Nya in class with Mrs. Tricks

Nya's Class!

Yesterday was International Day at Nya's school. This is when the students dress up in ethic clothes ( is that politcally correct? oh well! You know what I mean! ) and bring food from their home country. There are about 30 different countries represented here at the academy. Lilongwe is a very international community. Who knew that. I sure didn't before I came! So here below is some cute pictures of that day and I also put a video on with Nya with Mrs. Tricks! Her husband is doing great and now we get to have her back! Enjoy!

Pauline, from Malawi, Nya from america, Nikki from Phillipines, and Myra from Zimbabwe

Here is the class listening to a story! Wow! they are cute!

We sure have a lot to be thankful this holiday season. We love you all! Love the Stauffacher family

Happy Thanksgiving...

So hello from Malawi. We are celebrating Thanksgiving here with our friends here. I found a ham and am making scalloped potatoes with greenbeans. Sound great to me. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your friends and family.

Here is some pictures of Bob's class that went to the Islamic temple here in Malawi. This has never been done so it was amazing experience for both sides. The Muslims here said that never has any Christian organization come to them in peace anThe Muslims talked about their faith and the students in the class were able to ask questions.

So here they are at the Temple.

The outside of the temple

This is where they wash their hands and feet. Cleaniness is apart of the Koran

The inside of the temple. It is very plain and they say it is that way so they are only focused on Allah!

Here is the Class in session. I like seeing Bob in the middle of all that. The world religions class will visit a Hindu temple this Monday. It is one thing to hear and read but to be apart and really talk with other people's religion takes it to a deeper level! Keep praying that we will impact the students and help transform their lives!
We love you all- Thank you for praying for us! We are doing great here because your love, emails, packages, prayers and support of us! Love- all of us!

Prayer works!

Here is Bob in the village of Mchoka! The beautiful kids that the team goes to is all about sharing love and life with every thursday...

Just always excited to pose for pictures...

MMMM the simple impact of love that transforms a persons life. that is what is being shown every time they go out there to that Village. To be consist and love deeper and teach the simple truths of God.

Can you smell it? It is the most amazing smell in the world these flowers. (these were taken by a friend of mine so nice to share with me.)

The fire trees on campus. These are everywhere this time of the dry season. We are almost in rainy season where it rains really hard for about hour or so each day. Or sometimes more.

A man on bike hauling wood to sell. SO that is real life. How much do you love your car now? And your Job? I always reminded of the simple blessings.

I want to say thank you for all the emails and prayers my sweet friends. After about 12 hours of putting on the blog that I was sick- I have been feeling so much better. Even though it was such a weird virus, that there was no answers with the blood work but I just really feel better. Only knowing that I have people supporting me in prayer. Prayer works! Thank you. I love having you all as my dear friends!

Lots of love- amy louise

An Update...

Good news... Nya's teacher's Mrs. Tricks Husband is home in Malawi. It is a true miracle. The doctors told them that they would have at least a month of recovery in a rehab place in South Africa. But on Sunday he flew up and got to see all the family and is walking and talking and living life like nothing happened. Thank you for your prayers.

For us- I have been sick for the last 4 weeks with an unknown bug. I have done so much blood work and not has showed up. I know 2 other people that seem to have the same problem as me. So it has been concluded that it is a strange bacterial infection with just fatigue and weakness as the symptoms. I am getting better slowly, but really would love your prayers in that. No one else has been sick in our family but me - so that has been good.

We have been super busy even still. Bob teaching classes and taking his outreach team and seeing people come to know the Lord and also grow deeper. He has been so enjoying going out and reaching the uneducated and educating them the simple truths.

I have been teaching a senior college girls bible study and it has been great! We are just going to deep and answering questions that are not often discussed about faith, sex, marriage, families and women issues! It is amazing to see that Christian culture transends all cultures. There are 15 women in my class and it is fun to get in deep discussions. This is something I love! Women talking about life and who it all works together as we live our lives for Christ!
Love you lots- thanks so much for all that support, pray for us! We are here in Africa making a difference due to you all. I can't believe we have been here now for almost 16 months. That is a long time! love and miss you- amy louise

a couple pictures for you....

Here a couple of pictures that were in my newsletter that I think i way better in color! So here is Analise with our neighbor friend Caroline. So here is Analise with our neighbor friend Caroline.

a new staple in the house. This looks like rice on nya's plate but it is actually Nsima. Ground up corn mush. A staple for Malawians here. It is now a regular in our house. We have it about once a week. Bob and Nya love it and Analise and I still stick with rice :) It is served with beef curry that you dip the nsima in.

here is a picture of us in the mountains of Zomba, Malawi Africa.

The girls riding the donkey! (danny that is for you) They were just on the side of the road and Analise wanted to ride it and begged Nya to get on. Love you lots- amy louise

Happy Election Day to you all...

I know I am glad it is here! It is big here in Africa! One of my friends said to me! "So are your people voting today?" Yes my people are voting today! We shall see!

But on to other things... please be praying for Nya's teacher Nuala Trick's husband Ben - who is 40 years had a brain annurysm about a week ago. They were plane evacuvated to South Africa to to do surgery and it went well. But he woke up from the drug induced coma very confused. So please pray for Ben and the rest of the family. They have 4 kids and have been very stretched as mom and dad have been in southafrica! Here is a picture of her with nya's class on Reading day. She is in the Back along with the assistant teacher Wezzie! The kids dress up to represent a character.

Here is Nya with a friend Charolette. Nya was a clown from the story Dumbo. Hence the dumbo. Her friend a bee from the pooh books. Lots of love- amy louise

I want you to know... This is gross...

Everyday I think of something to blog about and by the time I get home from where ever I was -I forget to write it down. Daily I see things that are amazing, confusing, weird and WOW they have that here too.

To begin with - the fires that some how never become wildfires. We are from California and if I saw a fire I would drive the other way and you know it is going to burn down a whole lot of things. But here they have fires just burning. No fire department, nobody putting it out. Usually people adding to the burning fire.

I have been craving raisinets (just a candy) I found some! Well they are somewhat similar. Similar is close enough for me these days. I thought today! wow they have that here!

But in light of that! it is a dumb craving compared to... Daily as I drive my car I am faced with beggars, not just your downtown homeless people ( even though they would be considered beggars). But the real poverty of the world here. It is a huge undertaking just traveling and knowing that I am going to have to say no about 20 times before I get back home from the store. Sometimes I give money and then other times I just can't give enough away. Mothers carrying children, 6 year kids asking for money, a vendor telling me I need a mop, tomatoes, strawberrys, DVDs, fake watches and anything I might need for my little life, and children who are crippled and the man on his knees because he had polio when he was young. The balance is in between heartache and then justifying why I can't give to every one. Learning to bless and learning to teach not just to depend on a handout from me.

Watching the women carry a huge bundle on their head for firewood along with a baby on their back and something in their hands. Seeing them wave at me as I pass them in my car. Ohhh Words don't even come close how I feel.

As I drive I dodge goats, people, bad bad bad drivers and watching Africa with African music in my car. Daily, I have conversations with people from every walk of life. Whether it is the students here at the college, teachers at the Academy, going into the clinic, talking with Nya's classmates mom, or seeing someone at the store or just talking with anyone I meet! I am talking to the World here.

Like today, I had my college girls Bible study, Many grew up in local villages here in Malawi, others have grown up in the city and have seen more movies then i have ever seen. I went to the store and ran into some local workers at the store - I greet them and see how their family is. How is life for them. Any stories they may have, I then see a couple of people I know, they are from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Denmark, Korea and England. Then I go to the school and chat with some ladies that are from Lebanon and India and China. I see a friend and she is from New Zealand and talk about our friend about a from Canada Wow! That is just half way through my day. Anyways just some thoughts that i think about.

But one of the oddest things I have seen is this.... The first day that we got here off the airplane - they were selling them on the corner of our road. What and people buy and eat these things. Yes they do and love them! Rats on Stick. Here is a picture of our neighbor who bought them. Sam (who is Nya's class) is showing how it is done..

Yes those are toenails and teeth people eat. YUCK!

Anyways- just random thoughts from Malawi... Lots of love- amy louise

WOW God had fun when he made Malawi...

God is amazing in what he can do with land... Malawi - It is beautiful from the lake to the mountains. This last weekend We headed away for a break to Zomba! That is a great name. it is about 4 hours south of us. We stayed at a cottage on the mountain. The hikes, the views the monkeys and fun we had and saw! What a beautiful place....

On our way to the mountains.

Here we are at a fish hatchery. A man from Japan put it up in the mountains...

The girls before the hike with trees planted in the 1930's by the Japanese

Daddy and his girlies...

HMMM Yummy water!

Mommy and her girlies!

Getting a little bit tired!

A lake up in the mountain! The man was selling crytals! Who knew they had them in this mountain!

Ok we are really tired by now! But what a beautiful end to the day!

The side of the mountains

It was such a restful and refreshing break for all of us! We went with our friend Pam from Ireland. She works with ABC students as a Navigator. She is such a fun person to vacation with!Love you all and chat with you again! love amy louise

Life in africa....

Here is Nya and Kene and Analise making crazy faces. This girlie right here is one our favorite friends! The girls can't get enough of her!

It is amazing how time flies by and then somedays it pokes on by. We are busy in just life here. We have been having about 15 students over every other wednesday along with the single teachers on campus. So that usually adds up to about 20ish or more people on those nights. It is so fun to hear the chatting that is going on. One night we had only girls and bob and josh (another friend) It was so fun to have about 20 women chatting at the same time. Here are some pictures of that night. We usually do tacos because it is so easy to have a lot of and fun to share our favorite food. The comments of last nights dinner was "Fanatastic" "best food ever have had" "wonderful" "who knew that these little things could fill me up".

Bob has been taking his outreach team out to the village every thursday afternoon. He says it has been so impacting. I meant to give him the camera today so you could see them in work but I forgot. But they have about 8 students that go and disciple 3 to 4 familes and get them founded on God's truth. Bob and another student have been meeting the ladies at the water well pump and chatting and answering questions for about 20 or more of them. They just sit and listen and soak it all up. It has been amazing Bob has said. This picture below is the team in the car. I tried to get them to pose outside but they were in a rush. So this is an out on the hood picture.

So just keeping you in the Africa loop. Thank you all for love, support, packages, emails, and prayers. We couldn't be here without you. Love- Amy louise

Here are my teachers that are teaching me Chichewa. Mary is a student here that is training to work with Deaf children and train them in bible.
Here is Hennelise. She is the one who yells at me when I get it wrong. I love her yelling at me. It is cute. :)
Here we are on our way to ballet lessons at the school library. thanks mom for the ballet outfits. That is the school behind them. Also that is Emily that is our friend from San Diego.
Here is nya and analise practicing. There will be a christmas show in december. how cute will that be.
Analise pointing here toes. She is loving it. Just a couple pictures of daily life here. People and people. Lots of love - Amy louise

The journey....

We have been thinking about how much we love africa. We love the people, they are amazing and passionate people that are so fun to get to know deeper. In my bible study class I love learning about all the cultural differences and alot of our similarities. We are growing together. We love it. We the journey is that we are in this world together. And together we can make the difference in people's lives. We love the slow pace. It is very slow compared to america. What treat just not rush and worry about time. It is amazing here. I am ready for bed by 6pm every night. I am sure it is just living in another country thing. I get my second wind and keep going.



We love helping and making a difference through education. Whether it is me learning more or someone else. It is foundational. Right now I have 2 girls teaching me chichewa. Mary and Hennelise...One is a great teacher and the other yells at me as i misprounounce the words. It is is cute. I really want to learn and have conversations instead of me just say 2 words here and there. Bob picks it up fast for some reason but I just can't get it to stick. I am learning the days of the week right now. Lets see... la mulungu (sunday) Lolembe (monday), lachiwiri (tuesday) i think , Lachitatu (wednesday) la chi nigh (thursday) la chi sanu (friday) that is from memory. So when i say see you later on wednesday.... its ....tionana lachitatu.... have a good night is ussiku wa bwino . simple things like that... They speak chichenglish here also. Mixing chechewa and english together. Just like spanglish. Spanish and english. Sounds like this... adfhadgskjha the house is 5 mins from agdskkjhaladfskl and did you know that adfskjl grieuwqeriuo jdlafgiouy is far from gfjheowiu jrfgiui.... So that is when you think you know the words but it really is in english. anyways... We speak volumes when we learn and say our little chichewa. Sometimes. It back fires and people have full on conversations in chichewa with us and then we look dumb. Oh well lets look dumb and we all laugh about it.... I wanted to give you a couple of blogs of my friends here. They got fun pictures of life here too. Have fun.....



Josh and Emily Friends from San diego that are here now....He is maintaining the campus with 60 buildings and new things being built.... and sheis the 3rd grade teacher at the acedemy

http://www.joshandemilyketchum.blogspot.com/



Dan And bethany robbins... they are both teachers here at the academy http://robbinsabroad.blogspot.com/



Mcdonald's- http://5slams.blogspot.com/

Sam is a professor at the college and Leanne is the 5th grade teacher.



http://www.dehnertsinmalawi.com/

Both Kelley and Connie are professor here at the college



http://husbandsfamily.blogspot.com/

Tom and Ali work with local pastors and people in the villages helping with education in everything to tailoring, HIV/Aids mentorship, and having clean water....





Enjoy.... here just some. I will give you more... when you are done :)

Love you all- Amy louise

What are we up to...

Wow life is sure busy. We are in full swing of school. We are loving being back with all the students on campus. On top of Bob regular jobs (teaching, head of security and - he is now in charge along with Sam McDonald(another professor), the student outreaches. They have to schedule about 140 students to go out and serve in the community. They go every Thursday. They go to orphanages, prisons, villages, and schools to love on people. They do bible studies with all the people that they interact with and also discipleship. Bob will be taking about 7 students to the village that he created a relationship with over this last year called Mchoka. They will be doing bible studies and training the local pastors. This is definitely why we are here. To train and disciple! What a treat. So i will start taking more pictures all of that and also of my classes and Bob's! And Nya's and Analise's! Thank you for prayers and continual love and support of us! We couldn't be here with out you all behind us as our team!


Here are some pictures of the daily life! Grocery shopping. I went with Emily and she took the pictures. Every one is of the produce. But at least you can see some of it. I will get more of it for you. For me I can end up going to 4 or 5 different stores to get what I need. Sometimes I miss the all in one stores. But most of the time I enjoy getting around and taking what I can get here. It is amazing the fruit and vegetables. I so love them. I have been going to the local market to get even more amazing fruits and veggies. And they play fun music there and I love to dance and make the Malawians giggle as they watch this Mzugu (foreigner) dance. I like to break the mold.



Well- Connect with you again! Lots of love- Amy Louise

See even the bride and groom dance! How fun are they!

The dancing bridal party

Watch our dance moves from the wedding...

Hi....

So the fun part - is that we are full swing. Many of the students have returned from home to start a new semester, but many have not come back (about 30) for not being unable to pay all their fees. ABC charges them half the price due to incoming support from the states. So really it costs 3000 dollars to have them eat, sleep and study here for a year but they only have to pay 1500 dollars for that. But many have huge outstanding debts from the previous years that it hard for them to keep up. Anyways just pray that the students will be able to return by next week. I have 2 senior girls who are missing from my class. So it does make a difference when they are in their senior year.

We are chugging along. School great for Nya and she loves her teacher. Her name is Nuala Tricks. She is from England and has been teaching at ABC for the last 3 years or so. Wonderful lady. Nya comes home happy everyday. Amazing. She really has adapted well. In the school there are 310 students now and 30 different nationalities. Amazing experience for her. She has a different type of accents usually with different words. For example - She is calling a trash can a bin now. What next? - a bathroom is going to be the loo....

Well- be praying for us as we are here and missing home these days. Glad to be here but it seems like it has for ever since we have been home. Miss you all and thanks for love, emails, love packages, and support of us as we are here. Love all of us the stauffachers!

The way they share joy with the bride and groom is to celebrate by blessing them with money. The DJ says something to the effect of Celebrate that Ulemu is married to Ronald and people come up and dance and throw money. We should try it in America. Forget the registry.

The Wedding...

So we were apart of Ronald and Ulemu Wedding day. We were the Lead Couple. It is the couple they look up to and respect. WoW what a treat. It is seriously an all day event. It starts off with a wedding at 9am in the morning. Only reallllly close friends and family come. Sometimes not even the close friends attend it. It was all in Chichewa so it was hard to understand. We got interpertation here and there. We got the jest of it all.
Then at 1:30ish (African time) - it could start up to 2 hours later. There is a the reception that people come to give gifts and bless them with money. As the Lead Couple we had to dance our way in. I have video of it. I will put it on too. I just have to get it from my friend. Everyone dances in and out of the reception. Even the Bride and Groom. But we are soooo white. Bad dancers. :) We tried and everybody loved it. Oh well it was fun... Even the Bridemaids and Groomsmen dance their way to the platform.... Once on the platform we sit until 4:30ish... Watch the reception and dance too...

Here is Ronald and Ulemu on the Couch! They are so cute! They sit here while the reception is going on....

Here Bob and I are on the platform. Right before Bob was going to give them Kwacha! (Money)

Here is the cutting of the cake. It is actually a fake cake with real frosting. it is too expensive to have a cake for 300 people.

We have been so fortunate to have them as friends for the last year. And so neat to be apart of thier wedding. The Videos below show how dancing is done at the reception. The DJ plays music and people dance and give the bride and groom Money. Watch Bob as he does it. So fun!

Anyways that is a wedding in Malawi.... Thanks for enjoying it with us.