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.
