Malawi #3 - Not Your Average Sunday Morning

Disclaimer: All photos were taken on disposable film cameras. Therefore they are pretty crap. Unless they are ones which I nicked from people off Facebook, in which case they will be appropriately credited.



Church in Malawi was a brand new experience for many of the young people on the trip. A lot of them do not regularly attend church at home, and may find the whole experience to be dull and unimaginative. Going to the local church in Malawi was a completely different experience from church at home, and even I found it new and exciting, despite having been to the very same church on more than one occasion, four years previously.

The first time we went it was the final English service of the academic year, as all of the students had finished their exams and were heading home for the holidays. We caused quite a stir as we arrived in full uniform and kilts, with bagpipes and all. I saw more than one person snap a photo on their phone as we paraded past - some things never change.


One of the students from the school did the sermon and she was incredible! It was the kind of passionate straightforward sort of preaching I hadn't heard in a while. No talk of the wider church, nothing to suggest that we're doing it wrong. Just an impassioned plea to people that if they love God, they should express their gratitude and put their money where their mouths are. Their church desperately needs some renovation work. If you love church, you need to help us to fix it.

Needless to say they had a record offering that week. Thanks to a bunch of rich white people who reckoned that 500MK (about £2) was a perfectly reasonable sum to put in. The girl who was preaching suggested that 100MK was the kind of thing people should be putting in, if they could possibly afford it. I was just glad we could help them with their roof!

After the service, the young people from the school showed us around the whole mission site. It's a boarding school, so we saw where they lived, where they ate, where they learned. There is a clinic there as well, although we didn't see inside. The tour around the grounds was something we didn't get to do last time so it was really great to see everything.



The following week, a smaller group of us went along to the church again to the Chichewa service, which local people attend, rather than the school children. They were very accomodating at the church, and gave us bibles and hymn books in English so that we could still join in. Unfortunately the English and Chichewa hymnbooks don't match up, so whilst they were singing, we were struggling to fit the words to the tunes, even when we knew them! A lot of the hymn tunes were familiar because the church was founded by missionaries from the Church of Scotland, who would have taken their own hymns and tunes with them, many of which are still used here in Scotland today.

Interestingly, the offering at the Chichewa service was given in cash, but also in kind - people brought in food that they had grown themselves - it is a farmland area - and collected this for distribution. I didn't catch the full explanation of what it was for, as it was in a different language, but that seemed to be the gist of it anyway.

Both times we were in church we were asked to sing for them. Fortunately I knew about this, and we were prepared, but if you ever happen to be in a church in Africa with a group of people, beware they may ask if you have a choir. And if you say only one song, they will ask you for two.


Love and hugs

Part 1 - The Epic Journey
Part 2 - The Daily Grind

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Dear reader, today is a special day - that's right, a post not about my mum, but about my dad, because it's his birthday today *blows hooter, waves tiny flag*

Well actually, the post isn't about him either, because today was actually an interesting day. As days up here go, that is. We had a party! Not a birthday party though, a painting party!

As my dad is a minister, that leaves him with responsibilities for things like looking after church premises. You would think he'd be quite busy chasing that flock around, but apparently not so much. So today, my mum, dad and myself went to the church at Melness, on the other side of the kyle. It has a gorgeous view!



Along with some of the other church folk, we did some work on the window frames. We scraped off old paint, we dug out rotting wood, we sealed up some draughty gaps, and we put on some shiny new white high gloss top coat. There were a myriad of problems of course - more rot than expected, more peeling paint than expected, no undercoat, bigger draughty gaps than expected etc etc, so the job is only partially done, however the size of the thing (there are 19 windows in the church, and we're working inside and out) and the size of the working party (six) we did about as much as might be expected of us anyway.



I learned how to use silicone sealant, and as such did all the windows. Actually, I lie I only did 13, but that's still quite a lot. I quite enjoyed it. Pretty sure I deserve an NVQ now (national vocational qualification). Jussayin. We had two tea breaks, with cake, and cake with our lunch. I ate a lot of cake. Apparently because I am still a "young thing" I am expected to eat vast quantities of cake. This is why the youth of today are fat, dear reader. We need to start a revolution! No more force-feeding cake. That said, I did what was expected of me without hint of complaint. What? Don't look at me like that, it was good cake!

After we'd cleared up all the mess we made, mum, dad and I headed over to Bettyhill, because there's a chip shop there (it's the closest one, and it's 13 miles away! Talk about the middle of nowhere). Om nom nom nom.



Then we went for a walk along Farr beach, which is actually not very far from anything, it's right behind the chip shop/tourist information centre (yes, they are the same place, officially). It wasn't sunset, but the sun was starting to get low in the sky, in a very photogenic manner. And there was a lost photogenic welly boot lying in the wash of the tide. It was so romantic... (!) check out my ace photo.



Ever wanted to hire a welly boot photographer? I'm thinking of starting a business - boot photography, well-shod AND well-shot. No? I shall continue.

We saw other things on the beach too, like this dead dogfish. Did you know, a dogfish is like a shark's little cousin? They both have five gills and the same kind of skin. Dad moved it. That's right, you heard me. On his birthday this year my dad wrestled a shark... Honest...



It was very pretty generally, so I took lots of pictures - you can see a selection of these below. If you're my facebook friend you can see them all there. If you're not, then that's a shame. I don't think my photography is good enough to deserve a flickr account. Not that other people let that stop them.



Anyways, that's all for today, its WAY past my bedtime, and daughters of the manse must get up for church on Sunday mornings. Therefore dear reader (I have discovered from my blog stats that there are actually other people than my mum out there, so you've been promoted from imaginary, in case you were wondering) I must bid thee adieu and farewell, and on the morrow you shall hear from me again.

Did you know, the more tired I am the more I don't shut up... who knew!

Love and hugs