Easter Break--Taipei Gardens

Here's another Easter break Adventure.

There is a small garden area in town that the kids and I went to visit for the first time. It is called the Taipei gardens. As you can see it has a beautiful pagoda. And although the gardens are in a bit of disrepair, it really is quite a beautiful "park."

There are not a lot of areas in town with some wide open spaces to walk or ride bikes. So we enjoyed this outing. Dad was working, so we'll take him with us on our next visit.

It reminds us of the international flavor of Lilongwe--which still amazes me at times. We meet people from all over the world every day. It's been quite a wonderful experience for all of us.

Easter Break--Nkhoma mountain

The kids just finished a 2-week Easter holiday. Have we complained at all about how much vacation the kids get here? Amazingly despite a week in the fall, a month at Christmas, 2 weeks at Easter and a full Summer break--not to mention the other national holidays, etc--the kids seem to be learning a lot and doing well academically. But we do have to get creative for entertainment. This is the first spring break that my parents were not here and Mike and I were needed in the office so we decided to have a vacation at home. So instead of going to the lake or on Safari as in previous years, we explored a bit closer to home.

One of our adventures was a hike of Mt Nkhoma. We have tried this before with the kids, but had never made it to the summit as a family. This time with the support and encouragement of another family and their kids--we all made it to the top of Mt. Nkhoma. It was a difficult hike and for 5 days afterwards, I (Heather) still had trouble getting up and down the stairs in our house. But somehow Syd and Sam with their short legs--did just fine. =)

Is it McDonalds?

No, it is MacDauds!!

Maybe you have to live here to appreciate this, but we think it's quite funny. There are almost no fast-food chains in Lilongwe. There is Nando's and Steers--both South African chains. But no McDonalds, KFC, etc. And, there is no shortage of American "knock-offs"--using slogans, such as "Just do it","Coke" bottles that are red with the same writing but say something like "Koke".

So here's an example that combines the knock-off with a fast food chain. Around the corner to our house last week we noticed a transformation of this building--it was painted in bright red and yellow. And if you can see in the picture looks quite similar to a McDonalds franchise. Yet, to our dismay it is not McDonalds, it is Mac Dauds. And the slogan (in very small letters below) instead of "I'm loving it", is "You're loving it" It makes us smile =) The restaurant is not yet open--but there are pictures of burgers and fries on the windows that make us expect all of the grease and goodness of McDonalds.

Crisis nursery

Here is our family at the Ministry of Hope's Crisis Nursery. We have found that visiting the nursery and playing with the babies is something our whole family can do together. Of course, Sydney enjoys the role of mommy to all of the kids and she often is holding 2 babies at a time. Sam gets creative and reads book and throws balls to the babies, but he's less inclined to hold the babies.
We had started visiting the nursery as a family last summer and it's been fun to return after our 4 months in the states and see how the kids have grown and changed. We have a few of our favorites and of course, some of our not-so-favorites too. But we are glad to share God's love in this tangible way.

Syd and Jeremiah

As you may remember, our househelper, Joyce, had a baby last June. Jeremiah is growing quickly and we enjoy having him in our house. Sydney seems to enjoy him the most--as soon as she gets home from school she rushes in the door to find him and until Joyce leaves, she is constantly holding him. We joke that Sydney is our nanny's nanny. And she loves it. I don't blame her--he is

pretty cute--don't you agree =)

Sydney feeding Jeremiah ice cream for the first time

Berean Baptist visit

We were blessed to have a medical team from Berean Baptist come to Malawi the first week of April. This is the 3rd year we have had the opportunity to minister alongside this group as they meet medical needs, train pastors, and provide individual and couple counseling in a district north of Lilongwe, called Ntchisi. We have become friends with the individuals who have come back to Malawi multiple times, and we will miss them as we prepare to leave Malawi in June. For those of you who haven't heard, we will be moving with our mission organization, HCJB Global, to work at a rural hospital in Ecuador. This transition will first take us to Costa Rica for language school and then on to Ecuador. I will write more about these changes as we get closer to the move, but for now we are focusing on our last few months in Malawi.

Here are a few pictures from the day I helped with the clinic in Ntchisi. We took over the local church building and myself and 2 other doctors from the states, alongside 2 Malawian clinical officers--helped care for the people in this village. We saw a variety of things from musculoskelatal pain and upper respiratory infections to a few children quite sick with malaria. We also offered HIV testing to patients and individual and couple counseling. It was a good day--and for me, it is always fun to get out of the city and see life in rural Malawi. It truly is a beautiful country.