rain and a pool

Took the Saturday afternoon and night to stay in Lilongwe with Linn who was in nkhoma for 10 months on a Norwegian nurse exchange and is back working at the big hospital in town through the norwegian peace corps. Her house has a pool and a nice yard and is in the middle of town. So we arrived and sat by the pool in the heat of the day…so nice. Got a bit cooler when the sun went down and we got ready to go out for dinner. Went for Chinese and then to listen to some music at Chameleons. The band we were told was good—had good lyrics about stuff that was going on but then it was in Chichewa so we just enjoyed the beat. And then it started raining…not too hard but a constant drizzle that lasted all night. It was cloudy and overcast Sunday and too cool to sit next to the pool. Just our luck really…but then it was a nice break away and relaxing…we’ll just have to go back again for the summer feel…

christmas tableau

the set
main movers (king, registrar, inn keeper, joseph, mary
wise men and star holder
our choir of angels and herd of shepherds
And the day after thanksgiving was our Christmas pageant. After a scare that we wouldn’t get the church as planned we just had to move the production up an hour. (the nurses’ graduation was kicking us out even though we’d booked a month in advance). We also had to share the stage set up with the graduation décor so our stable didn’t have quite the backdrop we’d imagined but then not much is the way you plan it here. There was no power so our attempt at getting a sound system working was thwarted (I was relieved as usually they are turned up so loud you can’t understand anything anyway). Our narrator was our kindergarten teacher and you could hear her very well. The songs were accompanied by Dr. Barbara Nagy on her guitar. We had a registrar and innkeeper, mary and joseph, main angel, king herod, star holder and 3 wisemen. Everyone else was in the herd of shepherds or in the host of angels. We sang silent night, away in a manger, long time ago in Bethlehem, twinkle twinkle little star and joy to the world. It was short and if you were late you most likely missed it…which was too bad but then we had to get out for the graduation. Here are a few pics that I have…wish I could put up a video but that would be pushing my internet capabilities and time…

thanksgiving success!

I did it! Even with the power being unreliable…it was so exciting. I woke up on Thursday and was a bit worried that the power was still on…I knew it would go at some point during the day and I thought that if it was gone early morning it would be fine for the afternoon/evening…but ok. Started with all my potato dishes—had to peel lots. Wasn’t sure about too many sides so I ended up with: potato salad, regular salad, mashed potatos, green beans, stuffing, some potatos and onions around the turkey and gravy…it was enough. The power went out at 10…at that time I was worried because there is no telling when it would come back on…I was hoping for 2 because I hadn’t cooked the turkey (many told me there was no way they would have waited, it would have been cooked the day before but I am a procrastinator for one thing and for another how would it taste nearly good enough if done the day before—and where would I keep it already cooked?) the power came back a little after 2 and as I hadn’t done much while the power was out I rushed to get the turkey ready for the oven…in it went and there it stayed until 7 when my guests arrived ( the power went out for a minute at 5 and i got scared but it was only 1 minute). I was the only American—I had 12 in total from Holland, Norway, Scotland, England, South Africa and Germany…a grand success. They brought dessert—an apple cake and tablet (a Scottish dessert made from condensed milk and sugar…I think it is supposed to be a fudgelike consistency but this was a little fluid still…looked like we hadn’t eaten any of it as it spread out again in the pan.) I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving!

flash cards

So I don’t know if it happens quite as much at home but as soon as you send something home here with the kids, it is as good as gone. Even if they bring it back…flashcards are destroyed almost as soon as you put them in the folders to go home…so with the first set of math ones I had the idea of getting them laminated…and it is now the bane of my existence. I still can’t really tell if it is working to extend the life of the cards but now I’ve been volunteered to laminate all of the flash cards…this is math and sight words and the double letter blending sounds and….and….and…it just goes on and on…but then I do think it is working (I hope it isn’t just positive thinking). Of course you can only laminate when there is power and you have laminating sheets…but once you’ve laminated then you have to cut them apart and keep them in sets…and if you get the cheaper laminating sheets you have to send them through a couple of times to make sure they are sealed. And I know I’m making this sound terrible and taxing and I do that when I’m talking as well but really I don’t mind. I know what I have to do and there is something there at the end…(and I’m almost out of laminating sheets—though not really almost out of flash cards)

mangos

It is mango season again…just starting really…I’m so excited. There were tons on the way to the lake. You can get them at the market in nkhoma but those are really ready yet…so on our way to the lake we stopped and bought things for ute’s house…mats of varying sizes and I got a basket that we immediately filled with mangos…and on the way home we stopped at the wood market—I got two more baskets and ute got one. We filled two with mangos and one with tomatoes and onions…also bought firewood…there wasn’t any room for anything more in the car…luckily we didn’t bring a fourth person—I don’t know where they would have sat! and now I get to eat at least 2 mangos a day and we have fresh mango juice…

lake

Time to get out. There was a spate of petrol available for about 3 days (roughly—depending on when and where you were in town) so we decided that a lake weekend was needed. We left early Saturday morning after having a relaxing barbeque next door (this was the night before I moved out of my great view). Ute, Noel, and I went to senga bay…our first choice of accommodation was full and they recommended us stay at tom’s bar and we would be able to use all of their amenities—restaurant and beach…well, we checked it out but tom’s bar wasn’t on the beach and it was quite a ways from cool runnings so we opted to just find something ourselves. Went down a bit farther and found 3 places…none of them had grass but we picked the one with the most shade…and there were rooms on the second floor and had a view from a balcony…not that we would spend much time in the room but nice.
Swim, sleep, swim, read…nice. Dinner that night I wanted fish…shouldn’t be too hard—we’re at the lake. On the menu is chambo (only found in lake Malawi) and kampango…whole, filleted, curry, etc. ok. We would like 3 kampango filleted. Well, we don’t have. Ok then the chambo. No only whole. (what is the point of a menu?) then he tells us there is only 1 kampango fillet. So I get the fillet, noel orders the whole chambo, and ute opts for chicken curry. Off to change and shower as dinner won’t be ready for at least an hour and it is time to hide from the mosquitos…then he comes to us and says that the kampango is finished…so I change to chicken curry as well. At least I thought I did because when we got served our dinner I actually got chambo fillet…it was good…we didn’t complain; we were just a little confused.
That night we had our overhead fan on and were quite comfortable in our beds. (the last time I stayed here nothing moved all night—even with the fan…it was stifling) and then about 1am the wind started up…not usually a problem to have more breeze but then we found out that the tin roof above our balcony wasn’t properly attached…and for the rest of the night every couple of minutes it sounded like a car crash was happening as the wind would pick up the panel and then drop it…ah well, I guess you can’t have it all…

eviction

So I had to move out of my house again…and just as the construction was coming to an end…ah well. They say I’m still welcome to visit anytime I like. So I packed everything up on Friday and moved it out on Saturday just before leaving for the lake…they came home on Sunday and said that they had a great trip to india…when I saw them on Tuesday…I’m back in the cottage full time, living with Natasha a South African doctor who is here for a year. But then she is moving out on Wednesday to have her own little place for a while that has water much more often than we seem to have it in the cottage…of course next week I’m moving in to house sit for the ter haar family while they go on holiday to south Africa…another big house but not with the same neighbors.