Almost home...

Hello Friends and Family! We are at the FUllford's this evening so that means access to the Internet. Our phone access home was short lived. The phone worked for a day and then nothing. Here's the update....

Last Saturday we had a lazy morning. It was nice to rest up! We took the afternoon to go to another orphanage nearby. Mr. and Mrs. Gentry are friends with the founder since they have worked in the same area for nearly ten years. The founder is an amazingly strong woman from South Africa and she is about to write a book about her life. I'm definitely going to put that book on my "to read" list. This orphanage was amazing. They get the orphans from babies and raise them. The facilities were outstanding and the school was just as colorful and friendly to walk through. They get funding from all over the world. It made me long for more support for the orphanage were we work. They do the best they can but resources just aren't not as readily available. The orphanage is Kondanani and there's supposed to be info about it on the web...but I'm waiting to get home to check it out.

On Sunday we took public transportation for the first time. We seriously see thirty people in those vans sometimes so we were a little nervous. It was actually a great experience. The music was playing and it was neat. The windshield had three stickers on it: "I love Allah," " I love God," and "I love Toyota." I found that pretty funny. :) We took the transportation because we wanted to visit a different church than where Mr. Gentry was going. This church was started by Wilson, the night guard at our house. It seemed like it would mean a lot for us to come so we wanted to make it happen. The service was so good and afterwards Wilson had lunch for us. There were bowls of nsima (the main food here...imagine hot cornmeal), boiled eggs, and relish. We tasted the nsima for the first time. We decided it was kind of like grits...no taste though. They eat a lot of it here because it fills them up very fast...but it has little to no nutritional value. It was a fun experience. When we headed home there was no transportation available so we walked the two and a half hours home. I was actually glad to get the excercise. We walked through many villages and got to see more of the life up close. Several babies and kids would wave at us and yell "Nzungu!!" That's "white person" in chichewa. It's a funny feeling to stand out so much here.

On Monday we had our last medicine clinic experience. We served around 500 people this time. It's amazing to see so many people in line to get help. Again there were several cases we had to tell to go to the hospital because there was nothing we could help with. These medical experiences are always tug on the heart.

On Tuesday we went to Mount Mulunje to climb to a waterfall. We did this two years ago when we were here and wanted to do it again. Mel wasn't feeling well and ended up staying home...even making a trip to the hospital. She was okay though. We missed her!! On the way to Mulunje we drove to the Mozambique border. We walked across the border and visited for ten minutes. We were excited to add another country to our passport but they wouldn't stamp it. I have pictures to prove I was there though! On the way to the mountain our truck broke down so we had to get a tow from a minibus. We called one of the Good Samaritan staff to come tow us home...but we still got to climb the mountain while we were waiting. It was a great day...even with the truck breaking down. We took Thandie (the director of the children's home) with us. She is by far one of the most amazing people in the world. She dedicates her life to being a mother to the 80 children at the home. We love her and we were so glad to have this day with her.

Wednesday was pretty emotional. It was our last church service here and we cried a lot with the realization that we were heading home soon. A couple of the kids gave testimonies thanking God for bringing us together. We cried a lot...did I already say that?

Thursday was our last day at the school. We said our good byes and had one last soccer game with the kids.

Today has been about spending time with all the missionaries here having a good time together on our last night and evening. We were hoping to take Norman to get his hand bike but we found out that it will not be ready until next week. Rackson assures us he will make sure it happens. He is even going to take a picture and send it back to us. :)

This has been another amazing experience and my life will not be the same. Thanks for all the supportive messages. I will be home Sunday afternoon. Please pray for safe flights. I will probably take a couple days to rest up and settle in at home before I surface but I'm so excited to see everyone again.