June 4: my drum

Today we went to Lake Malawi. We swam and saw 10 lizards and I got a philly cheese steak sandwich. It was all great! Also we went to the wood market on the way to the lake. I got a carved drum and my noah’s ark (btw mom if you want dad to get you one it cost me 10 dollars) I have a very cool story about my drum. Okay, so here in Malawi, the market people are very poor and make about a dollar a day. When they see americans they get very excited and greedy and try to cheat them in addition to getting in your face and saying things none stop. In order to eliminate this problem, a local goes with us each time, and TK especially gets intense. He even said, “im putting on my lion face. I will be a beast” also you are NEVER to give out anything for free. Im going to be honest with you. My experience in the market place has been full of greedy uncomfortable men hastling. Okay well the drum shop was across the street from everything else, so I crossed over and haggled the price down to 1300 kwatcha (about 7 dollars) which is a very good deal. He gave me 200 kwatcha as change. The only other man on this side of the street asked me to come look at his things. He had bracelets and handmade banjos from wood that had tuning thingys and sounded pretty awesome. I told him I had just spent the rest of my money for my drum, and only had 200 kwatcha left, which is only 1 dollar. he told me he would give me this beautiful banjo for a dollar. I began to tell him how beautiful I thought it was and that it was worth more than 200 kwatcha. His eyes began to fill as he told me “I know but I haven’t eaten in 3 days and I need to make some money today. I do not have a choice but to give this to you for whatever you can give me” I wished I could do something more him but I slipped him the 200 kwatcha and said he could not tell anyone but to just take the money I don’t want a beautiful banjo for that little price. I broke TKs rules, but he seemed so genuinely desperate, unlike anyone else. As I waited for the other guy to carve my drum, the man came up to me shouting and singing. He said he would teach me to play for free because I made him so so happy. As we played, he asked where I was from. I told him I was working with capital city Baptist church. He said oh you’re a Christian. I became a Christian a month ago. I walk 3 kilometers both ways to church but I have to because with out god I have no feet. Then he thanked me and I told him to thank god because god provided for his good and faithful servant and to eat happily tonight in gods peace. He began to cry and shook my hand. I left, but I was so happy that I got to minister to the crazy market people! Then we ate dinner at Blessings house. Her family is so sweet. In sheer blessing attitude, she made me help her make sandwiches while everyone else socialized. I liked it :] I missed her terribly. For all you guys back home, she is doing well:] oh yeah and the power has been out all day, just fantastic.

Love you and miss you!