In the morning we find out about a few misfortunes that occurred with some of our people back in Blantyre. First, Lewis Salawila's wife who stayed back from the Feast was arrested! She is from Zimbabwe and obviously speaks the Chewa language with a distinct Zimbabwe accent. People hearing her reported her to the police who came and wanted to deport her! There are Zimbabwe refugees coming over to Malawi from the terrible economic conditions and the government is deporting them. The situation was sorted out when Kudawashe was able to show her documents, but she was treated very badly. 
 
The other bit of news was that Elifazi Salawila's daughter, Manes Chirwa's hardware shop in the very poor Ndirande area of Blantyre was destroyed. An entire market area in Ndirande burned to the ground and many shops were destroyed. She lost a goodly stock of nails. That was the early morning news that greeted us.
 
For Church today we viewed the Festival Video from the United Church of God. We're glad that we brought our projector as it makes viewing much more effective.  
Scott Lockwood's sermonette was excellent. He showed through three biblical examples of Noah, Lot and Moses how God fulfils what He promises and that He does it quickly.
 
In the afternoon we had the Seniors Luncheon. That's for people over 60. Both Bev and I "qualify."  We really enjoyed the luncheon with the 20 people who came. We had a lively discussion as people the described what tribe they came from what the characteristics of that tribe was. The people are of the Bantu root. Here are the tribes:
 
Chewa -
Ngoni - from the Ntcheu area. Warlike and don't look back. Like to eat meat and drink beer. Enjoy war too much.
Lomwelo - peaceful and have lots of traditional dances. "Magic people."
Sena - violent Pay high dowry for wife
Yao - sold other blacks as slaves to Arab traders.
Tshwana - from South Africa - very peaceful.
Nianja - the Chewa who lived by the Lake.
Amag'nja-Not fighters at all and surrendered quickly and offered themselves to the whites to be ruled by them.
 
The discussion was interesting as everyone told us about their tribal origins. 
  
In the evening we held an optional meeting to watch the video "The Case for the Creator" by Illustra Media. I have watched this and "The Privileged Planet" many times and never get tired of it. Understanding the Creation helps us understand God-especially the more we learn about the intricacies of the nature and the Universe. We then took the Wordsworth Rashid family out to dinner at the Nkopola Lodge. He and his wife Roseslyn have three children Linda (12), Paul (7) and Simon Victor (5). They also brought her sister's daughter Ellen, age 18. Whenever you invite anyone for dinner, be prepared for many children to come. Theirs and others. People are always watching other people's children.
 
It was hot and very still in the Nkopola Lodge restaurant, which is only place we can have food. We finally got the Rashid family back to their lodging about 11 pm.