Week 1

This last week has been crazy and busy. First, these kids are great and so sweet and silly! Since it has been a whole week since I blogged last, I'll give a little of what we did each day.

Monday:
     We started our Lego bridge building competitions! The kids are in teams of two or three and have to build a bridge from one chair to another. Then, we put books on top to see which bridge is the strongest. We only had two groups last week, but this week we'll finish and then on Friday, the teams who had the strongest bridges will compete in THE GREAT MALAWIAN LEGO BRIDGE CONTEST! It should be very fun and exciting!

Tuesday:
     We had lots of fun making posters for for the school we visited on Friday! We made sure the posters had bright, beautiful colors and bible verses to encourage the kids!

Wednesday:
     This was the day that I spent making cookies with four groups of helpers! The dough was already made so our helper got to form the dough balls, make little indents, and fill them with jelly. There was lots of conversation and laughing and it was a great chance to get to know the kids in smaller groups.

Thursday:
      A very busy and interesting day. This was Visitation Day and whatever family that the kids have got to come, hear songs, memory verses, have a cookie and some juice, and then go see their kid's cottage. There are two visitation days every year. It wasn't quite how I expected. The kids who have family members come are excited to see them, but there's really not much conversation and the visitors leave after a very short time. Then there's the kids who don't have anyone or their families live to far to make the trip. Even though they know that they probably won't have anyone show up, they still are very hopeful and are very dissapointed when no one comes. It's hard to watch. I tried to be a visitor for a couple boys who didn't have anyone, but they were more interested in the goodies that their friends' families brought to share.

Friday:
     We got up and headed out to the school we were visiting. It was a nice walk through the streets just outside Rafiki and it was a little chilly so the walk helped us warm up. We got there and there were so many more kids than I had expected and they were interested in who all these people with brooms and mops and posters were. The kids cleaned the four classrooms that the school has (most classes are held on the grass outside) and then put up posters and a couple kites to brighten the rooms. Then they passed out snacks to the school kids and and sang a goodbye song and we were on our way again. It was so special to see these kids, who we think of as the least of these, learning how to put themselves even lower and find all kids of ways to serve others.
      Friday night, many missionaries from around Mzuzu came to Rafiki for dinner and hanging out. It was fun to meet families from South Africa, The Netherlands, and others from America.

Saturday:
     A pretty low key day. We started off by doing some shopping at a few different places in town. A little later, the boys wanted me to help them with the experiments that they'll be showing the little
kids tomorrow. And then we played hide and seek and played on the playground before dinner. A fun, relaxing Fourth of July :-)

Sunday (Today):
     We went to church with one of the families that we met on Friday night and then they took us to a Korean restaraunt. I had stir fried noodles that were so good and I have leftovers that I'm very excited about! We came back and watched a movie with the kids and then at dinner, we had a little birthday party for Jenny, another mini-missionay here, and one of the mamas.

One thing that has been fun is that  on week nights, we can pick a cottage to go to and play games and have devotions with before bed.

I'm ready for another busy week ahead!

Thank you, friends!
Lauren

(I haven't been able to post pics to the blog from my iPad, but I'll add some to Facebook!)