Week one in Lilongwe

The internet is not always readily available to me here in Malawi so I will be writing blog posts along the way and post them when I get the chance.

We are now at Chiwengo village. Chiwengo village is an area where a past president of Malawi purchased tons of acreage and built around 20 or so different homes. COTN was able to rent 6 or 7 of those homes to house orphans. Each house has a “Mom and Dad” and 3 to 4 “Aunties” that help out. Each house holds anywhere from 10 to 15 children ages from baby up to 17 years old. When they are older they go away to secondary school, which is high school for us. We were able to tour five of the homes and pray for them. There is also an elementary school in the village compound that all the children living in Chiwengo attend.
While we were there we replaced the screens on three of the houses. Malawi has a huge problem with mosquitos spreading malaria. All their homes have mosquito nets that cover their beds at night so they have protection while they sleep. Some of the homes have screens on their windows as well. Trust me, it gets pretty warm during the day so having the windows open to ventilate is a must. Some of the homes at Chiwengo village had screens that were in bad shape. They were torn and had holes all over. Not very effective in keeping out bugs. We were able to replace the screens in three of the homes during our short stay there. For them that was a huge blessing. They have had a rise in the number of malaria cases there. While we were working on the screens we were able to play with the younger kids that were not in school yet. They would play outside right where we were so they could watch these weird white people fixing their windows.

The first night we were there my team gathered in the front room of the home we were staying at. COTN has one house reserved for interns and missionaries to stay at while they are there. While we were gathered we all got to give our testimonies about our walk with Christ. It was nice to get more background info on my group. One thing I really enjoyed at Chiwengo village was the clear skies at night. I love looking up at the stars and seeing God’s splendor. It is truly amazing.