First Impressions in Malawi

I feel like I'm in a dream - like I've stepped into one of our home videos from 6 years ago except that our kids are running around here and they are much older. IT'S ALL SO STRANGELY FAMILIAR and yet I feel like a newcomer. On our drive from the airport to our guesthouse I felt overwhelmed. How did I ever make this place a home? Can I do it again? Will I be able to drive on the " wrong side of the road" with all these people all over the place? I looked at the kids for their reaction. Their eyes were quite bit with wondering what this new place was. "MOM, look at those chickens hanging without any heads or feet?" Our senses are great memory holders and as we stepped out of the car from the airport I smelled that smoldering firesmoke in the dry air of winter, the crunch of knotty grass and sights of the vibrant bougainvillia which reminded me that I was HERE, in Malawi. The first morning I woke up refreshed from a good nights sleep and heard the sound of the grass brooms sweeping the dirt and leaves outside my window. I walked out to the living room and opened the curtain and cracked open a window ( with no screen) and there right before me was the gardener. I smiled to be reminded that my privacy at home was again reduced to minimal at best. He said through the window " Good morning Madam, how are you?" To which I knew the reply" I am fine, thank you, and how are you?" Naturally he was curious about these newly arrived azungus ( white people). I remember how confident I was in my life here before. But now I felt awkward at the instructions given to give my gardener the compost and the obnoxious beep of our cars for someone to run and open the gates for us. Certainly we can just do these small tasks on our own? This world is VERY different from where we've come. From where I am writing I am about 15 steps away from the gardeners home on the property and have a great view of their children and their outdoor kitchen.

I am reminded of the children's book " A country far away" which compares children from a 3rd world country to those doing the same activities in a 1st world country. How can THIS LIFE be happening at just the same time as the one we just left ! THAT IS WHY we are here....
to share this world with our volunteers. A place far away where like minded christians of different cultures can help each other and learn from each other and by doing so strengthen faith in HIM whose HAND is over all of us. Here and everywhere is the opportunity to spread the Gospel of Good News and while there are people doing that in Wisconsin, the USA, Germany, China....etc.... we are here again and going to share Jesus in His Word and our deeds out of love for HIM with Malawi ! So now....to get started.

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Location:Blantyre, Malawi

Moving internationally

No matter how far you move its always a little crazy. Those last minute things thrown into a box - the teary farewells and the exciting hellos to somewhere new. Sometimes I feel like our family has taken on moving to a new level ! Or maybe its become a hobby?! We've lived in a different house the past four years in a row. Before that there were 3 continents as a family - plus one more that I lived on of my own. What in the WORLD? Yes, we've been in the world.
The variety of these homes and lives by way of individual cultures is something to either just forget or perhaps to study psychologically. I occasionally analyze it with my own brain and become overwhelmed. And I become comforted to realize that we are anything but alone. There are those who stay put in one home/village or city their entire life and I have reached a point in life where I am very impressed with those who do. And we know LOTS of people who are like us - doing the international thing. AND, we like it too :)

So today I tried to sit back and explain to the kids that we are " unterwegs" ( great german word for being along our way) to moving to a different country. And I TRIED to impress upon them the magnitude of it all. Last summer we packed up a few scattered things from my sisters house where we had lived for an entire year and moved into " our new home!" - for exactly 12 months. The summer before that we arrived from from Germany all deutsch sprechenende and alarmed at the fast pace of the americans. The summer before that found us stopped at the border between Canada and the USA and denying Stefan a proper entrance so we lived with my parents for 2 and a half months. The summer before that......was the BIG MOVE away from our home in Malawi to begin anew. ( which incidentally took 3 flight cancellations and 4 tries due to a virus) So what are we doing this summer? Moving back to Malawi.....its INSANE but AMAZING.....all at the same time.

So how DOES one move internationally? Well, you stuff your bags to their fullest which is minimal in comparison to most material posessions of moves within one country. You pack your ever growing children into an airplane and beg of them to sleep which they don't and realize a week later you forgot to use the last minute MUST purchase melatonin to aid in their 7 hour time zone change. You patiently try to remember that its hard for them TOO to suddenly be thrust upon a new language, new foods and that they actually DONT remember living here as easily as we adults do cuz it was just two years ago and so crying about having to drink fizzy mineral water is something to understand. OH and then we remember that this isn't the destination - just the visit so take deep breaths. SHARE with everyone along the way the MINISTRY which is taking you on this move - eat some shokolade - continue to let the kids survive on shokolade 'cuz only Benjamin and Stefan like leberwurst and drink a weissbier and remember how exciting it all is which is why its okay that you are carrying a huge bag of dirty clothes which can't be washed since most germans don't have a dryer and the cold rainy weather isn't getting the one load of wash you did do quite dry yet. It'll be OKAY if we pack damp clothes on an international flight. Afterall the shoes that were forgotten in Stuttgart made it by Express post the day before we are to leave and that's awesome ! And we take time to appreciate our blessings and the ability to live IN the world and SEE the world but not be OF IT....thank goodness. And HE will keep guiding us - even on the Autobahn - at 180 kmh. So here we go.....Tschuss Deutschland - onto our destination - THE RETURN TO MALAWI ! Looking forward to it ! We are blessed and the kids, btw, are doing GREAT !!!


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Flexability

Travelling internationally is something to experience. One needs to be flexible in the greatest sense of the word. Our family has travelled quite alot and yet I've stated it doesn't really make it easier. What IS easier, although, interesting is the ease in which your experience allows you to flow from one culture to the next. I can't really remember what it is like to see Germany with brand new eyes. And honestly I am thankful to have gotten along this far. Still, I am a very sentimental person which makes for some evening time to sit here on my 5th floor tiny balcony at sunset with "ein glass rotwein" and reflect on the past 3 days. Let's see....4 days ago we were all ( except for Stefan in brown) decked out in patriotic american colors and watching the 4th of July parade roll past my parents house. There were brats and Miller Lite , lemonade and watermelon. It was awesome !
The next day we boarded the airplane, Lufthansa , which was a great airline to fly to Germany as "probezeit" ( practice) for me as all written materials in the plane were both in english and german. I tested myself all along the way... We didnt' sleep a single wink so there was plenty of time.
Upon arrival and getting our rental vehicle Stefan eased onto the Autobahn - understanding all the signs easily and being only slightly alarmed at keeping up the pace at 140 KMH (kilometers per hour).

After 2 years absence from Germany we arrived at the doorstep of my dearest friend Ursula and husband Martin and their 6 children. Immedietly we all shook hands as is highly respectable even for children in Germany. Our language immediately switched to german and we were offered a glass of " sprudelwasser" which is fizzy mineral water and considered the only drinkable water here. The kids were given juice mixed with sprudelwasser! We sat down to a warm mittagsessen because you always eat hot food at lunchtime. Later it was utterly normal to sit down to a formal "kaffeezeit" with freshly made strawberry and peach cakes with cups of coffee an fruit tea for the children ( or thank goodness for our americanized children - kakoamilch )! After some typical activities for families around the globe ( a walk to the park and a magic show given by the children for the parents) we sat down for Abendessen - called Vesper in Schwaben. To our delight was the expected bowls of grainy bread and plates of cheeses and meats ! This was all a little strange and yet quickly remembered by our children right to the end of day where we all settled into our beds with extra large fluffy feather pillows and only a duvet covered feather tick to sleep with Zzzzzz......another country but soooo familiar. Wir sind Wilkommen in Deutschland


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Location:Zwickau, Deutschland

Felgs Afar.......again !

It's been two and a half years since my last blog post where I contemplated where HOME is?  We've just spent two wonderful years in the USA and it's nearly midnight on the night before we leave, again, and begin something new, again !  How to sum up our all-American experience?!  It was hard, wonderful, worth it, God's plan, hectic, busy, great ! Did we settle down and dig in some roots?  Nope.  Did we gain more life experience under God's guiding and all-knowing Hand?  YEP ! Does it get any easier to pack and to say good-bye to loved ones? Not really.  Do some people think we're a little nuts for constantly being on the move and trying out something totally new ?  Probably.  Did I appreciate being in my own culture for awhile and being really close to family and reconnecting with amazing good friends? Most definately.  Are we excited to go?  YES !! 

I remain in awe of what God has done for us and while life is certainly not easy and we have not always chosen the "norm" we are PREPARED for our mission.  This was the sermon theme that my Dad preached for us at our Commissioning service this past Sunday.  God has already prepared us and we go with HIM.  It's time.......here we go !  Come along with us by following our blog. Good-bye USA .....and all of those dear people we love there.  We'll see you again soon.