MALAWI

Well one word to sum up the trip would be WOW! I'm not really sure which bits to blog about as to do everything would take ages. So I'll just try and give you some highlights.

1. The team - I love all you guys (guys being the generic term for boys and girls just to clarify). For those that don't know there were 16 of us mostly from Cardiff Christian Union, 8 boys and 8 girls. And yes we did sink to the depths of trying to pair each other off on the coach back to the airport - Laura's reaction to being paired with Sam being the funniest: "NOOOOO anyone but him!". We all got to know each other so well with no notable arguments at all! Unless you count physical fights?!
2. Malawians - Such lovely people, so friendly and generous. Some even walked 100km to come to the things we were doing. They really are an inspriation.
3. Vik and Sue - absolute LEGENDS! They are the people that own Fisherman's Rest where we stayed and they were helping us the whole time, having helped Sam organise the trip. Without them we'd have been stuffed (hmm I never use that phrase oh well).
4. Nsema - not a highlight by any means but interesting. The nsema wasn't too bad but nsema porridge was awful. We only had to eat this once at Bangula (an orphanage) but the kids there get it everyday for breakfast. It did mean that the best meal we had was doughnuts and tea when we were expecting porridge again.
5. Bangula - we spent 2 nights here. It's an orphanage run by Pam and Will who come from America and Canada. They have 105 children over 20 of whom are under 1. They are absolutly amazing people! This was the roughest part of the trip in terms of accomadation, food and washing etc. But it was a humbling experience as the kids there don't get to go back to Fisherman's rest after 3 days and jump into a pool! We taught them some songs which they were still singing as we left, told them bible stories, cuddled babies and played games. This is where I spent my birthday - one I will never forget!
6. Our holiday - we got some time off of mission things and went to a game park and Lake Malawi, both beautiful places. We saw some amazing animals and thanks to Janet learnt a lot of plant names especially ones that had pretty pink flowers! We saw hippos, crocodiles, monkeys, a variety of antelope, warthogs, elephants, eagles, vulchers, storks and lots of other birds. We even ran over a crocodile which wasn't so good as we got quite wet, the driver of the boat said he'd never done that before but that the odd adventure is always fun! Hmm I don't think Berni would agree with him as she jumped halfway across the boat. We (well half of us) got up to see the sunrise at Lake Malawi which was amazing.
7. Swimming - in pools and the Lake (hopefully don't have Bilharsia now). Had my first proper dunking fight: me, Janet and Helen against Josh and Pete - we lost terribly but it was fun.
8. Bruises - am pretty much covered in them now, my worst one occuring during the dunking fight and the others mostly caused by Pete as well. I will cause him pain at some point!
9. Kids - we did a lot of children's mission things in various places. Playing games (not the easiest thing in scoring sun), singing, doing dramas, and teaching. The kids are fantastic, they will run after the trucks as you arrive and wave whenever they see white people. It was great to enable them to have some fun and show them that God loves them.
10. Chicheri prison - we walked in, were cornered by around 500 prisoners and managed to sing our way out!
11. God is good - all the time! We have all learnt a lot about God over the past 2 weeks and all been challenged and inspired in different ways.

So there you have a very brief summary of 11 highlights of Malawi, no doubt others will be blogging about the trip soon. There will also be photos posted on the internet - between us there's probably over 1000 so have fun looking at them. But now I guess I should probably go and get dressed.