We got dogs!

 

From no pets (didn't mention it earlier but our chicks both died. It was tragic. Don't want to discuss) to three dogs!

 

Pluto (rhodesian ridgeback), Ufa and Jake (mix of rhodesian ridgeback and doberman and something else)

 

 

Kian and Darian love them. We are excited not only to have them as pets, because they are adorable dogs but they will also be good guard dogs at night. They actually prevented a few burglaries for the last family they lived with, so we are hopeful they will also be good to us.

 

more shots of darian feeling right at home.

 

 

 

Kian had so many people to play with.

Before heading off to cold NYC we took a little trip to our favorite beach in Chinteche

 

We rented a beach house and relaxed for a weekend.

 

 

 

Darian felt right at home.

Malawian-style Thanksgiving
So we had Thanksgiving with a great group of friends.

 

We weren't expecting much but we had an amazing turkey (killed and plucked that morning) and the works . . .

 

 

 

including pumpkin pie made from scratch (yup a real pumpkin and crust) by me. It took all day but it was well worth it.

Mzuzu Prison

 

I interviewed some murder and theft suspects in this prison who had been there over a year without any sign of an upcoming trial. This is the interior wall of the prison--not quite high security even though murder suspects are kept in there. All of the prisoners in white are "remandees" which means they have not been to trial and have not been convicted of any crimes. I would have loved to take pictures of the inside but they don't allow it. It was packed with people cooking, sleeping under makeshift tents, doing laundry. At night the prisoners all have to sleep indoors and since there is not very much space they have to sit up and lean on each other to sleep. They have no room to lay down.

 

These are some of the paralegals who work for PASI that came with me to translate and interview the remandees.

 

 

This is the outside wall of the prison.

So all of the complaining I did because Jeff was working too hard during residency I take back

 

 

Kian was playing on the top of the couch and fell on the tile floor, busting his chin open. It was slit so wide and Jeff decided he needed stiches. Luckily he brought his suture kit and lidocane and all of the other stuff he needed to stich it. Of course if we were in the US we would have taken him straight to the ER but the clinics here would not be as safe as Jeff doing it at home. So Jeff pulled his medical magic and stiched him up. That was the easy part.

 

The hard part required all of the above. To try to convice Kian that it was going to be ok to put the above needle into his chin we first tried all of the bribery we could muster. Soda, gum, even a fruit rollup (which is hard to come by here). That stuff always does the charm at our pediatrician's office but somehow it was different since Jeff was doing it and Kian was hysterical. So we had to take drastic measures and resort to fear tactics. We told him that if he didn't let his dad give him this nice small needle that wouldn't even really hurt he had to go to the mean doctors that had lots more needles that would really hurt. Somehow his 3 year old mind was really scared of these mysterious mean doctors and pulled it together enough to allow Jeff to poke him at least 6 times with the needle to inject the lidocane and then give him 4 stiches on his chin. I don't know if I could have done it.

 

Kian enjoying his well earned spoils.

Kids playing outside Ufulu gardens . . . our temporary home

 

 

 

More Mzuzu shots

 

 

 

 

Makuzi Beach (still chinteche, just down the shore)

 

 

 

So Darian slept in the shower. I love those portable cribs.

 

Halloween when your parents have little-to-no-crafty skills and you live in Malawi

 

 

Kian dressed up as "sharkman". Notice the homemade foil hat.

 

He won "scariest costume" at the American Embassy Halloween party because he was being judged against 8 princesses. He was giving his scariest face for sure though

 

The mask didn't last very long.

Happy Mother's Day Again

 

Mother's Day in Malawi is October 13. Jeff was pleased to hear that he would have another opportunity to celebrate mother's day since he didn't get me anything the first time around (in May). Kian made me a beautiful glass poem thing that I loved. And Jeff commissioned these two men to make me a big chocolate cake. It was awesome. We swam at the pool and Jeff made tacos. One of the best meals I've had since we've been here.

 

 

 

Oh and the three of you who read this may wonder why we haven't posted for a long time. We had a burglary at our house while we were away in Chinteche (pictures posted above) and so we moved to another place and its been pretty much chaos.