Well, it's baby steps, but steps forward nonetheless. This morning Steve and I got ourselves downtown on the public minibus all by ourselves! It was crowded, but only a ten minute ride, so it was okay. From there we walked till we found the place our friends had recommended for Steve to get his hair cut. It's a men's salon, run by a couple of Pakistani Muslims, so I felt somewhat out of place. When Steve was finished, I was ready to skedaddle, but he half-jokingly asked if they would cut his wife's hair. Much to my surprise and delight they said they would, since it's short hair! So I got mine done too. It was a relief, since we were both getting pretty shaggy.
We also stopped at another few stores and got some things we needed, so altogether a satisfactory trip.
We might end up one day going to school on the minibus. Rammy's truck had problems the two days this week that we were going to work. So we were late both days. We pray for better days ahead as Rammy babies the aged truck along.
As I said, we went in to the prison only two days this week. Monday we took the day off on the advice of our Malawian contacts, because they were expecting the big announcement of the results from the court case about last year's elections. As it turns out, the announcement wasn't made public until Tuesday. So Monday was a very quiet day. It also turns out that everyone seemed happy with the content of the decision, so there were no bad demonstrations. Thank God for that! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and good thoughts on that issue. Now they have to have elections within half a year again, and there have to be some changes to the laws as well. I don't know all the details.
I have been busy in my off hours knitting on the prayer shawls I am making. To my delight, my friend Lyca said she thought it was a good idea to give them to the women I met with her last week at Mulanje prison! So now I have a plan for them that is connected with the prison ministry. I am happy.
Also this week Steve and I finally got our TEP, which allows us to do our work legally. We have a special stamp in our passports and everything! That happened Thursday morning.
On that same trip, we went and set up a Malawi bank account. Still waiting for the cards to access it, but that should happen in about two weeks. (They get them from South Africa.)
That afternoon, Steve and I went with our friend Hamilton, who is in charge of the Ndirandi Club, an organization for the support of handicapped people. They have bought some land and have to build a perimeter wall for it. Steve is supposed to help with supervising the process. So we went to see the plot of land, and Steve took some pictures. It's just a big ld of maize right now, but after the harvest, they will hopefully be able to start the wall which will ideally discourage squatters.
Other than that, there isn't much to tell. We are still enjoying our work at the prison. All is going well. When we ever finally get our car, we will look into increasing our workload there. We'll see.
Now we seem to be about to have a storm! It's getting windy and cooler and quite dark. I will finish this with a picture or two and call it a week.
Don't forget that we are being supported here in our work by International Ministries of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. I haven't mentioned it often, but I am very mindful of their support.
Tsiki is resting on the cushions Steve uses in the back of Rammy's truck. Matthew stands guard.
The gazebo beside our house.