Wednesday, January 7, 2015

maybe next time..

Well the anniversary celebrations went off without a hitch..We went to a posh little place on the outskirts of town.. It was a very hip place, full of contemporary paintings, IKEA-esque furniture, Hendricks gin(instead of just Malawian gin) and a bunch of young Chinese men watching NBA basketball on the phones with the volume going full blast.. It was kind of surreal. The food was oak, but the company was nice. Our waitress couldn't open the wine bottle we ordered and had to get help from another server. Hard to believe Michelle and I have been married for 19 years.. 

I have been here for 5+ months and still make the horrible mistake of telling street vendors "maybe next time" when I turn them down. A gentleman at Chipiku sells handmade cards , and each time he sees me, he camps out by my car waiting for me to return after I've done my shopping .. Yesterday he said. "I saw you Sunday and you said 'Maybe next time', and today is Tuesday and also 'next time'".. Needless to say I have a new handmade card.. The other guy that gets me every time is the man who sells CD's at the gas station.. He pulls out a handful of CD's .. yesterday I bought a Lionel Richie and Phil Collins CD.... I need to learn how to properly say no. 

Kids are getting lazy really fast here and we are just going to ride this wave until Monday when school gets back in session on Monday.. Below are some random photographs... The one of the dancers was taking place at the Lilongwe Wildlife Center.. We were just about to take a walk with a guide to check out some of the animals they have.. Me and the kids were always the last ones in the group and the tour guide kept having to wait for us.. Michelle overheard him saying "there are some that are too slow.. are they white people??"  Yes, we are slow ..  The other photo was taken probably about two weeks ago when the land was totally barren and dry. Now it is becoming very lush and crops are beginning to grow.. 
Hope all is well back home. 
Lastly, I've put up a video of a sunrise here.. Nothing really like it.. Check it out!


Take out chicken from MaryLane Chicken.. USA, USA, USA!!!

traditional Malawian dancing 

waiting for rain