TravelStream™ news feed for member hawaii14 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/hawaii14 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:28:17 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/1/1197766020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/1/1197766020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/1/1197766020/tpod.html Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:28:17 -0500 Helping Malawi's Orphaned Children

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Blantyre, Malawi

Hi! I'm at Open Arms now and things are going well here so far. Today, Sarah (a volunteer from Boston) and I walked around the city which is incredibly small compared to cities in the U.S. It's pretty funny because Blantyre is the biggest city in Malawi, yet it is so tiny. It's interesting walking around, because all of the people stare and try to talk to us because we are the only white people in town. The streets are filled with people trying to sell things and there are many children begging for money. We went to an open air market today and that was quite an experience. Sarah said that when she was there the other day, she saw a man cut a live chicken's head off. Yesterday, my first full day here, I was at the orphanage by myself because Sarah was up puking like crazy my first night here. She ended up going to the doctor and she has a bacterial infection. Anyway, the days are pretty busy. I get up at 6:30am to help feed the babies porridge and give them their bottles. Then I wash dishes and play more. Then I go fold laundry and come home for lunch. At 12:00, I go back and help feed the kids lunch, wash more dishes, and come home for a break while the kids are sleeping. Then at 2:30, I go back and play with them again or help out with whatever needs to be done, wash more dishes, play again, and then go home for the night. Some of the babies are soooo tiny. There are a few 3 month olds that look like they are newborn preemies. They weigh about 5 lbs. A lot of them are HIV positive. They are all extremely sweet and lovable. They always love to give hugs and receive lots of hugs and kisses in return. Only a few of the kids speak some English words. Most of it is in Chichewa. There is a really adorable baby who is 10 months old named Jennifer. She is about the size of a 5 month old and she is HIV positive. She is always so happy and it's so easy to make her laugh! I don't remember most of the names because a lot of them are big, long names that I've never heard before. I hope I can learn them one of these days! The employees here are very friendly and welcoming. Our house is kinda gross, but whatever...I'm in Africa! We have rats living in the ceiling and ants in the kitchen. There are geckos living in our house which is pretty cool and there are little tiny baby ones outside that are about ¼ inch long. The floor in our house is cement (painted like a clay colored reddish brownish). The paint rubs off on our feet, so we always keep our shoes on. We can't turn the light on in the kitchen between 6:00pm-8:00pm because a whole bunch of giant flying termites will come in and completely cover the counters and floors. (by the way, they fry them and eat them in this country because they are a great source of protein).We also have gigantic tarantulas. Sarah found one on her towel the other day as she was getting out of the shower. She was screaming so loud and the gardener heard her and he came in to get rid of it for her. I'm so glad that we have mosquito nets for our beds. I keep mine closed all the time, even during the day, so no bugs can get in. We have a TV in here but it doesn't work, so whenever I am home I just sit on the couch and read or do crosswords. We have a dog that sleeps on our front porch every night to protect us. She is a huge German shepherd and her name is Bridgette. There is also another dog here, Angie, who is a black lab. They are both sweet, but they have fleas so we can't let them in the house. Anyway, Sarah changed her flights today, so she is going home this Thursday (a week early). She has been sick since she got here and she is just tired of being sick. I'll be the only volunteer here for a while. Anyway, I am having a great time hanging out with my babies, so no need to worry. I have only been drinking bottled water and eating the food that I brought here with me. I went out the first night I was here and had cheese and spinach ravioli which was good, but that was my only "Malawian" food so far, so no sickness yet! I'll keep you posted!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1228160520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1228160520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1228160520/tpod.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:44:37 -0500 MALAWI~September 22nd-November 30th 2008

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Raleigh, North Carolina, United States

Hi everyone. I made it home safely after a very bumpy flight from Senegal to Atlanta. Several people were throwing up on the plane and, lucky me, I was in the back seat next to the bathrooms so I got to hear it all! Anyway, my last week at Open Arms was good, aside from a few minor situations. Claire ended up leaving 2 weeks early because the director has been horrible to her and she couldn't stand him any longer. She was so sad because she's absolutely in love with the children and she wanted to spend the rest of her time with them. I went out on a project last Tuesday with my American friends, Jay and Billy. They set up a clinic each day of the week in a different location and they do check-ups for moderately to severely malnourished children. I helped them with the severely malnourished children on Tuesday. We weighed, measured them, and assessed them to see if they have edema. I recorded their weight, wrote comments on their forms, and delivered messages to the nurse. A few children had to be sent straight to the hospital because they were in such poor condition. After their check-ups, we needed to watch several of the children (who have lost weight this week) eat the chiponde (basically, fortified peanut butter used to get malnourished children back to health...This is distributed to all of the patients each visit and every child's progress is carefully monitored) to make sure that they are actually eating it and not throwing it back up. After that, the chiponde was distributed to all of the mothers. Some of the mother's didn't show up with their children that day, so we needed to go out into the villages to search for some of them to make sure that the child hadn't died or that they didn't need to be rushed to the hospital. It took us 3 hours to find 2 children because all of the roads are horrible, bumpy, dirt roads that are almost impossible to drive down, and of course, there are no street names. We needed to stop every couple of minutes to ask the local villagers if they have heard of the people that we were looking for, until we got lucky, then that villager would jump in the car with us and show us where to go. The first family that we were looking for moved to Malawi's central region in order to farm, so they could have food. The second family that we found was a very young mother (no more than 15 years old) with a baby named Tadola. We had to bring them to the hospital because both of them were very sick. They both had the same eye infection and the mother could not see. She was in very poor health and we took her to get an HIV test. The whole day was a great experience and it is something that I'll never forget. We got a new baby named Alex last week who was 3 weeks old. His mother brought him in and it was the first time in history that something like that has happened. All of the other children's mothers are dead. This woman has HIV and didn't want to pass it on to Alex through her breast milk, so Open Arms is taking care of him for a while. He ended up in the hospital for the last 5 days, along with Mary, who both have diarreha and vomiting. They both came back on Friday and have lost a lot of weight. Alex is very dehydrated and the front portion of his head is sunken in. Also, when you pinch the skin on his belly, it just stays pinched because he is so deyhdrated. That's what Bernald was like in the days before he passed away, so I really hope that Alex will be ok. Neville, the director at Open Arms, got Malaria on Wednesday, so he wasn't there for the rest of my stay. I stayed with Ireen on Thursday and Friday night, then on Saturday, the ladies at the orphanage had a going away ceremony for me, Amanda, and Margaret. They sang songs, danced, and gave speeches to thank us for all of our help. It was really nice, but a lot of the women were crying when they were hugging us goodbye, so it was a little sad. I spent the last hour with Rosie and Sarah on my lap, playing with them, hugging and kissing them, and making them laugh. Rosie fed me the last bit of her peanut butter sandwich that she had been saving in her little hand for the last hour and a half. She kept breaking off crumbs and putting them in my mouth and she would smile so big every time I ate a piece. She was hugging me so tight all morning and then she actually gave me a real kiss for the first time ever! It's like she knew I was leaving. It was hard to say goodbye. When I went to the Harrogate house to say goodbye to those kids, they kept giving me loads of hugs and kisses and telling me that they will talk to me on the phone after I leave. I told them I'd call them in 2 days and they were so excited. I actually just got off the phone with them a few hours ago. I talked to each and every one of them. Ireen told me that they keep asking her if I am going to come see them each day. Neville, even though he was sick with Malaria, drove us to the airport on Saturday, and Ireen took a mini bus from her house to meet me at the airport. When I talked to her on Sunday from Atlanta, she told me that she cried when my plane took off and some of the locals were laughing at her and asking her why she's crying! She told them "because my best friend is leaving me". Poor thing! Now my plan is to work day and night through August or September in order to save enough money to go back to Africa again. I can't wait.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1222362900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1222362900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1222362900/tpod.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:23:50 -0500 MALAWI~September 22nd-November 30th 2008

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Blantyre, Malawi

Hi! I made it here on the 24th after 42 hours of traveling. I was so exhausted and very happy to finally be here. Upon landing, they said "Welcome to hot Malawi". Damn right! It is so uncomfortable here. You walk outside and immediately start sweating. Ireen greeted me at the airport! I was trying to surprise her, but two others had told her on the 23rd that I was coming, so instead, she surprised me. The kids at the orphanage have gotten so big. They are still sweet as ever and love to give and receive tons of hugs and kisses. Atupele was so excited to see me and I told him that I love him and now he keeps saying it back to me. He's only about a year and a half old and is just learning to talk so he sounds so adorable! Rosie has gotten huge. I was so happy that she didn't cry when I held her. She sat and cuddled with me for a while and she kept looking at me like "hey, I think I might know you". Her grandmother and another woman came to visit her today and she was crying soooo loud when they took her outside. I've been spending a lot of time with the older kids and they love playing with my hair. Today, they spent an hour combing it and running their fingers through it. I had a close call today...I was holding Kande (4 years old) and Ireen came in and told me to put her down because she is very spoiled. Kande started crying before I even put her down and the second I did, she peed all over the floor! Thank god it wasn't on me. Ireen made me rice for dinner last night (using tap water), so I am really hoping that I don't get sick. There are two other volunteers here now...Thomasina from Ireland, who I already knew, and Claire from England. Thomasina is now living here and Claire will be here til mid Dec. I gave out the gifts today. Thomasina took some pictures of me with the things I brought. Everyone was extremely grateful and they want to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed! I am going to the market now to get some food and water. I hope everyone is doing well. I'm going to Ireen's on Sunday to meet her family, so I'll take pictures and try to post them next week.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227544980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227544980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227544980/tpod.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:57:52 -0500 MALAWI~September 22nd-November 30th 2008

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Blantyre, Malawi

Today, I renewed my visa, which was a rip off because I needed to pay MK5,000 for just 5 days. Then when I leave, I need to pay another $30 just to get out of the country. Strange rules here. Oh well! I went to Ireen's house yesterday to say goodbye to her friends and family. I had so much fun with her kids. Sadly, they haven't got a single toy, so we played the whole day with the top to a laundry detergent bottle. We played catch, hot potatoe, and took turns spinning it on the concrete. I also kept them entertained with my camera. They loved that I could set the timer and actually be in the pictures with them. For lunch, we sat on a straw mat on the floor in the living room and ate Nsima, pumpkin leaves, and little fish (which I skipped out on). Everyone washes their hands in a bowl of water and then eats out of one bowl in the middle of the circle of people. They did however, give me my own plate to eat off of which was very kind of them! Tomorrow, I am going to Mulanje with one of the Americans living next door to Open Arms. He is doing a project for severely malnourished children. It is called "Project Peanut Butter" and what they do is, they go out to certain villages and distribute this supplement which is basically fortified peanut butter, to the malnourished orphans. They are also doing research and constantly trying to make the supplement better. I will be gone with him from 5:30am-7:30pm and it should be an interesting experience. I won't be able to write again before I go home, but I will do one last entry once I'm back in the States.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227026700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227026700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227026700/tpod.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:42:37 -0500 MALAWI~September 22nd-November 30th 2008

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Blantyre, Malawi

Hello everyone. Things are going fine here, but sadly, on Sunday, we lost another baby. Patrick was 8 months old and was one of the sweetest, happiest babies here. He died at Open Arms in the arms of one of the caregivers and it was really shocking because we didn't realize he was that sick. I had just given him kisses and was holding his hand a few hours before, so I was completely shocked when I heard the news. That's 2 babies now within a week and a half that died because of diarreaha.

We went to the other orphanage Monday which is Orphan Care Malawi. It is in Blantyre on the outskirts of the city in the center of a very poor village. It's hard to get to because the roads are so bad. They have absolutly nothing there at the orphanage, so whatever they do with the kids, they need to be very creative and use whatever resources they have, like rocks, sticks, potato sacks, etc. There are no toys, there's no furnature, hardly enough food...just one big empty room with a desk in it for the teachers. One of our friends, Gena, who is a volunteer there, set up a program for the kids because when she arrived 5 weeks ago, the kids were just playing or sitting around and there was no structure at all, no activites, no learning...nothing. Now they begin their day with exercises, then the national anthem, then they do songs and greet each other in English, then they have school where they have all of the different subjects and they learn one subject each day. After that, they have an hour of free play, then songs and games, then lunch, nap, and more activities in the afternoon. If anyone would like to make donations, here is the contact information....Please e-mail them and double check the mailing address to be sure.

Orphan Care Malawi
PO Box 60342
Blantyre 6
Malawi

E-mail is timothy@orphancaremalawi.com
www.orphancaremalawi.com

Please try to spread the word, because they can really, really use the help. Thanks!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227205920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227205920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1227205920/tpod.html Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:44:25 -0500 MALAWI~September 22nd-November 30th 2008

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Blantyre, Malawi

Hi. Yesterday, I had to take Ireen to the hospital because she's been very sick for about the last 5 days and was getting worse and worse every day. It took a lot of convincing to finally get her to go, and it turns out she has Malaria (again). Now, I've been hanging out in her room most of the time to be sure that she's alright. She said this time is much worse than it was when she had it just a few months ago. Hopefully she'll be alright. A couple of returning volunteers had a party for everyone at Open Arms on Tuesday. We had nsima, chicken, and some green leaves. I actually ate nsima for the first time! It wasn't bad, but it was so difficult to eat it because it looks like mashed potatoes, but you need to eat it with your hands. First, you roll it into a little ball and then you dip it into the greens and try to make it all stick together, then eat it. That night, the same people threw a party at Neville's house for the matrons and volunteers. It was nice. We had a bbq outside with chicken, rice, salad, sausage, steak and bread. We each had to pay mk2,000 in order to go to the party. It's about $10. Well, I need to go to the market now to buy some fruit and other things for Ireen, so I'll try to write again soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1226762520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1226762520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1226762520/tpod.html Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:44:04 -0500 MALAWI~September 22nd-November 30th 2008

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Blantyre, Malawi

I made it back to Open Arms safely and two days earlier than expected. Karen left Claire and I on Monday morning because she had things to take care of in Blantyre. We went to Muo Mission on Monday which is an African culture and history museum. At the museum, there was a little zoo and I got to pet 2 monkies. A baboon reached his hand out of the cage and grabbed my waist and was tickling me. He was so cute!! Then we hitched a ride with a group of Europeans that were on a tour of Malawi. They took us 2 hours to Liwonde where we spent the night in a horrible motel. Tuesday morning we took bicycle taxis for over an hour through rural villages to get to the boat that would transfer us across the river to the safari camp. The whole time through the villages, all of the kids were yelling "mzungu" (white person) and running to the dirt rd to greet us. We were like celebraties. It was pretty entertaining. The safari was great. I saw more animals than last time and we had elephants on our veranda at night. During our boat safari, we got right up close to a group of elephants bathing in the river. One of them was showing off for us and fell on his side and went under water. He came back up about 15 seconds later. The whole trip was fantastic, but we missed the babies so much and decided to go home on Wed instead of Friday. The kids were so excited when we got back and I had the greatest time playing with them before they went to sleep. Yesterday, we took Ephraim and Aggie to the pool and for ice cream. They had the time of their lives. They were laughing hysterically the whole time they were in the water. None of the kids have ever been in a pool before so they don't know what it is. They all call it a "big bafa". Bafa is a bath in chechewa. Last night, Claire and I went to Maky's with a bunch of people because Ben Micheal was playing there. He is a famous Malawian singer who plays there often. We had a really good time. Monday, we are going to another orphanage in Blantyre that has no funding and is extremely poor. We are going to be there from about 8am-2pm to see how it is run and to play with the kids. The children there are 2.5-7 years old and it is only a daytime orphanage. The children go back to the village at night where some of the villiagers take them in. They are desperately in need to donations in case anyone is interested...I will get the name and mailing address when we go and I'll post it on here next week. I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left. The time has gone so quickly and it's going to be so hard to leave. I can't wait to post my pictures on-line for you all to see though. I have tons of pictures of all different things this time...Not just children! I think that's all for now. I hope everyone is well!
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Cape Maclear, Lake Malawi National Park, Malawi

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long since I've written...The past 2 attempts, the internet was down. Bernald, the child that I mentioned last time who is about 10 months old, died on Friday. We are all really sad about it. He was such a happy little guy, but he got diarrhea and lost so much weight and then was in the hospital on oxygen and a feeding tube for 1 week before he passed away. On a happier note, Claire, Karen, and I are at Lake Malawi now. We hitch hiked up here on Thursday and it took 2 days to get here. We took a boat over to Domwe Island on Friday and spent the night there. It's uninhabited and just has a tiny camp with no elctricity, but it is georous there. Out of a total of 6 people on the Island, I ran into 2 from Mattituck! One was Bryan Remsey (???) who graduated with Marci, and the other is his girlfriend but I forget her name. They are here in Malawi working in an international school. We went kyaking and snorkeling and today we rented a catameran for the afternoon for just $20 per person. We're staying in a dorm with 9 other people and it's been so nice. Tomorrow morning, we are hitching our way to another town a few hours from here where we'll stay for a few days and then go to Liwonde on a safari on Thursday and Friday. Then it's back to Open Arms. I need to go for now and I don't know when I will find internet access again, so if you don't hear from me for another week, it's just because there's no internet access wherever I may be. Take care!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1225552380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1225552380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1225552380/tpod.html Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:01:52 -0400 MALAWI~September 22nd-November 30th 2008

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Blantyre, Malawi

We had a great time in Zomba. We walked around town and went to the market in the morning, then we went out to lunch and then hitched a ride with a man from Zimbabwe up to the plateau. He dropped us off at a trout farm where we were planning to spend the night, but they only had rooms with 2 beds and we needed 3. The man who drove us up there, told us that there is a guest house next to where he stays that costs MK7,000/night which is about $45-50. We managed to get the guy in charge down to MK4,500 and that included him buying food and cooking us dinner. It was a huge guest house that fits 3 families, but we had it all to ourselves and the guy even built us a fire in the wood fireplace. It was really cold up there. We went to a hotel at the top to have a look around and we saw baboons walking around there, so I took some really good photos. The next day, we went hiking and saw a lot of waterfalls and 2 dams. We started walking down the plateau at about 1pm and hoped to hitch a ride down because the walk is 12km. Not a single car passed by until 2:00, and luckily, they told us to get in. This week, Karen and I took my favorite set of twins (Mercy and Fanny) to the pool and for ice cream. We had so much fun. Mercy even went underwater! Another set of twins (Morris and Emmie) went home on Thursday. It was really sad saying goodbye to them, but I hope they will be happy with their uncle. Right now, there are so many sick children here. One of them, a 1 year old boy named Bernald, has been sick for over a week with a fever, bad diarreha and vomiting. They brought him to the hospital in the beginning and he was prescribed antibiotics but they didn't work. He's so weak and he has lost so much weight that the skin on his stomach is hanging off of him and you can see every rib. They took him back to the hospital on Friday and he has not returned here yet. Karen and I were unable to go to go the opening of Open Arms 2 on Friday, so we stayed and worked as mother's for the day. There were only 9 ladies on duty (half of what they normally have), so we were very busy. At one point in the afternoon, I was alone with over 20 kids for about 1/2 hr. It's quite hard to control them when they don't understand English! Karen and I went into town when the kids were sleeping and bought cokes and muffins for all of the staff there. They were really appreciative. Today, we met 2 guys (one from Chicago and one from Maryland) that are staying next door to the orphanage. They are working with malnourshed kids and will be here til next July. There is also a girl from NC who is there with them but we didn't meet her. They are going to stop by the orphanage one day to visit. Today, Claire is up in Mangochi (where the new Open Arms is) building a hut. She'll be back tomorrow. I can't wait to hear about it. Karen is leaving either this Thursday, or the next week to continue her travels around Africa, and we are getting 2 new volunteers this Wednesday. I've been sick for the last few days with a bad cold, which I got from all of these children here. Yesterday was the worst, but I am starting to feel a little better today. Tonight we're going to have a little party for my bday and tomorrow night we are going out to dinner to my favorite Italian restaurant L'Hosteria. One night last week, after we fed the kids dinner, we turned up the radio really loud and were dancing like crazy with the kids. I had Rosie and she was laughing so much. She's starting to try to walk now, finally! She likes to try to stand up on her own, and she gets so happy when she actually does it. She's also been playing a lot lately and she's no longer afraid of volunteers. She's made so much progress in the last couple of weeks and it's really great to see. I've learned a lot of Chichewa since I've been here and I can understand bits and pieces of people's conversations now. My favorite is "ndima Kukonda", which means "I love you". I say it to the kids all the time and they always smile. Mercy is the only one who knows it in English and she says it to me all the time...so sweet!! On Friday night, I was at Harrogate house with Ireen, and Fanny went in to the bathroom and disconnected the hose from the toilet and kept flushing it and caused a gigantic flood. Ireen said it's the second time she's done that. Mischeck, one of the severely malnourished babies that I talked about a few weeks ago is home from the hospital and is doing better. He is 5 months old and weighs 4kgs which is about 9 lbs I think. That's all the news for now.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1224942720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1224942720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hawaii14/2/1224942720/tpod.html Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:08:28 -0400 MALAWI~September 22nd-November 30th 2008

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Zomba, Malawi

Right now, I'm in Zomba with Claire and Karen. It's a city about 2 hours north of Blantyre. We're going to walk around town this morning and then climb a mountain up to a plateau, where we will spend the night. I took some good pictures of the locals from on the mini bus. This past week, we've been strapping babies to our backs and carrying them in chitenjis like the local women do. It's a lot of fun...We bring the kids to town with us and to the supermarket. It's funny to see the local people's reactions to us. Most people stare and laugh, but others come up to us and ask if the kids are ours or where we have taken them from. Then they tell us that we are doing a very good thing and they thank us over and over again for being there for the children. It's very sweet. We've also been taking the kids swimming a lot. Harrogate house is losing 3 kids this week. Moses is going to one of the foster homes tomorrow and twins, Emmie and Morris are going home to their uncle on Thurs. It's so sad because I'm so close with all of them and I'm going to miss them so much. Mary, the new baby who was born on Oct 11th, is now known as my baby. I'm with her whenever she's awake which is not very often, but I think she knows me. She cries a lot and the mother's in the house say she's a bad baby, but she doesn't cry with me. Rosie has finally really come around and now she loves me again!! So exciting! Karen and Claire also want to adopt a child from here. Karen wants baby Patrick and Claire is undecided, but definitely wants one, so we might talk to Neville one day and find out about adoption. I will definitely need to speak with Rosie's grandmother, but if she says no, I will gladly take another child because I am so in love with them all. It is very hard to get a visa here though, so it might be tricky. I'm not looking forward to going home in 5 weeks. I wish I could stay here forever. This coming weekend is the Opening ceremony for Open Arms 2. Karen and I need to stay here to help out because they will be very understaffed. It ought to be interesting...I need to go explore Zomba now. I hope everyone is doing well.
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