Greetings All,
Michele and I are once again in Lilongwe getting ready to start out Permaculture Design Certificate Course on Monday. We are pretty excited for it and even more excited that it is taking place at one of our 'Homes Away from Home' at African Bible College (ABC). Check these folks out (Kristof and Stacia Nordin): www.neverendingfood.org. They are former Peace Corps Volunteers who served near Lilongwe and now live just across the road from where they did their service at Chitedze Agriculture Research Center. Kristof is the one doing our training at ABC. They are both really active in the agriculture, nutrition and sustainable development world here in Malawi. We are hoping to learn a lot this week and the second week which will take place in mid-April. We want to put together a training for our site area that would run from around late-April through November. It would encompass many of the Permaculture principals and practices, natural medicine and nutrition. We are in the process of identifying Malawian trainers that could assist us and reduce the need for a translator as that makes trainings last much longer and can confuse everyone a lot more. We are hoping to do a few trainings a month (maybe more?) on each topic and give participants a chance to implement and come back with questions, problems or lessons learned. One of the biggest issues with trainings or programs we have seen is a big emphasis on training but a problem with follow up after trainings are completed. Hopefully, by providing a longer term training program we can take advantage of our place in the community and better help figure out problems or concerns the community has as they attempt to implement different practices in to their gardens and daily practices.
Recently, we have been blessed with being able to listen to a pastor named Francis Chan. He was (and possibly still is?) a pastor of Cornerstone in Simi Valley, California. We both had heard of him but had never listened to his teachings or read any of his books. While we were in Mozambique we stayed with some missionaries who shared Francis Chan's podcasts with us and we have recently started listening to them. They have been a breath of fresh air in many ways and really convicting/challenging to us as Christians. As many of you know it has been difficult for us to feel fed spiritually while here in Malawi for a variety of reasons, one of which being that we live in a rural African setting where all the church services take place in the local vernacular. While we are still trying to be involved with the Seventh-Day Adventist Mission we live next to, we also realize that we can only have so much impact with our limited language skills and also given that the culture of 'religion' here makes engaging people more difficult as well. So, we are finding these podcasts to be encouraging us to be more bold (hopefully?) with sharing our faith in our community and with our fellow volunteers as well. That said, we still need a lot of prayer for our walks with God, our marriage and our relationships with everyone we encounter. That we can be good stewards of the grace God has given us and simply be free to share that with those around us and let God do the rest.
On to decisions! Recently, Michele and I have been talking to the group of volunteers who are finishing up their service in a few months time. They are excited and nervous for their next steps which is making Michele and I think more about what our next steps will be as well. We are also being encouraged by folks to start 'looking' at what we may want to to be doing when we finish up here in Malawi. Logistically, this is no easy task because of the poor internet connectivity but also difficult on a practical level because in many ways we have changed and our mindset for what we may want in our future has changed. Before we left the States, Michele had completed everything she needed to apply for Physical Therapy School. I was in the process of taking my LSAT for possibly applying to Law School. We have been re-learning what we value and want out of life and are trying to figure out what that looks like coming back to America. It's not to say that we don't want to or can't work abroad but I guess our default thinking is that we will stay in the States until we start knocking on other doors or other doors are shown to us. Michele is battling in her mind how to integrate more public health work in to what she would want to do for a career, this could still involve going to Physical Therapy School and just integrating a certificate or extra courses along that line...or it could mean a completely different path that maybe Michele can elaborate on herself in a future post. For myself, I continue to love working outdoors and helping folks here understand different appropriate technologies for their gardens to help increase yields, soil fertility and garden health. It is really gratifying to share simple technologies such as composting crop residues, covering fields with crop residues to protect the soil and planting trees for fertility and food. The difficult part is of course the behavior change of those we work with but that is a problem the world around. I'm not really sure where to go with those thoughts back in the States. Options could include working with NGO's in project implementation or design, the one that sticks out like a sore thumb is Plantwithpurpose.org. Regardless, I would need to go to school and I guess the direction is still unclear as to what path that would be. I also think that I would enjoy and do well at some sort of Environmental Law profession and even think I would like to teach at a community college level or even university level. I guess I am just not sure if those two paths described above, NGO work and Law/Teaching, are mutually exclusive. In looking up some stuff for Michele yesterday on schools and different programs she could be interested in, I found myself even thinking that these programs that she is basically ready for could be a good fit for the things that I have been learning here and a good outlet for my energies focused around food, agriculture and the the environment. I guess one of the biggest fears for us both is investing our time and maybe more important, lots of money, in to school and come out of it as many come out of their undergraduate schooling and as many more are coming out of graduate school, completely lost and in debt! We have even thrown around the idea of doing something similar to what we doing here as our career and even different missionaries are making us think outside the box. As you can see, we are starting to think more and more about these things and need lots of prayer. Because, even thought I said 'we' are trying to figure out what 'we' want out lives to look like like, we really want to honor God with what we do and serve His kingdom as best we can. It would also be nice if He just told us which direction to go but in the absence of a burning bush or some other sign we just need prayer to be attentive to the still-small voice of God and be open to words of wisdom from friends, family and even strangers as we begin to think about the future.
Phew, that was a lot of stuff huh? The last part was a big rant that I am sure Michele has some different opinions and ideas that she may follow up on in the future but for now just know we are having a great time and really dreaming for the future. If anyone out there has any thoughts, ideas or questions please share them. We love you all and really could not be doing this here without all of your support. Some of you have been sending us care packages so often that we have to tell you to stop, others are great at giving us words of encouragement right when we need them and some are even trying to come visit us. I am sure we will have another big post in a week or so after our training so keep your eyes peeled!
Love,
Ryan + Michele
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