Friday, March 13, 2015

Malawi Pics

    Two months ago, I promised in my post on my January missions trip that I would post more pictures. Time and a faulty memory kept me from doing that up to this point, but below are just some miscellaneous assorted pictures of random objects in Malawi that I figured were picture worthy. I have very high standards for what I will and won't take pictures of, as you'll see. My basic qualifications are 1.) I have a camera with me and 2.) it looks cool. That's about it. Yeah, really strict standards!

    Also, a quick disclaimer. I am NOT a photographer. At all. Before this, I had probably taken twenty pictures in my life. So, if photography is passion of yours, you may want to skip this post, since you may leave feeling nauseous.

    Again, a quick note. The first week was spent doing conferences around Southern Malawi, and I took two pictures the whole time. I'm not much of a photographer, and I was pretty busy and focused on other things. All but one of the following pics is from the second week at the orphanage, where aside from a youth conference and a couple evangelistic and school outreaches, there was much more down time.

This is a beautiful valley just across the Mozambique border.


This is a teammate teaching a Bible lesson in a village, Tambalika.

This is a typical fishing canoe on Lake Malawi. As a kayaker, I have no idea how they keep balance!

These are some of the kids from the orphanage. All of whom could beat me at soccer.

Another pic of a canoe. Can you tell I was impressed? How do you keep balance while fishing in that thing?

A friend stole my camera to take this pic. You can see the humble beginnings of my beard, which is much better today, I might add. Everything starts small!

This is Vitu (spelling ?). Definitely a friendly little kid, who lives with his widow mother on the mission property.

The sunsets were absolutely beautiful. Even more beautiful than Texas', something very hard for a Texan to admit.

Yeah, I liked the sunsets.

Can you tell I was impressed? God's creation really does point to Him, if we take the time to think about it.

Lake Malawi in the background. Not sure what was in the pan, but it made for a cool picture, in my opinion.

Might gives right. The cattle obviously had heard this principle before, since they showed no inclination of moving aside fr us.

Now you see the reason we gave them the road.

Once again, this is Lael speaking to the orphans in the mission church building.

This is a typical Malawian home. Thatch roof, mud brick walls, no door, and maize for a yard.

This is one of the better non-paved roads we walked on for an evangelistic outreach.

Marco, Vitu's older brother. Also a great goalie.

I think they're in battle formation.

It was rainy season, and this is one of the storms blowing in.

This is a picture from atop a termite mound.

Vitu thought it'd be funny to make a funny face, Oscar thought he should smile.

One last picture on the night before we left! We got a lot of faces we want to remember!

    All in all, an awesome trip. I hope the seeds God planted through us will bring fruit, whether I ever see it or not. And Africa, I'm coming back!

    Oh, and defyingdepravity, you're welcome!
  

 

14 comments:

  1. Haha - how did you know what I was going to say? :) Again, I'm so glad you got that opportunity. I want to go!!!

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    1. I know you too well! You'll get to go. We fly out of D.C., and that's not terribly far from Pennsylvania. The opportunity doesn't end when you move, so don't be discouraged.

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    2. We'll have to see. Are you planning on going in the fall?

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    3. Probably not, as much as I would love to. Because I've already got World Championships overseas in May, the finances will probably not be there. Ugh. I guess we'll just have to pray together to be able to go as soon as possible!

      I actually told Isaac while I was there that I had to take pictures for a girl named Lauren back at my church. He helped me out a few times by reminding me, "hey, you should take a picture of that. She'd appreciate that!" I'd much rather have a friend there to point to it instead of point to a picture of it once I got home!

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  2. I see. Do you know if they're going next January? Maybe you could make it then?

    I'll bet she really enjoyed them, that was really nice of you to do that for her.

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    1. Hopefully. I think they're planning to make it an bi-annual trip, so January should be on. If so, I think I can make that one. I don't think I'm going to compete overseas again for a long time, because I'd like to be able to use that money to go to Africa instead! Do you think you can go next time, this fall or in January, or maybe after that?

      I hope she did!

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    2. Ah, okay. I hope you can go!

      Well, I really (REALLY) want to go to in the fall, but I'm still not sure. If I have the money, then yes!

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  3. These are actually pretty good good pictures! ;) It looked like you had a really great time there! I have always wanted to go on a missions trip; but the opportunity and finances has not really been available yet. :(

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    1. The first part was the best part. I really enjoyed the active, crazy part of the trip. Not saying the second part was bad, but I'm a very active person, so I like to keep busy! I hope everything comes together to allow you to go on one someday too!

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  4. Nice pics, Taylor! It's amazing the difference from what we're used to here. The sunsets were beautiful! I can't agree they were better than Texan sunsets, though. :) They come close, but aren't better.

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    1. I'll accept that from a fellow Texan. It is hard to beat Texas sunsets!

      Yeah, the culture change is amazing. It's an experience, that's for sure!

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  5. I'm sure. How were the mosquitos there (compared to Houston)?

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    1. Honestly, I saw about seven mosquitoes and was bitten probably four times. The mosquitoes were not that bad. Now, as you know, Mateo, myself, and Lael all got malaria, so there must have been more than I thought!

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  6. Yeah, I knew about the malaria, but I didn't know you'd seen that few. Interesting.

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