Never in my life have I ever been so happy to see running water! We’ve gone almost a full week without a single drop, and although it’s been going on and off since late last night, it’s running water all the same. We've been filling up buckets at Esther’s House (where there is free, clean water) and taking it home. A lot of the water has usually spilled all over the back of the car because of the bumpy dirt roads by the time we get to the house.

We went most of September without a constant flow of water and we made do with even less in October because we assumed that because it’s the dry season, everyone was experiencing water shortages. After talking to the water board a month ago, they told us that most of Ntcheu is receiving water and that our problem probably had something to do with our pipes. We were told that workers would be sent soon to fix the problem. This was at the beginning of October. After going weeks with barely any water, we went to the water board again and they assured us that someone was working on it and that we would have water by that afternoon. A few days later, still waterless, we returned to the water board where they assured us--again--that we would have water by today or tomorrow.

Last night we finally received a little bit of water, which unfortunately isn’t running right now, and we were able to fill some of our buckets and water jugs. It definitely beats having to constantly haul buckets of water from Esther’s House!

The water situation is just one of MANY examples of things running on “Malawi time.”

“We’re running on Malawi time” is a phrase that’s used by everyone, which just means that everything gets done much slower in Malawi. If you came home after work to find that you had no water, you could make a phone call and have someone from the water company at your house the next morning. It took nearly a month for the Ntcheu District water board to begin to fix our water line, and it’s still isn’t constantly flowing. I’ve had to just learn to accept and deal with the fact that this is how things get done here!

We recently had the roof blown off the girl’s dormitory at Esther’s House during a storm. One of our house parents was inside the dormitory when the roof came off, and we were so thankful that no one was harmed. Right now we are working with a nearby German orphanage and Malawians to get that fixed before the rainy season starts. The Chiole Missions German orphanage is on the other side of Ntcheu; they’ve been open for 8 years and have 5 different orphanages around Malawi and Mozambique. They’re such nice people and we’re really grateful to have their assistance with this situation!

Last month we received a new little 4-year-old girl, Busisiwe, into our residential program! She loves to be held and hugged, and she has the most precious smile! She’s a bit shy as she’s still getting used to living at Esther’s House, but we’re so glad to have her. We are now caring for 9 residential children and 42 non-residential children. We have identified 2 double orphan siblings that are especially vulnerable, and after having them assessed by social welfare next week we hope to enroll them in our residential program.

When Cindy and I were driving home on Saturday, we passed a vegetable stand that was selling pumpkins. Seeing as it was the day before Halloween we thought it would be fun to carve a pumpkin! No one understood why I wanted to carve a picture of an owl into a pumpkin and then stick a candle inside it; I think they appreciated the pumpkin bread that resulted from it more than the jack-o-lantern!

All of our kids are doing great--all except our 3 youngest are going to school. We have a pre-school type class with Enelesi, Patuma, and Busisiwe in the mornings where we read books, practice English, and color. I love how different all of their personalities are! Patuma has proved to be a true tomboy. She loves physical activity and she loves to play rough with the other kids! Yesterday I found her with the boys playing with mud and making mud bricks.

Issac loves coming up with activities to do. The other day he led the kids in mopping the the dining hall (which they had a lot of fun with, even if the dining hall didn't actually get cleaned!), and the other day he made an "obstacle course" out of sticks and shoes! It seemed much too hot to be running around outside, but all the kids loved it!

♥ S

Matthew 7:21