November 5, 2003

Embangweni #14

Dear Friends and Family,

We are home after six weeks back in the United States. We had a beautiful week in New Hampshire for our daughter Karen’s wedding. We also were able to spend time in Virginia with our daughter, Anne, and her husband, Eric, and to attend to our boat just in time before Isabel arrived and then to visit at Lafayette Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee, Florida, where our good friend John Lown is now pastor. It was a very busy time and we enjoyed it fully, but were very glad to return to our home in Malawi.

It seems that in our absence the ravages of AIDS hit home to Beth’s colleagues at the clinic. We found that her good friend and fellow nurse, D.C. Nyirongo, lost her daughter, Patricia, just before we arrived. Patricia had been sick for a long time and was the same age as our oldest daughter. Then just on Friday, Beth’s friend Gegiwe’s daughter died, leaving two young children. The funeral was yesterday—attended by almost everyone who worked at the hospital and of course lots of Gegiwe’s friends and family. Her two grandchildren cried most of the day, as they had lost both a mother and father recently. Gegiwe is their only living relative, and she is not young. She too has lost many others in her family and just lost her sister a few months ago. It is very difficult for us Americans to take it all in. The grief and loss that our friends are suffering so often is penetrating the whole atmosphere. I am amazed at their ability to go on with life and to begin working so quickly. Almost anyone that you talk to has had similar tragedies in their family. Their faith is very strong and they tell me that it is God who gets them through it.

On a lighter note, there are joys as well. Yesterday (Saturday) we received word that Clara Karonga had her baby. She had worked at our house the day before—very long and very hard doing washing, ironing, baking bread and muffins, and cleaning. She did not leave here until 5:00 p.m. and was having no signs of labor at that time. Her labor started at around 3:00 a.m. At 7:00 a.m. her brother (and our cook Andrew Karonga) came to our house and banged on the door as they did not have transportation for Clara to the hospital. We were sound asleep with a loud fan going and did not wake up so Andrew went to the hospital to try to find a driver for an ambulance. By the time he located the ambulance and got home, the baby had arrived—delivered by Clara’s mother. He is a big, healthy baby boy. Clara is doing well also. This is her second baby and second son. So there is new life here as well. This baby will have adequate food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education because he lives near the mission station where jobs are available for his parents and where there are good schools. Our challenge is to extend some of these benefits out into the rural villages with our health and education programs.

This story gives you some idea of our sleeping patterns here in Malawi! We generally go to bed earlier than we do in the States and sleep very soundly. We find that getting up early and being active all day tires us out more here than it did in the United States.

We had the first hard rain shower since April a day or so after our return, but none since. However, the rains are coming soon and everyone is busy preparing their fields to plant corn. Mango season will be coming around before too long. Work is progressing, meanwhile, on connecting the new borehole into the water system and on laying foundations for the new nurses apartment. This work is being started on faith, as we do not yet have complete funding for it. Similarly for the Robert Laws Secondary School computer room—although we helped pack the computers into cartons while home in Leesburg and expect that they will be shipped soon.

The hospital has hired a new administrator—a very capable woman named Mrs. Kamanga, who was administrator of a hospital in Mzuzu before coming here—so Bill is back to doing computer, water, and building projects (but still helping out some with finances at the hospital). The shallow wells teams from Marion Medical Mission are just finishing up their 400 new installations for this season (including some in neighboring Zambia and Tanzania) and the station is full of activity with another visiting group also coming in tomorrow from California.

As we look forward to the end of this year and the beginning of 2004, we are in great anticipation that we will see a number of you as visitors during that time period. Your continued interest and support (and emails!) are an enormous encouragement to us as we embark on our remaining time here.

Thanks for your prayers!

Bill and Beth Rule