Camping with monkeys...and sad stories...

So we took off on Wednesday to camp. Yes we camped here in Malawi. Some friends had a tent we could borrow. Very nice. We brought our Malawian BBQ and brought food to eat. Blankets, bug spray and a flashlight and we were good to go. Mind you I am a girlie girl. Don't like to camp at all. Really haven't done it since High school. So this was a stretch for me. But I came to quickly realize that Camping here is not much different than living here. It feels allot of the time we are camping all the time. Not really but yes it does feel like it. So we headed about 3 hours north and ended up at a place called Nkhotakota on Lake Malawi. We were charged 10 dollars a night to stay at their camp site. It really was nice. They had bathrooms, showers, a veranda and fire pit. We were the only ones there. Nice. They had guards there 24/7. Amazing feeling to know that someone is there to watch over you. Didn't think of that until we went to go swim in the lake and there were tons of kids passing by and all of sudden you see your stuff walking off with them. So it was nice to have a guard there to watch your stuff. By the time it was evening the first night there were about 20 monkeys encircling our camp. Strange feeling. Really Africa you know. Anyways of course Bob was throwing food at them to get them to come closer. I really wished I had brought my camera. That would of been awesome pictures. We had a real restful time with each other.

By the end of our 4 days we started talking with our day guard. You know your heart is never really ready to hear heartbreaking stories. He has one. He is of 4 kids, 2nd born , and he is 21 years old. His name is Cyness (sinus) anyways- both parents died when he was 11 of AIDS. He has been taking care of the rest of the family since then. He didn't finish school because of he had to work and support the family. Right now he works 12 hour days as a guard at this lodge place we went to. How much does he make a day ? $1.00 a day. really a dollar a day that is about 8 cents a hour. Ugh. Here we are camping for a getaway and he is working for what 8cents a hour to survive. How did we get to be American and not live his life. So deep of thoughts. We talked about Christ and gave the gospel to him. He seemed to get it and he told us that no one really had explained it to him. Of course we wished we had a bible to give him right away. But we didn't. We gave him the money to get a bible. He of course said he would and continued to thank us continually. We don't know if he will get the bible. With that money he could need it for everything. Just life. That is when you want to change the whole world and the way poverty is. When people are working 12 hours for a dollar it just breaks your heart. That when you want to give it all away to those in need. I told Bob how do we live balanced. We don't know. But I guess just baby steps and affect those people that come across our path.

It makes me sad for these families that are affected by AIDS. Who wandered away from their spouse first. His Dad first or His Mom. Who brought the disease to family. How did they become another statistic. Deep thoughts. How is possible that a one night stand destroys a whole family. Knowing many families affected by AIDS. It really comes down to it is called commitment to the family and to your spouse. Giving a condom is not going to fix it. Awareness is not going to fix it. It is the family commitment that is broken and until people start not breaking the vows this AIDS crisis is still going to be around. It affects our families in america too. We just don't have AIDS to show how broken our families are. We have to be intentional to our spouses in marriage. We have to be emotionally there for our spouses and we have to be physically there for our spouses. Here and there and everywhere. We don't let the laziness creep in and settle for whatever in a marriage. It happens so fast. Anyways. I am getting off my box. I am mostly talking out loud to me! Anyways Just a snippet of our journey here. Taking Baby Steps... Love - all of us