Day 1 – Arriving in Malawi

When we left the airport we were flooded with students that were shaking your hand and saying, “welcome to Malawi”. On the drive to ABC, African Bible College, I saw Malawi was much greener than I expected. However, when we got to the dorm, things started to get rough. I was hungry but when I tried to eat I almost puked. I took medicine, but it didn’t go away. On the bus dad kept telling me to wake up even though I was awake on the bus, and when we got to the dirt road to the village, it was far more bumpy than the roads in Mexico and I was thinking I was gonna throw up (I never did thankfully). There were little kids chasing the bus and waving and it was kinda crazy to see these kids running barefoot through cornfields and everything. At the village, everyone was singing and dancing while the sun was setting. On the way out, we were hi-fiving the kids and they chased the bus on the way out. The drive back was no different, but when we finally got dinner I felt much better. I didn’t really like the dinner but that’s why I have snacks. We set up our beds and mine was pretty comfy so I fell asleep fast.

Day 2 – First Full Day

Breakfast was very good, and I felt much better with proper rest. The groundbreaking event for the Grove Malawi was pretty cool, but also quite chaotic with how many people were there. I got to try a soda called Sobo cherry plum which was good too. At lunch I got some chicken which was super good and I wish I could get more farther into the trip. Having a break was super nice since we have been very busy. When more people arrived, we went to a village and there had to have been hundreds of kids. When they found my watch, even more kids ran up and were playing with it. They almost emergency dialed my older brother’s cell phone. The two kids I was walking with would fight with each other or even other kids so I constantly had to separate them. When we got back to ABC we had the same dinner as yesterday, which wasn’t very good. After dinner I just went to bed.

Day 3 – Campus Tour / Chipampha Village

Today was a pretty laid back day, so this will probably be short. Chapel was rather interesting since it’s way more energetic than most church services I have been to. The walk around ABC was pretty cool too, and the campus was massive. When we went to Chipampha after lunch, I played soccer with the kids and that was pretty fun. After dinner I got into my teen group except now I’m in a different group and we have a new topic for VBS (Vacation Bible School). We are also going first on day five which is rough.

Day 4 – Preparing for VBS

Today, breakfast was the worst one so far (I’m very sad). It had a boiled egg (I think) that tasted like chalk and this weird rice stuff that had a bad metallic taste. The toast was fire though. We went to Chipampha after and that was fun listening to and dancing with the music and I found the kid I was hanging out with yesterday. After lunch, I could have gone to the market but I wanted to stay and relax instead. Dad got me this cool drum which is perfect because I needed something to play for a marching band video assignment. We got in our teen group since mine is going at tomorrow’s VBS. I have to talk about Genesis 1:1 which I was working on writing. I got to know the other people in my group better and our thing seems like it’s going pretty well. After dinner, I went to the student center and ate these things called “vanilla creams” and they tasted like golden Oreos. I watched Germany play Curaçao in the World Cup and beat them 7-1. I just took a shower and the water is ice cold. I only washed my hair and even then it sucked. Whenever I put my head under the water, I had to take it out after about 10 seconds because I was so cold I felt like I was gonna pass out (luckily I didn’t). 

Day 5 – Mphimbi and Chilinza Village

This morning we went to Mphimbi and there we just sat and listened to people talking for a while. After that I walked around delivering trees which was cool to see because it was like a little neighborhood. Also during chapel this morning I went up on the stage for the first time and it was actually not that bad. After Mphimbi we went to Chilinza (I think it’s spelled) and there me and my teen team did our VBS thing. Surprisingly, I didn’t mess up the stuff I was gonna say and it actually went pretty well. Besides that we just walked around and listened to the kids sing and give them hi fives. It was a pretty easy day but dinner was pretty bad as usual ( not quality wise just food selection wise, I didn’t like most of the stuff we had but that’s just me). 

Day 6 – Planting Trees

This morning breakfast was fine and then we went to the tree farm to buy a ton of plants for the village (I think we got Stawberry, Guava, Papaya, Pine, and raspberry plants). The place we got them from looked super cool but it was also very muddy. We went to the Girls Shine Christian Academy after that where we walked around the campus and listened to what the students had to say. Once that was over, we went to the village of Mkanda which was the same one we went to for the welcoming party on day one. It was certainly a good arm workout carrying a bunch of baby trees but it was cool walking around the village seeing all of the dogs, goats, and chickens. I was pretty sad because I wore a like cream colored Honda motocross shirt that I just got but now it has brown marks all over it so hopefully I can wash them off. We went to a place called Pizza Inn for dinner and I found out you can take the caps off of the glass bottles without a bottle opener using a plastic water bottle which was funny because it would launch the caps at the person in front of you. On the bus ride home, I talked to this ABC intern named Violet and we were talking about what life was like in America vs Malawi and what we wanted to do in the future as far as jobs go. When we got back to ABC I got more vanilla creams and a coke at the snack shop and then we went to the storage room to fix some of our picture frames that were damaged on the way to Malawi (we made hundreds to give out during the VBS’s) and organize and count them. 

Day 7-8 – Soccer

I forgot to do this yesterday so this is a combination of both days. Yesterday, I forgot a lot but I know I started in Chipampha where I watched the soccer tournament and it was crazy. There were people everywhere and we were watching the game between ABC and a village I think. ABC won with a score of 2-1 and the championships are tomorrow (Day 9) so I’m looking forward to that. After that a farmer and an ABC intern took us through a walk in their garden and they had tons of rice and sugar cane and all kinds of plants. They even gave everyone that came an entire sugar cane that was like 4 or 5 feet long. After Chipampha, we briefly went to Mphimbi but we weren’t there for long. I don’t think I did much more that night but I did go watch the Portugal vs Congo World Cup game which was super boring and the score was 1-1. Today we stayed on ABC the whole time and we had several conferences. There was a Chief’s conference where I shook the hands of probably hundreds of village chiefs and I almost always forgot the greeting for like 90% of them and they would laugh at me when I did. Anyways, I also helped sort picture frames so we could give them out. From 12 to 2 I worked the snack shop which was actually pretty fun and I got a free slice of pizza and a Fanta out of it. After that, I went and played games with some other kids out it the grass like I played this game called spike ball a little which was ok but we also played this football game where someone was on one side throwing the ball and everyone else on the other side was fighting to catch it and the first person to catch it three times won and became the thrower. Dinner was normal and that basically sums up the day. 

Day 9-10 – Tumbi Village / Final VBS

I forgot again to do day nine so here is another double. Yesterday I think we had a bad breakfast with the only good thing being toast which was pretty sad. Tumbi was cool but not as cool as I was hoping. The views were only above average I would say. In Chipampha in for the game I sat right next to the field so there were a couple times where the ball came flying right at my face. ABC was playing a team called Hoopers FC for champs and we beat them 3-0 (it was a crazy game). The concert afterwards was pretty cool and it was fun dancing along. Today, we had a good breakfast (for once) and right after chapel we hopped on a bus to Chipampha for the big VBS. There were kids from all the other villages (Mkanda, Mphimbi, Tumbi, Chilinza, and Chipampha) so it was pretty big. A lot of it was just people talking so for most of it I was just playing around with this one kid who was like sitting on my lap and playing with my stuff. We made little necklaces after that so I was helping my kid with that. When that was over I went with a bunch of other people and we helped hand out bread and soda to every single kid which took a while and it was a little chaotic. After that I got about an hour to relax before going back out this time to downtown Lilongwe for a person named Blessing’s birthday. He is the like main person for Live Love Malawi and it was his 40th birthday so it was a big deal. We went to a place called the president hotel and they had an outdoor amphitheater nearby and there were a couple Malawian worship bands that played and then the band called The Afters played too (they are from Arizona). It was super cool and the crowd was crazy. After that there was a big dinner/party in the banquet hall where 300 of blessing’s closest friends (including all of The Grove team) went. It was good food but also pretty boring and we got home late so I can’t wait to sleep, especially since I have to get up at like 4:45 tomorrow. 

Day 11-12 – Safari Day

When I woke up yesterday I felt horrible since I was super dehydrated and my throat was super sore because I slept breathing through my mouth. I didn’t even have any appetite to eat breakfast, but luckily the Dramamine kicked in so the bus didn’t make it worse. I got some chicken when we stopped at a restaurant and it was ok at best. When we got to Kutchire Lodge, almost immediately we saw a bunch of monkeys and one of them jumped off a tree at a lady holding a ziplock bag with food inside and ripped it open and stole an apple. I see now why my dad calls them the “Monkey Mafia”. I fulfilled my dream I thought of from home which was to drink coke while watching hippos in the river and I did just that and it was pretty cool. We went on a boat safari that evening and it was pretty nice and we saw hippos, elephants, and birds. When we were driving past some hippos, another boat drove super close to them and scared them away so that wasn’t cool. Luckily for us, Karma hit them because on our way back we saw them sitting in the water trying to use sugar cane to paddle to shore. Turns out they didn’t run out of fuel, their engine didn’t break, but their engine literally fell off. I don’t even know how that happens and when they told our driver he just said in the funniest accent, “Oh no. That is not good” and we saw what I think was a small military camp or something. There was like six soldiers and a couple small motorboats so we went over and told them and one just covered their mouth and another just went “Eh??” It was so funny. We headed back before we could see what happened but that’s what they get for messing with the hippos. The place we were staying was a small hut made mostly of straw that had bugs everywhere (keep in mind there were probably lions and cheetahs only 100 feet away at some point). The beds were decent and we had a bathroom so it was fine. The next day (today) we went on a jeep safari and we saw some male Impalas fighting, a ton of monkeys, and some elephants and water buffalo. We were just driving around Liwonde national park but it was really nice it felt like we were in Jurassic Park. When we stopped at the other end of the park, we went out to look around and stretch after driving a while but then when we were gonna head back the car decided it forgot how to start. All of the guys literally had to get out and push start it (including me) but it was kinda fun and the truck was surprisingly light (or maybe because there was like 7 of us). It luckily started and we made it back. The drive back was just as boring but because I felt fine it was still much more enjoyable. When we got back to ABC I just relaxed and skipped dinner because I didn’t feel like walking anymore and just ate snacks.

Day 13-14 – Final Days

I was exhausted after the safari and needed a rest day. It’s going to be a long two travel days back home. Then the next day we said goodbye to everyone and packed up to go to the airport.

I met so many amazing people on this trip, from the kids in the villages, to the Malawian college interns who helped us every day, to the people from my church who sacrificed so much time and money to come alongside the people of Malawi in creating new opportunities and helping villages grow. Malawi is probably one of the greatest places in the world—not because it is perfect, but because it teaches you the meaning of joy and gives you a new perspective on the things we take for granted in America. This trip not only taught me to appreciate the things I have, but also to give to the people around me. We spend so much time focused on ourselves that we often forget about all of God’s amazing creations, including the people around us.