Our Malawian Baby!

A rite of passage as a Malawian baby is being put into a chitinge for the very first time.  At 7 weeks old it was time for J to take his place as a true Malawian!  Agnes wanted him to go onto AJ's back first because her back was smaller.  She showed us how to properly tie him up and secure him.  We still need for him to gain a little more head control before I'm comfortable carrying him around on my back.  But what an exciting time we had learning to tie the chitinge and exactly how to get him safe and snug!  What would we do without Agnes???  

As with most Malawian babies, J went right to sleep on AJ's back!  Agnes said it's important to start him out this early to get him used to being on the back.  I think he likes it!  

Lake Malawi!

Just a few pictures to share from our little trip to Lake Malawi this past weekend.  Enjoy!

Yes, that's a monkey in the tree!  There were at least 20 outside our door each morning!

Our beautiful view!

Taken from our front door...

The local fishermen bringing in the nets.

Having fun on the rocks

more to come...

This is our Africa...

Our family was able to take a couple of days (and our last remaining fuel stash) and head to Lake Malawi this past weekend for a much needed break.  Jeremy and I celebrated our 12th Anniversary on the 4th.  The trip to Lake Malawi is amazingly beautiful.  Pictures don't do it justice but here are a few that may give you a little glimpse into our Africa!

Gusu Village School

My blog entry yesterday showed some pictures of a new addition being built onto the school at Gusu Village.  The school originally opened just this past October with two classrooms.  The addition will add an additional two classrooms.  There are approximately 80+ children in a classroom on a given day.  Below are some pictures of the current school while in session.  Gidgi took these photos when she visited the school in November of this past year.  

Notice that in the picture above the child has a broken pencil and a small tablet as her school supplies.  These are the only school supplies the children have and they are SO VERY proud of those!

One teacher for all of these children.  What a blessing to have him and what prayer he needs to be able to  accomplish such a daunting task!

The children standing in front of the construction site for their new school addition.  They are proudly showing off their tablets and pencils.  Such precious angels!

This was taken last November.  Notice the hand made bricks.  Each village in the area had to provide a certain number of bricks before construction began.

A typical home in Gusu Village.

"But Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

What keeps us busy!

Greetings,

Jill is the “updater” in the family, but she has forced me to take the keyboard for this update to let you know more about what it is that I do.

Primarily, I am working as one of the administrators at the ABC Community Clinic helping with the business and finance aspects of operations. This includes the usual fun stuff of finance tracking and planning, along with handling contracts and other business relationships.

Now, I know what you are thinking…this sounds really super-exciting. I know without a doubt that you are thinking to yourself, “gee, I really hope that he will post one of those super-cool, macro-laden spreadsheets of his to this blog!”

Ok, Ok….so maybe not, so here is a little more of the items that we have been blessed to be a part of over the last 8 or so months.

On campus, I have been involved with several projects. One project was the redesign of the well-water system to support the clinic and the campus housing. Another project will provide a dedicated generator and UPS system for the clinic to weather through the power outages that are very frequent. I guess the engineering-stuff is paying off.

In addition to the on-campus ministry, we have been blessed to work with a group called E-3, International. The group is a small Christian Development group that is comprised of a few current ABC missionaries and a few ABC graduates. The focus of the group is development of the village of Gusu through education, agriculture, micro-finance, and other projects geared to empower the people of Gusu to develop their own village. Gusu is the home village for one of the managers of E3. Several ruling bodies within the surrounding villages primarily lead the effort and make the decisions, and E3 is a support group of sorts offering project management and working alongside Gusu in the effort.

Below are some pictures from the school in Gusu that opened its doors to students in October. 

The school is being expanded with the addition of another classroom block set to be completed in March.

Each village in the area had to produce 15,000 bricks in order to get the school built.  Here they are staging the bricks for installation and mixing the mortar. 

This is one of the two schoolrooms.  The new building will add an additional two school rooms plus a teacher's office. One school room has over 80 children per day.

Below are some pictures of a well installation that we are implementing to aid in the start of a permaculture project and training facility at the school. Several members of Gusu have been attending a permaculture training course that E3 setup on the campus of ABC. I will be sizing this pump, solar, and water handling system this week for purchase. Again, I guess the engineering is paying off.

Well installation at Gusu village.  Notice all of the people in the background looking on.

The people of Gusu watching the well being installed.

In closing, we are continuing to work on the development of development projects to implement in village settings. The ABC campus has become a bit of a test bed for many of these ideas. The goal is to develop projects to the point that we feel that they can be reproduced and sustained in a village setting. These projects, again primarily through E3, have included permaculture, composting, vermiculture (worms), rocket stoves, biogas and fuel applications, and aquaponics. Ok, so now you have a lot of new things to ponder and to “google” for that matter.

Below are some pictures of the aquaponics installation on the campus of ABC. This one is built to certain aesthetic standards that would not be considered outside of the campus, but it is still a good test bed for us to experiment and train groups on the application and operation of these systems. As with all of these projects, the goals are to work with villages to install them with readily available materials and with minimal outside investment.

There will be a separate blog post coming soon describing permaculture and aquaponics. Stay tuned!

That is all for now. Let us know if you have any questions about the work with which we are involved.

Jeremy

Update on Baby J

Praise God!  We took J to the clinic to weigh him on Saturday.  He has gained half of the weight back that he lost from birth.  At birth he weighed 3.9 kgs.  After week one he'd gotten down to 3.6 kgs.  Week two he stayed the same (3.6 kgs).  Then this past Tuesday he weighed 3.3 kgs.  In other words, at birth he weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and he got down to 7 lbs 5 oz.  On Saturday he was back up to 3.6 kgs after only 4 days with his feeding tube.  He was taking all of his food by his bottle at this point as well.  The pediatrician said that he just needed to get his strength back and that then he'd be able to suck the bottle well enough to remove the NG tube.  He was right.  He's been eating like a champ!  I think he's making up for lost time!  Praise God that NG tube is out and he's continuing to eat well.  We will weigh him again on Friday and I'll update the blog on his progress.

We have been so very blessed with Dr's and nurses who have been faithful to give their advice on J's cleft palate.  We have a Dr. who is actually coming in August to do a medical mission trip specifically to repair cleft palates.  We will be skyping with her and her nurse tonight so that they can "meet" J and see him.  We'll be able to find out more info and ask them some questions. We are so thankful that we're able to be assisted in this way.  What a blessing they are to us!  We will relay info as we receive it.

For now, please continue to pray for J's strength and his feedings.  Pray that he continues to gain weight and that he's able to continue learning how to eat from the bottle.  Our friend is bringing special bottles back from the States next week that will aid in his feedings.  How thankful we are that Sam happened to be in the States at this time and he's able to bring us supplies needed to help baby Joshua.  I hope you see, as we do, God's hand guiding every step!!!!  He is in control!

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

Prayers for Baby J

I wanted to take a minute to update you on baby J and ask for prayers on his behalf.  J was born at 8lbs 11 oz and right after birth we noticed that he had a poor suck.  He wasn't able to nurse well and therefore wasn't eating much.  After a couple of days of not improving I made the decision to pump and give him his milk through a bottle so that I could see how much he was taking. Over the next couple of weeks his weight continued to decline and this past Tuesday he was down to 7 lbs 5 oz.  At 3 weeks old he should be at least back up to his birth weight by now (if not well past it).  We called a local pediatrician who only works pediatrics one day a week at Partners in Hope....the day we called "happened" to be the day he worked. Of course I don't believe in luck or coincidences.  God was showing me immediately that HE was all over this!

We took J to see the pediatrician and we found out that he has a partial cleft palate.  No wonder he was having a hard time eating and learning to suck.  The first and most immediate concern is to get his weight back up and his eating under control.  We inserted an NG tube and went to work!  After 3 days of ample nourishment he looks and acts like a new baby.  He takes his bottle on his own now and can finish a bottle in 15 minutes (as opposed to 2 hours previously).  Poor baby just needed to gain his strength back.  We will check his weight this weekend and if he's still eating on his own and gaining weight we can pull the NG tube.  Yay!

As for the cleft palate, the instant that the Dr. mentioned the words my friend and nurse, Becky, who went with us to the Dr. said that we have a plastic surgeon visiting in August from So. Cal and she's coming primarily to do cleft palate repairs.  J needs to be at least 6 months old before we can have anything done to correct his cleft palate.  In August he'll be 8 months.  Do you see God all over this?? We are still full of questions and have little answers but that's ok because we trust fully in the Lord and we know that He has got everything all planned out.  God is good all the time!!!  I will keep you posted on baby J's progress and prayer needs. Thank you for your support and prayers and encouragement.

The Kyser Family