play time

Sydney and Sam have started playing with Joyce's kids. She has 2 boys (Emmanuel-6 and Titus-4), and she also cares for her cousin Elizabeth-11) They have taught Sydney how to play a game called "pada" which is a lot like hopscotch. They have also showed Sydney how to hold her babies tied to her back. This is how most Malawian women carry their babies while they are working.

Emmanuel, Elizabeth and Sydney

Rain, rain go away

It's raining again today. It's so strange to live in a place that has a rainy season. They weren't kidding!! In November when the rains came there had not been even a drop of rain since the previous March. In November it rained every few days. Now it rains every day--and usually when it rains it rains hard!! At first the rain was such a blessing--crops started growing, everything turned green.
Now it seems the crops are getting flooded out, and there are puddles amidst the green grass. Joyce said all the rain was causing the crops to go bad and therefore food is more expensive at the market. Thankfully for me a 10 Kwacha increase (about $0.08) for 3 tomatoes doesn't affect me--but for most Malawians, including Joyce, this tightens the budget considerably.
But with all the rain, I haven't been taking my camera many places to avoid it getting wet and therefore I don't have new pictures of our new home.
We did have one day without rain this weekend. It was so odd to see the sun all day and of course it got hot and steamy quite quickly. So after complaining about the rain for so long, I immediately started complaining about the heat. So much for, " I have learned to be content in all circumstances." I'm working on it.

Tidbits

Yes, we are still here. Life has become a bit busier again now that the kids are back in school. Those mornings are such a gift to us as we have been able to focus on our language learning again. Some days we seem to be making good progress and actually are able to carry on a conversation with Joyce and other days we can't seem to string two words together or understand even one word from a native speaker's mouth. But we press on.

On a lighter note, we've had some funny moments here that remind us, we are not in Minnesota anymore.

The kids love to pretend they are Malawian--they balance something on their heads and tie a baby to their backs. This is a very common site here. Sometimes we see 8 and 9 year old girls with babies tied to their backs, walking down the streets. I'll have to get a picture to show you.

The kids were playing house the other day and I overheard Sydney say she was going to South Africa to get married. Prior to our move here she had probably never heard about South Africa, but in the expat community that is where people go for vacation, for certain medical care, for shopping... But I guess Sydney's getting married there---now I'm not sure who the husband will be....

Lastly, at our church Capital City Baptist Church (CCBC), there was a church-wide letter that needed to be distributed. The church is quite unique in that it is a mix of nationalities--Western European, Malawian, and many other African Countries. There were tables to pick up your letter and I'm used to there being a split somewhere in the middle of the alphabet, so last names that start with A-M are at one table and N-Z at another. At our church, all the surnames that started with M were at one table and everyone else was at another. Funny!