StillwatersIowa

When traveling to another culture half way around the world it's interesting how quickly a person's mind adapts and the things back home seem so far away. This is one of the better roads we took Tuesday when heading out to visit the folks in the country villages.  Although arriving in the country of Malawi is a culture shock, visiting the folks in the remote villages takes it a couple of steps further. Malawian people by nature are very friendly. They are also very community. Most tend to be passive interpreted by some to be lazy. Actually because of their culture the vast majority think no further ahead than their next meal. Funerals are a big deal in this country and happen all the time. Most of the village folks attend and follow the home made casket from the church to a timber area where their graveyards are located. A funeral is usually held the day after someone dies. The kids in the villages usually start out being apprehensive about seeing a white person b...

Good morning. We arrived in Malawi yesterday afternoon. We were the first flight in from Nairobi after the gov't workers strike got over. The gov't workers went back to work after receiving a 61% wage increase. Inflation in Malawi is 5% a month. I wish our American gov't leaders would come and experience what happens when a gov't spends more than they take in. We met with Nancy and Peter who work for CRWRC to make a plan for while we are here. Ken, Fred, Russ, and I also met with Harrison, a Malawian, who we met last year while we were here and hired him for the week to be our driver and interpreter.   We here in Malawi are 8 hours ahead of Iowa time so by the time you get up I will have been to church already. My goal was to post this on time however internet is so slow here it has literally taken me hours to get anything done. Below is the road to Moses and Maria's church which I attended.   This is the welcoming committee that was singing when I arri...

Greetings. Hopefully this will be an extra although my week has not gone as planned. Ken and I left Wednesday for Malawi, Africa. Initially I had planned to return to Africa to see my sister Beth and her family and to visit the new friends we made on last years trip. As many of you know Beth and her daughter came home for our brothers funeral. I still went to see Beth's husband and her boys as well as my new friends there.   Pablo and Paula drove us to the airport in plenty of time. However due to our flight being delayed we sat waiting for over three hours. Finally we boarded, concerned about our connecting flight in Detroit. We landed in Detroit and ran to our next gate only to find out the gate had just closed. Our plane was still sitting just outside the window and our other two buddies coming from different airports were boarded but they wouldn't let us on. We spent 2 hours trying to arrange another flight. International travel does not have as many fl...

Our family gets lots of opportunities to meet new people through business, community activities, and folks using the cabin. The purpose of this blog is to have a connection with new and old friends alike that choose to stay in touch. The guidelines I use when sharing with you are 3-fold. Make it interesting, make it from the heart, and make it short. I ask for a little grace this week on the last guideline.   Have you looked ahead while traveling, saw an obstacle, and thought to yourself, I wonder how we are going to get around that, only to find out that there is a path right through it? Life is like that. We have situations here on earth that we don't think we can  get over. We ask God if we can go around or avoid them all together. Often times God takes us by the hand and walks us right through those trials. It ends up being the best way. I grew up in a family that experienced that many times. My brother Dan was bor...

Do you ever do anything extracurricular, meaning something out of the realm of your normal? An example would be a farmer writing a blog. I suppose a person could argue what normal is. Well this week it just kind of seemed we had our share of extras. Several Moms from the Osky Chr. Grade School came to the cabin this past week. They had Jan help them bake 3400 cookies for a valentine's fundraiser. The FCC decided all business radios needed to be narrow banded. Only the 2-ways bought in the last couple of years could be reprogrammed. The older ones had to be replaced. A fairly sizable expenditure. This extra job included collecting the radios out of all our farm vehicles and either reprogramming or replacing them. So, what do farmers do all winter? Well, sometimes we go to meetings to learn about the latest crop input options. It usually also involves a free meal. Our family moved dirt well into January. Then it got cold and snowy so we have been hauling equipment ho...