How are you?

One morning this week, after daily Mass, I was hurrying to get back to the house in time to finish getting ready for work. Instead of giving individual greetings to each member of the community as I normally do, I said a general good morning to everyone. Later in the morning, Br. Luigi teasingly told me that he was mad at me because I hadn’t said good morning to him. I realized that because I hadn’t greeted him separately, I had not in fact actually greeted him. Whereas in America a communal greeting is perfectly acceptable, here it is not sufficient and in some situations may even be considered rude.
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The littlest missionary

Many azungu (white people) return to their home countries to have babies and the fact that we didn’t has been a source of much surprise and joy to every Malawian we encounter. Malawians express great pride in our son Seth being born here. People in our village have claimed him as their own, calling him Mwana wa Malawi (Malawian baby) and Mwana wathu (our baby). We even have had more than one person joke with us that when we return to the States we will have to leave him with them.

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Retreating in Malawi

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to lead a retreat for our Catholic student group at the college. We decided to center the retreat on one of our favorite themes: Theology of the Body. Theology of the Body is based on a series of lectures given by Blessed John Paul II at his Wednesday Papal Audiences. Through these lectures he developed a beautiful theology of how our bodies reveal to us the truth of God’s intimate relationship with us. We in turn are able to imitate God’s loving relationship in how we relate to and share our love with others.

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