherine Ingram, showed up in the system, although her ticket did not. We all showed concern and offered to contact anyone that could find her receipt to the ticket. We began to sweat a little, but Catherine, a swimmer at Ball State, showed her composure under adversity and remained confident. After an hour of waiting, the airlines were able to locate her ticket, which led to our next challenge. With our plane leaving in 5 minutes we had to sprint 500 yards to our terminal. It was important that we all had to board together, not leaving anyone behind. This was reinforced by Maura Sawicki, our constant ball of energy, as she yelled out to the group, “We don’t go unless we’re all here together!” This was a great bonding experience and helped our group form more of a community and reminded us to be flexible. Before even leaving the United States we found ourselves conquering adversity in the wee hours of that Monday morning.

We flew to D.C., which was a breeze and then we waited for the mother of all flights! When we say the mother flight, we mean the fourteen hour plane ride to Addis Abba, Ethiopia. We actually made it to Africa with a few swollen ankles, although laps around the plane and laughs with each other helped our circulation. We finally made it, and no matter how tired we were, our bodies were bursting with enthusiasm to be here, Africa, and board our final flight to Lilongwe, Malawi. This flight was only three hours, but it definitely seemed longer and our anticipation grew even more. We were exhausted and wanted to get to the place we had been talking about for almost a year. Stephanie Dossman, the organizer of the group, and Kelley Leyden, the author of this first blog insert, had an opportunity to sit next to a man that was heading back to his home, Lilongwe. He was so impressed with our plan to be teaching and volunteering in Mtendere Village. He explained that it is important to travel to another part of the world to understand how others live and see through your own eyes, which is not always easy. He also taught us some simple phrases from Chichewa the traditional language of Malawi, and we would like to say thank you, Zi Komme, in Chichewa to him for encouraging and taking us under his wing. We finally arrived with almost twenty-four hours of traveling, exhausted but ready to experience and start our adventure in Malawi.