Visit Every City

August 17th, 2023

Being back in Lilongwe feels a little like coming home, except that some things have changed and I now get easily turned around there. Today Nick and I planned to drive ourselves to Lilongwe to meet up with Haiton Thungula. He oversees the congregation there, giving sermons, visiting brethren, counseling them, and generally managing things in the area along with Cephas Chapamba. I had the pleasure of being involved in the ordination of both men as elders in 2019. Today Haiton would be trying to gather and finalize the paperwork for the UCG property in Lilongwe. I remember spending countless days there, supervising various stages of the finalizing of the church building in the Mchesi neighborhood. I’m grateful that the building has been taken care of by the elders and the congregation, and in fact whenever I visit I see improvements made to the place.

Before getting ready for the day I sat on the porch as I usually do, reading and writing, enjoying my first cup of coffee, and soaking in the quiet morning far away from the commotion of city life. This morning a young boy named Isa stopped by the house with a chicken. The boy used to attend services with the congregation here, but his life circumstances have since changed. I must have met him before, or at the very least he had heard my name before. He wasn’t, however, able to figure out which one of us (between Nick and me) was named Lewis.

After breakfast Nick and I climbed in the family sedan and headed down the road towards the capital city. I figured Nick should drive since he’s the better driver, and there’s also a part of me that doesn’t mind continuing my break from navigating city traffic in NYC. We both probably have the same amount of experience driving in Malawi given the amount of time we have spent in-country, but our experiences varied in many ways. Most of my time spent on the roads here was in a minibus which is still used on occasion by the Lilongwe congregation. I took that bus places that no minibus should ever go. Nick mostly drove a pickup truck and was probably able to more easily navigate into the African bush while visiting people. While I also had to navigate police and army traffic checkpoints, bicycles straddling the edges of the roads at night, goats and dogs and chickens and children crossing highways at random, and difficult roads of all kinds, Nick also had the challenge of navigating the occasional tire set on fire in the middle of the road as some people protested against the results of the last election. I’m thankful that we’ve only had to navigate a brief fuel shortage and the usual dodging of people, creatures, potholes, and checkpoints.

The village of Nkhwazi is near the borders of both Zambia and Mozambique. This means plenty of potential for goods being illegally transported into Malawi. While I’m sure much of the illegal moving of goods takes place far from the main highways on the backs of bicycles and motorcycles, the police and the army sometimes set up quite a few roadblocks to randomly stop vehicles just in case. They usually stop minibuses and trucks, but do also choose other vehicles to stop at random. Today we were only stopped twice on the way to the city. At one army roadblock a young soldier named Frazer took my number so we could stay in contact. On our way back through in the evening he stopped us again. He never outright asked for money, and had hopes of staying in contact with his new American friend. We briefly exchanged information about our respective churches and then he sent us on our way.

Our first order of business was to stop by Gateway Mall — probably named so since it stands on the edge of the city — to pick up some cash and groceries. We were running late for our first real appointment but for some reason cell service was very spotty starting about halfway along our drive, and we couldn’t really get a message to Juliana letting her know we would be late. We had plans to catch up with her at the LifeNets Business Centre which stands in front of the church hall on the same property. The LifeNets organization has supported many of the brethren in the congregation for many years, including Juliana Kachali. She now runs the internet cafe on her own, providing very useful services to all sorts of clientele in the neighborhood. It was nice to sit and talk with her for a while, hearing about how her life has changed, sharing some ups and downs, and even having a chance to see her daughter Ariella again.

Unfortunately the instant coffee selection in various stores within the mall was either sorely lacking or very expensive. Fortunately we were successful in finding everything else we needed at the mall including plenty of cherry-plum soda which we didn’t find in Nkhwazi the day before. Our search for coffee ended there since we didn’t want to arrive even later, and we still had to navigate morning traffic in the city.

Shortly after chatting with Juliana and Ariella, Haiton arrived. We clarified our plans, jumped in his truck, and headed down the road. The first order of business was to find samosas to eat for lunch. The second (and more important) order of business was to drive to Area 23 to visit Mrs. Njewa. Mrs. Njewa lives at the bottom of a very poorly maintained road. The last time either Nick or I were there to visit her, she lived in a very basic house with an open courtyard. LifeNets had placed a well near her house once upon a time which we’re told is still there and still in use. The new house that her son built for her is absolutely wonderful! We arrived just as she and her family were finishing lunch outside. Mrs. Njewa has been slowly recovering from two separate strokes which have affected her ability to take care of herself. We sat and chatted for a while, making sure we knew of her needs and difficulties before we anointed her and headed back up the difficult road.

Before heading back out of the city through all the roadblocks and trading centres, we clarified some plans with Haiton and said goodbye to Juliana and John. John has worked as a guard at the church property on Lilongwe for quite a while, and now attends Sabbath services and helps Haiton in various ways. He also smiles quite a lot and laughs at all of Nick’s jokes. I figured Nick should be the one to drive us back to Nkhwazi since he did such a great job in the morning. I’m sure I’ll have a chance to drive in Malawi very soon.

Back at the Chapamba’s home we caught up with Cephas in the garden as Rachel helped water the banana trees. Soon enough these trees will be very large and filled with fruit, but first they need lots of water. As usual we joined the Chapamba family for dinner which included the chicken that Isa had brought in the morning. It’s been nice to be here when most of the Chapamba children are on a break from school.

– Lewis VanAusdle