Remember to also check out the ‘for the young at heart’ section in Malawi Matters for some other fun information & photos
| Age |
Currently 10 (birthday 19 April) |
Favourite game |
Settlers of Catan |
Favourite food |
Lemon chicken at the local chinese restaurant! (I’ve also tried a roasted grasshopper!!) |
I’m reading at the moment |
Harry Potter – Goblet of Fire |
Best thing about Malawi |
Discovering all the different, big insects/animals |
Biggest challenge in Malawi |
Doing French at school |
| Age |
currently 8 (birthday 25 September) |
Favourite game |
Playing my Gameboy |
Favourite food |
Sobo ice blocks |
I’m reading at the moment |
Anything related to Pokemon |
Best thing about Malawi |
Still bike riding around the compound |
Biggest challenge in Malawi |
trying new foods |
Familes: |
Most people have BIG families – it is common to have maybe 5 or more brothers and sisters |
Food: |
Even kids eat nsima (maize porridge) with vegetables or beans virtually every day! A treat would be having rice and meat. At the street vendors you can buy peanuts as a snack or delicious doughnuts called Mandasi. |
Sport: |
Most boys play soccer and girls play netball – often in bare feet! |
Toys: |
Most kids have very few toys – many are homemade or they simply use what they have around the house like empty bottles, sticks, tyres, string. We’ve seen some amazing toy vehicles made from wire, and balls made from plastic bags. |
Fun Stuff: |
Most people have no TV and there is no cinema in Blantyre, nor bowling alley, rock climbing, crazy golf, or parks/playgrounds – radio is very popular. |
| School: |
Primary school is free and everyone is meant to go although if parents can’t afford uniforms, exercise books etc then sometimes the kids are kept home. Also if orphans don’t get enough food or get sick then they don’t go to school and then its difficult for them to catch. Many of the grown ups in Malawi haven’t finished secondary school and many, especially the women don’t know how to read or write. |
| Favourite things to do: |
apart from playing sports or with friends it is very popular to be in a choir. Many of the church kids have choir practice every Saturday and sing in the service every Sunday and then sometimes enter competitions if they’re good enough. |
Smells….. at this time of year you can smell the beautiful perfume coming from the Frangipani tree right outside our window where we live, this is a much nicer smell than the smell of thick smoke when they are burning off the land at this time of year (Sept/Oct) in preparation for planting their ‘chimanga’ (maize) seeds to produce their annual crop. It reminds us that the Bible (2 Cor 2v14) says that through us, God is spreading everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him – how are you smelling?
Rain… it is early November and very hot as we wait for the rainy season to start. Much as we’d like to feel we control our lives, when it comes to the weather it makes us realise how much is outside our control and it is only God who controls the weather. Can you think of times in the Bible that God showed his power and authority by controlling the weather? (Try looking up stories of Jesus calming the storms Luke 8 v 22-25 or God sending rain & fire on Mount Carmel to show He was stronger than Baal 1 Kings 18 v 16)
Song
Do you know that song ‘Our God is a great big God’? Our mum and dad had fun trying to translate it into Chichewa so the kids at Sankhulani could learn it during a kids club there in August. We had to use different words instead of ‘skyscraper’ and ‘submarine’ since the kids in Sankhulani wouldn’t know what they were!!!! Instead we used… can you guess….. mountains instead of skyscrapers and a deep lake instead of talking about submarines! Maybe we’ll teach it to you when we come on home assignment! Can you work out what the word for God is?
Mulungu wathu ndi wamkulu
Mulungu wathu ndi wamkulu
Mulungu wathu ndi wamkulu
Amatigwira m’manja mwake
Ndiye wamtali koposa mapiri
Ndi wakuya koposa nyanja
Ndiye wamkulu koposa mlengalenga
Koposa nzeru zonse.
Amatidziwa, amatikonda
Lisanayambe dzikoli
Ndi chodabwitsa kukhala mu
manja a Mulungu.
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