sauce and all sorts of other good stuff. We're missing out on that this year, but don't worry, we'll have some nsima and relish. Actually, I can't say we are lacking anything. Just on Saturday, for example, I had my third meal of the day at noon. We had gone for a visit in a nearby village in the morning. They offered us nsima and beans, which of course I couldn't turn down, even though I knew that we had to get home in time to go over to our neighbour's house because we had been invited for lunch. Our neighbour Mary is an amazing cook. I could eat nsima every day if she was cooking. And she did prepare a feast for us (although of course she denied that it resembled anything like a feast). Rice, nsima, 
delicious curry beef (her curry chicken is just amazing too), some very nice chambo (tilapia fish, especially for Ezera because apparently she had seen the whole fish in our neighbour's kitchen and wanted to eat it), and some 'spinach' relish. Hmmm, just excellent food. Had seconds too, even though that was my third meal for the day. Just skipped dinner that evening. I could very well gain some weight while we're here with all the starches we're eating: nsima, rice, bread, potatoes...Anyway, all this talk of feasting while many people here in Malawi are lucky to have any nsima at all. At our monday morning staff devotional, Mike asked us to share something we are thankful for. The responses were sobering. One guy was thankful for his position in life now when some time ago his future looked very bleak, having lost both parents and contemplating suicide -- now he's working in the EI finance department and getting married next month! Another responded that she was thankful for her children even though they are fatherless because she knows God is the Father of the fatherless. Another shared that she was thankful just to be alive because so many of her friends and family have passed on. Many people around us have lost loved ones during our short time here but they continue to be thankful. In the villages there is always the sound of laughter, despite the hunger, sickness, and death. So many people have names like Joy or Happy or Blessing. It seems the poor are often more thankful than the rich. They experience more joy in life despite all their suffering -- or maybe because of the pain they've endured they know what joy and blessings are. In our affluent western world we take so many things for granted. We're not satisfied with what we have. We complain at minor inconveniences (the power is out again, for the fifth time this week, I have to boil my water, my cell phone doesn't work, etc.), but we forget that we have the privilege of so many conveniences and luxuries. Here in Malawi, if you have maize flour, you have nsima, and you are satisfied. Things like salt, sugar, and soap are luxuries. The disparity between the rich and the poor forces us to stop and think about what it means to be thankful. It should also force us to question why so many of our brothers and sisters around the world are living such lives of poverty while we as westerners grow fat with abundance. Especially those of us who are Christ-followers - could you imagine sitting down for thanksgiving dinner and only feeding yourself and not your family? But for some reason there are many who are hungry in our worldwide family of Christian brothers and sisters... Think about it...
(not to spoil your thanksgiving feasting or anything, it's good to celebrate, even the poor celebrate by sharing the food they have, but it's also good to think about life from a broader perspective sometimes)
2 comments:
Sounds like you had a very thankful Thanksgiving...but Happy Thanksgiving anyway, from all of us Pronks out here!
Also, just to let you know, your 3-for-1 post is not working...
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