Battle of the Papayas

Once upon a time, Talea decided she wanted a papaya, so off she went through the yard on a hunt for a ripe papaya. 

Papaya hunting is an all-out battle between the hunters and papayas. So far, the papayas are winning.
























                           

I tried climbing a papaya tree once, but it was really strenuous and painful. Papaya trees are not meant for climbing. The tree was next to a brick wall, so that aided the climbing process to get me high enough to pick the papaya. It works, but only for that one tree in the yard.

Tonight I decided I wanted some papayas to make some fresh papaya juice. There was one really tall tree that had three obviously ripe papayas gracefully hanging from it. Now, this tree was too tall to climb, not next to a wall to help the climbing process, and I was not up for the struggle and pain of trying to climb that tree. It was time for an alternative: a really long pole.

Now, this pole is AT LEAST three times my height. Bianca (one of the children of the Guarino family, the family whose compound we live on) had demonstrated the use of this pole earlier. It can’t be THAT hard, right?

Wrong. Dreadfully wrong. By the time I decided that I wanted papayas, it was already dark. Yet, I was determined to get some papayas, so I dragged Laurel out with me to help me conquer this task. We took flashlights out with us, but they were not strong enough to do anything useful in all practical purposes. Laurel went first, trying to knock the papayas out of the tree with the long pole while I was waiting to catch the falling papaya. 


Splat!! 



Okay, so I’m not an athlete…. I took over the “pole operation” when Laurel was not getting the papaya down. It’s hard. And the papaya did not gracefully fall down to Laurel’s patiently waiting hands. Instead, a different papaya than the one I was trying to get down fell and met it’s doom on the ground. Oops. Finally, the one I was working on came down. And it landed on a branch of the tree that split it right in half. 

Can you say “entertaining”?

Did I mention that it was dark when we tried to do this? Laurel and I obviously need to practice, and continue the battle in daylight. Thankfully, there are many more trees in the yard, some of which are short enough for me to pick the papayas with my own hands without any climbing or poles!!

Success!!!!!

With our pitiful spoils of war :)

Fail.

Me, Julian, and our papaya pole.

Yeah, my game face didn't help us out much. :)

Connections

What should we do with ourselves??  We found out we had a whole week off of school in-between the first and second quarters in honor of Mother’s Day, which fell on a Wednesday. We needed something to do or else we would be sitting around for a whole week with nothing to do. We had been told that we HAVE to go to Lake Malawi since it is so nice there. Hmm… that’s a thought. Then we found out that they offer SCUBA diving courses.

YES. SO MUCH YES.

So we went. And I am proud to say that I am now officially a member of the SCUBA diving world!!

While we were at the lake, we met some other people who were there to dive as well, though they were already certified. When we finally were able to claim our own certifications, they were excited for us and what we could now do with it. They were excited for us. There was a couple at the lake from Zimbabwe who did five dives with us. They were so cool! She was a conservationist - awesome!! They gave us lots of good tips for when we travel around southern Africa come Christmas. By the end of our dives we were friends who had just a had a ton of fun together, and I was sad to part with them.

As part of the SCUBA world, I now have a special kind of connection with thousands of people, most of which I will probably never meet. But for those I do, we have something in common. We will have things to talk about and will most likely part as friends. Why? Because we share a love for SCUBA diving. 

It’s the same with Christians. We are all connected through God. We get excited for other people when they meet God, experience His love, and commit their lives to Him. We pray for other people and teach them about God. We reach out to people who need our help.  We hurt for people we don’t know; we rejoice for and with strangers; we talk, we cry, we laugh, we sing, with people we don’t know because we have the love of God in our hearts. Coming to Malawi, I already had common ground to stand on with the other missionaries here because we claim the same faith and we are all here to help others. There are thousands of people in the world that I have a connection with, even though I’ll never meet them. Why? Because we serve the same True God and devote ourselves to serving Him, whether it be at home or overseas.

But, in a larger sense, I have a connection with everybody in the world. I imagine you’re thinking to yourselves, What? Talea! What are you thinking?! There are BILLIONS of people in this world. What on earth Talea?! You have a connection with ALL of them? Yeah right!

No, I do. And so do you. Please allow me to explain…

Not wanting to take a bus or mini bus the four hours to the lake by ourselves, we asked the lodge where we were staying if they had any better ideas for a ride up to the lake. They sent us contact information of some people who were going up from Blantyre. We contacted them and they were fine with us riding with them! We helped pay for gas, and overall, it was a much nicer, non-stressful, and more financially pleasing ride than we would have been able to get otherwise. On the ride up we were talking with the people in the car, and one lady asked how we were liking Malawi so far. Laurel said that she loved it way more than the United States. The lady was surprised to hear that and asked why. Laurel said something to the effect that there wasn’t a social norm that she was expected to live by here. The lady then explained that there were social norms, just not for mzungus (foreigners), and told us how much she didn’t like expectations the culture held for her. She would feel the same way as Laurel does here if she went to another culture. 

Really, we aren’t so different from the people here, and they aren’t so different than us. We live in different cultures. Daily chores are done much differently. The food we eat is not always the same. We speak different languages and have different knowledge bases. But really, as people, we are the same. We are people, living as we know how. Because of sin we are confused, hurting people searching for answers to whatever questions lie in our hearts and minds. We find answers in different places and live by different sets of values. But deep down inside, we are all the same - we are all human. 

Human. We all mess up, we all make mistakes, and by the Grace of God, we are made new again. With God’s help and understanding, showing love to other people who live completely different lives than what we’re used to doesn’t seem so difficult and impossible.

Though SCUBA diving has nothing to do with my work here in Malawi, it is a great experience - seeing God’s creation up close, in their own natural habitat, is quite the breathtaking experience. And, IT IS SO EXCITING!!! Going places, meeting people, seeing new things, and learning through it all is so valuable, completely fantastic, and life changing.

One of the many, absolutely gorgeous sunsets we watched.

A local dug-out canoe

Duck Duck Goose

I woke up with a headache. It being a Sunday morning, I decided that was a good enough reason to stay in bed a little longer. I had been invited to go and help with a children’s ministry down the road. I didn’t know what it would be like. I didn’t know what I would do. I don’t know their language. I didn’t really want to try to help, being the shy person that I am. I was scared. I was selfish. But the headache was a good excuse not to go, right? Wrong. I didn’t go, and have felt completely terrible about it ever since. I came here to serve, and what did I do? Stayed in bed for a few more hours. Lame Talea, really lame.

After about a month, I finally asked to go and help. I worked up the courage and talked to the lady in charge Sabbath night, volunteering my help Sunday morning. 

Sunday morning came, and I went.

These kids don’t have money, they don’t have food. They belong to a village that used to be full of thieves. The church here worked with them, teaching them about God, and now they don’t steal anymore. God is so good!! Since they don’t steal, they don’t have money to buy food or other things they need. They try to find jobs, but it’s hard to get a good job here without an education. 

On Sunday mornings, there is a group of missionaries here that goes down to this village and teaches the children there about God. We sing songs, they listen to a Bible story, they learn a simple memory verse, they color a picture, they learn a little bit about the body, and they play a game. I was in charge of the game, and hadn’t come up with anything cool. At all. So “Duck Duck Goose” it was. I have NEVER EVER seen kids have so much fun with that game. They loved it so much!! Their joy at such simplicity was contagious and I felt myself relax and enjoy it just as much as they were.

Then we gave the children food. That was an adventure. They are all hungry, and they all try to get their hands on as much food as they possibly can. I was passing out pieces of bread and one little boy held out his hand for another piece.

“Did I already give you a piece?” I asked suspiciously, pretty positive that I had. 

With a full mouth he emphatically shook his head no.

“Open your mouth,” I told him, pointing to my mouth and demonstrating so that he would know what to do.

He opened his mouth. There was bread. I wanted to give him another piece so badly. These kids really need the food. But there was only enough for one piece of bread per person. So I said no and went on to the next child, all the while wondering which boys I had already given bread to that were crowding around me and demanding bread.

They demand things. They don’t say “chonde” (please), and nobody said “zikomo” (thank you) after I gave them bread. But they don’t know any better. And my heart breaks for them. Why are some blessed with so much, yet others have next to nothing? It isn’t fair.  Not fair at all. I don't like it. I wish there were more I could do. For now, getting myself out of bed and walking down to play games, hand out food, teach the kids about Jesus, and loving the kids is going to have to suffice. And it will, because God will take care of everything, way better than I could ever imagine.

   

The story was about Captain Naaman.

  

They got rather excited about my little camera.

And really excited.