sorry

Yeah, we're still here. I am sorry we have not posted lately. I'll catch up soon.

I am bad!!

June 19, 2010

Wow – am I bad. Over 2 months since I’ve posted anything! A lot has happened these last two months. Guess that just goes to show that time does fly when you’re having fun.

Well, it’s been a very, very busy two months. Our car is working now, we have internet access at home, we had company from the U.S., we are moved into a new mission compound, Ray is very busy with the Farming God’s Way program and helping at the feeding center, Mphatso is almost finished with this school term and I now get to play House Mama. God is good. He is so faithful and kind.

Mphatso has been living with us for a year (May) so we had a party to celebrate. I made a chocolate cake and an orange cake made with Fanta Orange pop. We had lots of people over to celebrate with us.

It took a while, but our car was finally able to be worked on and now runs. We don’t feel comfortable depending on it to go everywhere but I use it to go to the market, run some short errands, and to pick Mphatso up from school every day. That is a huge blessing – having a car to pick her up from school with because Ray is out in the village every day and it’s quite a jaunt back into town to pick her up.

I said we have internet access at home. I think the only reason we have it is because we kept bugging the people at the internet company and they finally got tired of us. They still do not have the telephone needed for internet access but knew someone who was selling their phone so we purchase it from them. It’s slow but it is a lot easier than running into town every day to get online. That saves us fuel money because town is not as close as it used to be. The internet access is slow – slower than dial-up but it works. There are certain times of the day we can’t get on the internet because there is only so much bandwidth to go around. Early mornings here seem to be the best time.

Our daughter, Jamie and our good friend, Erle, came to visit us in May. We went to the Liwonde Game Preserve and saw elephants, hippos, monkeys and other animals, including a few in our car. We had a great time and showed them a good time all around the area. They came when we were still in the small apartment with only two bedrooms and one bathroom. We borrowed beds and mattresses from a friend and converted one bedroom into a girl’s room and the other bedroom into a boy’s room. It was very tight but we managed and had a great time.



We are living on the same compound but are now living in the big house and the landlord is living in our small flat (apartment). We have 3+ bedrooms, a big sitting room (living room), 2 bathrooms, a huge kitchen and a dining room table that will seat 10 comfortably. As I said, God is good. We still have no stove so I cook on a two burner hot plate. The refrigerator we were borrowing from the landlord died so we now have no refrigeration either. However, he did leave a freezer here so I am able to put things in the freezer. But things that need refrigeration like milk and yogurt, we don’t even bother with. There is a family from Germany who is moving back to Germany in a couple of weeks and we bought their refrigerator from them so if we can hold out a bit longer, we’ll have a refrigerator. Their cooker (stove) was already purchased so we couldn’t get that. Oh well, we know eventually we’ll have a stove. Until then, when I absolutely need to bake something (Mphatso needed a cake for school for their class assembly last week and I really needed to make chocolate chip cookies yesterday), I run over to Charlie’s house and use his oven. He lives two compounds down from us so that is very convenient – to have your boss close and be able to borrow from each other. He comes over quite a bit for dinner so he reaps the benefits of the cakes and cookies he allows me to make in his oven.

Hopefully, our first mission team from the US will come in August or September so I can try my skills as House Mama. Oh yeah, I even have business cards that say, “House Mama”. It’s great. We know we will be having a pretty good size team over in October so that will be fun. We still have a lot to do in this house to get ready for a team. The water in the tubs work but the showers don’t. We have no cold water in the kitchen (imagine me complaining about no cold water). However, when we have water, the kitchen water is so hot I can’t put my hands in it wash dishes. Maybe that’s a sign that I should let someone else do them. But, we know all these things will be fixed and it will all come together before we have a team arrive. I have no doubt of that.









The landlord has many dogs for security. Two of the dogs had puppies right before we moved in so we had two litters of pups running around here. One of the moms died so he put those pups in with the other pups. Mom took to them with no problem. Now she had 7 pups to nurse. Well, she decided early on that she was not going to supply all of them so she stopped feeding any of them. Now we had 7 pups with no food. He gave away three of the pups and to date, we have 4 running around our house. Three of them were very sick. It appeared that they got into some poison or something because they would have seizures and one was foaming at the mouth. Ray sat up with those three holding them until 3:00 AM one morning. They managed to make it through the night and one recovered very quickly. The other two did not manage so well. They shook uncontrollably and one of them walked on his forearms instead of his paws. We were scared for those two. Ray took those two to the vet and as soon as he put the pups down and described the symptoms, the vet immediately told him that they have a calcium deficiency. He said to feed them a certain type of fish. So we did. Within two days, it was remarkable the difference in these two. Now, you wouldn’t know anything was ever wrong with them. They play, run about and torment the other pups. So……………how do you break pups of having me purchase special fish for them and cook it every morning? I think the answer is that you don’t. At this point, we haven’t broken them of the habit so as soon as Ray opens the doors, in trot four pups all wanting fish for breakfast. So yes, I cook for the dogs too.






The landlord also had a mama and three kittens when we moved in. The mama cat is gone but the three kittens remain. Of course, Ray immediately attached to one of the kittens so we now have a female cat named “Steve”. Whatever. So, on our property, we have three cats, a rooster, two hens, numerous baby chickens, two goats, five big dogs and four pups. Of course, we have named them all.



Ray is busy working on the Farming God’s Way program at the center. He is working with widow head of households and children head of households to fine tune what they did last year and what they are going to do this year. He is also recruiting more people to participate in the Farming God’s Way program out in that area. Since the feeding center is quite a way out of town, they don’t have access to large quantities of items needed daily to feed 350+ kids. That’s a lot of kids and a lot of necessary items. So, he helps procure needed items for them. He’ll do things like pick up large quantities of eggs, chickens, vegetables, in town and take it out to them. Mphatso and I go out to the village with him once in a while but it’s hard with her in school. Since her school break is coming up, I am sure we will travel with him more often to play with the kids.



Miqlat is also building a new feeding center. One Sunday, the entire Miqlat team that was on the ground traveled out there to visit the site and to pray over it. The kids in the village enjoyed seeing everyone.



The school year in the international schools run from September – July so Mphatso gets out of school July 2. She is excited to have a holiday (vacation) but really likes her school and has made quite a few friends. She settled right in to the class, even after arriving in the third term. They took a field trip last week and visited a crocodile farm. She got to pet a baby crocodile and informed me that the crocodiles on this farm do not eat children, they only eat chicken and nsima. She made a crocodile family out of clay. It’s cute. Her class had their class assembly a couple of weeks ago and their theme was Father’s Day. Of course, this mother cried. I think her dad did too. They all painted a picture of their father’s faces and had them in the assembly hall. I think the picture she painted looks like her Abambo (dad).









One of the large hospitals put on a run. They had a 5K, 10K and children’s fun runs. Mphatso participated in the one-lap children’s run. She had a great time and was the first in her class to cross the finish line! She was excited. Being at the run reminded me of my former running days. I kinda missed it being in all the excitement.











I said I get to play House Mama. Since this is a mission house, people here with Miqlat are free to come and go as they please. Since Charlie lives so close, he comes over for dinner quite a few nights a week. We’ve also had others working with Miqlat who don’t live so close over for dinner quite a few times. I am also able to wash clothes for Charlie because the missionary who sold Miqlat his van also left a full size Speed Queen washer and dryer. We have it sitting on the back khonde (porch). I plug it in to the electrical outlet running it through the window and we have to string a 50’ hose from the washer to the water pipe in the back yard. This is an old washer and dryer so it doesn’t work the best but it still works. That’s all I care about. It’s great when it rains because I don’t have to hang clothes outside to dry. It’s also a lot easier on our clothes. Socks are not stretched to fit a giraffe.

I purchased a sewing machine. It’s not nearly the quality of one from the US but it works. I’ve made Mphatso a couple of skirts, sewn sheets for our beds, mended quite a few things and am now working on a tablecloth for our dining room table. It’s nice to be able to do some of those things and not have to find a tailor.

This same missionary also left a braii (grill). It is wonderful. We’ve used it several times to cook outside. It is an absolute necessity during those nights we have blackouts. Yes, we still have blackouts on a regular basis and we still lose water. We lived in the small house for two months and never lost water. We move to the big house and have lost water every day since we’ve been here. We have water this morning but have been without water completely for the last 4 days. We were to the point that we only had a couple of pitchers full left to cook, clean, bathe, flush toilets, etc. I am very glad that we woke up this morning to running water.

It’s cold here. Their seasons are opposite ours in the US so it is now winter here. June and July are the coldest. We’ve been sleeping with two blankets lately but last night was a three blanket night. We are living on tea and coffee now, not cold drinks. It’s been raining for the last three days and today is not supposed to be any better. There are no heaters or air conditioners in houses here so you just put on more clothes and drink more tea (if you have water). There are many tea plantations in our area of the country and they have the best tea. I have become addicted to Malawi tea.










Whew! I'm tired now. I better go either take a nap or get some laundry done while we have water and electricity. Hopefully, it won’t be another two months before I post. Sorry about that long delay.

April 12, 2010

Well, we’re in our new place and while it is smaller than our other house, the benefits outweigh the size. Our flat as they call it, is attached to the main house where the owners live. They have a beautiful, beautiful garden in front and back. It is great place to sit and reflect on the Lord’s handiwork, pray and read scripture.

Our house was partial furnished. It came with a dining room table and chairs, a sofa, living room chairs, a refrigerator and a small washing machine. Now, it’s the kind of washer that you load the water into, set it to wash, drain it, put more water in to rinse, drain it again then put the clothes in the spinner. I still have to dry clothes outside but if it’s good enough for our forefathers (foremothers, I should say), then I can do it. At least I don’t have to hand wash clothes. While we have a washing machine, Mphatso still wants to wash things by hand. So she has the cleanest doll clothes and I have the cleanest wraps in the area.

We live outside of town so it takes us a while to get to town but we are close to a market. While we have a mini bus stag close by, it’s not the kind where the mini-buses sit waiting for a fare. We also have screens on our windows which is a huge plus. That keeps the mosquitoes (and lizards) out. You know how much I *hate* lizards! Mphatso laughed and laughed at me because I chased one with a broom that was on the outside of our house the other day. I wanted to let him know not to even think about coming into our house. Hopefully, he told his friends too.

We don’t have a stove so we purchased a two-burner hot plate. I am struggling with it. You don’t realize how much you use an oven until you don’t have one. A stove with oven is our first priority. My next priority is a refrigerator with a freezer. They have a refrigerator in this house. Even if it does not seal properly and it does not have a freezer, at least I can keep food cold.

We have lost power several times in our new place but have not lost water yet. We hear that we do have water issues here too but we are thankful that we have not yet.

Our car still is not starting so we are driving Miqlat’s van. Thank God for this van because we’d be here completely without transportation if we didn’t have this donated van. We did find a mechanic to look at our car and he’s still working on the problem. Hopefully, we can get it resolved soon. We will need another vehicle when school starts next week so I can pick Mphatso up from school while Ray is out in the village.

Internet access is a possibility in this house so we are researching that. I researched what we paid for internet access cards per month and it would be cheaper for us to have internet access at home. But of course, there is always a glitch – they don’t have any internet phones available right now. So, we’re checking with some people to see about finding a used one. At least it is now a possibility in this place.

Weather here has been hot. We are getting to the end of the rainy season. It has rained most days but not the long downpours we get at the beginning of the rainy season. Everything here is so green and so beautiful right now.

We weren’t here but a day when Mphatso and I wanted chips and a Fanta. Nothing better than chips (fries) cooked outside in dirty grease with shredded cabbage and tomatoes put in a small blue plastic bag and loaded with salt. That and a Fanta Orange in a bottle and we were happy campers. Oh, the small things we appreciate.

Ray’s been out to the village a couple of times and is getting information from a researching center on agricultural issues. He is really into Farming God’s Way and is learning what he can to get this program off to a good start.

We are still searching for a missionary compound to house missionaries on the ground and teams coming over – then my work begins.

I better go check to see how dry my clothes on the line are – it looks like rain.

We're back in Malawi

We arrived safely back in Malawi on Sat, March 27, 2010 with no issues. Praise God for that. All 12 pieces of our luggage arrived with everything intact!

We are staying with a friend for a few days. We had no water Saturday – Monday. It didn’t take us long to remember what it’s like to live with no water. When the water came back on, we didn’t care if we had to take a cold bath. It was worth it.
We looked at a place for us to live. It is smaller than the house we lived in before but it has hot water! I am happy. The person living in the place moves out this week so we can move in next week. It is mostly furnished so we will only need to find a few items. The kitchen is much, much smaller than our other kitchen so that will be a challenge for me but I’ll deal with it. As long as I can cook somewhere, even if it’s outside, I’ll be fine.

The international school we originally wanted to send Mphatso to was full at the beginning of this school year so we could not get her in there. Our new house is closer to this school so we stopped there to see about enrolling her for the last school term of this year, hoping they had an opening now. They do not have an opening in her grade but have one in the next grade up. We have an assessment schedule for her to see if she would be able to keep up with that class for the rest of the term.

Ray is happy. A four wheel drive minibus has been donated to Miqlat and we are allowed to drive it. He now feels like he’s driving a manly vehicle, not a mom-minivan.

Things are going well. We are trying to figure out what we need to move and get settled so we can begin doing the work the Lord has planned for us here.

Greetings to you all and Happy Easter!

repost

This is a repost.







We have been in the US for a little over a week. Mphatso loves the snow. The first time she went out in it, she did a belly flop, thinking it was like a swimming pool. It was cute.

She keeps wanting to go out and shovel more because we have "too much snow".


We are heading back to Malawi in March, 2010.

There will probably not be any posts until that time.

Have a blessed CHRISTmas and a very Happy New Year.

Our even greater God

We got approved for Mphatso's visa today at the embassy. We pick it up tomorrow at 2:00 PM and get on the 4:00 PM bus back to Blantyre. We arrive in Blantyre about 9:30 PM, sleep, then get up and head to the airport. We'll arrive on Dec 3.

Thanks for all your prayers and support and hopefully, we'll see some of you before the end of this week!

Praise God. Mulungu ndi wabwino (God is good).

Our Great God

We received Mphatso's passport today. Thank you Lord!!!!

We have an appointment with the embassy on Monday at 8:00 about a visa to travel to the U.S. If approved, it will be issued on Tuesday.

If we get the visa, we'll be back in the US on Thurs, Dec 3.

What a rushed week.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

update

Sorry we haven't blogged in a while. This is a pic of Mphatso and her swimming pool in our front yard. She made a crown for herself and her dolly.

I (Alice) am feeling better. Finally over the malaria. That was such a strange sickness and I am glad that I am over it.

Mphatso (pronounced mPotso) has a cold and reminds me several times a day that she is sick. She constantly wants to be held but who doesn't when they are sick. I've been keeping track of funny things she says. The other days she was singing Christmas Carols and was singing “Do you hear what I hear?”. For the line that goes, "said the wise man to the shepard boy", she said, “Is a little man better than a boy?". Ray and I just looked at each other and laughed. She is a joy.

The rainy season has started. It has rained every day for the last several days. Yesterday, it rained ALL day. That's great for crops as people are either planting or just recently planted but it is really bad for wet clothes trying to dry. Looks like rain again today. You just learn to work around the rain, the power outages, the lack of running water and lack of fuel for your vehicle. There has been a huge diesel shortage lately with trucks and mini-buses in line for hours to get diesel. The shortage appears to be starting with petrol now as Ray went to three different stations yesterday to get gas and none of them had any. We were able to get petrol this morning, however.

Our Thanksgiving this year will be much different than our Thanksgiving last year. This year, we have a friend here in Malawi who has a friend coming to visit him, who is bringing items we can't find here. I am making Thanksgiving dinner for all of us. I am excited. I enjoy doing this type of thing and I can't wait.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! The Lord has blessed us with many, many things to be thankful for. May the Lord bless you all as he has blessed us!

still or again?

I went to the doctor again yesterday because I still am not feeling right. I thought maybe it was a change in my other meds that was making me still sick but it turns out I still have Malaria. I think I never got over it completely. He gave me some different medication so maybe this will work. I hope so. Malaria is not fun. It's a different kind of sick than I have ever been before.

M & M

First, let me begin by saying that I am over the malaria. Thank you Lord. And thank you all for your prayers. That was a tough sickness. I was sick and it was such a strange sickness that I had never experienced before. I was exhausted and slept all the time but worse yet, I had a headache that would not go away. It was right in the front of my head, behind my left eye. I thought at first it was sinuses but nothing would take the pain away. I tried Advil, Sudafed, Comtrex, Tylenol, panado and nothing worked. So when I went to the doctor and tested positive for malaria he gave me some malaria meds. Those meds, in combination with my diabetes meds, made me even sicker. I ended up going to the clinic at the hospital because I was not feeling better. The doctor did not test me again for malaria but told me that the malaria drugs they gave me should have taken care of the malaria virus. He said he thought my continued headaches were migranes and gave me some different pain killers and what he said were sleeping pills. He said I needed to completely relax to get rid of the migranes and I was not sleeping because my head hurt. What the “sleeping pills” ended up being were valium. I took them for 2 nights really did not want to take any more. However, I no longer have headaches and my energy level and appetite are returning. Thank you again for your prayers.

The church we have been attending has an annual worship service and picnic with another church in town in Zomba at the Zomba plateau. It was this last Sunday. The plateau is a beautiful place. The drive to the plateau was breathtaking. It really makes you appreciate how beautiful Malawi is. However, it didn’t feel like we were in Malawi. It felt like we were in Colorado driving up the mountain. Sometimes I couldn’t watch out the window we were so close to the cliff’s edge. It was a narrow road so if another car approached, one of you had to stop to let the other car pass. The only difference between a road in Colorado and this road was that we had lots of people walking with firewood on their heads or vendors trying to sell their curios, fruit or vegetables alongside the road.

The worship service was great and afterwards we had a brai. I cooked our chicken on one of the grills and had a discussion with three men from South Africa as to why Americans cook hamburger patties on the grill. To them, those are to be cooked in the kitchen. I said hamburgers on the grill are an American tradition – they are so much better on the grill than the stove and we intentionally start our grills just to make hamburgers on them. Then we started talking about “grilling” vs “barbequing” vs. “braiing”. I said we invite people over to grill out. They said someone from Australia told them that if they cook on gas, it is called barbequing. They said we make it too complicated and should just call it “brai”. Funny.

As I was making cupcakes from scratch because a cake mix over here costs about $8.00, and calico beans to take to the picnic, I was thinking it would be really nice to have some macaroni salad. Well, sure enough, the first dish I came upon at the food table was macaroni salad. I was a happy camper, as Ray says. It was great. The food reminded me of a picnic or a party at home and Mphatso was overwhelmed with all the food. She ate about every type of meat there was and picked another dish that had some type of noodles in it, along with some rice. Her three favorite foods: meat of any type (liver included), noodles and rice. I’m thinking Spaghetti Works, Famous Dave’s and a hamburger on the grill are in order.

So, what does all of this have to do with M&M’s you are thinking, right? M = malaria, M= macaroni salad. Sorry, I couldn’t resist……….but I could use some M&M’s about now!

Mphatso funny: She pointed out to me that she has a little tiny bump on her head. She said she thought she got bit by a mosquito net who said she was good chicken. I laughed and told her to go tell Bambo (Ray). She told him and he laughed and said, “Hmm, maybe”. She looked at us and said, “What’s the ploblem?” How do you not laugh? She brings such joy to us.

Good News!!

So the judge approved the adoption today and will sign the paperwork tomorrow.

We also found out that Alice has Malaria. Please pray.

try again

Our attorney went to meet the judge yesterday only to find out that he was called away to an emergency murder case in another city. She'll try to meet with him again on Monday.

A friend sent me the following encouraging word from K-Love yesterday, "God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. ~ James 1:12, NLT"

I needed to hear that. I have to surrender this adoption to the Lord again. I do this daily but apparently, I keep taking it back from him and think we can handle it. We can't.

Mphatso loves to play wedding. She took the picture we have of Andy & Jacque's wedding and made a dress for her dolly to look like Jacque's dress. She also made gloves and shoes for her dolly. It was adorable. Yes, the doll has bright green hair. The hair was washed and cut so many times that it finally all fell out so she sewed yarn on the doll's head. (So it wasn't exactly how Jacque looked at the wedding.)

Court Today?

We went to court today and waited for 2 hours to see the judge. We were in with him for about 5 minutes and said he would make his ruling tomorrow at 3pm.
So now we wait again.
Please keep praying.

What a great day the Lord has made

God is great!!

We got a call from our attorney yesterday saying that she got us a new court date for next Wednesday, October 7. Halleluia!

We also found out that we are going to be grandparents for the first time!!!! Andy & Jacque are due May 22, 2010.

What a great God we serve. He is faithful and we are so blessed. All praise to Him!

new tentative court date

We have a new TENTATIVE court date set for November 16. That's the earliest the Judge has an opening.

no news

I am so very frustrated. We did not go to court on Monday because it was declared a holiday and we still have no word on a new court date.

Happy Anniversary to us

September 17, 2009

Happy Anniversary to us -- one year. I have trouble believing it has been one year since we left our jobs and our life in America and arrived in Malawi. A lot has happened in this last year. We have had the best days of our lives within this last year and also the worst days of our lives within this last year.

Please bear with me as I reflect over some of the highlights from the last year: getting to know and love the children and staff at the orphanage; all-night parties in our neighborhood; fireworks at Christmas instead of Independence Day; no water and no power (sometimes for days at the same time); mini-buses everywhere; lizards everywhere – even in my bed (yuck); friends and family visiting us here; planting or cultivating the orphanage fields; the kids eating lunch at a restaurant for the first time in their lives after we purchased shoes for them; the looks of excitement on their faces when you buy them a cold drink; some of them eating with forks for the first time; having a hot shower when we stay somewhere besides our home; 80 degrees on Christmas Day; no Thanksgiving dinner; praying and worshipping with the kids; the relationships we have developed with other missionaries we have met here; the restaurants we have “discovered”; the daily provisions the Lord has provided for the kids; meeting Miss Malawi; our dog Lukia who guards our house at night and sleeps all day; our cats Princess Fiona and Toby who think they want to stay up all night too; helping cook and serve the kids meals; taking children to the hospital (and a doctor telling me to pretend I work there so I don’t have to stand in line for prescriptions); buying the kids things we take for granted like underwear, slips, trousers; one or the other of us being sick and Ray ending up in the hospital; “Azungu” (white people) being hollered at us dozens of times a day; purchasing “everything” needed to run a house; paying way, way too much for a vehicle that is not worth half of what we paid for it; having the kids from the orphanage come over to bless our house; the excitement all over the country after the Malawi Flames beat Congo in football (soccer); the numerous engagement parties, wedding showers and weddings; “give me my money” being said by people as we drive by; going to the market with Esther to buy food in bulk for the orphanage; hiring and firing staff; getting the honor of naming two babies; two girls being bitten by the same dog; taking the kids for either HIV testing or HIV meds; watching the kids be creative and make something out of nothing; mending the kids clothes; playing with the kids; purchasing food for the kids that they don’t have on a regular basis – like eggs; the breathtaking sunsets and rainbows; ice from our refrigerator; our bad, bad haircuts (we have since found a place that can cut our hair decently); the kids trying to figure out what puzzles were; expensive price of gas here; finding Oreos and Diet Pepsi; the rainy season where it *RAINS*; spending hours and hours typing the school exams; going to the mountain to pray; going to Liwonde game preserve with some American friends and seeing elephants, monkeys and other animals; being *cold* in July; Ganizani’s father dying; the elections in Malawi; Ray’s father dying while we were here; drafting plans for a new orphanage compound; and lastly, our most recent highlight – adopting Mphatso, our beautiful 7 year old daughter.

We have learned a lot of lessons this last year and everything I mentioned above are memories that we would not trade for anything.

Please pray that the remainder of our time that the Lord has us here is fruitful.
Thanks for letting me reminisce over the last year.

We were scheduled to go to court for our adoption next Monday, September 21 but found out yesterday that the court is closing on Monday because it is a holiday. So, our attorney is trying to get a new court date now. Very, very frustrating.

Court date & school

September 10, 2009

We have a court date for our adoption of Mphatso - Monday, September 21, 2009 at 8:30 am. Yeah!!! Please pray that it goes well.


Mphatso started school last week at St. Andrews International Primary School. We decided that we needs to get her up to US school standards because someday when we move back to the US, she will need to integrate into the US school system. There are no American schools here but there are three British internationals schools in Blantyre. While the curriculum is a bit different than the US, the basics are the same. We thought it would be better for her to struggle now while she is young than when she is older and is set in her ways regarding school. She was in Standard 2 at the orphanage school but after they assessed her, we put her in Standard 1. The teacher sends home extra work for us to work with her on to help her catch up. She is improving and is smart.

She has spelling words every night and a reading book. This is the first week of spelling words and I noticed the improvement in her concentration in just a few days. She just doesn’t know how to learn yet so the process is struggle for her at times.

She *LOVES* her new school. They have swimming lessons twice a week, art class, music class, library, PE and computer class. She started telling everyone that Lake Malawi is at her school – she meant the pool. Esther teases her and asks her if she has caught any fish yet at school. Mphatso puts her head down and laughs.

The night before her first swimming class, we put on her swimsuit. She told me it was too small because she is not used to clothes fitting as tight as a swimsuit does. She didn’t want to wear it and was embarrassed because her legs were showing. She wanted to put something else on because girls here do not show their legs. I assured her that this was ok and that wearing this in the swimming pool was fine. She would put something else on as soon as she got out. I even had to have Lyson come in and explain to her that it was ok. I thought since he is Malawian, she would accept it coming from him. She did and is fine with her swim suit now. Such cultural things we don’t even realize that she will face.

Mphatso was excited after her first computer class because they have enough computers that they do not need to share. She assured me that her computer teacher told them that they were to go home and work on their mum or dad’s computer that night. Yeah, right. She loves the computer and is very good at working the mouse to play games or watch a movie. She also loves to look at pictures of people in America so if anyone has any pictures they want to email me, I’ll download them for her.

I don’t have any pictures of her in her school uniform on the camera we have with us so here are some other pictures of her. She made nsima one day by herself and shared it with her Abambo (dad). Ray was watching her make it then they ate together. We also met another family here who adopted a girl from Malawi. They came over to our house and the girls played together. They are playing bubbles in the back yard with Lukia. We also found a restaurant outside of town that had a tree house. Mphatso and Ray are braver than me. I preferred to stand on the ground and hold the camera.

There is also a picture of a galimoto (car) one of the orphanage boys made out of scrap wires, etc. The kids make items out of clay also so they were taking a picture of us with their camera while we took a picture of them with our camera. Peace fell asleep in church one Sunday so I snapped her picture with Lyson.

May God bless you.

Ray, Alice & Mphatso.

PS – Jamie, this blog’s for you because you complained that I don’t blog enough. Oh yeah, D1a is the best!

5 days

Sept 2, 2009

The water came back on yesterday afternoon. 5 days without water is a challenge. We conserved water as much as possible, saving bath water to flush toilets and wash hands. It was tough especially when you have a 7 year old who can put on clean clothes, walk out of her bedroom and be dirty. I am not sure how she does it.

The blessing is that on Day 3 and 4, the water came on during the middle of the night for a short time. At 3:00 AM, the water would come on for about an hour so either I would wake up and call Lyson or he would wake up and call me. He and Ben would fill the tubs outside the house and I would fill the tubs inside the house as well as the bathtub. This way, life could go on as normal so we could wash clothes, cook and bathe.

Apparently, everyone in the neighborhood knew the water was on in the middle of the night because I would hear people talking as they walked to fetch water. Most people in our area don’t have running water in their homes so they have to fetch it from a nearby public water source.

I will never take electricity and water for granted in the U.S. again. Although we had no electricity when we left home this morning, I thank the Lord that we have running water today.

animals everywhere

We took a break and went to Liwonde National Park last weekend (about 2 hours north of us) with another American family who is also adopting a child from Malawi. We had a great time.

The weather was perfect and we saw LOTS of animals. We saw elephants, monkey monkey (as Mphatso says), water buck, warthogs, impalas and hippos. The park does have lions and crocodiles but we did not see either of those animals. The animals are only enclosed by the fence or the river so they are free to roam as they choose. You are not allowed out of your car unless you have an armed escort. You can be fined K2,000 per person if they find you out of your vehicle or the safari vehicles.

We took a boat ride in an all wooden boat (would not meet US safety standards) and saw lots and lots of hippos. We actually got closer than I was comfortable with but the guides apparently knew what they were doing.

We also did a night safari in open truck. It has seating in the back of the truck so it was easy to see the animals. We were VERY close to elephants and hippos at night. It was a great time and the kids loved it.

When we returned from the night safari, there were 2 elephants about 15 feet in front of our car parked in the lot. There was probably 40 feet between us and the elephants. An armed guard came out to assist us into the lodge. While we were sleeping (or attempting to sleep) elephants were outside our window tearing up trees and they don’t chew with their mouths closed. They were so close you could hear them breathe. I kept looking out the window to see if I could see something but I never did. But we could sure hear them. One of them trumpted and it scared me. Mphatso was asleep when we got back to the room so she missed the elephants in the parking lot and the elephants outside our room.

The baobob trees in Malawi are huge. The elephants either eat the bark or tear it off so many of the baobob trees have no bark about ½ way down. Yes, Ray is standing in front of the tree and yes, we could have been fined K2,000 each for being out of the car. We had our friends watch for wild animals while we took the pic.

One of the best things about this trip was that even though the lodge had no electricity, they did have hot water and we were thrilled to take a hot shower. This was Mphatso’s second shower she has ever taken (the other one was a cold shower at our house). She had to do the “hot water shower dance” in the shower. It was cute.

We hope to be able to do this again and the next time someone comes to visit us, plan on making a trip to Liwonde.

Adoption update: We found out on Friday that the court in Blantyre had decided to take a recess the rest of August and all of September so now we don’t know when our court date will be - probably October.