short week, happy Labor day from Malawi!!

Tomorrow is a national holiday, which means there will be truckloads of people heading to the lake, most of the them showing off the butts for anyone who will look.  We took a drive to the lake a while back when we had a day off and people were piled in the backs of trucks..... celebrating with various beverages and pulling their pants down right and left.. Kate did not find it amusing.
So, with that said, we will try and beat the rush tomorrow morning and leave our home about 7 or 8 am.. I will take the kids back to Cape Maclear and snorkel, hang out at otter point and lounge on the beach.. Poor Michelle has to work all weekend .. This will be the last time we make it to this part of the country...

Frances is feeling better but not all the way back to herself.  Something is going around school, town, etc.. that is getting everyone... And it seems like African illnesses linger a little longer than most.. Michelle came home yesterday from the hospital wearing proof that a stomach bug has infected alot of people here..

Busy day as we prepare for our trip... We went to a Chinese shop yesterday to pick up some rafts to lay on in the lake... And I can tell you that in this part of the world a Chinese shop = shit shop... The items they sell in those stores is absolute garbage.. Interestingly enough, the place is overflowing with employees rearranging toys, soaps, cheap lamps and clothes with stains all over them.. But, we did find a strawberry shortcake raft that should at least last us a day at the lake.

It being Thursday Ill put up a few photos from a few months ago I don't think I've shared(Throwback Thursday).. If I have posted some of these already ,  I apologise..   cows on the lake, me in the lake (looking like my father), dug out wooden boats, the amazing African sky and another amazing photo of me getting a free tshirt for buying the most beer of anyone that had visited the store that day.. (I am very proud of that accomplishment )..

Weather is just absolutely perfect, I hope it stays this way for the weekend... Ill report briefly from the lake if I have internet access..
Hope all is well back home...

Cast off, but vomit flows like the river Nile

Frances had her cast taken off this morning, but yesterday afternoon she threw up all over the newly constructed "Gateway Mall". We were walking through the mall just after we had a really great visit to "Salon Mystique" for hair cuts.. I was walking in front of Franny, and heard a giant splash behind me..... then another one, and another one.. Several people were standing around chatting and stopped mid sentence to check Franny's ability to project to vomit all over the tiled floor.. then on of piped up and said.. "ah , shame". 

I took the day off. The cast is off, and all is healed so we are good. Kids at school and the weather outside is of course, fantastic.. But it is more fantastic than usual. The evenings are very cool and the days are sunny and mid 70's. 

Photos of the day are as follows.. What the electric looks like in our house.. In different places around the home, we have areas of the floor that look like this.. adapters, surge protectors, etc... The other night Michelle tried to plug in a fan and it spark and started to smoke.. Needless to say, you have to be careful around here.. The next photo is our garbage bag for our basket in the kitchen. In order to conserve plastic, Rabina dumps the garbage, then washes out the garbage bag to save bags... Then , photos from the salon.. Lastly is a photo I took while waiting in line to use the ATM machines.. this can be a huge line or it can take just a minute or two... I waited 10 minutes in this line... Patience is an absolute must living here.. Gotta go, have some things to take care of before the weekend.. I am taking the kids to Cape Maclear for the last time on Friday morning. 

Hope all is well back home. 

triathlon success... sort of

This weekend was a good one.. Filled with a bunch of nothing until Sunday morning.. Michelle and I signed up for the triathlon a few weeks ago and were scheduled to start at 6:30(for Michelle) and 8(for me).. We had to do 15 laps in the pool, 20km on bike, 5km run.. The swim and run were fantastic.. I think Michelle said she was 2nd out of the pool, and so was I..
Unfortunately the bike we borrowed from our friends was not a good road bike. It weighed about 600 pounds, huge tires and a bouncy frame built for mountain biking..  I have never struggled so much in my life riding a bicycle.. The first 10kms of the ride were mostly up hill. Everyone passed me, including bicycle taxis carrying other people on their back, and men with no shoes carrying stacks of firewood 7 feet high on the back of their bike..  But the bike ride was beautiful. it took you south on the outskirts of Lilongwe, through some small villages.. Children lined up on the street cheering "Champion!" or "Mzungu!" or "Give me money!"... at one point in time, I must have looked like I was really struggling as a kid ran up behind me and start pushing me... that was embarrassing.

But we did it and that's all that matters , right? Nothing says white foreigner like participating in a triathalon.. The looks you get are amazing.. Why are you biking out here, for no good reason at all? Why are you running? and what are you wearing?

What was refreshing about the race was the complete and total lack of anything over the top..The start was quiet, the bibs you received were just fabric with sharpie marker, no goodie bags, no nothing..

All is well here, kids are great. Kate went to the lake with her class this past weekend, and said they stayed up really late looking at the African night sky..  Jude had a friend spend the whole weekend with us( his friend said we were alot of fun to hang out with ... we know this), Maura had a sleepover at her friend's house, and Frances read about 8 books over the weekend..

Since there is really nothing to do here, our kids have took up reading religiously ... They read all the time, which I really can't argue with.. I have to push them out the door to play.

A short week as we are off for a national holiday on Friday. Michelle is on call this weekend (her last weekend call here) so I am going to take the kids to Cape Maclear and snorkel, swim and sunbathe.. Should be a nice week.

We are all itching to get home though.. Michelle and I were discussing the other night the difference between this experience and our time in Botswana.. When we left Botswana we weren't necessarily ready to leave. Michelle felt like she was leaving unfinished business, the kids were thriving and we were younger... not fully embedded in our community/ friends back home.. This time, Michelle's work here feels like she has done what she needed to do, and will continue to do for however long...I have had my time away, teaching in another part of the world, and am ready to return to a job I really love.  We miss our friends and our lives back home.. But, as I have stated many times, we will miss many things about life here.. There will be many tears shed when we leave.

On friday night we had a grill out... We had a lot of food left over , so I made Joseph a plate and walked it out to him in his small covered area.. I realised there were two other guards working at the property next to us.. So, I made a plate for them to share and gave them food as well.. Joseph our guard stopped me on Saturday morning as I was driving out the gate..  He said, "don't change when you leave Malawi. The guards wanted to say thank you. They never receive anything from their employers, and they wanted me to tell you thanks.. " The people here are gracious, kind and resilient.. I will miss that.

Happy Monday folks... Below is our racing bibs.. I was orange, Michelle was purple.

Weekend!

Busy day today ... Can't report too much.. All is well here and some of the kids may be scattered around all weekend. Maura is spending the night at a friend's house, Jude is  having a friend over, Kate is supposed to head out to the lake tomorrow with her classmates (but in classic african fashion, they don't know who is driving the bus or if they can use the bus).. We hope to find out before they leave tomorrow morning.

Having a braai this evening and the weather is of course perfect for it.. Kids are out of school now (it's 1pm) and the school grounds are littered with children running around, playing etc.. It's a nice sight.. here's a photo of some kids outside my classroom .. Don't look much different from children back home.. Hope all is well.

Man of the House....

Yesterday after school, I came home and heard our rat friend running around above my head... Cam and I have discussed the rodent several times, we've laid out a few traps(he's laid out a few traps) and have yet to rid the home of this rodent.. Cam has seen it and as usual (as most things in Africa), it's not your normal size rat.. It's about the size of a Buick. Well, Cam told me yesterday "If you hear it, let me know".. So, after hearing the rat , I tell Cam and he comes running up the back yard.. He respectfully takes off his work boots, grabs the ladder , a head lamp and a machete.. 

He made me feel like wimp.. but in all honesty, I'm not killing a rat with a machete.. Who am I kidding? Cam goes up to the crawl space, is up there for about 20 minutes and I hear him calling me.."I don't see rat, but I see 5 bats.. Can i kill?"  "Sure, no problem!", I say as I prepare dinner and  bake my bread.  Cam laughs as he comes down the ladder barefooted and holding on to his Mpanga(machete).. I might as well have had an apron on and Air Supply playing in the background. 

This morning, Kate and Michelle got up early to go for a run at the golf club. The rat was on the side of the house waiting for them...  I'll probably man up and ask Cam to go check out the crawl space again today. 

Not much else to report today.. Enjoying the reds 3 game win streak and excited they are playing in the afternoon today. we can listen to the ballgame this evening! The nights are getting cooler here and the weather is continually perfect. 

A few photos for the day... Women taking a break from carrying bags of items on their head.. they usually walk into the center of town from neighbouring villages to sell fruit, vegetables, clothing, etc..  Saw these playing cards in the checkout line of the local grocery store.. "Made in Erlanger, KY"

Lastly, Cam heading up to the crawl space to kill a rat.. 

Hope all is well back home...

wednesday video

Here's a video for today... The children's band at the lake.. They walk up and down the beach asking visitors if they would like to hear a song.. It's hard to say no.

On the way to school this morning I saw a old woman walking with a baby strapped to her back, carrying a  suitcase on top of her head and a shirt that said "I'm too sexy" with a traditional cloth wrapped around her waist.. She was probably 60. It is true that our unwanted clothes come here to die..
There's also a father we see everyday that bikes his two young children (ages 5 and 7 probably ) to school every morning.. it's the coolest thing.. He has handlebars welded to the back of the seat.. one of the kids holds on the bars, while the other holds on to their sibling.. No helmets of course ..   We have no idea what their lives are like.... All i know is I wouldn't look as nice in a "I'm too sexy"  or  a "Bite Me" tshirt as Malawians do..

That's all for today. Enjoy the video..

Notes for Tuesday

Tuesday brings heat.. Probably means it will rain alot later today.. Yesterday Joseph our security guard came to the door and asked me.. "Is my friend reading?" I wasn't really sure what he was saying at first.. And I asked him to repeat... He said "Is my friend reading for school?"  I nodded in agreement and said.. "ah yes!" Hoping that would settle the deal.. He said, " no , Is he reading for school..I want to play soccer. I need the practice." I then realised he was asking to see if Jude was busy doing homework.. I went to Jude who in fact was reading for school and told him Joseph wanted to see if wanted to play soccer.. Jude jumped up off the couch and bolted outside to play with Joseph.. Joseph is a sweet man... They play soccer around 3 times a week.. He always lets Jude win. 

The rat/rats are having a field day above our heads at night... we may need to take a more serious approach to this.. It sounds as if they will fall right on top of us.. As long as it isn't giant fruit bats that circle our home in the evening.. 

Life is good today in Malawi. All for today. below are some extra photos taken by Maura with our camera... Our view from Zomba, Michelle and Kate chilling on the porch taking in a book, cold air and the view(which is the photo of Zomba).. Sailboat on lake Malawi and a young girl doing the dishes in the lake.. 

Gotta go.. Class at the door

village bicycle repairman, rats, bats and Malawi is ranked poorest country in the world

quiet weekend here in Lilongwe.. Malawi really knows how to enjoy their weekend .. There really is no one out of the weekend.. everybody chills..  Michelle and I signed up to do a triathlon here in town..it is this coming sunday.. I have already opted out(i'm not really sure what I was thinking) but Michelle is sticking with it.. She went out for a 20km bike ride yesterday in preparation for the race... She got a flat and called me to come and pick her up.. While she waited, several Malawian women asked her " What are you doing here?" Michelle explained to them what happened and the women directed her to a bicycle repairman.. Before she knew it, there were two gentleman picking up her bike and taking it to the shop( which is a grass covered open stall in the middle of a village.. There was also another gentleman that had a problem with a bike, so the excited level in the village was very high.. Two Mzungus are getting their bikes repaired at the same time!

They worked on the tire for a while, but couldn't patch it properly. The damage was too much.. But it was another great experience of getting to see how things work around here.. As I've said before people here are poor compared to home,  but they are so kind are caring and willing to look out for each other.. It's very refreshing. and you always feel out of place, but you never feel unwelcome.

We have a lovely rat living in our attic space.. You can hear him scurrying around at all hours of the night... Cam, our gardener went up to check it out and sighted that rat.. But he also killed three bats.. We have the trap planted now.. just a matter of time.  I'm surprised this is the first time we've really had this problem .. Our house is totally open and anything could make its way into our home.. We have lizards all over the place, and I've had to kill one snake, but other than that .. no problems..

this weekend was what I would consider an in limbo  sort of time... We have now begun the preparation for our return.. I think the kids have checked out completely and we are now just biding our time.. but we still have plenty to do during our next 8 weeks. .. They are going to need some cheerleading and we will have to stay positive about our time here... I think the biggest part about our experience here is  that your kids will experience what you give them.. If you mope about the fact that you miss home, etc... they will mope.. So you have to stay positive... otherwise, everyone gets down.. I probably let my guard down a bit this weekend, which allowed them to do the same..  We have alot of great things to look forward to and honestly , there are lots of things about living here that are so much better than being at home.. I am not looking forward to the rat race that is living in the US... get it ? rat race?  But we miss home. we miss friends , family, netflix, Skyline Chili, 180,000 choices of cereal and coffee,etc..

It came out recently ththat Malawi is the poorest country in the world. Check out a recent article in the local paper and see for yourself.. Not something to boast about, but here's the article to read.

Malawi poorest country..

Nothing else to report. Michelle is on call tonight.. so a good chance I won't see her this evening...

Photos are of the local bike shop and Michelle's bike being repaired.. The other self explanatory.. Local coffee. 

check your liquor at the door please

Happy Friday everyone! Here's your story for Friday..

Yesterday I went to Shoprite ( our equivalent to Kroger) and there are things about the place that are similar to Kroger, but also very different.. For example, you can't take a bag into the grocery store.. There is a place to check your bag/ backpack, etc.. they give you a cardboard number and you pick up your items when leaving the store.. Usually this is the same place you turn in your bottles for a deposit.. There's also a security guard at the entrance/ exit of each store that checks your receipt and the items in your cart, then stamps it once he has approved your purchases..

Yesterday as I was leaving the shop,and getting my receipt stamper,  there were two gentlemen walking into the store.. Each of them were sporting giant bottles of Malawian gin that were open and they were sipping on as they walked through the doors.. The security guard whistled at them, told them to stop and directed them to the window check area... The gentlemen asked the guard in Chichewa to get a marker... Once the guard retrieved a marker, they each took turns using the marker to make lines on the bottles to mark the levels of alcohol in the bottles in case someone wanted to steal a drink or two from the bottles while they were shopping..  In the meantime, their other friend decided to stand outside and finish his beer...

Gotta love it.. There's no open bottle law here(i'm not sure there are any laws here), so people carry drinks around with them all the time. I couldn't imagine not being able to shop for groceries without my fifth of whiskey.  As a matter of fact, one of the top drinking spots in all of town is our local Puma gas station.. With it being friday night, they'll be swarms of locals filling up on gas, sipping on a few beers in the parking lot before taking off for home.. Unsafe?? probably ... Totally acceptable here??? Without a doubt.  A good bribe to police here is  a cold Carlsberg.

Friday brings a weekend of nothing... It's still warm so I'm sure we'll end up at the pool. I don't know if I posted these images in the slideshow, so I'll take a chance and repost a few.. Below are some local children from Likubula, a giant millipede that you see all over the place here.. Then a rarity... a crate of Coke LITES!!! (diet coke).. This is referred to in Malawi as the "Mzungu" drink.. Only white people drink it, and to be more specific... only American white people drink it.. Everyone else despises it.. You rarely find coke Lites around town, and when you do, you should grab them as word travels fast.. The Americans will find it, conquer it and wipe them out!.... Other photos are the family at Casa Rossa restaurant, and Kate and Maura taking over our bathroom before school. These two have really come to rely on each other during this past year.. It's been good.
I wish I could bowl this weekend.

Hope all is well back home.

Sneaky tipping, notes on Mulanje

Back to business here.. Kids are doing fine and enjoying being back to school.. I think . Kate has stated she is ready to go home, as I think we all are. We have a busy few weeks coming up though.. In a few weeks, I'll take the kids back to Cape Maclear for a weekend while Michelle stays here and works... Then in mid May, we head to Zambia for a few days of safari, which should be wonderful.. After that, Michelle will be doing a project in a town near Senga Bay, so we've rented a home on the lake to hang out for a week.. Then we pack and head home..

Last night, Michelle and I had a date night, and we went down the street to our second favorite restaurant , Fantasia... It's a Korean restaurant and it is delicious.. I think I've mentioned it before.. Here, just like the chinese restaurant, you have to be sly about tipping your servers.. The service here is alway great and you are always met with a smile.. Last night, we had to slip our servers (one of them is named Trevor.. go figure) a few dollars while the managers weren't looking. It's kind of a fun game, but also really sad that they have to accept money for services under the table for fear of being fired..

Every time we go there , there is also an older gentleman who watches the trucks in the parking lot.. Last night it was pouring and he happily stood outside making sure the vehicles were safe.. We don't have to be sly about tipping him, since no one would step foot outside in the pouring rain.Across the street from the restaurant was a group of security guards burning garbage to stay warm on a cool rainy night... They can start a fire out of anything, and will use anything..

Below are some notes I made about some of things we learned about Mount Mulanje.. I was going to mention it in the writing earlier in the week ,  but was lazy.... Mount Mulanje was eerie and it seeing it from the road, felt like it was inhabited by King Kong... Here are some notes about the place... Geoffrey (our guide) told us some stories, but some of it was from the guide book as well.. Photos are of Maura hanging from a cable line on top of a hill in Mulanje.. the other photo is of women carrying bundles of wood on their head down the mountain..

There is a place on the mountain called Sapitwa.. which translates into "the place where no one goes".. It is the highest peak and apparently many travelers have gone there and never returned..Geoffrey also told us about the pygmies(little people) that inhabit the mountain.. They are spirits that many people encountered when they went up to get bananas off of the trees of Mulanje.. His grandmother told him, that when they would go for bananas, they would see offerings of ntsima and cooked chicken.. apparently these were gifts to appease the pygmies.. He says that most people believe there are no more spirits/pygmies. ... People used to be unable to hike up mountain due to so many trees but now (due to deforestation), there are less trees and no more spirits since people stopped leaving offerings.   If  you were to encounter a pygmie ( spirit) the spirit would ask "did you see me?" You are supposed to answer "yes and you looked so big ". If you didn't say that , they would fight you ..The pool we swam in was called "dziwe la nkhalamba" which translates "old peoples pool" which could possibly be a reference to the old spirits that are believed to have resided here. Other myths about Mt. Mulanje are other spirits such as the "napolo" ... A serpentine creature who moves between mulanje and mchese, that creates the misty conditions that we experienced while being here...napolo is also blamed for thunderstorms and a major flood that killed many people in 1991. Another belief is that j.r. Tolkien climbed mulanje before writing the hobbit ...I think he named some people in the book the Shire people names after the river that runs through Malawi .

Hope all is well back home 

Back in Lilongwe, great trip...

We came back home in Lilongwe about 2pm yesterday.. We had a great trip. I think it was just nice to finally have some time as a family. Michelle's job has been relentless since we arrived, and to get away and enjoy being together with the kids was great... I have some notes regarding our  travels and lots of great photographs.. But I just dumped alot of the photos in a slideshow and put some Allman Brothers music to add a little pep, so check it out...

Each place we went was beautiful and different and felt like another world... Malawi is a convenient  place to travel because everything is fairly close to each other.. I don't think we had more than a 4.5 hour drive on the days we moved from different locations...

But during our travels I think we had some moments of breaking down and realizing we are probably ready to go home.. It is very difficult for us to "relax" here when there are so many people around us that are obviously suffering.. Is it possible to feel you are on holiday in the third poorest country in the world?? Maybe it is for some, but not for us... Everywhere we went there was something that made us feel uncomfortable/ sad, depressed, etc... All these beautiful places and such a sad state of affairs... When we traveled through Blantyre, the parking lots were full of people begging for food..  When we arrived at the foot of Mount Mulanje, There were at least 15 men who wanted to be our "guides" for hikes... When we told them we weren't sure what we wanted to do all of them ran several Kilometers up the hill and waited for us while we checked into the cottage.. Then, they waited outside our cottage while we unpacked and tried to settle into the cottage.. They just stood outside our house waiting for the opportunity to have a job... When we told them we would decide in the morning, some of them left.. But one in particular (Geoffrey) stuck around and gave us his story about how he was living in a church with his family.. They had no home because the flood destroyed their hut... He was honestly the first person that asked to guide us, and since there was no organization or structure to the "guide" situation, we decided to use him as our guide... As he told Michelle, "there are days when I don't want to climb this mountain... but I know I have to .. I have to find money and maybe an opportunity to make my life better." The next morning , there were still several men standing outside our cottage waiting for any opportunity... So we gave them some food, agreed to have one of them watch our car for us, while Geoffrey took us to various places on the mountain.. Aside from that, there were children asking for food, asking for our bottles to take back to town for a refund... We gave away food, money, and clothing to a young boy who had an exposed bottom due to the fact that his pants were totally ripped in the back.. As we hiked in our rain jackets and boots there were groups of women gathering firewood for their families.. The bundles of wood had to weigh at least 50 pounds... they wrapped them in neat bundles, tying them with rags and put them on top of their heads. Geoffrey told us , they were from a distant village.. probably about 5 miles away since firewood is scarce where they are from.. The women get up around 4 am, make the hike to the mountain, then climb up the mountain,  gather the wood, then hike back home... We were just there to swim in the waterfall... Makes you kind of appreciate everything and at the same time cry..  

We then went to Zomba which was the kids favorite spot.. We  pulled up to a beautiful cottage that sits on the edge of the Zomba Plateau... When we saw the place, we got excited.. It was quiet, secluded and had an amazing view... Then we noticed a small home that was occupied by a gentleman named Dunnex and his 4 children... He was the caretaker of the cottage and his home was right next to it.. The tough thing about his job was that he wasn't from the area, and left his wife back at their original home that was 4.5 hours away for this particular job..... He'd been doing this for 7 years... As he left, Michelle and I looked at each other and said.. "nothing comes easy here." His kids enjoyed spying on us and eventually played jump rope with our kids... We went horse riding in Zomba,  and ate at an amazing Italian restaurant that was run by an Italian couple ... The name of the place was Cassa Rossa if you ever make it to Zomba... 

We met two gentleman named Roderick and Douglas who wanted to guide us on hikes on the plateau... The men here are mostly wood carving artists and have makeshift displays and sell their work to visitors... There were alot of vendors / artists in the area, plus men and women who sell passion fruit, raspberries, and wood... The berries were unbelievable.. Oh yeah, and of course there were men and women gathering wood on the mountain only to load it on their head or bike and travel the 7 mile road back down to town...  When I told Roderick that I didn't think we needed a guide or that I didn't have any money to buy wooden items from him,  he noticed I was getting shorts out of a bag on top of our truck.. He said " I can trade you some of my art for those shorts?" I told him "no thanks" then asked Michelle if we had any clothes we were willing to part with... We got a few bags down from the top of the truck, got together about 8 articles of clothing, and I handed them to Roderick... the vendors swarmed him, start grabbing at the clothes.. Roderick demanded calm, and distributed the clothes as he saw fit.. Everybody got something.. and they were ecstatic.. he gave us a few carved elephants for the kids and we called it a deal... As we drove away, the vendors looked like an ad for St. Thomas school back home... one of the guys was putting on my old shirt right there in the middle of the road... We shook hands as we drove away and he said.. "thank you and God Bless you"... 

 

The travel here is beautiful ... It's unbelievable actually ... The lake is gorgeous with islands scattered though out... There is snorkeling and cychlid fish everywhere ( as a matter of fact, the Newport Aquarium, as you enter the place, has a whole exhibit devoted to lake Malawi)... There are picturesque mountains, wildlife, etc... I've never been to a place so beautiful... and the people here are amazing.. As poor as many people are, they are  wonderful and always make you feel welcome.. And it has never felt unsafe.. When they greet you they say.. " You are most welcome here."

 I just think it is difficult to really feel happy traveling here.. at least it's difficult for us..We just have a hard time finding the balance ... Don't know if you can enjoy a drink on your porch with a sky full of stars above you, while the kids walking up the hill have their butt exposed due to a hole in their pants and are asking for food.. ... It's hard to relax and feel good about it ...  Maybe we are naive, maybe we should just ignore the situations, but i find that impossible .With that said,  I will miss the sensation of traveling/living here.. It feels new and unique and alive... That's what is so wonderful about Africa I guess.. As people always say, once Africa gets its claws in you, it never lets go... And I think that's why we came back.. I have no regrets and  am grateful  that we've had this experience again.. And I would recommend it to anyone..

 

Above is  the slideshow I compiled and there are a few videos included in there.. One of them is of a small Cape Maclear children' s band.. They played buckets, junk guitars, and danced to songs about getting malaria and white people.. The name of the band is "the Eagles"... Sounded a little like Don Henley and Joe Walsh...

Hope all is well back home..

Final stop on holiday

Have arrived at senga bay for one night of quiet at the lake ... Kids are playing in the sand while I munch on biltong and have a green ..this trip has been a fantastic getaway . I'll write more about our adventures next week .. Here's our view right now .. All is well and all are safe ... 

In Zomba

Have arrived at our third stop ... The Zomba plateau .. We are staying at a cottage called the Montfort cottage ... The view from the porch is unbelievable ... Will post more on our previous stop and this one at a later date . Internet is spotty and when I have better service , will go into detail about our journeys ... So far , so good . I thought I posted about mulanje but have not . I have lots of notes about our 2 day stay and will post later .. Sorry for the short and not so witty writing , just typing on my phone and very limited internet . It's cold here in zomba and it reminds us of home .. Photos are of the view from our cottage (40$ a night ) and the kids before going on a horse ride here at the plateau.. Also is one of me swimming in a waterfall pool in mulanje , as well as the mountain itself .. Hope all is well , go reds!!

Franny getting checked out .

I

WellWe are at a hospital in Blantyre Jacob Franny 's hand checked out .. We are awaiting xray ... We have another hour + drive to mount mulanje so we will see if we make it out of Blantyre tonight .. Things seem to be going fast bit we are in waiting room now. Fingers crossed all is well .. Here's the kids waiting ... We have been on the search for ice but in classic African fashion each place I've stopped sells ice , but they have run out .. Quick edit to the post . Frances has officially fractured her wrist !! Three weeks in a cast ...now back on the road .

On vacation

Writing this from the comfort of my beach chair on the shore if lake Malawi . We arrived here safely on Saturday and have enjoyed several days if sunshine , snorkeling , good food and friends . The kids have swam in the lake all day long , searched for Easter eggs in the lake and witnessed fish eagles dive bombing for food . We take off tomorrow for mount mulanje and have to make a pit stop in Blantyre . Unfortunately , we think Frances broke her wrist while trying out her new roller skates .. We ll see how that goes . Hope the photos do this place justice , because it is absolutely beautful . All for now , hope all is well back home 

Might be the last post for a week or so..

Please keep checking in, but we are preparing for a big trip through the southern part of the country...
We are going to fly by the seat of our pants on this one... It's kind of set in stone, but we figured we'd try it the African way and see what happens.. One of the beautiful things that Africans have that is way better than us is "holiday time"... It seems like every place we go , we meet people who are traveling but just kind of playing it by ear.. They will say... "we booked this place for 2 nights, but we kind of like it and hope to stay another 3 nights... " We have booked a few places as we head to Cape Maclear, then Mount Mulanje, then Zomba Plateau... after that, we may just stay in Zomba or head back up to the lake.. we'll see.

We arrived back in Lilongwe after our brief trip to the lake and just kind of hung out all afternoon.
We start packing today and plan to leave early Saturday morning... Cape Mac is about 4.5 hours away(which usually means 6 hours) and we'll hang there with some friends, then on to the southern region..
I'll try to update the blog since I now have internet service on my phone wherever I can get it..
But sometimes it is pretty spotty..

Photos are mostly of the kids.. I love the one of Maura dancing at school.. Also included is our spread from a Sunday braai at a friends' house.. Included are kabobs of chicken hearts.. the photos of the cows is the road to the lake.. most of the cows you see here just wander around, but are usually followed by a young boy or teenager who tends to them...  Lastly, are three guys that are working the taxi rank.. I took the photo because I think one guy had a MIAMI University shirt on and the other had a Ohio State shirt on... These three gentleman flag down combos/ taxis, etc for you and get you where you need to go..

Ok, all for now.. sorry for the rushed notes, but kids are still asleep and I have lots to get taken care of before they ruin my quiet time.  Hope all is well.. I guess if I don't keep up with the blog... I am happy to see baseball start back up , and I guess I'll wish UK the best in their quest for perfection.. Most of my friends are UK fans, so I ll suck up my pride and wish them the best, since UL was knocked out...