Sunday, March 15, 2009

A day in the life of Darian

 
Busy life, collecting glass bottles
 
taking walks to find sticks
 
destroying plants
 
generally acting like he owns the place.
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A day in the life of Jeff

 
This is a scene from Salima Central Hospital where Jeff does outreach visits a few times a month. People wait all day and he travels down there (an hour or so each way) and sees about 50 patients in about 4 hours.
 

 

 
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Friday, March 13, 2009

A day in the life of Kian

 
Everyday Kian wakes up at about 7:30am, gets himself dressed, we let him outside for change of shift when the guards go home and the gardener (Doomer--yes that is really his name) shows up. He digs in the dirt, helps plant things, pulls weeds and asks everyday if he can help "slash" the grass with a machete (we say no). At some point he comes in for lunch, and then he goes back outside, pushes the dogs around, asks a hundred questions of Doomer and waits for the guards to come back at 5pm. He comes in for dinner and a bath in the evening, then goes back outside with the guards until 7 or 8 and then goes to bed. He literally does this everyday (except for Sundays and Mondays and Wednesdays when he goes to basketball with Jeff at night).
 
Kian also loves opening the gate. He likes to get a kiss when we leave from the car and loves to yell at the dogs so they don't run outside the gate (but 80% of the time they still do).
 

 
Kian loves his life. The other day when Jeff made him come in at 8 p.m., he told him he gets "frustrated" when we make him come in. But...despite all of this, whenever you ask him where he wants to live he says New York.
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Saturday, March 07, 2009

Driving home from Cape Mac through Dedza

 
We stopped on our way home to buy some tomatoes and fresh beans (like those beans we usually buy in a bag. They actually grow in the ground and look like peas before you peel them. Who knew.)
 

 
It's always a bit of a scene when we stop to buy something from the side of the road. Mutual curiosity. They touch Kian's plastic sand toys and look in amazement at the kids' carseats and we try to figure out if we could carry that much weight on our heads and strap the kids on our backs succesfully.
 
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Cape Mac Boat Ride

 
Our friend Eoghan drove us out on his boat to an island off Cape Maclear to go snorkling. All of us couldn't fit in the boat so a few of us swam half way to the island.
 
There were some amazingly colorful fish.
 

 
Jeff took a turn driving on the way back.
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Cape Maclear continued

 

 

 

 
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Boat Trip off Cape Maclear

 

 

 

 
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Valentine's Day at Cape Maclear

 
Sunset driving out to Cape Maclear
 
We took a boat ride to a small island off of the coast of Cape Maclear. We had a some fresh fish caught from the lake cooked over a fire by our boat guides.
 

 
The boys enjoyed their Valentine's Day Skittles.
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

More Bunda Shots

 

 
Apparently Bunda Mountain is a sacred place for evangelical Christian groups.
 

 
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Monday, February 23, 2009

Hiking Bunda Mountain

 
We recently discovered a great hike only about 30 minutes outside of Lilongwe. The first time we took the kids but its pretty much straight up hill and the bubblegum I brought to bribe Kian could only go so far. But this time we left the kids home and were able to get to the top.
 

 

 
As is usually the case, there are a few kids from the village who escorted us up the mountain. One of them (David) liked to sing really loudly.
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