Missing Malawi

Being here in Bulawayo is making me miss Malawi. It's like visiting your home town but someone else is living in your old house. Everything is so familiar but it's different from how you remember it and you don't really know where you are.

Zimbabwe is generally more modern than Malawi. Bulawayo is the smaller of the two biggest cities (Harare is the capital) and it is still twice the size of Lilongwe (the capital of Malawi). There are shops upon shops and robots (traffic lights) at every intersection. While we were driving out to Antelope Park last weekend, we barely saw any villages off the main road. Most of the land outside the city belongs to farmers (or used to be farms). In Lilongwe, you drive for 5 minutes out of town and suddenly, there are dirt roads leading to rural villages with livestock everywhere.

It's been difficult not having a vehicle here, although I've made some very helpful friends who live next door. We met a British family at a local church here on our first Sunday. Their company sells small solar panel kits for individual use in homes here in Zim. They've had us for dinner, taken me shopping and their two daughters even brought us cupcakes. I'm so thankful for the friendship and help but would like to venture out on my own, too.

I'm used to moving to a new place and immediately working on getting to know my new neighborhood, but we are only here for six weeks. There is no need for me to learn the roads and figure out which shops sell eggs at a better price. I just need to keep focused on feeding everyone with or without Zesa and support Dan while he's working here with TCZ. I guess that's a prayer request??