This morning, Joel and I attended Canaan’s class play at Phoenix School. It was fun and it got me thinking about how thankful I am that their new school has been a positive experience for the kids (not always easy, for sure, but generally good and they are happy). Which led me to consider some of the ways that our kids have been impacted by our year in Malawi. Since I was obsessed with travel blogs before we left Canada, I thought that it might be a topic that would be of interest to others, so here’s my thoughts!

Being the outsider
Being an outsider (both culturally and racially), forces
our kids to face what it’s like to be new, to be different and to be excluded (initially at least). Even our “Malawian” children don’t fit in here, because they don’t speak Chichewa or act like ‘Malawians’ – really, they’re Malawian-born Canadians! Although it’s not always been easy for them in many new environments (school, church, friends), they’ve certainly learned a greater appreciation of what it’s like to be an outsider…and hopefully will treat other excluded people better because of it.

Discovering a new culture
Customs, culture and traditions are different and we are continually forced to confront the things we do and the WHY’s behind them. As an everyday example – people don’t value lining up like we seem to in Canada, they just push in (or literally push you!), whether it’s driving or standing in line, or grocery shopping. While it drives our Canadian family crazy, we’ve had many conversations around different ways of doing things and who’s way is “right”. Each encounter with someone with a different perspective, or accent, or custom challenges our ‘norm’.

Expanding horizons
I think the kids have learned how to be a little more confident to try new things. Isaac was CONVINCED that he didn’t have any interest in participating in the (optional) rugby and field hockey team. After some encouragement from dad, he did finally give them both a try and has really enjoyed them. Masika was terrified the first week of school when it was her classes’ turn to perform a school play where they had to memorize lines and perform in front of the school and parents (in fact, we had tears and wailing every night about this for a week!). Although she struggled with the first one, she has since discovered that she is good with memorizing, and performing (!), lines and has been able to even enjoy the subsequent ones. ( As an aside – Canaan absolutely hates being in front of the school during his class play, but somehow volunteered to do a duet with another friend at Christmas. He is convinced that he sang along with her, but we definitely didn’t see any lips moving!!)

Thankfulness
I think that the kids have realized (a little bit at least), that our family has a lot to be grateful for. We have very few toys and luxuries here, but we certainly have much more than the local Malawians around us. When we tell them that we’re not buying them extra treats or toys because we’re giving money away to others, it’s very practical, and they can see those that we are trying to help financially.

Conversations about Poverty
I’m sure this is due, in part, to the environment that we are in. We’ve confronted a lot of suffering. This leaves us thinking about WHY??? Why does God allow suffering? What is fair about being born in Canada and having a lot, while others are born in Africa and have very little? Why are we choosing to live here? Why do we give money to others? Why do kids beg at our car window when we go shopping and how do we react to them? What is the “just” thing to do, and how does God want us to respond? These conversations have been frequent and deep, allowing us to explore questions about justice, “fairness” and our part to play in a being a good global citizen AND a good samaritan.

I guess time will tell what really sticks with the kids, and what they will remember about our year in Malawi. We really hope that they’ve been able to see, in a practical sense, how we choose to live out our faith, how to treat others like Jesus treated them, and that the choices that we make about how we live in Canada really do impact others around the world. Yep…our expectations are high! Either way, it’s certainly been some good stretching and learning for all of us 😉

Here we are – this past weekend – checking out a newly constructed fish pond that we are helping to fund. The pond will fill through rain water and there are currently 300 baby fish in it – with room for another 1200 once it’s full. It takes 10 months to raise the fish and bring them to market.

The income provided by the fish farming will go to support a once-a-week meal program for 13 vulnerable orphans in a village in Mulanje district, and to help pay for their school fees. The project was started by the pastor at our church, who also donated the land for the ponds, and his time to supervise the project and spend time with the orphans. His passion to change his community inspired us to get involved.