Thuma Forest

 

Went on a nice hike . . .

 

 

 

We looked for elephants but only saw the tracks. The grass was too high to see big animals.

Daily events

 

Darian laying in his bed. Yes, its true he sleeps in a porta-crib every night.

 

This is what Darian does when we come to give him his Malaria medicine. Its pretty gross.

 

The daily post-bath scene.

 

Malawian Tobacco Auction

 

Tobacco is one of Malawi's largest exports, about 25% of the GDP. We went on a tour and watched a tobacco auction. Apparently the worldwide demand for tobacco hasn't gone down at all in the last few years since young smokers have increased in number especially in Eastern countries.

 

 

 

Kian's 4th Birthday

 

We took Kian and his closest friends to his favorite restaurant Pizza Inn (the one strip-mall type pizza joint in Lilongwe)

 

He had some homemade chocolate cake in the dark (power went out that night)

 

Got guns as gifts (naturally).

 

Darian enjoyed the party.

A day in the life of Shima

 

Giving a lecture on constitutional rights to students at the University of Malawi.

 

At a prison with paralegals interviewing people who have been in prison for over a year without a court hearing.

 

These are observers at a trial I did in Magistrate court (lower court) representing 13 people accused of burglary, theft and malicious damage (11 were acquitted).

 

Sitting at my desk at DFID (British Department for International Development), which is what I do 90% of the time.

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

 

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.