Guest Contributor

Check out the below link to read a post that I wrote as a guest contributor for the Equitas blog.

equitas_inc via twitter

"New blog post from Jamie McCollum, our guest contributor in Malawi: http://bit.ly/cmjBA4

Please Pray

Check out our latest blog on our site. www.mccollumsinmalawi.com

We could really use your prayers.

Link to Pictures

Usually we post our pictures from each outing to a village, lake or other exciting event that we have been a part of this year, to our mccollums in malawi site. However, the link is broken that we use to post our Flickr pics to that site. Daniel is working on it...the fact that Daniel can fix all things related to computers and IT work is ONE of the things that I love about him. :)

Here is the link should you want to see more pictures of our time in Salima and its surrounding villages. Click here to be taken to the Flickr pictures.

The blogging continues

I had thought about canceling this blog since we do a lot of blogging on our Malawi site...and I think I may have lost some readers since I have moved to Malawi, seeing as I haven't kept up with the posts as much as I did prior to our overseas adventure. (I do see a lot of activity on my site tracker, but not a lot of comments...that's okay, there are sites that I read and don't comment...but I do welcome your comments and encouragement anytime you want to leave them.) However, I was reminded that we have only 4 more months of our Malawi adventures and then another chapter on this journey will start and I will want to blog on all that will happen next. So, the blogging continues...and I am happy to have a place to collect my thoughts, pictures and events that keep Daniel and I busy.

With only 4 more months in front of us, and 7 months now behind us here in Malawi, there is just so much that weighs on my heart and soul. There is so much that I see each and everyday that I struggle to find words to capture for others to read and be informed on; so much that happens here in one of the poorest countries in the world that no one hears about in the developed countries. BUT, I want to dedicate myself in these coming months to start processing these experiences, and put into writing on paper (blog) for you to read. I think this will be good for me to do as in 4 months time I will be thrown back into western/American culture and will experience much of what is called "reverse culture shock"...these blogs will help me work towards that and help soften the blow a little. I invite you to leave thoughts, questions and comments as you read, maybe your questions/comments will ensue some interesting conversations.

Pictures from the village

Here are a few pictures from our time this past week in a few villages near the town of Salima, which is near Lake Malawi. We will be going back in April with a team that will be coming from Watershed (our church in Charlotte, NC)...we are so excited about the team coming as we will be seeing some of our dearest and best friends! By the way, when I say "village" it is just about as accurate as what you might imagine an African village to be...we walked 45 min one way through the mud to get to one village. Some of these places are so remote that they are not accessed by vehicle, especially during rainy season. I'm not sure how this one village will react when the team comes in April, not sure what they will do with 20 white people in their village, a sight that I am sure many of these villagers have never seen before.



Isn't this boy just darling...oh, his smile just melted me.

A lady retrieving water at the village water pump.

Wash being hung out to dry in the Gadi village, love this picture and the colors of all the fabric.

Tour of Malawi and more

We (the four of us: Jonathan & Kayla and Daniel and myself) have been out of town (Blantyre, the city where we live in Malawi) since Sunday. It has been a nice little tour around Malawi (well, a small tour). In a nutshell, we left home on Sunday and headed towards Lake Malawi, Salmia to be exact. We went to visit another missionary couple who have literally lived in Malawi their whole life, I mean, fluent in the language, culture, everything...the Barr's are two of the most amazing people we have met. Anyway, it was amazing to see their ministry. We have a group from our church coming in April and we will be partnering with the Barr's on an irrigation project in a neighboring village. (side note: we had to walk to the village of Gadi because there are no roads for cars and it should be noted that it is rainy season in Malawi...we walked in pure mud for 45 minutes..a memory for sure!) Monday we headed out to spend 2 nights on Lake Malawi...ahhh, love the lake. Wednesday we drove an hour to Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city. We are staying in guest "huts" on the campus of a Bible college...it actually is really nice and comes with internet...thank goodness! It has been such a treat to just pop online whenever to check email, or chat on skype, or write a blog, or read blogs, or post pics, or surf the net on whatever just comes to mind...ah, I almost couldn't sleep the first night because I was just so excited to be online. I know some of you are rolling your eyes right about now, but living in Malawi has made me appreciate these small things in life. :) Ok, back to our time. So Thursday morning we woke up and I walked out to meet Kayla for breakfast...uh oh, we informed each other that both of our husbands were up all night sick. So...we took them to a hospital that a few of our missionaries work at. Not only was it comforting seeing an American doctor, but it was also a relief to get a negative malaria test back for both Daniel & Jonathan. We were a little worried about malaria since it is rainy season and mosquitoes are out in full force. Come to find out it is a bacterial infection...antibiotics were given and taken and both of them are feeling a bit better this morning. To be honest, though I hate it that Daniel isn't feeling 100%, it has been quite nice just to lay around and relax a bit. It has given me a chance to work on things that I haven't been able to work on in a while.

One of those things is learning more about Photoshop. Yes, I have been photoshopping! And I am addicted. I know, the eyes are rolling again, but I think I might be the last person on earth to not know how to do all those cool things on photoshop...so today was my day to teach myself some new, cool tricks. Here they are, blog friends. I wish I had brought my USB cord with me, so I could edit the pics that I took at the lake this week. So, stay tuned...more photoshopping to come.

Original Photo--straight from camera

I call this one "True Blue" ha, original, eh?

And this one, "Sunset under the Baobob" I know, brilliant, right? ha ha.

And this one, "Baobob: black and white" seriously, I'm so good at naming these photos! Just kidding.