Långfredag?
Örebro university is very quiet. The hostels and classrooms are empty, save for a few individuals that are sticking around. Most of the Swedish students and staff have gone away for the Easter holiday, and so the majority of the remnants are like me...foreigners. It is hard to be in such an empty place and just imagining the wonderful times folks back home are having on this long weekend. The last time I spent an Easter holiday away from home was many many years ago! I miss Malawi indeed. However the warm, sunny weather compensates for the boredom; it reminds of home in the months of July and August when we are emerging from winter (May-June). I look forward to Easter Sunday too..when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The international group will lead worship at Brickebergkyrkan, and I will be on the guitar. Tomorrow, my Finnish classmate and friend Mervi Itkonen will turn 24. There is gonna be a bash at her flat...at least some place to go and chat. I hear Good Friday is dubbed Långfredag...Long Friday in Sweden, because in the past life ground to a halt on this day. People stayed indoors and shops were closed.
God is Faithful
'Great is Thy Faithfulness morning by morning new mercies we see' one of my favourite hymns so goes. My class is back from the study visit to Aarhus University(Danish School of Journalism) where we went on Sunday to learn about the European Union and reporting Europe. The trip included six hours in a bus and three hours crossing the sea between Sweden(Göteborg) and Denmark (Fredrikshavn). Denmark was sunny, less expensive and more cheerful I guess than Sweden, Finland and Norway.
We were disappointed though that classes were not cancelled today considering the rigours of the journey let alone the course itself.
God is great. The cellphone which was stolen from my home in Blantyre, Malawi has been recovered by the police. Three weeks ago, I was amazed to receive an sms which my cousin Chitsanzo had saved in the phone before it was stolen. The sms had a strange phone number which has been used to track down the man using the phone. He must have bought it on the streets from the thief or a middle man. I don't know how the sms was sent to me here in Sweden, but I see the hand of God in all this. Praise Him, Praise Him from the rising of the sun to its going down!
Denmark-bound
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour who daily bears our burdens' (Ps68:19 NIV.) Imagine what manner of creatures we would be if there was no God to turn to when we are anxious, sick, heart-broken, lonely and even broke. What a miserable life!
At 10.30am this morning my class will board a chartered bus on the first leg of a trip to Aarhus in Denmark. We will study 'Reporting Europe' at Aarhus University from tomorrow up to Thursday. So the bus will take us to Göteborg where will catch a ferry to Aarhus. We are disappointed though that we will not see Coppenhagen! That because we have toured Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo.
I phoned home last night and heard my village has lost one of its enterprising young men Mavuto Joshua. Vuto as he was popularly known, died in South Africa in a car accident at the age of about 29. He settled in South Africa several years ago. May his soul rest in peace.
This morning I got an email from somebody purporting to be organisers of the UK National Lotttery, claiming that I have won 73thousand and 206pounds sterling...I would be a millionaire in Malawi if that were true, but I guess this is another trick of the internet fraudsters. Anyway they are prophesying that God will bless me with such monies soon. It is minus 14 degrees celsius this morning(On Thursday we had minus 17 degrees celsius!!) God bless you.
Skiing and Filming
The long-awaited skiing trip finally materialised on Saturday 26 February 2005. My hostel friend Michael Emtesten took me to the football and rugby pitches at Örebro University campus for skiing lessons. Just like in learning how to ride a bike, one falls off. I fell once, and Micke said I was a good student because of that single tumble!
He filmed the whole adventure as I learned the classic 'cross-country' skiing technic and another which one uses the sticks only to propel themselves. It was a great experience, but exhausting and after about 45 minutes we returned home. I spent most of the day resting and video-taping friends and things around the university. On Sunday I got permission to film the whole service at Brickebergkyrkan, the church I go to. I want to remember the senior Pastor Anders Sundström, friends like Kevin Leblanc, the Lindners, the Börjessons, the Rideouts and of course the great Swedish singing. A pity the Willetts were not around as I shot the video. It has been really cold this week with temperatures plunging to minus 13 degrees celsius yesterday and minus 12 degrees celsius today. Snow was forecast for yesterday and today but no sign of the flakes yet...if it snows again there's gonna be more skiing. Now there is too much ice which makes skiing quite a risk.
Tomorrow marks the 6th anniversary of the death of my father Alec Alfred Mlenga. On 1 March 1999 he seemed to be recovering from his heart problem and he was cracking jokes as usual, and asked for sugar and soap. That was the goodbye between us. But in all we should thank God for that is His will for our lives. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
