Modes of Transportation in Malawi

Everyday issues in Malawi

 This is what you call a "fuel line" in Malawi.  Petrol and Diesel are a scarce commodity.  There is never any fuel in the pumps without a fuel line nearby.  If you see a line and people aren't in their cars that means they are just waiting for the fuel truck to arrive (usually it's merely a rumor that it's coming and sometime you sit for hours to find out no fuel truck is coming).  If you see a fuel line that's moving then you determine if it's a short line worth waiting in.  You can tell by the types of vehicles in line whether the fuel at the pumps is diesel or petrol.  By "short line" I mean 30-60 minutes.  Yes, imagine the lines in MS after Katrina and that's only a glimpse of what it's like here everyday.

We are not in this fuel line.  Yet we have to drive around them all the time.  Many times the lines block the road and you have to drive on the other side.  But hey, T.I.A. (this is Africa)!

People carry everything on their heads here.  It's amazing.  I especially love the huge baskets full of food  on the heads of tiny women.

This is Chipiku.  This is one of our main grocery stores.  We actually ran by here just today to pick up some Coke.  See, here you don't buy Coke in 2 liter bottles or cans.  You buy them by the crate in bottles.  You pay an k800 deposit to take a crate.  You then pay for the coke inside the bottles that you purchase.  When your crate is empty you bring the crate and empty bottles back, get a deposit slip/receipt for the crate, and go get another crate of Coke.  After you pay the initial k800 (approx. $5) you don't have to pay it again.  Thereafter you only have to pay for the drink itself. The choices of drinks are limited to Coke, Coke light (think Coke zero...kinda), and Fanta.  Nothing else!

CJ and SM waiting with Daddy in the car while Mommy and AJ shop at Chipiku.

This is how fuel is transported in Malawi.

Another way fuel is transported in Malawi.

On the way to church this past Sunday morning we saw a short fuel line at the gas station right by the church.  We turned around and jumped in line.  We were in line about 25 minutes.  Not bad at all.  And we still made it for the sermon (but we missed the praise and worship part....pooh!).  But hey, when there's fuel you get it!  By the time church was out the fuel was gone!

If you look closely there are tiny cars on the road way back in the back of the picture (not the white truck...).  Those are cars waiting in the fuel line that we are receiving fuel from.  They are in a much longer line than we were in and were probably waiting over an hour...and honestly, there was only one pump with fuel so the fuel probably ran out before they received any.

Jeremy paying the man for the fuel.  They pump the fuel for you here.  Sometimes they ration the fuel and only allow you to get a certain amount.  We needed less than half a tank so Jeremy got out to make sure we were filled all the way to the brim! That should last us a little while, hopefully.  We conserve fuel in many ways.  We only drive to and from campus.  We go to the store at one time and get enough for a week.  We don't sit in the car with the car running, it gets turned off.  If we have to run one errand we run a lot so we don't have to get back out.  BTW, the gas cost us k7800 to fill up which is about $6/gallon.  Our entire tank would cost about $84 and we just have a car.    T.I.A!

Jill

Worshiping the Lord in Africa!

One of the things that we looked forward to the most about coming to Africa was being a part of a church where we could experience African worship.  The total surrender, no holds barred, leave it all at the alter style of worship was such a draw to us.  We wanted to be a part of that and we have been blessed to see a small sampling of what we have to look forward to in the future.  For the past 4 Sundays we have visited Flood church here in Lilongwe.  Flood is a church that meets on the grounds of another church site.  It's a mission church of Flood Church in San Diego, CA.  It's a nice mixture of Malawian and ex-pats and that is a huge draw for us. We want to be among Malawians as much as possible.  To meet and create relationships with Malawian Christians is extra nice!  The service is in English and the pastor, Pastor Sean, is an ABC graduate from Malawi.  There is a great praise and worship band who plays everything from Hillsong, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin and combines that with traditional Chichewa choruses sung in Chichewa.  It's great and our family loves worshiping in such a free and worshipful way!

Here we are waiting for church to begin.  Since the site is shared with another church we have to wait for them to be done, allow our praise band time to set up and practice, and then we will begin our service.  They are hoping to build their own church one day.

Random chickens like to hang around by the church and listen to the praises to the Lord!!!

Flood Church and the congregation.

This is a typical broom that is used to sweep anything outside.  Driving around you will see many many people sweeping the dirt.  Not sure why, but the dirt is always clean!?

Sarah and the chickens....

This is the road leading to the Flood church.  The main road is in view and the church is to the left out of the picture.

Pastor Sean praying over the children as they leave for "children's church".  You can see CJ and SM in the center with their friend Sarah Rose in pig-tails.

-Please pray as we begin to settle in, find a place to serve the Lord and become a part of a church home.  We still have a couple of other churches that we will check out.

-Please pray as Jeremy has begun working full time at the clinic and is currently digging deep to get a year-end report out by tomorrow.  This all after being at work for only a week.

-Please pray for the children as they make new friends, adjust to new surroundings and new cultures, and as they prepare for school to begin.  This will be their first time in a traditional school setting since they've been homeschooled up until now.

-Please pray for me as I get my classroom set up, as I learn new curriculum and how to best teach it, and for the students who will be in my classroom.

More photos and prayer requests to come: check back soon!

Jill

A night out in Malawi!

We absolutely love it here.  It's a different life, that's for sure.  There are many things to get used to and learn but we know this is where the Lord wants us and we are grateful for this opportunity to serve Him!  Last night about 43 of us from ABC (missionaries and kids) all piled onto a "short bus" (no jokes allowed) and went to an Ethiopian restaurant on the other side of town.  Now, this restaurant was actually in a woman's home it seemed.  How she was able to seat all of us and serve us is beyond my comprehension but it was wonderful.  What a great time getting to know some of the ABC staff and attempting new foods.  All of us actually like it, some more than others.  But I'm proud of the Kysers for trying something new and enjoying it!  

A day in the life

 I'm sure that many are wondering what a day in our life is like right now.  Well, I am going to post this to try to help people understand.  I've now learned how to shop (for the most part).  It is true that you end up going to about 4 different stores to get the things you need.  For instance, one shop for meat, one shop for bread and dairy, and the market for veggies (if you're game for it).  Some amazing friends took me shopping this past Tuesday.  We went to all of these stores.  I am glad that I had a list since it's quite overwhelming to try to figure out each shop, what to get, and what is needed.  But I'm getting it down.  The next day LeAnne and I went to Shoprite.  I walked in and breathed a sigh of relief, it looked like an American grocery store (kinda).  I even took pics. Now, the pics really don't mean much to you back in the States because it looks like any other grocery store.  But walking in here made me feel much better.  I wish I'd taken pics of the other stores.  Maybe next week. I do want to preface that just because it's on the store shelves doesn't mean it's exactly affordable.  Actually, most of the items on the shelves are VERY expensive.  But at least some things are available if we need it.  I'm grateful for the pounding that our church gave us and the items we collected that will be here soon.  We are very blessed to have all of those things coming this way! Thanks everyone!

Wednesday night I decided to try some homemade spaghetti sauce.  The bottle sauce is about $6 a jar so that's obviously not in our budget.  I found some recipes online and put together some from each to make my own sauce.  It was AMAZING!!  Yummy!  And there was enough for two nights worth of food.  My salad items are soaking in the bleach water below.

And here is the sauce using real tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, etc.  Oh, so good.  And I'm just proud that I could do it!

Tink is making the ranch dressing from our dressing packets that we brought with us.  The packet dressing is much better than the bottle Ranch!!

This little girl has been such an amazing help to me in the kitchen.  She loves to cook and is always in there helping me!

 Here is the Jansen's dog, Sophie, that we are keeping this year.  We are renting the Jansen's house while they are home in the States on furlough.  And Lucy is by her.  They get along well.

This is our living room and the kids are doing puzzles.  This is taken right after our spaghetti supper and you will notice that the oil lamp is burning on the mantle.  The power was out.  No big deal, we just light a few lamps and continue with our night.  Each night after supper we either play a board game, read, or do puzzles.  Then baths and family devotion time. It's WONDERFUL not having t.v. or media!!!!

Daddy getting in on the puzzle action!

And of course there is always time for light saber fighting!!