This week marked the celebration of independence in two of my homes. Of course, the United States celebrated its 241st year of freedom on July 4th. While Malawi, my newest home, celebrated its 53rd year of freedom on July 6th.

I love the fourth of July in the US, it's a wonderful celebration, but the closest thing we have to a "theme" is bbqs and fireworks. Malawi has a theme each year (this year's theme was "Thanking God for the season of plenty"), and we were excited this year to see how Malawi commemorates its freedom. Unfortunately we had to nix our plans to go downtown when we received a WhatsApp message from a member in our congregation. There had been a "stampede" at the stadium (where an event was being held), and eight people were killed and 62 were injured and treated at a local hospital. Shortly after we were informed by another member of our congregation to stay away from several areas of town because protests (read: riots) were being staged in those areas by people angry about the stampede. Who were they angry with? They were angry with the police for not protecting the people and the organizers for allowing the situation to occur. Unfortunately it wasn't just the police or the organizers to blame, it was also the people that rushed into a situation when there was no need to do so, and children paid for that with their lives. It breaks my heart.

Thankfully, we live in a nice quiet neighborhood, down a side street, and we remained ensconced in our eight-foot brick wall compound. And by the weekend things had calmed down significantly.

We got our "new" car at the end of the week. It's a tough Toyota Prado. It needs some minor tune-ups, but we got a fantastic deal on it, and because it's a bit older the mechanics in the area will be able to work on it, and replacement parts will be cheaper. It's also able to go into the bush, so driving to member's homes down dirt roads will be a lot more comfortable, and a lot less treacherous.