Dog, dog, goats!

Over the past month the game of "duck, duck, goose" that we frequently play with our kids at Esther's House has slowly morphed into "dog, dog, goats"--I guess since dogs and goats are more relevant animals to them than ducks and geese are, it makes sense! I couldn't help but laugh though when I heard those words when we played a game of it last night. =)

Alyssa and I spent the night at Esther's House yesterday! Unfortunately we didn't really think ahead and prepare something fun to do with the kids. I think we were so curious to see what goes on after we leave in the evening that we didn't really think about the fact that 5-year-olds go to bed at 7:30. So long story short, we ended up in bed by 8:00, trying really hard to be quiet because we were sleeping in the girl's dorm. We couldn't help but laugh! The kids have been asking us for a couple of weeks now to stay the night at Esther's. When we leave in the evenings to go back to town, we always get hugs from everyone and we tell them we'll "tionana mawa," see you tomorrow. Their response lately has been "nooooo, you sleep (mimicking sleeping) HERE!" They were so excited all day when we told them we weren't going back into town, but everyone ended up going straight to bed after dinner. It gets completely dark by 6:00, so I'm not exactly sure what we expected little kids to do in pitch black darkness. We'll plan our next sleep over a little better =)

We've been having a lot of electrical black-outs in town lately, one being while we were at Dear Mama's restaurant waiting for our take-away food. We decided to wait on the porch, which ended up being an amazing opportunity to look at the stars. One of my favorite things to do at home is to lay outside looking at the stars, but it seems like there are at least 10xs more here--it's crazy beautiful! I never realized how much light is given off from surrounding cities, but when there's a black-out in Ntcheu it is completely pitch black for miles and miles around. Malawi is so incredibly beautiful--that thought is constantly on my mind. I fall more in love with the people we meet, our children at Esther's House, and the beautiful landscape, sunsets, and night skies every single day.

The days are becoming increasingly exhausting as the weather becomes hotter, and Alyssa and I work to accomplish more than what's probably possible. We return home every day covered in a layer of dirt, completely exhausted, and completely happy. Alyssa, Joshua and I spent this morning out in village of Madzanje visiting the homes of our community children. It's been an eye-opening experience to see some of the challenges these young children have to face--you would hope that loosing a parent would be the most difficult situation they have, but for some it's only one of many challenges they have to face. I know there are many people who have asked how they can help, and honestly sponsoring a child is one of the best ways. Last year I wrote a blog post about what child sponsorship really means (you can read it by clicking here)--it's still completely relevant. I would encourage you to read it before taking a look at the children who are still unsponsored on the Pure Mission website.

These children are incredible people and are genuine--they've truly stolen my heart! I work at Pure Mission as the Director of Orphan Sponsorship, and it has been a blessing to be able to spend time getting to put faces and personalities to the names that I see on paper every day. Thank you so much to all who have been so supportive while Alyssa and I have been here--I can't tell you how much it means to us! We are planning on wrapping up a few projects this coming week--I'll be sure to write an update about it all!