For all of you who have long awaited this post...
Female water buck Where we stayed Starling Puku Female puku surrounded by male impalla Lovebirds Grey hooded kingfisher Impalla hyena How many heads do you see? How many crocs can you see? All the log things are crocs! At least 10! There are 4 different types of birds in this tree. Mostly vultures of two varieties but also hawk(or eagle) and a stork. a bee eater White baby baboons! The guide says they out grow their white though. A field of baboons, maybe they are doing evening yoga. We will be posting a final post when I have time again. For now I am off to New Orleans, when I return family reunion and then I head to Georgia and Bryan to Washington. When we return from that we are off to California on a road trip! Busy summer! So just keep checking in! 
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Our Farewell at the primary school
Our village chief dancing. Juve DancingKeah DancingTeachers Dancing to present us with a gift!Calvin blowing bubblesUs and the MurrysLittle Mia, with a disposable camera we gave him as a toy... he loves it!The Kanyanga Family and Us! We are going to really miss this family.Left to right, Joshua, Tereza, Esnut, Baby Samuel held by Christopher, Amayi, Chisomo. Front four from left, Lockalo, Dorica, Dave and Mia. Louis looking sharp on his new bike! The drive to Lilongwe we took the Dedza escarpment... we could see the lake from some of the points!Thats the lake reflecting between the points Thats all for now! We are headed home so soon but we have one more safari first in South Luangwa, pictures will follow! 
So We wanted to give you a quick update, but then I pulled all our pictures off the camera, totalling 1,500! So much for a quick and easy update! This post is in two posts because there was just so many photos!!! Enjoy!
Matt killed his first chicken... a nice very large black rooster! All the headmasters kids are looking at the photos from Matts camera. Calvin with sun glasses and Rafikki Keah in one of the primary school gardens The other garden we decided to do some transplanting and fixing up. So this is it cleared of everything but the tree, and lemon grass. It had cape goose berries in it but they did too well so we transplanted them to a better location that they can take over. Below is them transplanted. Bryan leading the permaculture class and any one who wanted to assist in planting out the garden. Now it just needs lots of water and time to catch up to the other garden. This is the other garden we planted 8 months ago, it is doing amazing! The tree is taller than Green! (The guy in the garden his name is Green) The oven we helped to build for the wives of the scouts. We baked 2 loaves of bread and a cake the week before we left. It tasted so good and the women are so happy! Bryan blowing bubbles for the kids! Faces around the camp Justine a new PCV moved into our old house in Sharpevale and we envited her to visit us so we could talk about it. So she came... this is us returning from the chippies stand with a bag full of chippies! (Chippies are like frys only larger and not as cooked)Bryan on the Charlie Charlie docChitini the staff boat taking the staff to work really early in the morning. Our final Project, a Medicinal PermagardenThe chosen location next to bananas on the slope on the hill. Can you see Bryan in this photo?Now we clear the landThen we dig some holes, burms and trenches for water catchment and control.We made three beds. The whole garden is a triangle shape so the three beds are small med and large.Adding manure, then we mixed it inPlanting the medicinal plants, this is Bryan teaching about aloe vera.planting a tree and more teaching from BryanTwo days later we returned to the garden and the people had created a fence around the whole garden so the goats don't destroy it all. They had also started digging a shallow well near the bananas.The group Another post coming because there are just too many pictures! 
We have been following the doctors orders and just hanging out around our home. We spend alot of time on our front porch with our camera. See what we see!
Yes FeZZik this is baby Samuel! Now we go into the park... first the fence then on safari. Bryan requested to see fish eagles and boy did we see fish eagles! White breasted cormerantThis is the fishing village located just north of the National Park at the southern tip of lake Malambe. A Tsitsi fly as big as a horse fly only it can carry sleeping sickness. I am just afraid of their bite, they hurt! Luckily the tsitsi flys in Liwonde National Park do not carry sleeping sickness. Reed CormerantHe's looking at you! 
So this has lots and lots of photos... sorry but we love to take photos!
This first group of photos are from around our home. People and stuff. This is Little Anna coming home from pre pre school (she is only 18 months old!) The second our neighbors harvested their maize and had to higher an ox cart to bring it all home! They are hoping to get 35 bags of maize!!!! This year is a bad year but those few lucky people who replanted at the right time like this one family have bumper crops! But sadly most people are not those lucky ones. Our other neighbors only harvested about 3 bags of maize... their family eats 24 bags in a year. This is Joshua who had just returned from the hunt!!! His family will have a nice lunch! (Yes we eat grasshoppers) Joshua's Mom with Samuel on her back asleep as she washes laundry and Mia (Jerimah) helps.Mrs. Kanyanga again and little Samuel (Our other neighbors)Bryan really likes to photograph the moon and stars!Sunsets from our home.Mrs. Kanyanga does basket weaving and so Bryan taught her and Christopher (her husband) to make haning baskets that she can sell!Us just chilling at our home. The front porch is the coolest place afternoon on... Okay the following group of photos are thanks to Bryan. He felt that all our photos are of him and other things so he has been trying to capture my life in photos. So After a month here is what we have... Yup that sums up my life here... This is the oven project with the wives of the Scouts. We are still in the building stages.The Women... We went on a boat safari before Easter here is what we saw!Blue Cheeked Bee eatersAn ElephantChinguni Hills (the south side of the park) View from the river.Open-bill storkSun rise over the riverWe barrowed a friends wide angle lens and had a blast capturing the river and clouds! We went to Sharpvale our old home to visit one last time... We sat on the porch of the agogo's house and just chatted. Sadly not everyone was around but it was a suprise trip!Socko the pup we gave the Liwonde family! Bryan really does love dogs!The big dip going to the house... almost didn't make it out! Thanks Tim for the lift to our old village... You truly made us and our old village happy! Us with Mr. Mzimba the original Rhino Tracker at Liwonde National Park!
We just uploaded this Gule Wamkulu video to YouTube... More will come but they are very large!
So here is what we have been up to!
Gathing, pringting, cutting... Laminating... Displaying Checking out the Wildlife Sanctuary (across the street) Yellow Baboon Blue Monkey Painting, replacing old photos on old displays. Bryan Treasure Finding!!!! He found 10 of these shelves! Full of stuffed birds! The unusable stuff, the rats and mice had found them before anyone at the sanctuary! The Baobob tree location Bryan working with the chicken wire Making a tree limb! Our guys helping to paper mache Today we hung one of the tree limbs and stated putting paper on the other! A baby duiker that was saved and brought in then taken to the wildlife sanctuary. We painted park, reserve and sanctuary maps on 3 black boards... Then posted information! Then they hung animal skulls up... We still have so much to do unfortunantly we have to go back to site tomorrow. We will leave it in there hands to finnish! 
This is the church that HELP Malawi built to replace the mud and thatch church that collapsed last rainy season. The church is the group who donated the land for the primary school. The church has also said that the school can use the church during the weekdays to cut the standard one church in half (standard one has 200 students!. Also they want the church to act as a community center, of which does not exsist elsewhere!
Brown Throated Weaver Bryan caught this one! See No, Hear No, Speak No Evil! Look at these flowers! 
We conducted another Graphic Design training only this time in Kasungu!
One day we drove over to Kasungu National Park! Trying some native fruits... not sure what they are... Look at the view from the lodge! Beautiful Grasslands This is on our way back to town, a house built for a past president. No longer is it a presidents house. Another post coming soon! Before the end of the week! 
We took these photos at our place over several different night to experiment with night shooting!
This week we hope to post two more posts one from our training we did in Kasungu and another of random things! So keep checking in! Sorry it took so long this time. 
Our fire wood saving stove... it uses something like one fifth the amount an open three stone fire does.
A pin-tailed whydah that has been visiting our house. Fire finches Staff jetty on the Mvuu side. I think this is Jasmin, it smells like honey suckle and lavender. Bryan and CG at the staff jetty on the Mvuu side. CG by flowering tree When we talk of the staff boat aka chitini this is it! The rains have brought colorful skys! I love this one Look at this rainbow! 
Car work...
We went across the river to Mvuu for last weekend... The view from our side of the river looking south then across. This one is for Shawna! Look how green it all is!!!! See not always dry and hot, just hot! Oh the cute vervet monkeys! Some birds, its breeding season so they are everywhere and showing off! BeeEaters first the Bohems and the small The southern brown throated weavers, the male female and nest which the male builds and then the females pick their mate based on the house! Lilac Breasted Roller Fire Finch Maribou Storks The Fish Eagle Malacite Kingfisher Hippos Turtle Elephants, they haven't all gone north... I think it is because we haven't had much rain, in fact two weeks of none! See the old injuries on his trunk? Maybe from a croc or a poacher. The shire Marilie and Keah on boat safari! Beautiful Malawi, Africa 
Here it is, our Christmas at Makanga Camp with the neighbors! Bryan and I bought 6 chickens and 2 whole crates of soft drinks (20 glass bottles in each. This is Christoper cutting up all the chickens... he is quite the cook!
Lonely making some small donout like snacks for desert. The girls winnowing the rice. David brought over some beens to be cooked, so I too cooked something! The place we chose to dine together was behind the houses in the woods. The families wanted a change of scenery. So they found a clearing and layed out a very big tarp. The food arrived in bowls on girls heads. We had rice, chicken, beans, mustared greens, boilded eggs and of course a drink and snack! Bryan keeping guard of food. We were out in the baboons territory after all. Little Anna on the phone Awaiting food, the wonderful cooks! After eating I handed out crayons and paper to all the children... Esmay Lockalo and Yamakany Dorica Joshua The older kids and little Mia Here is some of the drawings Parting shot, Mia so happy! P.S. This post took 3 days, 6 different times when the generator came on, and each time with lots of disconeting from the internet... I hope its worth it! 
Last week we assisted in putting on the Malawi Music Project (Band Camp!). Bryan was to video the whole event for a documentary... wish you could have helped Shakespear! I was a camp counselor (just making sure the kids were on time to classes) and photographer.
The kids got to go on a game drive and saw wterbuck, elephants... Lesson on sound waves. Beet a drum over plasic with rice on top. H.E.L.P. Malawi sent 3 band members and 7 students to learn Sarah the volunteer hosting also had the band from her village attened. Notice the village made instruments. Dance session! See Bryan videoing? Banjo parts lesson Each band worked together and learned to build a banjo! Bottle blowing music! We are now in the middle of the Print Design training, more later! 
November 27, We went along for the release of the rhino that was captured while Shawna was here. So they put a radio transmitter in his horn so that they can keep track of him because they released him outside of the protected sanctuary, but still inside the park.So in order to put in the device they actually drill a hole into its horn. The horn has a woody feel to it and it is made of the same stuff as our fingernails, only alot stronger. So here is the doctor drilling.
He also has to do the tip... This is what is needed to fit the device... This is what the device looks like tape to keep all the dust and dirt out while the next step is prepared. Freshly mixed acrylic is then used to seal it in. The best way to monitor a drugged rhino is to stick your finger up his nose so that you can feel his breathing. Once they got him to the release location they also clipped his ear in order to decifer from a distance which rhino the trackers are looking at. The sausage tree is one of the rhinos favorite to eat so they found an area with lots of them. See all the spectators? The area he was released to... Other food rhinos like are these cut from what we call the cactus tree (euphorbia). It is actually quite dangerous to humans, if you get the milky, sticky white stuff in your eyes you can go blind! The people who helped and came along... The gal is the vet who stayed with the rhino while he was in captivity to monitor him. Yesterday we talked to the trackers who went to find and check on him. I guess because the bush is so thick and the rhino so far from where he was released they had to climb a few trees with the radio reciever device. The rhino had headed back towads the sanctuary, 5 kilometers he walked. We are hoping he will come across the fence to the sanctuary and just be happy staying near it. We hope he does not try to reenter the sanctuary for his own safety. The trackers will continue to monitor him for two weeks or so until it looks as if he has settled down somewhere. We hope to go out with them one of these days and get some photos of this guy awake! 
Shawnas last weeks with us in Liwonde National Park.
We ran a day trip to mulanje and back just to purchase a carved cedar chest! What a beautiful place! I hope to return with Bryan so that we can hike the mountain some! Shawna and I went to the local grade school and gave the children grades 1 through 7 an hour or so of art class. We actually just brought supplies to the kids and had them draw or paint, allow them to have a creative time. This is something they do not get at school. These pictures are the 7th graders painting their homes all next to one another creating a large village scene! What fun they had! The women (wives of the scouts) had their party (every 6 months or so)where they dance and buy gifts for their secret pals. Someone bought a whole set of pots for someone. It is a time to have fun together with the women. neighbor kids, Yamikani, Mia and Lockylo Bryan and Mia giving each other the thumbs up, well sort of! Shawna! The women purchased bricks so that the construction on the community center can start. I fear the rains will come before they can get it all done. Bryan got a kids ball and played with the kids... Shawna joined in too! Christopher our neighbor returning from work and giving Mia a ride on his bike! Some Dutch visited the lodge and challenged the loal soccer team and so they all played together! Louis the kid helping us around our home was on the local team too! He looks happy! All the players together Shawna leaves here Thursday, so we have some more shopping to do and lots of packing! It has been so much fun to have her here and to share this experience with her... I think she has changed some as a result. But in good ways! I will try to post pictures of the packing and her leaving later this week! Thats all for now! 
Look a pic with all three of us!
Day 5 working on the painting... i think Today day 6 the final day we recruited Terence to help with the final touches and get anothers opinion. This is a dirt filled creek that used to attract birds and wildlife up close to the nature sanctuary. We are hoping to get this cleaned out and flowing again. We signed our work... The final piece 
In the Lilongwe Nature Sanctuary we have started painting one of the walls...
This is the spot. I am showing the heighth of the elephant, well sort of. We started by painting the wall the color the rest will eventually be. Brayn painted Shawna's nose so its time for revenge! Look we found a ladder! Great now we can paint the elephants head! So this was the quickest idea to get the pics on the wall... Wonderful things projecters. So you can't really see it but at the end of day two we had the whole thing sketched. The third day went so fast! Look you can tell what it will be! The end of day three and three animals mostly done... Shawna found the hand on section... Look at that jaw! It was a hippos, but it looks good for Shawna! Nice face... Look out! Don't worry Mom it was only a flesh wound. This is the elephant skull and Shawna has her head in the ear socket. Today we painted more... This is where we are at... hopefully one more day to finnish the buffalo and hyena then maybe do some touch ups... What do you think? We wanted life size so people who have never seen them close up can get an idea of size. 
We walked all across the park, litarally. Here is what we saw...
Male Waterbuck Elephants One day the trek was across an expance like this We awoke a very very old bishpig from his sleep Keahs footprint inside an elephants A rotting croc Look at the different shapes of these trees! Patrick, Bryan and Shawna Look what the elephants have done to this trees trunk. Shawna thinks this is just Crappy but Bryan seems to like it. One day they drove us two hours through then outside and around the park through the villages... See village Look at this huge baobob and fig tree! Can you find Shawna and Keah? Here we are... inside the tree, it is huge inside! The last day we walked on the side of the river where we live, the vegitation was different alot more of it and green too! Brown headed kingfisher Vervet monkey Another bushpig Birthday party time! We celebrated Shawna's 19 and Anna's 1st birthdays on Oct 14. We baked three cakes and they were gone in less than five minutes! Anna eating her cake Shawna dancing with one of the girls Baby Anna 
We helped out at the animal count at the watering holes here is some of what we counted (of course we didn't count the birds).
Zebra Warthogs Mongoose (I think) black tip You have to keep in mind the size of these animals, this sable family by itself compared to one with warthogs then some with elephants! A concern to alot of people was that so few roan where spotted Some birds... The jewel of Liwonde National Park Lillians lovebird the lourie, beautifull colors blue and green and then it speads its wings to show its brilliant red! my favorite the kudu the ever present impalla A hippo, look at his foot! He leaves a funny foot print! heartabeast with baby elephants, and lots of them they love to play around in the water holes an older one that remains with only one tusk nap time, he laid there for 15 minutes I noticed they love to cross their back legs when resting the eland always seem to be camera shy, these are the best shots we could get of them Bushbuck male and female Shawna while sitting at her water hole one day got invaded by buffalo! They just came out of the trees! They counted 94 of them! baboons a large baboon and a bushbuck together at the watering hole Sorry we did not get more photos of each other but we were separted for the actual sitting in the hides... so we got lots of animals and not any people pics. So after the weekend we went back across the river and to our home. One morning we heard a hippo had been killed so we went to see... they had already started cutting it up, this was one of the many chunks of meat They let the blood drain into the ground and left the head to ward off other animals trying to escape the park to go eat from the dry season irrigated gardens. No wonder they get out often, the fence is above Shawna's head here! On our way to that spot we spotted two other skeletons from other hippos killed outside the park. Our portion, made for a nice dinner! We also took Shawna to see the school. They have water flowing through the taps now. The problem is very very salty water so they can not drink it, they shower and wash clothing in it. This tap they have diverted the run off into the small orchard. The church is coming right along, because the church donated the land then the church collapsed HELP Malawi is helping them to build a new one, it looks very nice! The plant nursery is coming right along also, only that the shallow well has run dry. THe headmaster at the school requested a puppy. So when we heard Mphatso our little gal had pups again we agreed to get one for him from Danny the volunteer keeping Mphatso. This is the headmasters kids with the puppy. A female named rafiki, she has alot of her mothers mannerisms! Thats all for now, but we are currently doing a large animal count (transect walks) in the park and will post pictures after the weekend! 
Last weekend we stayed over at Mvuu camp in order to help out with the rhino capture. Saturday morning Shawna and I went on a walk about around 5:30am. We were looking for the jewel of Liwonde National Park the Lovebird, but did not find them. We did see lots of elephants though!
The rest of saturday was spent in two different blinds observing all the wildlife. Kudu females and young males The beautiful male sable, arn't they handsom? This sable went horns to tusk of a warthog who stood his ground... Heartabeast Look at these ones! Tourists on safari! Yes they scared away some sable and zebra! Sunday was the day to dart the rhino. This is Shawna with the rhino trackers our neighbors and great friends! People were put in trees around the water hole where the rhino was then the doctor with the dart gun and the trackers went in. We waited with the trailer that would pick him after he was asleep. The rhino Leonard ran 600 meters along the road then fell right beside the road, very easy access. This is Jess a guy brought in from Majeta, African Parks in southern Malawi. They wrapped his face with Chris's shirt to keep all the dust and dirt out of his face. The doctor gave Shawna a job. He had to remove the heart monitor while we all tried to move him so it didn't get broken so he asked Shawna to moitor Leo's breathing. She was glued to him from that point on. As the doc said, "Mamas are much better than men at this sort of thing." And seeing Shawna and I were the only two female in the group, well Shawna got the job! Getting ready to move the mini giant. Bryan and Shawna Shawna had to ride in the trailor with the doctor and Leo to keep monitoring him. How cool is this!!!! So the reason this one was darted was because of injury and health. As you can see he is young, he was kicked out of the family group and then another male decided to teach him a lesson. He had bad stabs and cuts under his rear legs. All the blue is medicine sprayed on the minor cuts all over his back from brush and such. After all the work of moving this guy they cleaned him up and tended to the wounds and then Shawna's job was done as they woke him up and we let him get his bearings. This guy will be kept for at least a month to feed him and let him heal. Then most likely he will be translocated to another park, Liwonde's sanctuary is just not large enough for so many males, and they can not be released into the park because the fences are not kept well enough to protect the rhinos. This weekend is the water hole count and next the large animal count so look for more photos soon!
We sold our computer and have new, but still trying to get all the programs so I can edit the hundreds of photos taken while in America. Thanks for sticking with us though! We made it back to malawi safely and are headed South today so Shawna can see our home! I will post more from there.
Lets go to Lake Tenkiller
Zeke joined us too Kelsey Bryan and Blake walking Zeke Austin Anthony Austin and Blake looking at crawdads Marki and Austin Wildlife at the Lake turtle Hummingbirds! wheres your fishing pole! Things to do at the Lake Blake is playing fetch with Zeke on the island saining Zeke liked the minnows a lake rock puzzle! sun bathing Keah Tubing Kelsey and Keah Fez tubing Swinging! Austin Anthony Cliff Jumping! Anthony gotta climb up Water fight!!!!! The Family Back row left Anthony holding Wicket, Kelsey, Kristin, Blake, Zeke, Keah, Bryan. Front row left Mark, Austin holding Sugar, Marki and Jay. 
It is here, can you believe that it is already July?
We celebrated the 4th of July at the American ambassadors place, Hambergers and hotdogs! And lots of desserts!!! Alicia and Matt May Brian and Kristie Rolig and Brian Kennedy At the primary school again, this child is processing hybiscus by pulling off its pettles for washing and drying then keeping the seed pods... More after school activities, tin smithing... The shire river this photo is a little out of focus but really cool, it has hippos, a water buck posing in front of a rock and some birds on the left. This elephant was photogenic hippos I had to get this photo, our neighbor put out their infants socks and diaper on dried grasses... We made some gardens (in bags)around the house! We hope this prevents the sweeping from knocking our house down... Shawna this is for you, orchid tree flowers! 
The group that learned to use the press. Mostly employees of HELP Malawi. When they make the bricks for the church (which they are actually doing now) these people work with and teach volunteer members from the church to help them.
Another project on campus is getting water to everyone. So they have two large tanks, we were around when they attempted to get the second one up on the tower... it didn't go so well... 
The Women's group I work with...
We are working with an NGO called HELP Malawi. They built a primary school and are needing to build more buildings like an administration and library but first a church. The land was donated by a local village church. The village church actually housed classes while the school was being built, but last rainy season the mub brick, grass thatched building collapsed. Peace Corps has a stablized soil block press so we are barrowing it so that HELP Malawi can use it to make bricks. The traditional style of brick making is done by lots of mud and water pressed into molds then they are sun dried and stacked for firing. They burn an enormouse amount of trees in order to fire them so we introduced this press that requires little water, and a mix of clay, sand, and cement (like 10 to 2 to 1)then they slow dry covered in grasses and watered daily... no firing. Also the press we have make interlocking bricks so no morter requiried! Dan is another Peace Corps Volunteer who came to Malawi when we did, he has also extented for a third year. He has used a stablized soil block machine/press in his village and so came to teach the HELP Malawi people as well as ourselves to use the press. they screwed on two long boards and burried them in the ground to hold the press in the ground. Bryan is standing by the lever that is pushed up and on the other end people pull down to press the bricks. 
They (the Malawians) kept tying slip knots that was, well, look! I wish Ryan were here to show them a proper knot!
after an unsuccesfull try they sent someone in to bang back out the round tank into its round form. Last week we outplanted a whole planter into its own guild. Bryan and I designed it as a tea garden/guild... the permaculter class helped (as well as many other) to plant the garden. Often Matt and David give tours around the school to visiting tourists staying at the local lodges, this group Matt asked Bryan to do alot of the explaining for the garden... now he helps in most of the tours talking about permaculture. Across the river where our HELP Malawi friends live we found a black mamba. It was in one of the offices and had already been killed, so Bryan decided to make use of it, we had to choose between eating and art (neclaces, bracelets). And so we decided on not eating this one. Look at the length! Bryan is even standing on a crate! So Matt helped Bryan skin it and well here they are holding the two parts... They pinned the skin to a board to dry... 
We went rhino tracking with two scouts! Patrick and our neighbor the head tracker Christopher
Tracking through the bush! Fezzick wore a kilt and had to clear the road for the vehicle. The roads had not yet been cleared for vehicles! Me and Fez! A rhino print! Me (Keah) We see buffalo! Heartabeast Sable The Buffalo Shire river Me and my buddy the camera! The largest baobob fig combo tree! The tree can hold lots of people! The interior See the guys?! Most of the time you only see this much of a hippo... But we saw more! Smile! I like this one! Croc infested water Baboon and Impalla Impalla Warthog Elephants Bushbuck Bee Eater Kudu (my favorite!) The guys hunting Warthogs... okay not really Another waterbuck Impally lily The guys filled our dug out canoe with dirt and plants! Looks nice in front of the house! Sadly we saw no rhinos but we did capture this rare African Jack a lope (they are much larger in size that the Oklahoma ones!) 
While awaiting Fez to arrive Bryan worked with the inventor of the concrete water pump to get it ready to be used in a village.
We took it to a village just outside the park where farmers do dry season irrigation and tried it out then gave it to the farmers to use and tell us how to make it better. The inventors sister Marianne who is interested to write a book about the whole FullBelly project Group shot Gifts from the farmers Fez took lots of video... We went to church with Christopher's family and we named their 8th child, a son, Samuel Blessings We went to Cape McClear to enjoy the lake. If you come to Malawi, you have to see the lake! We spent one night on Domwe Island so this is us leaving looking back at the Cape The walkway connecting the place to sleep to the island... Our tent Snorkling to see all the beautiful fish, cichlids Cormerant drying off in the sun One awesome guy! This guy like Fez's balcony Next time I willpost photos from our tracking trip in the rhino sactuary! We miss you Fez! 
We are in the City again. We are happily awaiting Fezzicks arrival, planned to be a day or two ago... but he is stuck in a sand storm so we are stuck here. Luckily lots of people have taken advantage of our presence and given us plenty of work to do. Better to be busy than idle...
So here are some pitures of birds found in someones back yard... I think some are sun birds but I do not have my bird book to know what type or what the others are.. Enjoy. This little female was very photogenic 
Sorry to leave such a sad depessing post up for so long! Now however we have moved! So we can show you around the place...
This is Sarah one of our neighboring volunteers who knows the people we are now working with so she escorted us to our new place and stayed the first two nights with us... that was fun, the three of us sleeping on the floor together under the one net we remembered to grab! The baby on her back is Ana, the happiest malawian child ever! This is our house... 2 bedroom one other room... Behind the house is the bafa (place to bath and kitchen Looking in the front door at the back door which is by no means secure... we are haveing a new door and frame made this week... hey at least it keeps the monkeys out! The front office... where we play scrabble (in English) and they ALWAYS win! The front gate... This is Louis he is our helper... We pay his secondary (high)school fees and he works for us like sweeping the yard, getting water... whatever he can do. He is a cool kid! last Sunday we were told a hippo died and they were to go see it and invited us along so of course we go... They had just confinscated a large net on their way in... When we arrived to the spot they said an elephant had killed the hippo... four scouts had spent the evening/night chopping and smoking it... so when we arrived there was a pile of meat three feet high! The rib cage... it was so big! I decided not to include the photos of the head and well the rest... sorry if it grouses you out. A white breasted Cormerant Baboons near our house! We are so happy to be moved and working with these people who are awesome! Our house has recieved a white wash as high as the tops of the door frames... and our furniture is in the house... we have ordered bunk beds for our guest room so that Fezzick has a place to sleep when he comes! We will be around for a few days... maybe more pictures will be posted! 
Last week the Liwonde's youngest, Jen passed away from rabies. She was bit by a dog that they did not know was rabid. We arrived to Malawi and a baby Jen but how she grew over the last two years, learned to walk, not shy away so much and actually chant and sing our names. We missed her funeral which was large in attendees. I am glad the family is supported so much. This death was hard for us to deal with since we had grown to love and take this child as our own. We know that she is in Gods hands now. But how we and her family miss her. Here are some memories we have of her...
The whole family when we first came in April 2007. Jen is the baby being held by her mother the standing women. With her sister Mary With her Mother With her Father All back home affected Jen too, these huge playing cards were sent from the states and the children loved them, even Jen. Jen being traditionally carried by her sister The last photo we took of her playing in a tub! Bryan's Mom found this song that helped us with this loss, it is beautiful, maybe you already know it... Building 429 - Always From the album Building 429 I was standing in the pouring rain one dark November night Fighting off the bitter cold when she caught my eye Her face was taught and her eyes were filled, and to my surprise She pulled out a photograph and my heart just stopped inside She said, "He would've been three today I miss his smile, I miss his face" What was I supposed to say, but CHORUS I believe always, always Our Savior never fails Even when all hope is gone God knows our pain and his promise remains He will be with you always He was living in a broken world, dreaming of a home His heart was barely keeping pace when I found him all alone Remembering the way he felt when his daddy said goodbye Fighting just to keep the tears and the anger locked inside He's barely holding onto faith But deliverance is on its way, cause CHORUS I believe always, always Our Savior never fails Even when all hope is gone God knows our pain and his promise remains He will be with you always Friend, I don't know where you are and I don't know where you've been Maybe you're fighting for your life or just about to throw the towel in But if you're crying out for mercy, if there's no hope left at all If you've given everything you've got and you're still about to fall Well hold on, hold on, hold on, cause I believe always, always Our savior never fails Even when all faith is gone God knows our pain and his promise remains Always, always, He will be with you always 
We have taken the camera out...
Our Warthog friends! My favorite animal in the park is the Kudu! We happened upon this large and strange group of 3 large males one young male and many female (around 20)! Me and Kory our neighboring volunteer... The easily found and in great numbers, Impala We also came across some Water buck including the little one. These guys are easily identified by the white bulls eye on their back sides! Look what else we found out there! Very rare and hard to find! The red bishop Ground Hornbill, this guy is huge 3 feet tall standing! Geese juvenile fish eagle This bird loved the palm trees and he was very camera shy! Small bee eater Free ride!!! Yellow baboons Hope you all enjoyed this!
We had our dental appointments today, okay not even appointments, they told us to come at 9ish and they would try to fit us in this morning. We filled out the necessary paperwork (that yes is even required in Africa) and took a seat to wait our turn. This place is actually the Adventist Health center next door to the main Adventist Church in Malawi. So one half of the building we went into was the dentist and the other a clinic. Some time passed as we chatted and waited when all of a sudden an ear peircing screem came from the dentist side. Bryan and I looked at each other nervously then Bryan says “Not the kind of noise you want to hear at the dentisit.” Soon a young girl came out with a wad of gauze in her mouth, tooth in hand and a large smile as her Mom asked, "Was that you that screemed?!"
Luckily our visits with the dentist went well and we actually like this place a lot more than the other we went to last year. We both had cavities but are having them taken care of. Halfway through our visit to the dentist we started to hear funneral wailing… someone passed away on the clinic side (clinics can be hospitals here) so by the time we left the funneral service was taking place and lots of family and friends had gathered. What an experience! 
A lot has happened since we had last posted!
First we returned to Sharpevale and settled beck into our home. We knew our time there was drawing to an end very quickly. We got to see the puppies… two look like their mom with floppy ears and long bodies on shortish legs, the other two however look like chiwawas! Alicia moved in with us the end of January. We had two weeks together for us to show her around and say good bye to all our friends. We did a lot in that time. Our last week in the village was very crazy. Starting Sunday night with me burning my foot by stepping on a hot tea kettle which dumped its contents onto my foot! It hurt so very bad but the next day (first photo) it looked almost normal! I felt bad it hurt so much then it got bubbly then well took the course burns tend to go, the last photo is just two days ago. Because of the foot I stayed home while Bryan and Alicia attended meetings Mon. Monday night a member of our village family passed away. She had been very sick and had lost her infant son just the week before. She was HIV positive but since the babies birth had been very ill. Bryan and I did all we could to support her and the Liwonde’s who were caring for her. So starting at 1am when the medical person announced her dead a wailing went up and on for an hour. The people from Angoni decent really wail, like what it talks about in biblical times. All Tuesday was funeral activities and lots and lots of people. Wednesday we met and said good bye to our Africare counterpart Mr. Ching’amba. Thursday was move day. But first we gave a rooster to our village chief as a thank you and remembrance. Also all local PCVs cam together to say goodbye! Front row left, Jen (ENV 08-10), Me, Caitlin (Education 08-10), Alicia (ENV 08-10), Bryan and Mr. Liwonde back row. Because of the funneral all the family to our village family came in. We got to say good bye to everyone! This photo is me, Loveness and Mrs. Liwonde in the back row. All these women are sisters! The baby belongs to Loveness. This is Mordesta with Alicia'a sunglasses! Thursday we moved out. Our messy house. The largest two things we own The neighbors helped to load us up even though they didn't want us to leave. We got everything in two trips! But it was close and very stressful but it is done! So where are we now? We are currently living in Liwonde National Park. Our new home will be the northern end but because the roads are impassable we are to wait at the southern end till the roads clear or they will take us by boat up the river a 45 min boat ride! We are so excited to be living in the park! Our nearest volunteer is Kory She lives at the Southern end in staff houseing wich is very near where we are temorarilly living so we hang out alot. We have been doing dinners together... We have decided to start making lots of flat breads because we will be unable to get any type of bread on the northern end or snacky foods! We are looking forward to this new chapter in our service here in Malawi. We will miss the village and our friends but we will return to visit them and continue on some projects. We are in town now to do our end of service medical stuff that has to have results soon to officially let us extend so we will be around town awhile. I maybe able to post a more in depth closer look at what is coming next working with Liwonde National park! 
Christmas pictures…
Bryans and my families this past December. Also us: Back in Malawi We just returned from our Close of Service Conference held in Nkotakota at the Pottery lake resort. The conference was very informative and we had a wonderful time seeing all the members of our group, Environment 2007 – 2009. We lost four people over the two years, two due to medical separation! Crazy. Peace Corps said that this is very good for a group of over twenty. We met in the shade of the trees behind the lodge because our meeting room was so hot. We saw so many types of birds and even some monkeys and such. Can you find the two monkeys in this picture? The lodge made us buffet meals for each meal. They even provided two tea times so we ate 5 times a day, they like to do that here. Bryan caught me with my spoon on my nose! We all got to paint some pottery… The lake is beautiful! I awoke to see the sunrise over the lake. While taking the photo I heard a Fish Eagle call not so far away so I went searching for her. As I approached some trees and rocks I heard her again then before I knew it she was off out over the lake flying away. I was sad but realized all the other birds out so I started looking for different birds I heard. Before long she was back I heard her calling from the tops of the trees. I decided to take the trail through the woods to the others side in order to see if I could locate her. I found her high in the tree tops. She had just gone out so I found a comfy seat overlooking the lake hoping she would go out again. While I sat I saw the many Pied Kingfishers flying around and doing their hovering high above the water then dive down! I caught this one as it spotted a fish below. As I sat and saw the beauty around me I decided to switch to my smaller lens to get a picture of the sun rays over the lake. Of course as soon as I did the eagle took off again, out over the water. I switched back and waited and watched and saw her swoop down then head back toward me… She must have wanted to show off because she landed out on some rocks in front of me and ate her catch. She is one of God’s most majestic creatures! Parting shot the waves splashing over the rocks near to the resort.
Christmas and New Years
Was Wonderful visiting the United States of America! (photos and more info to come) We visited some churches that have been some of our large supporters. We were able to do some presentations and sharing what we have been doing in Malawi. We visited: Zion Lutheran, Stillwater Zion Lutheran, OKC St John’s Lutheran, Lawton OK Emmanuel Lutheran, Breckinridge OK Our flight back was an adventure in itself! We got into Johannesburg and were supposed to meet our friend Ben. Who was a PCV in Malawi also, but he was nowhere to be found… and it would be hard to miss Ben. He is the tallest person I’ve ever met. He’s the one I went to South Africa for my knee surgery last year. He’s a great guy and he had the idea for the hostel we would stay in, but because he was not there we found a hostel on the net and grabbed a taxi to it. The hostel was just so-so but we felt safe and were thankful for a shower and a place to lay our heads! The flight from South Africa to Malawi was very nice and then we ended up two checked bags short which came yesterday. That was an amazing story in itself. As we waited for our bags to come watching the baggage claim conveyor belt people started to get there bags and disappear and still nothing… finally I started getting a little worried when there were only a few (10) of us left and they started telling us that all the bags were on the conveyor belt, but then two of our four bags came and my hope was renewed just to be crushed again when the other two ended up lost. By the time we decided our bags had been left in South Africa the other ten people were deciding the same thing and some of them were starting to get very upset. We were told we should go stand in this one line and tell the person the particulars of our bags. Many of the people in this line were very grumpy about loosing their bags. I figured, it’s Africa, what do you expect, it’s bound to happen once or twice. So we told them our particulars and our bags came the next day, but the thing that upset me was the way some of the people were treating the baggage claim guy who they were telling about the lost luggage. They kept belittling him as if it was his fault that their bags were lost talking about how incompetent Malawians were and how it always seemed to happen to them in Malawi when flying in… The thing is, who really lost their bags? It wasn’t the Malawian they were talking to; it was the people at the airport they had just come from! So, why are you getting all mad at the guy who is trying to help you get the bag back? I found it made me feel better being civil to the baggage claim guy, and I think that made him care a little if I got my bag back. I don’t know if this is true or not, but we got both of our bags back and South African Airways will pay us back for the taxi ride when we go there on Monday. What an adventure! What’s Next? This week is our COS (Close of Service) conference. This is were we put in our extension request for our third year, only we have already identified the site to move to and we are moving soon so really just the paper work needs to go through. The conference is held at a beach resort, Peace Corps way of saying thanks. Yes, we are moving! We are excited to tell you we are moving mid February God (and rain) willing. We have seen the place our home is very much like our current one only slightly smaller. We will post pictures and more info when we get it! Alright once we have pictures from anyone of these events we will post again! 
We are continuing to sit on reed mats and chat with our neighbors and friends…
We started a seedling bed in one of our raised round garden beds… We have attended many meetings relating to treadle pumps… One new area identified by the people is in out village but our Chiefs brother asked for some land and he granted him some in our village and so the brother decided to name it his own small village and so that is the people who have asked us to come. They have a natural spring fed river (very small) which never runs dry. Families with land along this are already gardening they just use a watering can and it takes 4 to 8 hours a day. This is our first time to the area… see how dry everything around the garden is… We found them watering and even applying manure to the gardens, it was great to see Malawians trying so hard to apply the knowledge they have to garden throughout the dry season. Of course we brought a treadle pump to try, and so you can see the water source and one of the men pumping the water… Bryan showing them different ways to actually water their garden We also met with the Nanyango Irrigation Scheme and did a long training on how to use and care for the treadle pump and then we distributed 14 treadle pumps. One treadle pump per three families. The people where so happy, and even more people have come to us and asked to make their own groups for irrigation. 
Sometimes I am not even sure how to answer this question. But for the sake of our parents who are asked all the time as well as all the curious people, I will try to explain. The program we are in (Environment) is very unstructured compared to the other ones like Education or Health were you are expected to be at an office every day of the week. Some lucky environment volunteers get a placement with National parks, Forestry or NGOs (Non Governmental Organization) or other organizations so they sort of have offices and more structured program plans. Our in country training included a very wide variety of things mostly focusing on Income Generating Activities (IGAs) and many things can be turned into an IGA.
We were one of the lucky volunteers to start the partnership with NGOs. Africare an NGO based in America but who does work all over Africa. In Malawi the entire staff is Malawian! We are the only two who are not Malawian working with them here. We as white people in a place of 100% Malawians (in the village) become quite the attraction. If it is known we are going to a meeting the attendance increases exponentionally. So for our first few months here our presence was used to help increase the number of people at meetings. We have helped with several food distributions… this is fun because the boxes and bags say from the American people! Once more of our skills and knowledge were found out by our partners they knew more ways to utilize us. So we have done some Africare field office trainings for the staff. The most difficult thing in working with Africare in our area is that they use motor bikes to reach all of their very large catchment area, where as we are only allowed to use push bikes (bicycles). At the beginning we would go the distances they were going… then my surgery early last year followed by Bryan’s knee surgery prevented us from going anywhere on a bike, in fact we both had periods of 3 months where we could not ride bikes… Knowing that we are some of the first volunteers to try this hand-in-hand with other organizations we knew there would be things to improve. Next time, we have all decided, they will put the volunteer in a bike riding distance from the field office to be better utilized. We are two mini buses or over the mountain through the disappearing woods to get to the office… because of this we almost always only work in our village. You have to understand that timing and work here is different. Here you live your life doing daily tasks, and if you have a job you work, but sadly most just have their fields of maize. This makes many months of boredom after the harvest so much drinking happens. We live the village life and we are trying to find people or groups that are in need of help. We have been working with the family around us daily in everything we do. Other groups identified are the water users committees. People who live along the Nanyango river (the river goes under the sand after the rains end) dig shallow wells in the river bed so they can make smaller kitchen gardens. We saw that we could teach these people a lot because they were already doing it, the hard way! So we teach them to dig there shallow wells higher on the bank so they do not need cleaned out daily and they won’t wash away come rainy season. Next, treadle pumps which we have been so blessed with a lot of help from Stillwater Oklahoma, Zion Lutheran Church as well as the Stillwater Newspress and the Lutheran Churches in Lawton. More below with pictures! So, after water now comes the teaching of planting, using compost and intercropping to make the best of their space not to mention less work. This is one example of one group we are working with. We are working with many groups though, my big one is a local women’s group interested in some IGAs. We like to meet with groups already established or people already doing things because they are going to do it! A very massive problem in Malawi is that people send so much aid and do not really do community assessments to find out if the aid is needed or wanted. Now there are many abandoned things. For example in our village there are actually taps, maybe three… but then someone decided to help with boreholes and then the taps were shut off, but still there… an oil press sitting unused, mud stoves unused… so we are trying to find what they need and want and not offering it to them for free but having them earn it in some way, so they have ownership of it! We had visitors! Animal and Mr. Bahr visited from Stillwater, Oklahoma. We took the Bahr’s straight to the village, where we had meetings upon meetings. They presented one of our clubs with the first of many treadle pumps for irrigation. We are not giving them for free, but going to have them put in something, seed, or money made from selling foods grown during the dry season. They presented it and then we put it all together and did a mini training to show how it works and Mr. Bahr watered the gardens!!! We also set up for them to see the local Guli Wamkulu dances. Mr. Bahr was only staying a few days so we wanted to get in some fun things like a safari in Liwonde National Park. We saw so many animals! Elephants Monitor whitebreasted cormorants and a fisher eagle in the center of the photo Crocodile Kudu (male and female) and Impala I am not sure about these two… More Elephants Me on safari! See the elephants and the guy with the protection? We were on foot in the park with a guide and ranger with a gun just in case. Our last stop was Zomba Plateau with Mr. Bahr. Animal had brought a lot of gear so that we could explore a place called Chingwe’s hole. We had all asked around and done as much research as you can do on a hole in the ground in Africa. We heard several legends about the place; the first and oldest is that the hole is a bottomless pit that chiefs would through people with leprosy down into. The lake that all the run off water flows to is called which means dead. This name came about because come the rainy season dead bodies would show up in the lake and they knew not where they came from. Logical sense says if you throw people in a bottomless pit come heavy rains they will come out somewhere. The name Chingwe (meaning rope) came from a man who walked to the place with his dog… the dog fell into the hole so the man went to et a rope and lowered himself into the hole. He never found his dog, but from then on the hole was called the rope’s hole. The area is very odd. A flat area with a clump of trees… those trees the only ones on the whole area where we were happened to be growing out of the hole! It truly looked like a tiny rain forest with moss on those trees and everything. We geared up and descended into the hole… sadly there had been a recent cave in and so the cavern we found was not and the tunnels leading out all got way to narrow for human entrance. Every wall was wet and slimy, drops of water in the cavern looked like shining drops of gold. It was damp and cool, and yes the guys got really dirty. I did not look forward to scrubbing all those clothes. The crazy thing we did find was a dog skeleton… actually it found Animal in a small crevasse. After some chaos we made it to the airport in time for Mr. Bahr to catch his flight. We Animal, Bryan and I returned to the village to rest up a bit before heading out on the next adventure. While back in the village we got to help celebrate the International Candle light Ceremony. We paraded down the highway and went to the ceremony, where we met our Traditional Authority, pretty much the King of our area. You can identify him by his crown which would have originally been made from animal fur. We headed north on a night bus… that is its own story, for another time. We went to Rumphi for a night then to Dan’s site for a few nights followed by a change in plans and another bus ride more north to Karonga where Sabrina lives. We went up to Livingstonia. We stayed the nights at a camp ground called the mushroom farm. But the second day we hiked out to the waterfalls. Two different sets of several water falls of at least 3 or 4 falls. The guys scouted the best place to set up a repel rope and possible climb. They chose the second set of falls and once we got there we set up and sent Bryan over the water fall… Thank God for cell phones in Africa… after he went over the second one down there was not communication by yelling… the falls are just too loud. Unfortunately we have to pre buy phone units and well we ran out, Bryan and I both. Next we sent down Jim, then me… only as I got to the first landing I got a yell from above that there is now way out, Jim and Bryan where going to have to climb out if they could, the way they came in. So I got off the rope and huddled down to avoid the spray, it didn’t help but at least I was retaining more of my body heat. I decided to look at the climb I would have to make and decided it probably impossible. Everything wet and slimy, with a very consistant spray, plus everything growing out of the side is thorny and if all that where not enough it was a very large over hang. I waited and Bryan made it followed by Jim both were completely worn out and both looked up and said they could not climb another one… luckily Bryan found a way around through the thick jungle. I now understand why people need panga knives in the jungle, plus everything has thorns! at the first set of falls you could walk behind one of the water falls. Jim repelling down to where Bryan was. Bryan climbing out. At the mushroom farm we camped on the side of the mountain over looking the valley and the lake, both mornings we watched the sun rise. From Livingstonia to Jim’s site where the guys practiced there dug out canoe techniques. From here we took Animal to Karonga boma to catch a bus to the border. 
Hello to all! I can not believe how fast the time is flying by! May is almost upon us! So what’s been going on in our lives?
We had two new trainees come and visit us at our site and then we escorted them to their new sites to be… One is to live inside Liwonde National Park so for 4 days we got to hang out in the Park with them… we had no vehicle so we walked everywhere but we got to see so much! Here are some photos we took: This is a baobob tree in the park that is of particular interest… you see there are 4 people in the picture, the one on the tree is looking down into an opening. The tree is called the lepers tree because supposedly people who had the disease where thrown into the tree and left for dead… so when you look into the hole you see human bones… I counted 5 or 6 skulls… It is actually kind of sad and scary at the same time. Bryan hit another birthday anniversary! Therefore a lot of wonderful boxes where shipped our way! (Check out the Care package update). One of the boxes was from Doc and Sondra who sent a box so big it literally took two people to carry! Of course it had been opened somewhere along the line to get here but the people who opened it must have had a hay day with all the shipping peanuts that where in the box because when we got it there where some but obviously some where missing (okay a lot!) I bet those people where confused with why someone would ship us a bunch of foam pieces! The box held many fun things… kites, games, food… food and more food and so much more! Doc just so you know we ate the whole box of frosted flakes in 2 days! Probably not the healthiest idea but it sure was good! Bryan recieved boxes from his family that made him teary eyed... Thank you so much Sis, Bro (Kelsey too) and Mom! This picture was taken the night I finished the puzzle Doc and Sondra sent us… they sent all the pieces in a zip lock bag with no picture or anything so it took me two days to figure it out… and it isn’t even a strait edged puzzle! Bryan took the pic as I put the last piece in, he was very happy I had finished… he wanted his wife back. Just last week we got invited to attend a local Guli Wonkulu dance (Big Dance). We have been in our village a year and had not seen any of the local dances but only heard them nightly… So here are some pictures we took of the masked dancers who (traditionally) truly turn into the creature and are no longer human. KaporiOlotine Amzungu a ku India (The visitor is from India)Njeure (The Oldest People)SimonJinga ili pa Dambo (Bicycle on hill)Ndalama Asura ndi Amzungu (A black man can not make money) Finally the home front, We taught a women’s group to make jam out of baobob fruit and another one of tomatoes, Bryan then used our new chalk board to teach the basics of it and the business aspect. Th next pic is me... doing laundry. Have to include these two pics, the first is our neighbor girl Mordesta, the baby is her sister Caroline.
I just made this photo album on facebook a year after trainning
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2169636&l=8fe32&id=17124885 go check it out and let us know what you think. 
We are back in the city, We got to participate in the Trainees training for two days. We did the fun stuff, slide show (lots of pictures) and more importantly cookies! We made chocolate chip cookies for them and they loved them!
Okay here are the pictures you have been asking me for… yes I cut my hair, well actually two different guys did… so here are some pictures. In the third I am wearing a skirt I had made in out village for 200 mkw out of material Bryans Mom sent with me, Amazing to have a tailored skirt for just over a dollar! We have had an addition to our farm, a baby girl(lamb)! We call her Maa as that seems to be the name her mother has given her. Her mom is Momma. Last week we had our first over night visitors (about time). We had Jeff and Jess from MIT stay, and during their visit we made charcoal out of corn cobs and an old bamboo fence. There are different ways to make the charcoal (using a metal drum, a clay pot or by digging a hole in the ground) but we chose to dig a hole in the ground because we had no drum or pot. It was quite hard to get the fire started because of low ventilation but once we got it going it was awesome! Our home is receiving more add-ons like a chalk board on the back of our house… Planters… and we are still planting… see my short hair, and the white hair is now as long as the other. I have to admit it is much easier to wash and manage in the village. The two children with me are Ida and Tengani (which means in Chichewa please give). Our Morning glories have really taken off and now you can even see them from outside the gate! I thought you might enjoy this photo… this is how they cut wood planks here… …lots of hard work So Bryan and I were thinking, as we seem to do a lot of in the village, about the ultimate care package… Every package we receive is so amazing! But I know some people are not sure what we like or whatever. Actually when you are so far from home anything from home is great, but we have formed a list for the ultimate box… only this would all not actually fit in a box so don't try but it will give you some ideas:Teriaki beef JerkyReses PiecesCinnamon Streusel CakesGatorade (strawberry, Grape, Blue…)Teas (our favorites)Velveeta CheeseChicken meat packetsRitz CrackersSoft Pepermint sticksSummer SausageSoft batch chocolate chip cookiesMayonnaise small packets like from fast food placesGold FishRitz bitz Cheeze sandwichesCheese It crackers Chicken N Bisket crackers 
Rainy Season is upon us and the weeds and gardens are loving it!
It does not rain every day or even for the whole day when it does, mostly it pours for half an hour then its done. We are not growing the local staple maize, but we are growing soya, rice (we purchased a plot in Zomba) and sweet corn. So not many people here have ever tasted sweet corn and we grew it. Imagine non hybrid sweet corn from Oklahoma that was planted out in a field 5 kilometers away on a hillside with no ridging, fertilizer or weed pulling... and it produced the best corn I have ever eaten! It took two months unlike the three months the local maize takes so it did not cross pollinate. We only harvested 4 cobs to eat, the rest we are letting dry out to replant! Our neighbors could not believe the amazing taste and fast growing season. They want to plant it everywhere! Our gardens around our house have Chinese cabbage, leaf lettuce, sunflower, tomatoes, beans and more to come. We are hopping to plant sweet corn next to the house so we can eat our own fresh corn. Malawians always let their corn dry out, not much is eaten fresh. This picture is Mr. Liwonde among the sweet corn, notice how short it is compared to the maize in the back ground. Home update The rains have encouraged us to make gutters on our house for water catchment. Bryan put them on and then it didn’t rain for 2 weeks... but finally it did and when it did it filled the large drum in 15 minutes! I ran out in the down pour to scoop water into other buckets! The comfort in our home has increased a whole lot. We got a new mattress on our bed... nothing fancy, in fact it is just 6 inch covered foam. We also got seat cushions. We bought 4 foam squares and material to have them covered in the village. It cost 25 kwatcha per cover... not even a whole dollar together! The termites, rains and children had taken such a toll on our back gate that it fell apart so Bryan and Mr. Liwonde made a new different kind. Crazy to think what Mr. Liwonde is using to cut the grasses... look carefully... Yup Mom that’s the durable guaranteed T.V. kitchen knife you sent with us! The animal side of our farm has again increased, we are trying out the chickens again. We went to a place called Mkalongwe Farms and purchased 50 hybrid egg laying chicks all 6 – 12 weeks old. They are older then the first 13 we had. We also purchased some anti stress medicine [as if putting 50 chick in a box on my head to walk across town then in the bottom of a (Malawian version) red carpet bus then walking with them on my head another 3 kilometers to our house in the dark were stress] and we also wanted a general antibiotic only the one we were recommended to turned out to not be general. We just wanted to protect the little guys from the strange village diseases. Instead we overdosed them on some medicine that they didn’t need. Their eyes started swelling and closing and two of the smaller ones went blind in both and therefore died. We talked to the local animal advisor and to a friend and now they are getting better! The eyes are going back to normal! I think we are down 4 or 5, but there are still plenty more! Mavuto has found himself a wife and she had three black kittens... but they are not ours, they belong to the Nkook family, thank God! We have three rabbits, a male and 2 females, they are young so no babes yet. We are down to 5 Doves (aka pigeons) and the Goat and Sheep are fine. Mwomboli is looking so very good! See for yourself, here is a picture of her when we first got her and now. Mphatso has joined mwomboli in the fenced in pen for the days and out at nights, only she is never just free... she just likes to bark... must have terrier in her... Last June when I went back to the U.S.A. I got material to give to the women of the families around us... I never posted pictures, well here they are. The two women together are sisters Mrs. Liwonde, and Loveness. Left of Mrs. Liwonde is one of her three daughters Mary. The baby is the youngest of Loveness’s two children Caroline. The older women is the Agogo Akazi which literally translated is respected elder wife. She is a grandmother to Mrs. Liwonde and Loveness. The other two are also granddaughters, only younger, Ida and Genus. They are the Nkook daughters that live in the first house. This house is full of trouble... the father is a drunk the two sons lie and steal (a lot more lately), and Genus just had a baby at the age of 14... we are pretty sure she took pills or something to abort the baby only she was 7 months along so she now has a pre mature baby who is so very tiny. None of the 4 go to school, they decide themselves if they want to go or not and now that Genus is married she is not allowed and the others just don’t go. We have been encouraging them all to go and we are so happy that Ida is actually trying to go. We are doing alright, especially now. You see we had been pretty down and well sometimes depressed because our assignment just doesn’t match with our skills and knowledge. We would have really liked to be next to or in a park/reserve to work with the management and use our degrees... but we have decided we have been sent to the Sharpvale area for a reason and we will do whatever we can for the people here while we are here till April 2009. We will extend a third year and pretty much get to choose where we want to go... so we can work with a park/reserve for the final year. This is better anyway because we do not want to run the park we just want to better the place and then let them do their thing! We did our first visit to other Peace Corps Volunteers village and homes. Thursday we visited Susan in Nkhota khota. She is an Environment volunteer who came into Malawi with us. Here are some pics of her home and such. Susan has been working with her local primary school(grade school) on getting more than their one school block. She also has set up pen pal writing with some of the students and here she is presenting the head master with some writing supplies. Bryan taught the children how to play the card game 21! They love it! Had to include this photo taken at our home of the kids playing with the huge playing cards sent from Mamma Payne that the kids absolutly love! 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Bryan and I are quite well… let me catch you up on what has been happening. The rains have started… crops (corn a.k.a. maize) have been or if late just now planted. Our own gardens have gone crazy with just the first few rains. Here is a picture of one of our raised garden beds planted with a few strawberries that have gone crazy and two grape vines. It is amazing what water will do. With the rains came a new ndiwo (side dish). The termites are out in force flying till they find a mate then they loose their wings and they start a colony somewhere… these little bugs are collected and eaten! Our neighbors, bless their hearts, share food… or bugs with us almost daily. To eat bugs is well hard, I mean it is not like we are starving. The dogs however love the bugs! So the dogs get them. Our dogs are doing great the puppy Mphatso is growing lanky, her head has finally grew into her ears. Wamboli is looking very good, she is loosing the mangy look and her coat looks very healthy, now we are just trying to keep weight on her, thank God for the bugs! We went to the Swearing in of the new Education volunteers that arrived September 07. Like our own it was at the Ambassadors home and there was good finger foods and a cake! It was December so they had their Christmas tree up! We received many packages on the 19 of December (check our care package update on the left) We received many amazing things among which where Christmas decorations! Including a tree, lights and ornaments! As well as garlands! We also got a huge box of presents! We opened them all early because we left home for Christmas and New Years on the 22. We are so very thankfull and appriciative of all the care packages received and still yet to be received... we also thank those who have blessed us with money. Everyones support, love and prayers are truly what keeps us going! We went to Carolina Lake Resort in Senga Bay with plans to stay 2 nights and we stayed till the 30th! (We were staying for free in exchange for me designing a brochure for them)It was fun and relaxing to be at the beach but we really wanted to get away and be able to cook our own food and such so we left on the 30th to Lilongwe where we spent New Years… We made hamburgers, and then we made pancakes the next day and bagels! It is so good to cook our own food of our choice! These are some pictures of the Resort we stayed at… it was beautiful, we watched the moon rise over the lake and Bryan even got up at 4:30 to see the Sun rise over the lake! We Love you all and pray the best for everyone this new year 2008! 
I spent the last two weeks in the most beautiful part of Malawi, the original capitol city, Zomba. I went as a volunteer teacher to teach hand sewing at camp sky. Camp Sky is put together by the education sector of the Peace Corps. Two students (a male and female) are chosen from every secondary (high) school that has a Peace Corps volunteer at it. We find a place, this year Zomba Catholic boys school where we move in for two weeks.
The camp is 7 periods of 50 min classes for a total of 8 days. Core classes such as Mathmatics, Biology, English, and others. There is also business, health and hands on like pottery and hand sewing. I assisted in other classes like Health and Wellness, Performing Arts and Accounting and taught my one class of sewing. I had 22 students 8 male the rest female. I had only planned one project after all hand sewing takes time, but the students finnished the second class! So I ran to town and came up with a second project which they finnished the next class, so for the last class we talked about how and where they can get resources for sewing in their village and how they can make money from hand sewing. One of the things we did was a goat disecting session with the whole camp. We had two goats a male and a female that were disected, the kids enjoyed seeing and naming the different parts. We ended that day by not being wastfull and eating the goats for dinner. Saturday halfway through the camp we rented three busses and drove out to Liwonde National Park where we met Peace Corps Enviornment Volunteer Julia. We went on a game drive through the park… until we got a bus stuck in the mud... after pushing it out we had to turn back but not before seeing lots of animals! We saw impala, bush bucks, water bucks, kudu, wart hogs, elephants (big and small), baboons, vervet monkeys… The day was cool and cloudyish so we were able to see many animals. The last day of camp we had a disco party which is the Malawian way of saying a dance. For the dance I and several others collected loads of flowers to decorate and then when we had way too many I decided to make several lei. We made 13 of them with real plumeria flowers, it was fun and smelled so good... they didn't last very long though. Now onto more exciting news… When we returned home after Thanksgiving and Bryans knee surgery we found 6 boxes awaiting us at our home!!!!!! It was like Christmas morning. We got so excited so we decided that we should start a Care Package Update section of this blog, so if you look on the left you will find the color coated list. This will be where we list every package we recive here on out. We will list who sent it, the date we received it and our favorite item in the box… this is hard however because we are two different people and well sometimes we like different things and sometimes it is all so good we can never really agree. We also want to thank the people who sent us the wonderful care packages! It is always so very awesome to receive something from home! Here is a picture of our neighbor kids playing with the game Trouble that Petra and Tiara sent, the children love it! If you want to send something and just don’t know what to send you can check out our list of Things We Can Never Have Too Much Of (formerlly known as Wish List). The cool thing about this list is that they are all links to websites where you can purchase or just look at what we are talking about… even the teas! We do not have any set plans for Christmas yet... but I will tell you it is so odd to be singing Christmas Carols and sweating so much because it is over 90 F! What we do will depend on if the rains start where we want to go. So far the rains have not come to our area but have in Machinji and Blantyre... lots of flooding. I do miss the cold weather... and ice even. We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 
We spent Thanksgiving day at the Ambassadors home swimming, playing football and eating pig! The day before we went to staff members houses to cook the sweets and savory foods, we baked cookies (chocolate and hazelnut). The cookies went fast, of course it doesn’t help that we ate them as they came out of the oven! Below is the picture of one of the two pigs being chopped in order to be served. All that remained at the end of the day where the heads...
We had a new addition to our family farm for a week and a half... a baby vervet monkey! Two men brought him to us at our home in the village trying to sell him to us. Of course we said no we can not buy a monkey but we did get out the camera and played with it for a little over an hour... finally our neighbor helped us talk the two men into leaving him with us, after all what were they going to do with it. After they left we asked our neighbor if he thought we might be able to find its mother in the bush, he said no, these monkeys are rare to see in our area and they are one of the only wild animals left so they are hunted and eaten. So the mother may not even be alive. The monkey is an infant and over the time we had him his teeth started to come in. We found the only baby bottle in our area, and fed him milk and mangos... he really loves fruit, but had a hard time eating it because he had no teeth at first. He also had terrible hand eye coordination, but makes sense as he is an infant. We called him Ugeni which means thing or um in Chichewa. I also called him monkey britches. Our cat took a liking to him and would nap with him for hours and even bath him. It was so much fun to have a monkey around but he was so much responsibility so we call our APCD who told us to bring him into Lilongwe and we could find him a new home at the nature sanctuary. They take in abandoned or injured animals and nurse them back to health then if they can be released back into the wild they are. So Wednesday morning we met a man who worked with the nature sanctuary who took the babe. It was sad to see him go, we had grown to love the little guy, but it was also a relief to have him taken in by someone who will take very good care of him. The mango season is upon us! It is literally raining mangos every time the wind blows! We have been collecting giving and eating... well until just last week when we realized I am very allergic to mangos. Bryan cut up a bowl worth of them and he ate half then I ate half and then my face swelled up... fat lips swollen eyes and random spots all over that look like poison ivy. Actually mango sap has similar characteristics to poison ivy! So no more mangos for me... which is very sad seeing as it is literally raining mangos! 
Bryan is back in Malawi! I was so glad to have him home! The doctors here said he had to stay in town till Tuesday (Monday is a holiday so the office is closed). He is taking it easy.
Remember I said I would post pictures of Lilongwe well here they are: These are photos from the Lilongwe market. The Malawian venders stack the veggies and will sell you a stack for 40 kwatcha or in the case of most fruits they sell per fruit. fish... also in stacks and smell horrendous and the flys love them. They are caught in the lake, sun dried, transported to the villages then sold. I don't like to eat the foods that stare back at me. This is a view from one side of the market and river to the other. People have built their own bridges and charge 5 kwatcha to cross their bridge, so there are about 10 bridges that even Indiana Jones would probablly worry about while crossing. The greatest part is if you just walked a little further down you could cross the river on the road, for free! This shows you an Azungu (People who are not Malawian or rich) trap. There are random holes or gutters all over the cities here with no warnings or covers. The one above opens into a cavern about 10 feet deep with standing water at the bottom. The hole is large enough for a person who is not paying any attention to where they are walking to fall into... This is a chippies stand. Precut potatoes are fried then sold to you in a small plastic bag. They are a good snack but sometimes they are kindof soggy. This is the curio market in Lilongwe, well actually just a few stands in the market to give you an idea of what types of things they sell. Wood carvings, paintings, jewlry, and even things made of stone. Until next time! Cheers!
Bryan’s surgery went well, he is now recovering. He will be in South Africa through November 7 which is his last visit with the surgeon. Most likely they will send him back to Malawi the following day. He and I both are ready for him to be back. I feel like I am not upholding to my marriage vow… you know the part where you say “through sickness and in health” but I guess when saying the vow one does not say the fine print, “If the government separates you while in sickness it is ok to be apart” especially because we really want to be together in our village but it is sort of impossible to have knee surgery in the village… not to mention unsafe and far from sanitary. With Bryan in South Africa he can recover in a nice hotel room with good food (that I don’t have to cook) and in a non demanding atmosphere unlike our village.
It is very strange for me to be alone in Malawi. Most don’t think about this, especially other volunteer here because most volunteers come by themselves and live and work by themselves. Bryan and I however are not the same, we at one time in our lives wanted to join Peace Corps on our own but when we got hitched we did not even mention our desires to join until a year later when we found we both had the same desire. But it had changed from “I” want to join Peace Corps to “We” want to join Peace Corps. So we applied, joined, left the U.S., arrived in Malawi, went through training, and even got placed in a village… all together. Because of this and other reasons it is very hard for me to go back to our village without Bryan. Lucky for me the office here needs my help. Our receptionist who previously did the newsletter has taken another job and so the newsletter has fallen to those who have never done one before so I have offered to help and they are glad so at least I have work to do here. Keeping busy is how I best handle being here by myself. I have some cool pictures of random Lilongwe, Malawi. Hopefully I will be able to post some of those pictures soon. I think you will enjoy them. 
Here is our new girl Mwamboli (Mwam-bow-ly). She is such a sweet heart. You can see when we first got her how skinny she was. You could see her ribs even through all her fur. She is 9 – 11 months old and weighs 30 pounds. We do not have any papers on her or anything so when we visited the vet she just got updated on all her shots.
Now she is much happier and in only one week we have noticed a difference in her weight. We took here back to the village with us when we went back for Bryan to pack and I was surprised how the children loved her. Normally larger dogs scare Malawians, it was good to see they get along well. Bryan is headed for South Africa for Medical purposes… He is having his knee checked out further with possible operation or something. Sorry I do not have a large medical vocabulary. Please keep him and myself (as I stay here) in your prayers. 
My birthday was better than could have ever been imagined! We met a fellow volunteer in Salima (Tim) and we hung out awhile then went to one of his favorite shops where he knows the owner and he gets him special request products like olives… When he found out it was my birthday he suggested we go to the lake, Sanga Bay. Before we could argue he said he knew a guy who manages a lodge on the lake and he had the phone in hand calling him. So it happened that this guy was on his way to Salima! So he took us back with him and we ate the amazing food at the restraint and then they surprised me with a cake his wife made! And if all that’s not enough they gave me a puppy! That was the best day ever!
So here are some pictures of the puppy and our cat. They are about the same age and get along great! The dogs name is Mphatso (M-pot-so) meaning in Chichewa Gift. Her father looked like Benji and her mother was what I would call the most adorable village dog in the world but Bryan says she is some sort of English Breed, so who knows. Sharpvale has become very very hot… Of 100 F during the days and not much lower at night. We had to swich bedrooms because the sun set on the side of the house we where sleeping on. We work early mornings 5 to 11 then rest read or hang out in the shade until 3 to 5 when we can work again. Our mango trees are getting riper… still not ready to be eaten but we are daily given one from other trees in our area. Our gardens are mostly complete as far as the double digging and we even planted out our strawberries in a round raised garden. Our neighbors gardens are doing great! Better than ours even, he has squash, yard long bean, pumpkin, mustard, spinage, cabbage and more! Bryan and Mr. Liwonde invented a new addition or remodeling to our chim. We no longer have to squat over a hole, now we can sit… I did not take a picture of the finished project but here is what it sort of looks like. Also as promised here is a picture of our three sheep and our chickens… only now we only have one remaining… we will try again this November. Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I think they came true... 
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