B&B's Blantyre Blog

Hello!! A lot has changed since we last blogged.  I've kept meaning to post, but have been delaying until we've "fully processed" our year and come to some life-changing conclusions to share. Perhaps that isn't particularly realistic or even helpful though, so I'm just gonna share how our last month has been and where we're at now! The excellent cake Anna Scott welcomed us home with Where are you?? The wonderful (but also sad) news is that we're back in the UK and have moved back to Nottingham. When I last posted we genuinely had no clue when or how we would be getting home. But then in a relatively crazy couple of days we found out we could get a charter flight to Zambia, then a commercial flight through Ethiopia and up to London. This was still outside of our budget though, so we reached out to some close friends and family that have been supporting us. Amazingly, within 12 hours, the full amount was raised and we were able to book the flights!! ...

Hello! Ben here - long time, no blog. We've kept meaning to write one, but with this hokey kokey of lockdown and coronavirus we keep waiting for things to be more known or certain before we do! But of course, things keep being unknown and now unfortunately we may only have a couple of weeks left in beautiful Malawi! Lazarus Chakwera Some big things have happened in Malawi since we last posted. Mainly, there's a new president! There's generally a really great buzz around him and what he could do for the country. If you're interested this BBC article gives a pretty good overview of Mr Lazarus Chakwera. He seems to be genuinely not corrupt and over the past few weeks we have been seeing arrest after arrest of corrupt officials who had been getting away with murder (sometimes literally). So that's exciting, it's really cool to see action being taken and there being a new hope for the future of Malawi! Holidayyyyy Over the past couple of months we...

Moni anzathu!! (Greetings friends of ours) We've had a pretty busy yet restful February! There have been a few moments of stress and anxiety, but many more times of fun, rest and joy. We've really had fun with church this month! There have been quite a few events which have brought us lots of joy. For example, there was the first CCC sports social! I haven't played football since arriving, so was pretty pumped for it. We went to a nearby pitch after church and had a game of football, the frisbee being thrown around, and a smaller ball also being kicked about.  It started off with quite low numbers, but before we knew it loads of local kids had joined in and it was pretty packed! The community spirit was great and I really enjoyed that it was so chilled, without strenuous planning or rigid programming but happened naturally. However, I do have to apologise to Dumi who put about 10 chances on a plate for me and I wasted nearly every one of them…so sorry, pepani. ...

Long time, no post! A fair amount has happened since we last posted, so here's a few highlights and things of note from the past month or so. Being Part of the Family We've really started to feel a part of things here now - which is really nice! Obviously we will always be the mzungu (white people) who get shouted at in the street and draw attention whenever we go to a village, or anywhere outside the city centre, or anywhere inside the city centre… But in church we are experiencing being accepted as normal members on the monthly rota. So to any Malawi friends reading - zikomo kwambiri! L to R: Hannah, Stephen & Mercy Monjeza; Bekah; Scrivin, Cathie, Annie and Gogo Kamanga; me! One day in particular when we felt really a part of the family is going to our friend Cathie's graduation! We road-tripped to a different city with the Monjeza's (mentioned in previous blog - great people, good friends) and sat under the shade of a tree entertaining (and bein...

On 11th October I had my first ugly cry since arriving.   I 'd been warned that it was going to happen at some point, but I'd naively thought that I was doing pretty good and had no need for feeling sad emotions! We've been doing well since moving, I've loved so much about being here, nothing tragic has happened and we've settled in quite comfortably. Yes there have been a few frustrations, but they've just meant that we've had time to rest and learn the new culture. Or so I thought. But I hadn't acknowledged that I'd been internalising a lot of these frustrations, causing me to think of myself as a failure and to get annoyed at the culture. And I'd been feeling guilty about both. I hadn't acknowledged that it's actually been a bit hard. And that's okay! I was also stopping myself from grieving and accepting the pain of leaving, which is a part of the process of moving. Below is an extract from a bit I wrote in my journ...

After a restful first week, this week has picked up the pace a bit! We've had plenty of time to be chatting to Abusa (Pastor) Scrivin about the details of the year, which has been helpful for us to see where the need is and where we can support best within the church. We also visited Noah's Ark orphan care centre, which provides free food/education for 130 kids, with the view of volunteering there for a couple of days to give them some extra support. I'm sure we'll talk more about them in future, but they're doing such a great job loving the local children who are in real need and have real need of support - the preschool has 28 kids, and just one teacher! Unfortunately, Bekah did miss out on going to Noah's Ark as her tummy has continued to feel grjhnnragjdnlll (but has gained appetite back today - yayy!). A positive from her feeling less than okay, is that we discovered that seeing a GP is incredibly simple. Scrivin had given us the number of a doctor he tru...

Hello! Welcome to our blog about the time we're spending in Blantyre, Malawi. First off, it'd be good to explain why we're even going in the first place. Origin Story I (Ben) have grown up in a family full of missionaries, so I've grown up pretty used to the idea of people living overseas. I even spent the first five years of my life living in Albania. You could say it's in my blood. To be honest, that's what I've thought ever since committing my life to Jesus when I was 18 - I'll probably do something ' like that ' someday. I even felt like God confirmed that to me one summer at a Christian camp, that He was calling me to something abroad. The what, when and how I wasn't sure of though. Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Casebow in Uganda, aged 6 Ever since I've known Bekah she's known God has given her a heart for Africa. Now, a lot of people may say that they have a heart for somewhere, but not many people get so emotional tha...