Part II

SA air transported me with three hours to spare from D.C. to Johannesburg on March 3-4th, and my flight on to Lilongwe the next day was smooth and clean as could be. God blessed my travels! Thank you for praying for me, and to those of you whom I got to see, thanks for meeting with me while I was in town!!!

I now know culture shock is a reality. Missionaries had warned me about shock at being in a grocery store with one isle containing as much diversity in product as an entire grocery here, but I wasn't prepared for how tall the trees would appear, how clean the bananas would look on my parents' kitchen counter, or how beautiful a matching set of dishes would seem in their cabinets.

But the welcome I've received on my return to Lilongwe has been equally warm as the one at home, which makes me feel terribly selfisih for being homesick at all! One Malawian woman who cleans the school all day with a team of other women saw me in the library, preparing for class. She nearly lept for joy and the smile on her face was priceless-and this from a woman who hardly knows me! Perhaps if she did know me she wouldn't have been so excited. :) Another woman, the teacher of the Bible classes for middle school, noted that I had lost all my tan. :) It is amazing how sunny this country is despite the rain we get every day! I think they probably have a hard time understanding what it's like during winter in the US! But I can't tell you how much I enjoyed lighting a fire in my parents' fire place! What a treat.

My students were precious as well. Jordan, a 6th grader from South Africa, gave me my first hug of the morning with a simultaneous recitation of the Shakespearean sonnet Mrs. MacLean had them memorize. My classroom seems so much more doable with even the few things I picked up from home like a three ring binder, a clock, and markers for the board. I'm sure I could've gotten those things here, but it would have been exponentially more difficult than just zipping to Office Depot. The kindergarteners swarmed me with a group hug as well when I visited that end of the hall to tell Ari Lopez about the paper airplanes I brought back for them to construct. Hopefully she'll take pics of their faces when they do that project. It's amazing how simple things bring such joy when you're not bombarded by every form of entertainment vying for your attention. It's a battle in the States merely to get up in the morning and get to work without feeling tempted to read 5 newspapers and check email 3 times!

Thanks again to everyone who called and visited while I was home! The Bar went as well as can be expected, and if I have to retake it, I'll cross that bridge when it manifests itself. My flight home is June 15th, and I should arrive June 16th, Lord willing. Keep me in your prayers!