A Blessing In Malawi
May 20, 2026
Day 1
After a long 24 hours, we have finally touched down in Kenya. Everyone is a little tired from the time change, but spirits remain high. God has shown us favor during this time and He will not let us down. Austin and Erik were unable to sleep on the plane, but they are pressing on. There were 9 crying babies during the flight. The food served on the plane was better than expected. Our flight to Malawi has been delayed, so our total travel time is nearing 40 hours. We all gathered for food and fellowship at a diner in the Kenyan airport. Chicken quesadillas were a very popular choice amongst our group. The final flight from Kenya to Malawi was easy, relative to our other flights, and we have finally made it. Everyone is ready for a little rest after all the traveling, and we will be ready to take on Malawi bright and early. We started off strong with spaghetti for dinner and a team introduction to a couple of representatives of Blessings Hospital. We have also been assigned our living quarters for the next several days while we are here, partnering with the Malawians. Thank you to everyone who has kept us in your prayers so far, and continue to pray for us until our return.
Day 2
Hey everyone!! I’m Seth Richards, and I’ll be writing the blog for today. Today was a really exciting day as we got to see a little bit of Malawi for the first time in the daylight. Ashley, one of the leaders of Blessings Hospital, let us sleep in until 8:30 since we really didn’t get too much sleep in the many plane rides over here. A first for many of us was having to sleep with mosquito nets around our beds to protect us from mosquitoes and other bugs that wander around. Spiders do seem to wander around the house a bit, but Christian went on a hunt and squashed two spiders that were terrorizing the rest of the team.
We ate a lot of breakfast of toast and cereal, and then we met Latiel, the electrical engineer on campus, along with another electrician and an electrician/plumber. We got a tour of the campus and Blessings Hospital in general, getting the layout of where solar power is used and the workings of the hospital. We met a lot of great hospital employees and also saw a pretty sick X-ray room. After the tour, we talked with Ashley a bit about Malawi's culture and the workings of the campus. Afterward, it was time to lock in and get to work! We walked through the control and electrical room, which houses the solar power and batteries that supply much of the hospital's electricity, and measured the room's dimensions so the new batteries could be installed properly to optimize space. The batteries that have now are going to be replaced with lithium-ion batteries, which are surprisingly very heavy and very large, which we found out very quickly. The team, alongside the Latiel and his team carried these 160 lb batteries out of the storage room in the hospital to the cafeteria space. They were heavy enough that we got innovative and Latiel started using a stretcher to carry all of the rest of the batteries out.
Then, we split into two teams: one to build a mounting for the lithium-ion batteries (basically a shelf) and the other to help David and Latiel’s team in the electrical room. I was a part of the shelf team alongside Christian, Austin, and Jessamine, and we started by scouring the junk room, essentially piles of metal and wood, and a pretty big pile of crutches to find materials for our shelf. We scale the mountains of materials to find suitable wood for our design, and then we had to make an epic jump down onto tile, which sounded like it broke when we landed but didn’t. Fun fact, it’s also a little rough on the knees if you jump and then land awkwardly. We cut the boards to fit the dimensions for the batteries with proper spacing according to spec sheet info, and we went to work. We measured and cut, then began putting the pieces together, only to run into some problems. Turns out that with the space requirements according to the spec sheets and well as the space limitations of the room, the minimum required size of the shelf was way too big, so we had to redesign it with consultation from David and Latiel on what specifically we could do. Meanwhile, the other team (made up of Kasen, Jake, David, Latiel’s team, Caleb, and Erik) worked to remove the old batteries from the room, which were a quarter of the size of the new ones yet heavier somehow, from the nearby control room to the cafeteria. Those things were heavy, so big time respect to that part of our team (#heavylifters)! We finished the shelf, and the other team finished getting the room somewhat ready for the installation of the lithium-ion batteries. Jake also brought a spider over to me, and I was not having it so I swung a plank of wood at the piece of wood the spider was on. Christian, the Spider Slayer, finished him off. Then we continued our work.
Our work finished just before sunset, and we got to see some of the beautiful Malawian sunset while playing a round of spades with Jessamine, Caleb, and Kasen as Austin and Christian and looked on (Christian might have been asleep). Then we ate some baller (aka delicious) Malawian food, some rice and beef, and everybody was loving the food. Compliments to the awesome chefs! During dinner, we had this intriguing question: “How would you explain the color yellow to someone is blind or has never seen the color yellow? After dinner, while David and Jessamine were having a top-secret meeting, all seven students played some card games, starting with BS and then Extreme Go Fish. Oh boy, was that game absolute cinema! The team of Jake, Christian, and Austin faced off against me and Caleb (aka Jackell), Kasen, and Erik. Our team was down 3-0 and then came storming back, only to lose 5-4. What a game! Erik took some time to learn the rules, and then some of us struggled to count, but in the end we figured it out and should televise the next round.
After the game, we went back and got ready for bed. We are starting to play another round of extreme go fish, and this one is gonna be epic. We can’t wait to see what the Lord has for us here in Malawi and how we can serve. Stay tuned for the next blog!! :)
Day 3 (2 for 1)
Morning from Jake:
We began the morning with an amazing breakfast, except maybe for Seth’s PB&B (Peanut Butter and Butter), which was just as delicious as it sounds. After breakfast, we split into two groups to go to the market and to teach the kids some STEM concepts at Mtendere Village. I had the privilege to teach at the Village so that’s what I’ll cover today.
As Seth, Erik, Jessamine, Austin, and I headed down the path from Blessings Hospital, we were easily noticed by every primary school student, and they were very excited. And, it didn’t help that we were carrying a solar panel, putty, and a bucket of water, more on that later. We were greeted by Blair, the school's madam, who showed us to the principal, Richard. Richard was the most overjoyed person I’d ever seen, and he was so, so, so happy to have us there. In Malawi, it’s customary to meet someone, introduce yourself, and share a bit about yourself before you can have a conversation, so we made sure to get to know him. He showed us his office, which was bigger than even my high school principal’s office, and then we were on our way to our first class.
Our first class was Standard 6 (or 5/6th grade). If I’m being honest, I had no idea how our teaching would go, because Caleb was the only one I had explained the setup to and he wasn’t there. We met the Standard 6 teacher and introduced ourselves at the front of the class. However, we weren’t inside for long, as we would go outside to demonstrate our solar water pump.
Outside in the 10 UV sun, we all explained and taught the Standard 6 students how the solar panel converts the sun’s energy into power to turn on the pump and make the water flow from a pail, which the pump was placed in. I was honestly really surprised with how many questions they had, like “What happens when it rains?” or “How big of a pump do we have to pump our water?” I know these teachers have done a wonderful job at teaching these kids, and they were very curious, which made it easy to teach.
Going inside, this is where the good stuff happened. Once everyone was settled, we brought out the putty circuits. The putty circuit used a 9V battery, with wires connecting the battery to the pieces of putty, which were then connected across the LED. I was “assigned” (I’m the only electrical engineer) to teach about how the circuits worked, and Blair and the teachers provided a great environment for teaching. Once I completed the circuit to demonstrate and the light lit up, the kids were really interested. They were lowkey wanting to jump out of their seats because they couldn’t believe that it could work with putty.
After we demonstrated, we broke into 3 groups of about 10-15 students so each kid could play with the circuits. Another big thing in Malawian culture is that most things are done in groups, so it was important not to single anyone out. Once they were in their groups, we taught the kids how the putty worked and let them build the circuits with the individual lights we gave them. Also, we taught about circuits in series and parallel, and how to short-circuit them. These kids didn’t have as many questions as before, but they loved lighting up the LEDs. Once we left, we could hear the kids talking about us and being really loud and joyful, so I was glad to know they enjoyed it.
Now, we did the same demonstrations for the Standard 7 (around 6/7th grade), so I will not go into depth again, but only explain the notable things.
In the solar panel demonstration for standard 7, Erik was the one leading it, but after hearing from Jessamine to slow down, he decided to put an “accent” on. Holy schmoly, you’ll never guess what happened. Erik explained how the “mo tah” pumped the “wah ter” out of the bucket. It was hard to keep a straight face when I realized what was happening.
Going to the circuits again, the kids loved it. I was asked, “Should I use copper or putty in my house if I build one?” to which I responded, “Copper,” followed by, “So why are we using putty and not copper in this?”And, “Why do sparks happen if I touch the light directly to the battery?” Well, those questions may take me more time to answer.
Afterward, we went out, and Blair took us to the guest house to come up with a song and Bible verses to read for their weekly devotion, or as we would call it chapel. Seth taught us the Days of Elijah chorus with motions, and Erik and I read bible verses.
Going back outside, we showed the standard 1 and 2 (K-2nd grade) the solar panel demonstration. They may not have understood what we were trying to tell them, but they enjoyed holding the solar panel towards the sun and watching it work.
Inside devotion, we sat in the literal front of the room, like facing the children who were all sitting facing the front of the room. We sang songs, heard children preach, and asked questions about the Bible. It was all very impressive. Once we taught them the dance, they caught on quickly and everyone, even the teachers, had a lot of fun with the motions.
I’ll now pass the mic to Caleb to continue the overview of the evening.
Hi my name is Caleb! I woke up today a little early and got to see a beautiful sunset with Jessamine and Kasen before getting ready for the day. Then we ate breakfast together and got ready for our day of work. We then got a solar-powered water pump and some putty circuits working for STEM education. We then split off into teams for the day. Me, Kasen, David got ready to go to the market to get supplies, and the rest of the team got ready to do the STEM education. While getting ready, Kasen and I met some very nice, welcoming people from Blessings Hospital, who taught us several Malawian phrases.
Our group looked in the attic real quick to check some wiring, then headed to the market. The drive to the market was a great adventure. They drive on the left side of the road, so I was very thrown off. I started to notice that we passed by all these cars while our driver, Latiel, flipped a switch on the radio and played a noise. That’s when I realized we were in an ambulance, and our driver was making very good use of it. We passed many cool things on our way to the town, from rolling hills to a herd of goats, to the police headquarters, to the congress building, to several different embassies. I also noticed there were timers on the stoplights, which I thought was really cool.
Once we got to the market, we had to go to a couple of different stores because there was a large strike for a new tax system. We eventually went to a very crowded market full of people and a lot of fish. We went down some alleyways full of shops the size of closets that sold anything we could want until we found the store that sold the supplies we needed. We spent some time bargaining and buying the supplies, which they retrieved and measured using a mark on the door before giving it to us. We then left the market and waded through crazy traffic and crowds to head back to Blessings Hospital. On the way back, David and I had a very interesting conversation with two Blessings Hospital employees about Malawi's history and politics. It was especially entertaining because the two employees had two different opinions, and so we got to see the different sides of the issues.
When we got back to Blessings Hospital, we ate lunch, then Erik and I started designing a dolly to help some of the hospital workers carry heavy oxygen tanks. After working on that for a while, I took a break to go to the chapel at Mtendere High School. At the chapel, they had several students pray, performed an amazing a cappella worship song and slam poem, and had the head teacher give a sermon about reaping what you sow. They also asked some very hard bible trivia questions. Seth answered one of the questions right, and all the kids went wild, clapping for several minutes. After chapel, we talked to several students and got to sit in on a practice session for students competing in the national spelling bee. We got tested on some of the words they were asked, and I can say with confidence that they can spell better than any of us.
We then headed back to Blessings Hospital and worked on creating the dolly and mounting the new batteries for the solar system. We ran into complications in both, but made good progress before dinner.
For dinner, we had Nsima, a ground rice ball served with chicken in a broth. It was mega(which means very much) tough (which means good and cool). We had to learn how to eat it with our hands, the traditional way. It was absolutely delicious. Around dinner time, we also found and held several animals. We found a chicken, a hedgehog, and a centipede. We then played a round of extreme go fish, which I have not yet won, and had an amazing devo on Micah 6:8.
Day 4
Hey everyone! Kasen here. I just want to start by letting you know that, contrary to yesterday’s blog, today’s may be only a small percentage to what Jake and Caleb wrote yesterday haha.
So we started off with an early-ish morning, beginning various jobs at 7:20 AM. Jake, Caleb, Jessamine, and I were at Mtendere Village today, teaching STEM to the school kids. David, Seth, and Erik started on the roof and attic of the hospital when it wouldn’t be as hot. They were tasked with rewiring the solar panels from a parallel to a series configuration to increase their capacity. Austin and Christian went to the market with Latiel to get more supplies we needed to mount the battery shelf on the wall.
In STEM education, Jake killed it again today by teaching the kids about harnessing solar power to power a pump and simple electrical circuits. We broke into groups to teach the kids, and this was by far my favorite part, where I got to teach the kids how to create a circuit to make a light turn on and put them in series in parallel. We were able to go to Standards 3,4,5 (3rd, 4th, 5th grades) and Form 1 (9th grade). They all were amazing and really understood the concepts, which was very heartwarming and exciting!
Then it was lunchtime. We had AMAZING sambusas and American Lays chips (this has my favorite meal while here!!). There for about an hour after lunch, we got to go play with the kids, they taught us games and dances, us teaching them, and played soccer, which was all super fun!! Then we just went to all of our prospective various tasks of the day.
To end the workday, we all went up on the roof to finish up the solar panels and, most importantly, watch the beautiful sunset together. And even better, we were able to mount two batteries onto the stable shelf bolted to the wall. This had been some of the best news because we have been working on this shelf for much longer than expected.
Then had dinner, and now we're all having a chillier night before devotional, in which I suspect we will play a round of Extreme Gold Fish afterward. Overall, I think I can speak for everyone by saying it was the most productive and empowering work day!
I want to end by listing some funny moments, fun facts, or things I loved from the day:
• We learned that during our experiments with the circuit, hot sauce is a great conductor.
• Jake spelled “scisorrs” like that on the board lol.
• Sweet potatoes here are white.
• A girl on the playground asks, “How are you tan?”
• Caleb & Jake spent over half of our supply of vinegar and approximately 4 hours trying to make the bottle rockets work.
• Seth swallowed a cob web while up in the attic.
• Erik broke the attic door trying to go through it because he’s a “big back” as the boys had said.
Day 5
Hello my name is Erik,
I am so excited that I got the opportunity to join this trip, and today was a blast. This morning everyone got gut up around 7:00 to get ready for the day. Today was a bit different because we gave our laundry to the people who are taking care of us. So we should get it back tomorrow.
At breakfast, we talked about the plan for today. The plan was to install the batteries, work on the dolly and learn more about the computer system in the battery room. David got started on the batteries right after breakfast. Everyone else joined shortly after, and with everyone’s help, we were able to move all the old batteries out of the battery room. The Jake and Kasen worked on testing the old batteries while the other guys worked on moving the new batteries to the battery room. Once the batteries were installed, we started to measure the wires for the batteries.
But before we could wire up the battles, we went to Tenderi village to launch bottle rockets for the secondary students. This was supper fun because Christian became a high school teacher for like 20 minutes. He taught them about the chemical reactions of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (dilute acetic acid). This reaction creates acetate, water and carbon dioxide gas. This reaction causes an explosion in the bottle. The students went crazy when the bottle exploded in the air. After the bottle rockets, we introduced ourselves to the students and told them who we are and what we are doing at Blessing Hospital. Then there was a short Q&A before we went back to Blessing Hospital for lunch.
At Blessing Hospital, our caretakers made pasta salad and French fries for us for lunch. The pasta salsa was really good with the Greek vinaigrette salad dressing. Also the fries were really good with the ketchup that they had. I personally had a Coca Cola with the meal and others had the Sobo drinks. They are a traditional Malawi soda and they are super tasty. After lunch, we got back to work.
After lunch, Seth, Caleb, Jake, and I worked on connecting the wires to the batteries. While David and Latiel worked on connecting the cables to the rest of the system. With our teamwork, we were able to get everything set up. So, David and Latiel went to the cafeteria to talk about how they would set up the settings for the battery. Jake also went to listen in to there conversation. While they were doing that I did some research on the data monitoring system in the cafeteria. Then, randomly, one of the workers gave Latiel a baby African Fish Eagle. Latiel was holding the Eagle by just the wing and tried to feed it to the crows by tossing it in their line of sight. We will get back to the eagle later.
After the Eagle, I went to check on how the dolly team was doing. Kasen, Jessamine, Christian, and Austin, were working on the dolly while everyone else was in the battery room. They were able to create a new design for the dolly and made it within 3 hours. While working on the dolly, Christian got lightheaded, so Seth got him a chair to sit on. So right as Christian sat down, he fell through the chair, and it was so funny. His face looked so dumb founded as he sat in the broken chair. After that, I went to chill on the roof with Seth and Caleb. We went up there to plug a wire in, but then realized it was super nice, so we stayed for a bit and chatted. Well, during this time, the Fish Eagle was killed by the cross, and the dolly crew saw the first couple of strikes. The eagle did die, but I guess this is just normal in Africa.
After we got down from the roof, we went to eat dinner with everyone and talked about the day. We had chili for lunch with some sour cream, cheese, and Doritos. Then we learned a new game that Latiel taught us and went back to the guest house.
Once we got back to the guest house, the girls went to a women’s devotional while the men stayed back to have our own devotional. During the men’s devotional, we talked about being a man of God. I personally found our conversation very insightful for my faith. We looked at 1 Timothy 2:8, Genesis 1, and Ephesians 5. Our discussion lead us to how God has given both man and woman different roles in a family. They both have to support each other and be there for each other. Then we talked about acting as men of God and loving others as men. We discussed how love is patient, love is kind, love is not quick to anger, and love is not self-seeking. We can learn to love by asking God to help us love people as He does. After the devotion, we started talking about cool things we have done in the past and played some spades.
Well, thank you all for supporting our team's trip to Malawi. God has done so much for us, and we are so grateful for everyone’s support. I hope you all enjoyed reading this blog, and I hope everyone is looking forward to the next one.
Hello again, Kasen here chiming in on the split devotional for the girls side! Jessamine and I were so graciously invited to go to a small group devotional by Ashley and Blair, joining with some of the Mtendere high school girls. We started with singing some sweet church songs that we all knew, and then I led the devotional about being God’s daughters! At the end, Jessamine suggested singing “Goodness of God,” which was a perfect way to end. Overall, this time was such a tender and exciting moment for everyone, and I am glad we had this opportunity!
Day 6
Hello, this is Christian. Today was a very nice change of pace from our normal so far. We have actually completed most of the tasks we set out to accomplish, yet there are still a few minor things uncompleted. Like Erik said yesterday, Austin, Jessamine, Kasen, and I completed a redesign of the dolly, and seeing that the batteries have successfully been installed, there hasn’t been a task that required a civil engineering effort, leaving Austin and me moving between teams to be helpful where we can.
David and Jake, both electrical engineers, have been paramount in leading the “charge” on getting the batteries and controllers working. They, with our local engineer Latiel, have delegated out minor tasks for us to complete so our main goal can be accomplished. Seth has been doing everything he can to find a way to the roof, and as such, has volunteered to check on, and rerun the cables in the attic. Caleb and Kasen are hard at work soldering two different CAT-5e cables together for some electrical purpose that I don’t know. Erik, despite our relentless teasing of his 65 spelling and grammatical mistakes in yesterday’s blog, remains in high spirits and is a critical member of the team, keeping everyone’s morale up. Austin, our resident gym rat, has made an impromptu weight-lifting station out of our bags so he can keep up the gains.
After a long and tedious process, David, Jake, and Latiel managed to solve the controller issue where the batteries were not working in some capacity. The prevalent theory is that the wires in the attic supply power to the system were switched in the breaker box. Seth was able to get them rewired on the west side of the building, and with a little “African Magic”, as Latiel says, the batteries are now properly charging and supply supplemental power to Blessings Hospital. We finally had the breakthrough we needed.
We broke for lunch, which included some baller (meaning awesome) grilled cheese sandwiches. While we waited for them to be ready, Jessamine, Kasen, Austin, Caleb, Erik, and I played Extreme Go Fish, with Erik, Caleb, and I being on a team. It was an excellent game, even more so because Caleb won his first game of EGF. We have collectively decided that Kasen secretly has x-ray vision, for there is no other explanation for how she is able to accurately guess cards as frequently as she does.
After lunch, Ashley (a Blessings Hospital representative) took Jessamine, Seth, Jake, and Erik to the Lumbadzi market for some popcorn, and Seth was going to try and find a local Malawian dish for him and I to try: a roasted field mouse on a stick. As they were leaving, the rest of us went back to the battery room to put in some new LEDs to replace some older lights that no longer functioned.
During a small break after lunch, Caleb and I were going to watch a show on Disney+, but for some reason, Disney does not allow their app to work in Malawi.
David and Latiel continued to work on solving an issue with the controller not regulating the pump properly. While this was happening, Erik, Seth, Caleb, Jake, and Austin were working on replacing wires in a charger controller that will monitor the solar panels on the roof. We didn’t have a screwdriver small enough to fit the screws, so Erik became MacGyver and used a knife instead.
As a “quality of life” upgrade, we secured a PVC pipe to the top of their water tower for the rope to have a smoother surface to travel along. We were also up there at sunset and were able to get an awesome view of the area outside of the hospital campus walls.
We had an awesome dinner tonight. It looked like cheesy chicken and rice, but it was a sweet sauce that didn’t taste like cheese. After dinner, we still had some more work to do to get the pump online. All of us piled back into the battery room to rewire everything, and after a couple of hours, the pump finally came on.
Tomorrow we are going to a local Malawian church, and I’m very excited to see how the church here differs from back home. Thanks again to everyone for your prayers and support for not only getting us out here, but also in our continued work. God bless.
Day 7
The blog is brought to you by Austin, our gym guy, who spent time cutting through straight copper piping two nights ago. He’s one of two strong civils on our team, contributing to our wood designs for the battery shelf and dolly.
Hello, this is Austin. We started today with questionably lit group pictures in front of Blessings Hospital in all of our church drip. Then, we attended a service at the Flood Church in Lilongwe, which was very westernized and a completely different experience from the chapel we attended on Wednesday. The bass player and pianist were absolutely goated with the sauce, though. We also found out where American football jerseys with typos end up (Malawi).
After church, we ran errands and had a cultural experience eating at a Malawian-Muslim Pizza Inn. It had really good hot sauce and chicken pizza. Following lunch, we drove to a local tourist market to buy souvenirs. The bargaining skills of the team varied widely, with some practically stealing while others basically got scammed. Others (Erik) were smart enough to realize that the whole market was a gig and decided to spend their kwacha on soda instead.
After the market, we stopped to get supplies before heading back to Blessings to wrap up the project and clean up our mess. We tried again (unsuccessfully) to get better lighting for our team picture. Then, Erik, Jake, and Seth assisted David and Latiel to get the finalized system working. By the end of the workday, they managed to get the entire system working and protected from surges. The work was efficient too, and only David and Jake received electric shocks at mildly concerning voltages (they're fine).
After work, we began collecting and counting tools to pack up before our safari tomorrow. The rest of the night was chill, as we played mosquito net ring toss and wound down (by stacking various items on a sleeping Christian until he erupted in confusion and proceeded to imm) in preparation for the early morning tomorrow.
Day 8
Hello again! Jake here. Today we set off on what can only be described as the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life, so get your popcorn, or your PB&B, and I hope you enjoy Caleb and I’s rendition of our safari.
We started off the morning as usual at 6 AM, where we ate the rest of our breakfast supply of bread and dove into the cereal. We met our driver, Dave, who got us all loaded up in a van, just about fitting all 9 of us and our bags. The journey would take us 7 hours through Lilongwe, down the M1 highway, and into some traffic, U-turns, and even a new country (at least for me). The first 2 hours were met with the typical Malawian rush hour through Lilongwe as we played the “Alphabet game” in the van. Surprisingly, we finished in a reasonable amount of time for a place with not a ton of advertisements, but I was able to find the “x” and that was pretty cool. We then went through hills and rural towns, and the views were looking dripped out. Speaking of being dripped out, Christian used his neck cooling towel as a durag and said, “Clothing is temporary, drip lasts forever” as he attempted to get waves in his hair. I’m not sure what the people of Malawi thought when they saw Christian’s durag, but we thought it was tuff. Also, we got to go into Mozambique a little, as the M1 highway is basically the border between Malawi and Mozambique, which was pretty cool.
Then came the not-so-fun part. After exiting onto the M8 highway, everything seemed to be going just fine. We passed through some local markets, but then, the road was under construction. So, we had to drive on a pretty bumpy dirt road in which I definitely had the worst seat in the house (or van I guess). But, we did make it past and then we seemed to be about 2 hours away, but David clutched up and we found a different way that only took us an hour.
However, this road would be only one lane for most of the drive, and we would get swarmed by kids asking for money and plastic bottles. We saw one other car on this road for about 45 minutes, and this was definitely the middle of nowhere.
But finally, we made it to the entrance gate. Personally, I was just really excited to stretch my legs, and finally step out of the diesel that leaked on the ground into basically everything I had :|
Once we got out, we were greeted by our tour guide, who took us to our boat that we got to ride in to enter the camp where we would be staying.
All of a sudden, everything became so quiet. We were literally only surrounded by birds, tall trees, and hopefully a lot of really cool animals that wouldn’t kill us. We arrived at Mvuu camp in Liwonde National Park in Malawi, and this place was awesome. A group of people was waiting for us at the dock when we pulled in, and we ran inside to eat a delicious lunch. We had a chicken wrap and it tasted amazing, as we hadn’t eaten a meal in over 7 hours.
Once we finished lunch and settled into our rooms, it was time for the first safari. Enerio, our tour guide, led us onto a lifted Toyota Truck, which looked indestructible. A guard also came along who had a gun with about 4-inch rounds in case anything happened that shouldn’t have.
We had set off, and it wasn’t long until we saw the first group of many impalas, which were kind of like a deer crossed with a goat. The males were competing with each other, butting their horns together to impress the females. I thought this was really cool, plus they even went pretty close to our truck.
Then, we headed into the woods. We saw baboons, monkeys, and a lot of cool birds without looking too hard. This made it feel like we were truly in the middle of nowhere. Only looking a little while longer, Enerio got a call on the radio and quickly turned around. We pulled up to the spot but didn’t even see anything. Then we saw a stunning female lion that was so camouflaged in the high grass we almost missed it. I’m pretty sure everyone’s adrenaline spiked to the max. I was literally shaking and I bet Christian was wondering how he’d eat it. Absolutely amazing feat of nature and God’s creation was on full display.
Further in the tour, we saw waterbucks, jackals, and kudu. We then parked next to the river and watched the sunset with ice-cold drinks. The tour guide had binoculars that were really good, and we could see elephants that were probably 500 yards away.
We then came back to the camp, but just before we arrived, another truck pointed its light at something on the ground. As we pulled up, we realized it was a male lion lying there. Even crazier than the last in my opinion, and it was just laying for all of us to see in the starry night. We got some really cool pictures of this one, but I thought we were getting a little too close to the lion for my liking.
Oh, and another thing. We could basically see the Milky Way from the ground with just our eyes. The cameras picked it up better but I’ve never seen a more vivid starry sky in my life.
For dinner, we had chicken tiki masala, and it was very good. All of the food on this excursion was amazing, and we were getting treated much better than we needed to.
After dinner, some of us played cards, and then we watched the stars again. After quite a long day, we slept like rocks.
The Next Day
We hit the ground running, with some of us seeing hippos on our front porches in the morning. And to make it even better, Enerio told us there was a cheetah sighting, so we tried to eat our breakfast as fast as we could. Maybe even like the cheetahs themselves.
We headed out to go look for the cheetah, but there was bad news. The reason we were able to see the cheetah was that it was injured, and the research and veterinary team had already gotten to it and was taking care of it.
So, we came back and quickly got on our next safari, a boat safari. This was much less intense than our last safari, but I found that quite nice. We headed out and immediately saw a bunch of hippos, and we would continue to see families of hippos of up to 10 at a time. The hippos seemed to be very shy, and went under the water as soon as we got within 100 feet of them. Next, we pulled up on a big crocodile that was sunbathing, which our tour guide told us they needed to do in order to digest their food. Now there’s a fun fact for you.
We saw lots and lots of birds, including hornbills, fish eagles, kingfishers, egrets, herons, and ibis. All of these birds were amazing and we got some really nice pictures of them. The fish eagles seemed to be at the top of the bird chain, and they were surely the biggest.
Finishing up the safari, we got great views of the mountains in the national park, and returned to the dock. We say our goodbyes and were driven back on the boat to our car, with Dave waiting for us.
On the way home, it was a lot faster and smoother, even with the occasional dirt road and potholes. We stopped for gas once, and we officially had been in Mozambique on the drive, according to Austin’s data plan. And I got Chocolate and Milk, yes, you read that right, flavored maize drink. It tasted like a chocolate yogurt drink, but apparently, everyone except David and Christian said it was terrible. I thought it was pretty good, though.
About 2 hours away from Blessings Hospital, our van started to break down :(
The van was not shifting into higher gears, and eventually it stopped going in gear at all. This was a little scary when cars were blazing by on the M1 highway, but we were fine in the car. We started singing worship songs to keep the spirits high, maybe pass the time a little, and to pray for safety and for it all to work out.
After a while, and a lot of phone calls by Dave, we decided to push the van across the highway and make a U-turn into the gas station behind us. We only held up all of the traffic and we were told we were “real Malawians” by a dude in a passing car. At the gas station, we got ice cream from an interesting restaurant, but it tasted really good. Latiel came to pick us up in the Blessings Hospital ambulance van and saved us and Dave from the van.
We went back to Blessings Hospital, and had pancakes, French toast, and bacon, which hit so hard. I hope you enjoyed this book of a blog, and Caleb’s as well.
Day 9
We started up nice and early by leaving Blessings Hospital at 6:45. When we first started driving, we hit some traffic, but quickly got on a highway that we took most of the way there. We drove through some beautiful mountains and villages. We were also driving along the border of Mozambique for a while, so we decided we can say we visited Mozambique when we got back. In the last leg of the journey, we endured very bumpy roads, wrong directions from Google Maps, and a gasoline spill in the trunk. At one point, I had fallen asleep, and we hit a bump so hard that I hit my head on the seat in front of me. I thankfully was not hurt, but it was very jarring. We finally drove through a very rural village, where children would run alongside our car and wave at us.
When we arrived at the national park, we were taken across the river by boat to the camp where we would be staying. There, they served us lunch, which we were very grateful for because we arrived late and were not sure if we would get lunch or not. We had a delicious chicken wrap and lemon tart. We were then were taken to the houses we were staying at, which were right on the river. The houses were very nice, with large beds. I was sharing a house with Austin and Christian.
After we got settled, we started on our sunset Safari. Immediately, we saw some impalas butting heads and fighting over mates. We also quickly spotted some waterbucks and a family of baboons. Next, we saw another group of safari people who were stopped, looking in a bush. We drove to the back of the bush and saw a female lion. It was so amazing and majestic, and we were very close. We saw it stand up and look at us, and melt back into the brush when it went down. After that amazing experience, we saw some other animals like Jackals and Warthogs. We then stopped to see a beautiful sunset and drink some sodas along the bank of the river. On the other side of the river, we saw some elephants and heard hippos as we watched the sunset.
After the sunset, we continued to drive in the night around the park. The sky was so incredibly clear, and we saw so many stars, plus the Milky Way. I was truly awestruck by God’s beauty. While driving, one of our guides found a chameleon in a bush with a flashlight. I still don’t understand how he was able to spot it, I was barely able to spot it after he put it back on the branch. We also saw some hyenas, which our guide said they rarely see. As we started to head back to the camp, we got to see a male Lion, which was also super amazing. We also saw a big and a baby hippo.
When we got back to the camp, we ate a delicious dinner of Chicken Tikka Masala. We also learned a new game from David and played it together. I thought it was super fun and strategic. I was able to get a clutch(which means things happened at just the right time) win. We then carefully walked back to our houses, looking out for any wild animals on the path. We fell asleep to the sounds of nature.
I woke up late at night to several loud noises. I quietly looked out of our window and I saw a hippo right outside our porch. It was grazing on some of the grass around our house and came right beside the house. I looked at it for a while and it eventually saw me and locked eyes with me. It then walked away, and I went back to sleep.
We woke up the next morning and ate a quick breakfast because we heard that there was a cheetah sighting. We hopped in a car and started driving to where it was. Unfortunately, the cheetah was injured, and a rescue team came to pick them up before we were able to see it. However, it was still cool to see nature again while driving there.
Next, we headed on our boat Safari. We went up and down the river and saw so many different families of hippos in the water. We also saw some nile crocodiles on the shore and in the water. That was my favorite animal we saw that day. We saw many kinds of birds, the most prominent of which was the fish eagle (yes the same fish eagle that Latiel caught earlier in the trip). They were very large and beautiful. They kind of looked like a Bald Eagle. There was a point in our boat Safari where we did not see many exciting animals, but the river was still and beautiful. It was very peaceful.
After we got back from the boat Safari, we thanked our driver, packed our things, and went across the river and through the village back to Blessings Hospital.
While driving back, we started to lose power in the vehicle and had to pull over. We turned it off and back on again and went a little further. Then a Christmas tree of lights came on the dashboard and we could not turn the car on for a while. We talked about our options, then decided to have Latiel pick us up, since we were only about an hour away from Blessings Hospital. While we were waiting, we decided to all worship together. It was amazing to praise God at the end of this trip in the midst of all our struggles. After we finished worshiping, we decided to push our car to a nearby gas station. As we were pushing it through the road a person yelled from their car, “now you’re true Malawians!” At the gas station, we got some ice cream and waited until Latiel picked us up.
When we got back to Blessings, we said bye to Latiel and ate pancakes and French toast for dinner. Then we finished packing up and got ready for our travel day!
-Caleb
Day 10
Hey everyone! It’s Seth again! I’ll be talking about our last day, which includes travel from Malawi all the way back to the United States. Stay along for the ride, literally a ton of plane rides, and I hope you enjoy the narrative of the last leg of our trip!
The day started off with us waking up at around 7 AM and preparing to leave Blessings Hospital for the airport at 7:45 on the dot. Ashley met us out front to drive us to the airport and send us off. We all ate a quick breakfast before heading to the airport in the dripped-out ambulance, which had negative padding on the seats, but it was a very short drive to the hospital. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any butter during breakfast, so the team had to leave without ever trying the famous PB&B…what a shame. We got to the airport and said our goodbyes to Ashley, and then we were off through security and into the airport. Turns out that Malawi, or really any airport in general, doesn’t seem to notice that you have a full water bottle when going through the security check, just ask Christian. While we were waiting in the line to check our bags, we were all helping Christian guess what certain terms mean by playing 20 questions, and I think he is really coming along well with his education by learning these words.
Once we got through all checks, Jake, Christian, and I were quickly drawn into a clothing store by the unbelievably fire (meaning cool) Malawian shirt that was in the window. We stopped by the shirts, and Jake and I admired them while being fairly certain we weren’t going to buy anything because of the steep prices. However, Christian has that money, and he decided to buy a Malawian shirt for about $150, but I would say it was a great purchase because that shirt was TUFF. He almost walked away with the shirt for 90% off due to a cashier error, but the cashier chased him down once leaving and got him to pay the full price he was supposed to pay. We had a little bit longer to wait, and then we got a presidential escort (it was really just a bus taking us to the stairs up to the plane, but it felt pretty cool) to the plane to Kenya.
The flight to Kenya was a good warmup to prepare us for our long flight from Kenya to New York, and it went by pretty fast as many crossword puzzles were done, naps were taken, and shows and movies were watched. After feasting on bags upon bags of variety nuts that the flight attendants continued giving us, we finally landed in Nairobi and were very excited to leave the airport and go explore Kenya a little bit; however, we ran into some trouble getting through the passport control because of confusion with our boarding passes due to the delay of our flight from Kenya to New York. After talking to Kenya Airlines and returning with the same boarding passes and a little more explanation, they permitted us to enter Kenya. We made it out of the airport and decided to go to a place called CJs for dinner, which was only about fifteen minutes away. We called three different Ubers and set off for the restaurant. If you thought these would just be normal Uber rides, you couldn’t be more wrong. I mean, c’mon, this is Kenya, baby.
Jake, Jessamine, and I rode in a “comfort vehicle” with a driver named Gideon, and he was really great to talk to and very hospitable. I think he might need to trust his GPS a little more, though. He had the genius idea to hop onto the expressway to skip a lot of the dense traffic in Nairobi, but he did not get off on the right exit and we cruised past the restaurant and had to make an interesting detour to get back on track. This detour took us to one of the main roads and then, after some time off the main road, onto a side street. The catch is, though, that Kenya is currently in the rainy season, so many of the side roads might be slightly submerged in water. I’m sure you guessed it, the side road that we went down was full of water, but Gideon was not scared of any water and we kept moving ahead. He said that he doesn’t trust the road because he cannot see under the water, then proceeded to drive on the submerged road. Thankfully, the car did not go down into the water, and we got to see the car turn into a boat and float above the Nairobi roads that were really rivers. Everyone safely made it to the restaurant, and I’m not sure if the rest of the team had as much of an interesting trip as we did, but big respect to Gideon for making the ride fun!
The restaurant was really nice, and we were just slightly underdressed as the majority of the people were wearing suits or nice attire, and we were wearing just shorts or pants and t-shirts…that’s probably the only way they could tell we weren’t from Kenya. Huge shoutout to Caleb’s uncle, JP, for his generosity in covering everyone’s meals at dinner, and we all ate really well because of that donation! This dinner was very special since we all got to share a big meal and enjoy each other's company one last time as a team, and it will certainly be a great memory that we will all share, just like this trip was. Some of us got an amount of food that could feed a small family since Austin, Erik, Caleb, and I got basically two entire meals each. Jake got the biggest burger I had ever seen, called the “Big is Big Burger,” but instead of stopping at the normal one beef patty on the burger, he asked to have three total patties on the burger, which was insane. David, Christian, Kasen, and Jessamine all got great meals too, and we all really enjoyed our food! Of course, we didn’t stop at just getting an entree…why would we do that? Most of us finished the meal by getting some sort of dessert, whether it was a milkshake ranging from flavors like chocolate to peanut butter to even blueberry, or a delicious-looking brownie.
Also, a little side note, the restaurant had the nicest restrooms I had ever seen in my life. I have never seen bathroom stalls have their sink in them, but these did surprisingly. You could say that this bathroom was dripped to the max (meaning that it looked really cool).
After that amazing dinner with amazing food combined with awesome fellowship with one another, we explored the mall a little bit, and some of us visited the ATM to get some Kenyan money (called “shillings”) to take home with us, but we would have to break the bigger bills that the ATM gave us into smaller ones. We saw a sign when walking around the mall that said “TuffSteel,” and since “tuff” is one of Christian’s favorite words that we taught him during this trip, and one of my favorite words personally, he wanted to take a picture with the sign. That was the definition of aura right there (“aura” is a tough (not “tuff”) word to define, but it basically means the persona you give off by doing something cool or possibly tough). I know much of the team has put certain vocabulary or slang in the blogs that needed to be defined, such as “tuff” or “aura,” but I hope you know that there won’t be a test on this vocab so no need to worry. :)
Something crazy that happened when we were walking around was that the speakers in the mall started playing a song called “FE!N,” which is a very well-known song that is extremely hype but means nothing essentially. We were ready to go crazy to the song when the beat dropped, but, to our disappointment, it was more of a remix and didn’t go quite as crazy as the original song. We all still thought it was crazy that the song was being played in a Kenyan mall, though. Once, some of us went to the grocery store to break up our Kenyan shillings into smaller increments, and we headed back to the airport by getting some more Uber rides. Again, I am not sure about the other groups, but Jake, Jessamine, and I had another interesting Uber ride since our driver stopped to get gas, which is unusual, and proceeded to only get 1.5L of gas, which is under half a gallon.
We all eventually made it back to the airport and waited in a long line to get in. Supposedly, according to one of the Kenyan security guards, Caleb looks like a famous soccer player named Julián Álvarez, which was pretty cool. We got through the line and through the first of many security checkpoints, which still did not care if you carried in full bottles of water. We found a nice place to sit in the airport for a few hours to wait for our flight, which was scheduled to board at around midnight. During that time, all of us except for Erik, who decided to try to sleep, played Spades, which was definitely the main card game of the trip. Jessamine and Austin easily beat Christian and I, but the game of Jake and David versus Kasen and Caleb lasted for about two hours, with Jake and David making a massive comeback to win the game. During the long game, after the first game ended, Christian and Austin decided to try to go to sleep, and Erik moved over to the card-playing area as well to try to sleep again. There were quite a few…interesting sleeping positions between the three of them, and, don’t worry, they’re attached to the blog for you all to see.
Because of the delays of our flight, we didn’t think we would be able to get into the gate until around 12:30 AM, so we headed over to our gate around then just to be told that the gate wasn’t open. David worked his magic, though, and we were able to get into the gate soon after. Our flight was pushed back to a 2:50 AM departure before we started our travel day, but it continued to get pushed back even further because of maintenance of the plane, among other factors. When going through security and getting our boarding passes checked three separate times, the majority of our bags were pulled aside by security. Caleb was specifically selected for a random security check and was essentially kidnapped to show security the bag he had checked earlier in the day. The thing is, the checked bag was on the tarmac with the other bags for the flight, so he had to walk down with security and show them his bag. He made it back safely, though, and now he has a cool story to tell.
We played cards to pass the time, mainly Hearts and Spades, and we waited as the time of departure remained a mystery. Unfortunately, some of the teams’ water was taken by the security entering the gate, the third one we had to go through in the airport. I guess they only take the water right before you get on the plane, even if you did buy it in the airport. We were all super tired, and I think we were all super jealous of the kid in the airport who managed to sleep with face and knees on the ground but everything else in the air, basically the sleeping pose you see in cartoons. The flight was finally ready to be boarded at around 5 AM, and we were ready to just get this flight started and get out of the airport.
The long 15-hour flight went by very quickly since most of us quickly fell asleep on the plane, maybe even before the plane took off. Christian was so tired that he woke up for the first meal on the plane just to fall asleep WHILE eating it…literally, he fell asleep with the fork in his hand. The flight passed in no time with the combination of sleep, games, and movies, and we all celebrated when we landed, knowing that our longest flight of the trip was over. We rolled on through customs in New York and had to split up into two groups because the delay of our long flight caused our team to be split between two different flights from New York to Nashville. We said goodbye to Caleb as he split off to catch a flight to California, and after making it through security, we said goodbye to Erik as well as he headed to Chicago. Jake, Kasen, David, and Christian made it on the early flight back to Nashville, and after waiting for a few hours, Jessamine, Austin, and I followed suit and hopped on our plane back to Nashville. By the goodness of God, our team has successfully made it back home after a long day (or should I say days) of travel.
This trip and this experience have given me such amazing memories and friendships that will last a lifetime. Most of the members of the team did not really know each other coming into this trip, and if you had told me that we had become so close, I wouldn’t have believed you. It turns out that our team was an all-star roster, and it was a blessing to witness the ways God has formed them and is working through them every moment we were on the trip. Whether it be teaching in Mtendere Village, doing project work at Blessings Hospital, or going to the market or safari, I saw God working in marvelous ways that is very hard for me to put into words. The greatest privilege is that we were invited into what God was already doing in Malawi, and we have confidence that what we have done has made a lasting impact on everyone there. Also, I know that serving the Lord in Malawi has also transformed each of us, and it has further shown us that there is no life more rewarding and fulfilling than one that is sold out for Christ. Meeting some of our brothers and sisters in Christ in Malawi has shown us that, though we may not have too much in common with the people in Malawi, we serve the same amazing God and have a common love for each other. What a blessing it is to know that we have brothers and sisters all over the world serving the Lord alongside us! As I look back on the past week and a half that we have been in Malawi, the first thing that comes to mind is, “God is so good.” What a team, what a trip, and what an incredible God we serve!
Thank you so much for following along with our team on this trip through these blogs, and we hope you enjoyed seeing what we were getting up to! We couldn’t have had this experience without each one of you, and we are so thankful for your generosity, love, and support.
Thank you so much again! Mista Seth, alongside the whole Malawi team, out!
Not a Trip
Category: Student Life