INTRODUCING MALAWISAURUS

I have been on a Malawi world tour the past two weeks and have made many discoveries. Firstly, Malawi has a dinosaur - Malawisaurus (it's on wikipedia, so it must be true). You have to drive approximately 10 hours (each way) to see it, and, in fact, I didn't actually see it, but apparently it exists. I had some work to do in the very tippy top of Malawi where the dino was found. The "museum" that it lives in was closed every time we passed, but i was able to snap a pix of the replica that lives in the roundabout.

The thing about road trips in Malawi....there is nowhere to pee. Literally, nowhere. The population density of this country is like eleven billionity people per square mile This translates to an audience of 400 every time you have to jump out of the car to pee. I am proud to say that i have smashed my previous personal best and can now claim a 13 hour road trip (7:30 am-8:30pm) with out a single bathroom break.

Look closely at this next picture (you may have to click on it to open). Apparently the part of Malawi we were in has a high Muslim population. No kidding. I chose NOT to stop here for a bite to eat - for multiple reasons.

Next item of business, MANGOES!! Finally, after a year of waiting, mangoes are finally in season. I stocked up while on the road. One stacked dish of these suckers cost about $1...for the 35 seconds that they are in season anyway.

This next photo is from a maternity clinic in the south of Malawi. It's actually a nice facility, for Malawi.

The next few photos are of village children and a family that invited me for lunch. They tried to give me 2 chickens (look closely) to take home, but we settled on a pineapple instead. Really a win/win situation if you ask me.

And the beautiful Malawian countryside

CAN SOMEONE GET THE DOOR BEFORE THE DONKEY COMES IN!

Margo had a very exciting few days. Sunday morning she decided to test her superpower abilities by crossing over downed razor wire unscathed. Unfortunately, she is no superhero. She was covered with small cuts and gave herself a deep, deep slash to her thigh.

We took her to the vet who said that it needed to be stiched up right away. Margie was given 2 doses of some sort of meds that were supposed to put her to sleep, or at least knock out the pain. Problem is they were not working. While we were waiting for Margo to go bed-d-by, we heard the receptionist say, "Can someone get the door before the donkey comes in." Now tell me, when is the last time you heard that? Sure enough, there was a donkey wandering around the back yard. I asked if the donkey came in often and she said that it tries to come in all the time to eats stuff from the reception desk! Can't make this up.

Back to Margo - who still is not sleeping.... A third vial was brought out and Margie got a shot of ketamine. AND SHE WENT BERZERKO. She started screaming, screeching, crying, major drug tripping. Mike and I were both laying on top of her trying to keep her from doing a swan dive off the table and we could barely keep her down. She was flailing all over the place, knocking vials, syringes and papers off the table. Her eyeballs were bulging out, she was downright CRAZY. Another vet flew into the room asking our vet what she had given Margo. The two of them were yelling at each other (yelling over Margo's screeching) to try and figure out what to do. Finally, she was given yet another injection of something that was able to calm her down. Then we all looked at each other and took a breath. It was a terrible experience for us and for Margie. Poor girl got several stiches (all of which, except one, promptly pulled apart as soon as she started walking).

We were headed to the lake later that day, so we carried Margie out to the car where she was able to spend the next few hours sleeping off her PTSD.

Mike took her back to the vet when we returned and she was NOT happy to hear that Margo had been in the lake (with open wounds). Margo's dip in the lake got her extra shots of antibiotics and a weeks worth of pills. Oops.

Margo's drama aside, we had a nice time at the lake. We rented a house with 3 other families (totaling 9, yes 9 kids). The weather was mostly nice (rainy season here) and the kids had a great time swimming. Check out the GIANT snail Anna carried around our last day there. Yuck!

WHEN THE WALLS COME TUMBLING DOWN

This is a post I was not planning on writing. We have had oodles and oodles of rain in the last few weeks. Today's downpour was not much different - until it caused a 60+ foot section of our wall to fall into the neighbors yard. Unfortunately our neighbors had two vans parked near the wall and now said vans are missing some windows.

To top off the evening of fun, as i was writing this post another (yes - not the first) bat flew down the chimney and was circling the living room at 300 mph and 6 inches over my head. I stopped, dropped and rolled out of the room to get mike who was able to throw a sheet over the bat and get it outside.

My hero!

Wishing you all a more relaxing evening!

SCENES FROM THE VILLAGE

Some of you know that I stared a new job at the Embassy a few months ago. I now work in the PEPFAR office (short for President's Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief). Anyhow, one part (the most enjoyable part) of my job is managing a small grant's fund. These grants involve anything from raising chickens to school fees for kids; but they all have to have something to do with AIDS prevention.

In September a new Ambassador arrived in Malawi. On her first country tour, she paid a visit to one of my projects. Here are some photos from her visit.

HIGHLIGHTS AND RECAPS

I'm going to try and sum up the last 7 months in the next 2 or 3 blog entries....

I flew home on Thanksgiving (by MYSELF) to help out my dad who had knee replacement surgery. The surgery went fine and it was really great to be home again and spend time with family.

Dad - pre surgery with his signature pose (signature smile anyhow).

Dad - Immediately post surgery. Clearly still a bit loopy. He kept insisting that they hadn't done the surgery yet - wanted to know when they would start. Quite amusing.

Dad - later that same day and obviously feeling much better. Note the 2 ice creams on his tray. I have a suspicion those 2 equaled one for me and one for Sharon. Editor's note for all you planning on getting sick soon. This hospital rocked! Visitors got one free meal a day, there was a free "nourishment center" full of drinks, sandwiches and popsicles, and there was free k-cup (kup?) coffee/tea machines like every 13 feet. After spending so long outside of America I still get pretty emotional about anything FREE!

Dad, of course, was an A+, show-off patient. If the physical therapist told him to do 2 hours on his knee bending contraption then he did 4. If he was supposed to use his walker for a week, he used it for 3 days. No one who knows him is surprised by this information.
I flew home in mid December, just in time for Sophia's 9th birthday. Where does the time go???

NEW YEAR NEW (soon to be broken) PROMISES

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

With the end of our tour in Malawi in sight, I am once again ready to face the trials and tribulations involved in maintaining this blog (in Africa, during the rainy season, which equals even WORSE internet than normal). So I hereby PROMISE (until i am beaten down by Africa and the will to perservere with this blog is sucked out of me again) to carry on with this blog.

We had a very mellow (and wet) Christmas this year. The kids (translation - me) got a Wii. Soon i will need to find a support group to help me manage my obsession with Wii resort's sword fighting game. But, because such groups are not available here, I guess I can just continue my habit as i do every night after the kids go to bed.

Here is our Christmas photo for those of you who have not yet received one. William was on the verge of being trimmed from every card due to his 'tude during our photo session. Can't remember what his problem was, but it must have been pretty serious as this is his best pose out of at least 30 pix. Will I ever catch a break and get a decent pix of three kids at the SAME time???
Anna found these baby Chameleons on Sunday. How cute are they?? We were thinking of keeping them as pets (at least for a while), but according to google they actually involve quite a bit of care - like misting them - which is definitely not going to happen consistently in our house. We let the kids keep them for a night and then set them free the following day.

In the not so welcome guest category, this is the bat that flew into Mike's chest (editors note: Mike suggests the wording be changed to "rock hard chest"). Literally, flew right into Mike and then dropped to the ground. I think the bat was just stunned (as was Mike), b/c when i poked (lightly) him with a stick he was able to wobble away, slowly. I also think that bats are not supposed to fly into things... He was gone in the morning, though that does not necessarily imply that he left on his own accord.
I conclude with this photo of Anna. Lipstick on her face? Nah, too easy. Marker? Nope. It's flipping NAIL POLISH! What child over the age of like 3 does this? Although the eyes tell a different story, when asked what happened, Anna declared, "I didn't do it." She really needs to work on her poker face! Just saying.
Now off to play the Wii.