Happy Thanksgiving

We have much to be thankful for. God has provided such an amazing community of people to help us adjust to life in Lilongwe. Not to mention the treat of having a regular Thanksgiving feast--turkey and all! Turkeys are not easy to come by here. We celebrated with the Partners in Hope ex-patriate staff. Our contribution was a fruit salad--with mangos from our tree, watermelon, pineapple and strawberries--not quite traditional, but definitely available, and yummy on a 95 degree day. Although we missed spending the day with our families, we were thankful to be celebrating with new friends!
Today we visited the Lilongwe Nature Sanctuary. It is a large area in the middle of Lilongwe with walking paths. It must have some secluded areas--as referenced in the sign. It also has a few caged animals--including crocodiles, monkeys, hyenas and pythons. It also has a few uncaged baboons that roam around and tried to give us all hugs. It freaked the kids (and us) out a little, so our visit was short.

Mike and I have completed our first week of language lessons. The lessons are challenging, but even now we are recognizing some of the basic grammar on signs and billboards that we didn't understand at all before. That is encouraging.

Sydney's school celebrated an international day on Thursday. Everyone came dressed in a costume from their home country and brought a traditional dish to share. Sydney wore a red, white and blue dress. It was so much fun to see all of the other costumes from around the world--other African countries, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, New Zealand, South Korea just to name a few. I wish I would have had my camera that day.