Dave Ramsey Fan

Okay, so those of you who know us personally probably know a few things about us . . .

1) We love traveling and living overseas.

2) We go overseas so we can learn about others and share our life stories & Jesus with them.

3) Being overseas, we work really hard, save really hard, and follow the Dave Ramsey plan.  We have been known to get a little fanatical about it, but everything in moderation you know.

Well, anyways, while I was on facebook a few weeks ago, Dave Ramsey posted and asked a question about living overseas and budgetting.  I jumped in and briefly answered with some things that we do.

Well then, today when I was scrolling through, I came across this article:

http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/universal-language-money-americans-unpack-debt

And, guess who got quoted????!!!!

I AM SO EXCITED!!! 

(Did you hear me screaming and jumping up and down??  Chris thought there was a bug on me when I found it, because I was shouting so loud! Hahaha!)

Anyways, have I mentioned that we love Dave Ramsey and his biblical approach to money?  If not . . . bam . . . you know it now! :)

African Daily Life

So, I realized that I have been severely neglecting posting on my blog, and on facebook about our life here.  I have also been noticing all of these people posting about "100 Happy Days" or "100 miles" or something similar.  So, I have decided to post about my "African Days."  I don't think I will make it to 100, but I thought it might be interesting for people to see some things about my daily life.  So, here goes . . .

DAY 1:

 Meet Norris,  she is a student at African Bible College.  She is studying to be a teacher.  She is 35 years old, and has 2 biological children.  She also has 2 orphans that live in her home.  The orphans are a bit older and helping to watch after her kids while she is in school.  She is currently a sophomore in college, and she makes excellent grades and works very hard.  She participates is tons of extra outreaches to the prison, at the elementary school, in the villages, with the choir, and she is on the net ball team as well.  This semester she came and asked if she could work for me to earn extra money to pay her school fees.  She is one of the hardest workers I know, and it has been wonderful having her in my house every afternoon.  She is still short on her school fees though, so she is trying to make it up through selling blankets over Easter break.  If you would like to help Norris reach her goals of teaching, please let me know!

 This is our gardener, Sacrendrella.  He doesn't speak English very well, but he works very hard and always has a smile on his face.  He also loves to sing, and is actually a soprano!  It is astonishing to me all the time, and it is wonderful to listen to him sing as he faithfully works.

 This is one of the carrots that was grown in my backyard.  I went outside to look at the garden yesterday, and decided to pull one up.  I got this dancing carrot that had arms and legs.

This week is Gospel Emphasis week at school.  I helped to work on interactive lessons for this week.  In this picture, the kids are trying to scrub my dirty shirt clean.  Of course they were unsuccessful, but that was used to illustrate that in our sins, no matter how hard we try to do good, we can't get rid of them.  We can only get rid of them through the sacrifice of our Lord.

Okay, I hope you had a wonderful day as well.  Love from Africa!

Crisis Nursery

Well, a couple of months ago, I started going a few times a week to the Crisis Nursery.  The mission of this nursery is to take abandoned babies, or babies with no one to take care of them, and nurture them until it is possible for the babies to go back to their fathers/villages or to an orphanage.  Since going, we have really gotten to know the babies.  They have formed bonds with us, and can't wait to get out of their cribs.

The children there stay in their cribs most of the day.  They get to come out after nap time, from about 2-4.  This is also the time when the house mothers change shifts.

Right now, this nursery has 3 rooms and about 15 babies.

When we first started going to the nursery, all of the babies were really sullen, with no personalities.  They didn't even cry!

The more we have gone, the better they have gotten, but they still need more love.  Here are some pictures and a video . . .

Women's Prison & Gooli Wancooli

In Malawi, the prison system is a bit different than in the states.  I have gone on a prison outreach, so I want to explain some of the things that I saw.

The prison here is actually in town.  I passed it on the way to the grocery store all the time, and never knew it.  Looking in, I just saw some fenced off buildings, with hardly any people.  I never realized that it was the prison.

Well, some of my friends here do an outreach to the prisoners.  For the women, they bring them yarn and knitting needles, sing, and share with them.  Yes, they give them knitting needles!  Well, in Malawi, the prisons are filled with un-convicted people.  I have only been on the women’s side, so I will tell you about that, and try to get my husband to blog about the men’s side in another post.

Well on the women’s side, there are about 65 women.  Only 20 of these have been convicted of anything.  When I went, I noticed that the fence around them had holes in it, and there was only minor security.  Yet, no one tried to escape.  On the outside of the fence, there were many people gathered.  Relatives have to feed and provide clothing and bare essentials (ex. Soap) to the prisoners.  There was a check-in gate, but we just waved and drove past that.  They then proceeded to just open the gates and let us in the prison.

Before we went in, we noticed the Gooli Wancooli (traditional religion) dancers at the front of the prison.  They were teaching some of the prisoners a dance for the upcoming Prison day open house.  It was really strange.  Here is a video of that.  One of the women who has lived here for 20+ years is talking about them in the background of the video.

In the prison, only a handful of women are wearing the prison uniform.  All the rest are wearing their own clothes.  And then, there are the babies!  Women are allowed to have their young children with them in jail.  There were tons of babies.

The reason why we were there, is that we were part of an outreach that gives the women yarn.  They knit or crochet hats, scarves, etc.  Then they are sold to help provide for the women’s basic needs for soap, food, etc.  Right now, my friend Marion is paying for this completely, but the future goal is that this will support itself.

Now, you may wonder if the people in the prison are dangerous, well I am sure that there may be a couple, but the women that I met were in there for offenses such as:

1                             1)Not having the proper visa to be in Malawi

                   2) Moving the neighbors laundry during an argument, and thus having to pay a $30 fine (which is about a months salary), and not having the money to do so

                    3) Stealing food for her family

                    4) Being accused of wrongdoing by her husband

Now, I am sure that some people in there are definite criminals, but many are not.  This is a male-dominated society, and whatever the husband says is taken as the truth.  It wasn’t until 5-10 years ago that women were even allowed to wear pants!  The president would make women change at the airport before letting them into the country!

Well, this one women I met there has a newborn baby.  Her child was born in prison.  Her husband accused her of killing her other child.  Now, the husband has run off, and can’t be found.  There is no longer an accuser, yet, the women still sits in jail.  She has never seen a judge.  Yet, because her husband accused her of this, she must remain in jail.

I am not sure of her innocence, yet, I am not sure of her guilt either. 

Today, I am grateful for the American judicial system, where at least people are tried or let go.

What do you think about this prison system??

Reading Day

Reading Day

Since my school is an international school in Africa, we don’t celebrate all the traditional American holidays.  Yet, we do have some pretty fun replacement days.  One of the best days is reading day.  For this day, everyone dresses up as their favorite book character and we have a parade.  We then have a fun assembly with music, prizes, and skits. 

This year, I had my husband’s 6^th grade class partner with mine.  We did buddy reading, and then we had the 6^th graders and Kindergartners do a reader’s theater skit together. The 6^thgraders had to teach the skits to the younger kids and then practice them.  It was really fun! 

We also had a costume competition for the students.  What I didn't know, however, was that they were having one for the teachers as well.  I was really excited because the costume I made for my husband won!!  Let’s just say, I am very thankful that I brought my hot glue gun to Africa. J  Here are some pictures from our day  . . .

The Chinchen's (Vice Principal & Founders of the school)

 All the teachers

 My dinosaur Charles and the "Gingerbread Man"

 Mr. Flinstone and a sleepy one

 Here I am, "Juliet"

 My husband, the "Tin Man" & winner of the Best Homemade Costume!

 My Class!

(If you would like to see more, here is a facebook link to the album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.616978968230.1073741833.118900228&type=1&l=cf1ac86d42)

Here is a video of my students:

Love and Costumes!

Miriam 

Rats and Thugs!

This week, a few of us girls went in town to get pedicures.  Now, I know this kind of seems awful, but our feet were all cracked and black.  It is really dry here, and dusty, so we have been scrubbing our feet so much every day.  Yet, despite it all, our feet just looked gross.

Well, while were were on the way back, we stopped and bought some “Malawi Junk Food,” aka RAT ON A STICK!!  We were laughing in the car so hard for the mile or so while we drove back.  Yet, as we approached the gate to drive onto our campus, we saw a big commotion.  At the gate, the guards were trying fighting with some men and trying to push them out of the gate.  There was punching and screaming. 

My first reaction was to try to back up and go to a different gate . . . but I couldn’t.  The cars are backwards here and are driven on the other sides of the road, thus the gear shifts are backwards to.  In a moment of panic, I couldn’t find the gear shift.

The men had just been pushed out of the gate and had to pass by our car.  As they approached we rolled up the windows and locked the car doors.  They hit the car with their hands, but then were chased off by the guards.

We were scared for a minute, and then drove up to the gate and asked what in the world had happened.  Apparently, the two young “Thugs” had been chasing a 40 year old man and trying to rob him.  The guards let the older man into the gate in order to protect him.

Can you imagine?  I know it is not safe walking on the streets at night, but this was in broad daylight!  I am just glad that the man was able to escape onto our campus.  He later left out a different gate, to ensure that he wasn’t followed.

Well, after our fun and scare going to town, we finally arrived home to take pictures with the rats on the stick.  We were laughing so hard, that Mercy the Maid came out to see us.  She said that she really liked rat, so she took a bite for one of the pictures.

After a bit of fun, she asked me if she could take the rats home for dinner with her family!  My bit of fun, turned into a dinner!  This surprised me a bit, but I was grateful that I could provide for her.

The next morning when her husband saw me her ran up to me.  He said that he just wanted to thank me for the delicious dinner that I was able to provide for him family, and that they really enjoyed it.

All I can say is Heartbreaking . . . I knew they ate it, but to be so grateful for something that we would never even want to eat; my heart was broken.  At that moment the reality of life in Africa set in once again.  These people truly have nothing. 

So, the next day, I decided that I would start sending Mercy home with some real food. She left my house with a Papaya and two sweet potatoes . . . I just hope I can help more in the future, but I don’t think I will be buying any more rats!

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Playground?

Well, today while I was on playground duty, I noticed one of the little Pre-K students running barefoot towards the playground.  For me, this is a total “no, no.”  So, I proceeded to take this little boy back to his classroom to get his shoes.

This little boy is the cutest little blond thing that you have ever seen.  And, he has the cutest smile.  I had noticed him the past couple of days, because he had lined up in my line to go inside.  I tried talking to him and telling him to go to his class line.  He just got this huge smile on his face.  He didn’t understand me at all!!  This boy is from South Africa, and only speaks Africana.

When I saw him without his shoes, I knew that he had just probably taken them off to go play.  Thus, I picked him up and we went back to class.  In his class, the teacher assistant informed me that he had NO SHOES!  He told his parents that he didn’t want to wear shoes, or didn’t have any shoes, and thus proceeded to school with no shoes or socks!

I immediately took him to the office.  In my thinking, there is no way that this little boy can play outside on the playground barefoot.  Our playground is covered with sticks and rocks.  Of course he would get hurt!

Well, on the way to the office we passed one of the South African teachers.  She spoke to him in Africana and just laughed saying of course he can play on the playground!  He is an African!  No shoes, no problem.  None of the South Africans wear them!

Well, while I listened to her, I was still not detoured.  I proceeded to the office, where the office manager is another South African.  She said it was fine as well, but that she would call his parents.  At the same time some other American teachers walked in and immediately noticed the shoeless boy.  They exclaimed that “Of course, he can’t play on the playground!”

So, there we were . . .  cultural differences had emerged!  I just never expected it to be in such an unusual way!

So, here is a picture of the little cutie (who I let go and play on the playground!)  You know, what can a little bit of rocks and sticks do if the parents let him come to school like that ?!

Well, if you hate wearing shoes, than I invite you to Africa . . . where here the rule is: “No shirt, No shoes, NO PROBLEM!”