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  Blantyre, Malawi
Saturday, November 1, 2008

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, me and Karen 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.  Me and Karen 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!  Me and Karen 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.  Over the next few weeks, me and Claire will spend one weekend at the birthing clinic and one weekend on a safari.  Next weekend, I am going up to the lake with 10 of the ladies from Open Arms.  We'll go Saturday and come back Sunday. We're not going to go to Mosambique like we had planned, because the rental cars are too expensive and we need an international drivers license to enter Mosambique.  It would have been nice, but there's plenty of other things to do around here, so it's ok.    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. 

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