We went to bed at a decent hour last night, and fell asleep quickly, but we both woke up around 1:30am, and then again at 3:30am… so I just stayed up. Hopefully tonight will be a little more continuous.

Today was just a lovely day. The weather was cool by Malawi standards, but comfortable by New York standards (getting up to 77 degrees and mostly sunny). We started out bright and early (6:00am) to meet Haiton Thungula at the Church hall in Lilongwe. From there we set out south for Ntcheu. There is lots of road construction taking place in and around Lilongwe (when we lived here in 2017 only about 20% of the roads were paved), which slowed our progress some, but then the road was closed for the presidential motorcade to pass through, putting us another 30 minutes behind schedule. We arrived at our first visit an hour later than we had hoped.

Our first stop was the home of Mrs. Esther Chilopora. Mrs. Chilopora is a 92-year-old widow who has been a long-time member of God’s Church and is a retired nurse, serving as the head matron of several hospitals. Her late husband, Dr. Sam Chilopora, was also a faithful member of God’s Church. We spent two hours with her, listening to her stories, and answering her questions. She loves God so much, she’s such a joy to be around.

We reluctantly took our leave of Mrs. Chilopora and headed back north toward the Lilongwe region, specifically toward Ngala Hill and Bunda Mountain. Ngala Hill is a rock mountain with a crevice that makes it look like it is smiling. Next to it is Bunda Mountain (it’s name means mute because Ngala Hill uses it’s mouth to talk and Bunda doesn’t have a mouth). Near the base of these two mountains is a village where Fraser and Jesse Nyalubwe live. Jesse and her husband Fraser built a home next door to her parents home. Across the way is the home of another sister. It was a pleasure to get to learn a little about their family history.

After a couple of hours of visiting we continued northeast to drop Haiton off at his vehicle. By the time we drove back to Nkhwazi it was nearly 10pm. It was a long day, but so worth it.