a long night in the hospital (is an understatement)

On Monday I opted to not write about a fellow DI who lives right across from me who found out she had malaria…but now that another DI has malaria I feel obligated to…a DI started feeling sick Monday morning and was taken to the hospital and given a malaria test…her test came back positive and she and had to spend the night in the hospital to have treatment…she had level 1 malaria…the levels of malaria are 1-5 (5 being the deadliest)…

Malaria is caused by a parasite that is passed from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. After infection, the parasites (called sporozoites) travel through the bloodstream to the liver, where they mature and release another form, the merozoites. The parasites enter the bloodstream and infect red blood cells. The parasites multiply inside the red blood cells, which then break open within 48 to 72 hours, infecting more red blood cells. The first symptoms usually occur 10 days to 4 weeks after infection, though they can appear as early as 8 days or as long as a year after infection. The symptoms occur in cycles of 48 to 72 hours. Malaria is a parasitic disease that involves shaking chills, high fevers, and flu-like symptoms. The symptoms we were told to look for were chills, fever, vomiting, muscle pain (usually in an uncommon place) headache, not being able to sleep, diarrhea and, bloody stools. Malaria level 4 & 5 people sometimes fall into a comma…

The DI spent the night in hospital and had to have a treatment in an IV drip…the treatment was Qualaquin (quinine) and Glucose mixed together…the Quinine is super strong and has some extreme side effects… fever, chills, confusion, weakness, sweating, severe vomiting, stomach pain, diarrhea, problems with vision or hearing (they say your ears start ringing and they continue to ring for a period of time)…you receive just a bag of glucose in an IV after you have completed the bag of Quinine & Glucose…it depends what level of malaria you have for how many treatments of Quinine & Glucose you will receive…the DI had a bad reaction (but the doctors said a very common reaction) to the treatment…she threw-up for almost 12 hours straight, had awful headaches, her ears were ringing and she was sweating profusely …she came back to campus on Tuesday afternoon and she looked horrible! She was given tablets to take for a few days and then she can start taking her malaria med’s again…(we all are supposed to take one pill a day)  she just started to feel better yesterday and finally has an appetite again…I spoke with her yesterday and she said it was the worst experience she has ever had…


Another DI started to feel a little bad on Thursday (she lives a few steps from me)…she has only been here for 10 days but we were all advised to react if we ever feel a little off…I volunteered to go to the hospital with her for a malaria test, and I figured I might as well get one too since I was going to be there…so we both just grabbed a jacket and hoped into the car and went to the hospital…it was a little crowded and since it was her first trip to the hospital it took longer than usually for her to be tested…I took the malaria test and my came back negative…we waited for her test and when the guy walked-out he looked at her and said you must see a Dr. right away…we both looked at each other and started thinking the worst…so she was called into the Dr.’s office and I went with her…he told her that her test was positive and that she had level 2… she told the Dr. that she hadn’t been taking her Malaria med’s everyday…she had been taking them every other day…i dismissed this at the time and was more worried about her getting better..
After filling-out some forms and having a visit from the supervisor she was then placed in the ER to start her treatment…since I had accompanied her to the hospital I too had to stay the night in the hospital to look after her and help her if she needed it…it wasn’t so bad at first…

I walked to a nearby bakery (one of my favorite places in Blantyre) and used the money the school gave us to by us dinner and some amazing (American Brownies)…that was what they called them…anyways I returned to the ER and she was in an area that had a bed and a trash can…the bed still had dirty sheets on it from the last patient and what seemed to be another malaria treat IV bag that was half-in & half-out of the trash can (and this is the nicest hospital in Blantyre)…

So we both ate a little and gave what was left to the nurse who quickly snatched it from us with a BIG smile…she was really funny about it!! they started to put the needle in her hand for the IV and the moan she let-out sent shivers-up my spine…we were then moved to the hospital ward and into a tiny room…these rooms have two (patient) beds, no mosquito nets on the windows just over the two beds and it was about 10 degrees hotter in the room than it was outside…i let-out a heavy sigh and helped my friend into her bed…the supervisor later returned with a mattress and a blanket and a sheet for me to sleep on for the night…the floor was so nasty! I set-up my bed and started to notice the color changing in my friends face a little bit…from what the doctor had said she soon was going to start feeling the side effects from the Quinine & Glucose…I had to help her get in and out of her bed a few times to go to the bathroom and hold her Quinine & Glucose bag while she did…an hour or so later she started freezing and shaking…so I covered her in the blanket from the other bed and gave her my sheet too…then she threw-up a few times and I held her hair for her and the bucket…she finally was able to fall asleep…

As I laid down on the mattress, I gazed-up at her Quinine & Glucose drip and just watched the drip for a while…it was so incredible hot in that room and I had to close the windows because I didn’t have a mosquito net to cover me while I slept…the noise from the hospital and knowing that I was sleeping on a dirty hospital floor kept me from sleeping a wink…I had to finally open a window because the smell of her vomit was smothering me (they didn’t remove the vomit bucket until the next morning)…I then broke-out into a mental panic worrying about getting bit by a mosquito here because there are some many malaria infected people at the hospital…

I tried to com myself by counting the shadows of people who walked by until I saw a few roaches crawl across the floor…I then turned over and mentally tried to find a happy place…so I envisioned getting off the plane the first week in May and jumping into my fiancés arms and then walking to the car and being covered in kisses (or licks) from our labradoodle  Nimbin…

I was so happy when the sun began to rise but I found myself very angry…I was mad that the DI neglected to take her Malaria pills every day and had  put me at risk… and that I had to spend a miserable night sleeping on a disgusting hospital floor…I also had a few mosquito bites from the night and God only knows what else I could have caught there…she was feeling fine when she woke-up but the doctor insisted that she stay another night because she needed  another Quinine & Glucose drip since she had level 2 Malaria…when the supervisor got there at 7am I took him outside and told him that I refuse to put my own health at risk for another person's carelessness and stupidity!!!!  another DI came to the hospital to take my place and i returned  to the campus...


I'm really looking forward to visiting the orphanage tomorrow and seeing all of the beautiful children there

english club

The Teacher Training College received its new class for 2012 a few weeks ago and, I was approached by one of the supervisors from the school to teach a club on Tuesday nights from 7pm-9pm. A common meeting was held two Tuesdays ago, with the students and the DI’s to discuss various types of clubs. This meeting gave the students an opportunity to converse with one another about potential clubs they would like for the college to have. The night concluded with the students deciding to have 8 different clubs and, I was elected to teach the English Club (the DI’s here are from Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Bulgaria and, South Korea) so English is a second language to all of them. I was delighted to take on this new task and have the opportunity to work with the college students.

 I had 34 students sign-up to join the English Club. I felt confident as I walked into the first meeting last Tuesday.  I greeted the students “good evening and welcome to English Club” and then they responded “good evening madam” ….boy-o-boy did that make me feel old!! I’m from North Carolina which we call the (south) in the states and we are taught at a very young age to always say “sir and ma’am” when speaking to our elders…it’s just part of the southern etiquette. The proper etiquette in Malawi is to say “sir and madam” when speaking to elders. I started giving the students a little background information on myself and my mother country. I was trying to make eye contact with every student during my introduction and it seemed my words just mystified the class. I asked them “do you guys understand?” and no one replied…then one student raised her hand and said “could you please talk slower” and then the club members broke-out into a quite giggle….I started to giggle too…I knew at that moment,  I was really going to enjoy my Tuesday evenings at  English Club.

English Club met on schedule last night; I was very touched by what the students shared with me and their fellow club members. I started the meeting by going over: verbs, adjectives, nouns and, prepositions. Then I taught them the difference between a formal and informal conversation. I picked a few students to come to the front of the class and give a greeting, introduction and, goodbye in each type of conversation…they had a lot of fun with this activity…

I chose to end the class by reviewing the public speaking lesson that we had at the previous meeting. I would call on a student and he/she would come to the front of the class to just talk about whatever they wanted. A lot of the students are very soft spoken and get really nervous when speaking in front of their peers. When we tried this lesson last Tuesday the students were all very fidgety and would either look down or off into a corner when speaking. I tried reverting back to my public speaking classes that I took in college to help prepare myself for the lesson. I was very delighted to see the club member’s feeling more comfortable as they practiced their public speaking.  Also, I was very moved by how the students chose on their own to speak about their personal lives. I sat back and listened to four different club member’s talk about their families and, a few of them incorporated god into their speeches. One of the speeches that really hit-home was given by a young man who is from Mozambique. Mozambique had been fighting a 16 year civil war that ended in 1992. The country has made much progress in economic development and political stability. About one million people died in that civil war and millions more fled abroad or to other parts of the country.He spent his primary years at a refugee school in Mozambique and then his family moved to Malawi. Listening to the different struggles he and his family encountered during this time period was heartwrenching. I was amazed by how he chose to share these details with the club. All of the English Club members are very appreciative of the opportunity they have been given to go to college... they have set very high goals for themselves….I just met these students last Tuesday and I am already very  impressed by them!!

first aid kits

Today Fredison and I went to one of my favorite preschools “Blessings”…this week we are working on first aid kits for the preschools…a few of the preschool's have first aid boxes that were given to them by former DI’s…BUT a lot of them do not…I stocked-up on band-aids, gauze, alcohol swaps and, rubber gloves before I left the states…so I wanted to create first aid boxes for some of the preschools that did not have one…so together with the supervisors we created a few first aid boxes…I was very happy that i brought these items from home and that we were able to put them to good use…as a team we decided which preschools should receive the boxes and what we should put in them…it was very challenging deciding on what schools would receive the first aid boxes...we came to the conclusion that it would be best to give the boxes to the preschools that we could trust to use the contents of the first aid boxes just for the students...we added some of the medications that we bought last month with the preschool budget to the boxes too…I kept some of those medications so we can have them on us in case we come across a child that may need assistance…at Blessings today, Fredison and I were going over the items in the first aid box with the teachers explaining to them what each item was and how to use them...this precious little girl "Alice" was so curious about the first aid boxes and wanted to help me put everything into the box and then take it all out again...

 

 

after we finished with the first aid kits the two teachers began with their lesson…one thing that I have been trying to help the teachers with is to make sure that every student is involved with each lesson…I made an observation after visiting many of the preschools in Chilangoma…it’s very common for the teachers to call-on the same kids for every activity…so with the supervisor’s, we have been trying to teach the teachers that it’s VERY important to call-on all of the students ,not just the ones they know will know the answer “the smarter students”…we feel that the students who know they aren’t going to be called-on are the ones who don’t feel the need to pay attention …we are doing our best to encourage these teachers to try and make all of the students feel as though they belong and that they “matter too”…we are hoping that the extra  encouragement from the teachers will help the slower students begin to excel...

while the teachers were teaching i realized a little girl in the back of the class was just sitting there kind of staring off into space...the teachers were neglecting to call on her...so i started talking with Fredison about the little girl and when the lesson was over we approached the teachers with our concerns...she told us this girl was actually "Alice's little sister" and that she was to weak to participate...they explained that Alice's mother was pregnant and was unable to breastfeed this little girl...it's customary for the mother's here to breastfeed their children up until the age of three...the reasoning for this is because their staple food here is "nsima" which is a thick "maze" porridge...Malawian's call corn "maze"... i have tasted it a few times and it's very thick and taste a little like grits in my opinion...but if you don't have sugar to add to the nisma it taste very bland...the nsima alone doesnt have enough nutrition that a child that young needs to grow...Fredison and I felt very sadden by this news...we told the teachers that someone needs to talk to this family about not having anymore children because they cant even provide for the ones they already have...he and I decided to go to their village market and buy some powered milk for this little girl..."it's rare to find milk in these small villages like I am use to in the states"...we returned with the powered milk and prepared it for the little girl...at first, she was very hesitant to try the milk...she seemed to be more concerned with the fact that a white person was giving it to her...we all had a little laugh about this and i walked outside of the preschool while the teacher's gave the little girl the milk..she drank just about all of the milk and then let-out a little burp that i could here through the thin school wall...i never thought hearing a burp would make me feel very pleased but this one did...

on the bike ride home "Fredison lets me ride beside him" ...i felt the need to ask Fredison if he was feeling ok?..he is always very cheerful but today something seemed a little off with him...so we stopped at the next village and had a cold coke "in a glass bottle"...he began to explain that his wife was sick and that he didn't have the money to take her to the private hospital or to just buy medicine for her...throughout his explanation he didn't once ask me for money or if i could help him..so i asked him where the closet hospital was and how much the medication would cost...he looked down and said "I wasn't asking you for anything Megan, I was just sharing with you because you asked" ...i repeated the same question again and he replied that it was about 30 mins by bike from the village we were in...i then asked him how much the medication would cost and when he replied around 700 mk which equals $4.21 in the states...my heart sank...it's so hard  knowing that so many people suffer from different illnesses here and cant afford to get the medications they need...and they cost nothing...i looked at Fredison and ask him "will you allow me to buy this medication for your wife?" and he gave me a nod...so we finished our cokes and went to the hospital and got the medications...i fought back the tears on the way back to the campus...i felt so mad about all of the suffering here... children not having the proper nutrition they need...people having to suffer from illness that cost nothing to cure...it just isn't fair and something i will never understand...all over the world there are countries spending money on fighting each other... and none of them seem to care that there are people just fighting to stay alive...

new trio has arrived

So excited that a trio from the Caribbean school arrived last Friday…the new DI’S… That means that I will have three girls working with me at the preschools…two of the girls are from Brazil “Ellen and Alice” and Alice and I share the same birthday…the other girl “Sandra” is from Chile…they all speak in broken-English but they are really sweet and are eager to make a difference while they are here. ..Since they are DI’S that means that they have been studying to come here at their school for the last 6 months and will be here in Malawi for 6 months…it’s always so nice meeting new people from different parts of the world and learning about their culture’s…I LOVE IT!

 

Last week, I was talking to one of the preschool supervisors and he was telling me about an orphanage that he works with that is an hour away from here by bike…I expressed my interest in going to the orphanage and meeting some of the children…so he called and made arrangements for he and I to go this past Sunday…I was very thrilled to finally have some children to give the donated soccer jerseys to... “THANKS to PASSBACK” for donating the soccer jerseys for me to bring to Africa...the jerseys have been sitting in this closet-like thing I have in my room…I look at them every day and have been pondering  for weeks on how I would choose which students at the preschool’s to give them to…I knew choosing a few students from every preschool was going to be challenging and a little unfair for the ones who wouldn’t receive one…so this was going to work-out perfectly…by taking the jerseys to the orphanage I could just give them all to the orphans’ !!

 I invited one of the new DI'S from Brazil "Alice " to accompany me and the supervisor "Shakey" to the orphanage.The bike ride to the orphanage was a little grueling for Alice but, I assured her that in about two weeks she would feel physically comfortable riding to the schools…it took me about two weeks to build-up the endurance to travel to the preschools and to get use to the heat…so we had to stop a few times so she could rest…it was nice though because it allowed the three of us time to chat and, for Shakey and I to get to know Alice better…arriving at the orphanage is an experience I will never forget…there was around 34 kids there ranging from the ages 2 to 17 years old…we were greeted by the three headmen from the three surrounding villages and the headmaster of the orphanage…they were all very kind and wore what looked to be their best suits for this occasion…we then all walked into a school where the orphans’ all  meet every day...after talking to the headmaster he explained to me that the orphanage is currently being built…an organization in Hungary is building the orphanage for the three villages…the orphans are staying with family friends right now until the orphanage is complete…I asked him why they had so many orphans in these three villages? He explained that a lot of the children became orphans when their parents found-out that they were HIV positive…it’s very common for parents in this country to leave their children of any age including newborns when they found-out that they are HIV positive…We met all of the beautiful children and gave them each a jersey…i was very pleased to hear that the majority of the children were in school...we sat and talked with the headmaster for a while and he invited us to return and come to his village…he wanted us to see his village and to arrange a traditional African party for us…he told us we could come and learn some African dances and more about his village’s culture. I told him that we would love too!!

SUGAR CANE!!

when i arrived here over a month and a half ago...almost...WOW, it's crazy that i have been here for that long...time really is going by super fast!... back to what i was saying...when i first got here i noticed i saw adults and children of all ages "chewing on trees" i would see them in the city walking down the streets and in the surrounding villages...so i decided to ask one of the preschool school supervisor's  "why do people chew on trees here?" he shot me a bewildered look and said he didn't understand what i was talking about..so at that time i dropped the conversation in fear of maybe i was over stepping his custom line...since then i have developed a very unique bond with the preschool supervisor's that i cherish deeply...i spend the whole week with them and we have all become very close...we are serious when we need to be and laugh out loud with each other every chance we get..so now i feel i can ask them anything and they understand i mean nothing by what i'm asking...i'm just curious...and like any other traveler that travels to a new continent, i hope to be enlightened from my time here...so some time had past since i first asked a supervisor and decided i would ask him again and i did... "why do people chew on trees here and pointed over my shoulder to a guy that was chewing on a tree" he looked at me and then you would have thought someone was holding him down and there were twenty people tickling him...he couldn't stop laughing at me...his reaction was outlandish and the only thing i could think to do was laugh too...then he walked over to me and said "have you ever heard of sugar cane?" i replied "yeah, but i have never seen it before"...then he explained to me that they are not eating the tree "sugar cane" they were just chewing on the inside and it was SUGAR CANE...

sugar cane, you can buy it from any market and it only cost like $0.15 in the states...it buy it in one long stick and then use a machete to cut it into fours and take it home

first you peel the out layer off

the inside is soft

then you just chew-on-it and then spit-it-out...very very tasty!!

 

Moringa oleifera “the miracle tree” & “mother’s best friend ”

This week we have been taking baby Moringa Tree’s to the preschools. We planted these trees a few weeks ago and, have been watering them daily and now they are big enough to take to the preschools. We chose this type of tree because it’s like nutritional dynamite and can be used as  medicine for a lot of things!!

we put the trees in a bucket and strapped them to our bikes

vincent loved the trees!

We explained to the teacher’s that the students are to water the trees everyday…we wanted the students to learn that these are extremely important trees! We told the students that these trees can help them in many ways like when; they are sick, need vitamins, or for nutrition…also, they can help keep the mosquito's away from the school…

  such an adorable group!! the little guy on the far left in the gray shirt was stung by a bee right under his eye on his way to school :( We used some of the money we were giving for the preschool's last month to buy two different types of medicine...one is for cold like symptoms and the other is for fevers and pain...I carry these medicines with me everyday so if we come across a child in-need we can help them...we would love to leave them at the preschool's but fear someone may take them...the pain tablets i have are chewable and for kids... i walked to the water well with him and had him chew one and drink some water...then i put two more in his pocket and pointed to him and then his face "hoping he understood they were for just him"  when we got back from the water well i explained to the supervisor that was with me what i did and then had him translate it to him...he smiled real BIG when he understood...i hope the medicine will ease the pain on his sweet little face...bee stings are never fun!

Liwonde National Park

Liwonde National Park

I took a long weekend this past weekend and decided to go to Liwonde National Park. The DI’s all had a project they had to finish so I set-out on this adventure alone…I goggled Liwonde National Park and the surrounding lodges…I then emailed the owner of the lodge to express my interest in staying there and asked what I needed to do to get there…I also had a meeting with the DI supervisor on the campus to get his advice on what means of transportation I should use…before I left I gave the phone number of the lodge where I would be staying to the supervisor and, told one of the other DI’s that I would text her so she would know when I had arrived at my destination… “I bought a cell phone here a few weeks ago just to have for safety reasons”…I was a little nervous about traveling by myself but I knew as long as I was smart about every move I made that I would be safe…on Friday, I woke-up at 5:30am and took a bike taxi to town and took a mini bus to Blantyre and then another mini bus to Limbe and got on a bigger bus to Liwonde.  I then took a bike taxi to the lodge “Bushman’s Baobabs” The lodge was splendid and was owned by a guy from South Africa. It reminding me of a lodge that my fiancé and soon to be mother-in-law stayed at in Costa Rica when she came to visit us… 

 

At night time you could hear the hippos right outside of the lodge; the owner had an electrical fence put-up to keep the hippos from coming into the camp…needless to say I didn’t get a lot of sleep the two nights I stayed there…

not a bad way to take my first HOT shower in over a month..

    

I met some people from Florida who were staying at the lodge and offer me a ride through the National Park with them. They had rented a really cool old  Land Rover and had driven down from Lake Malawi. So I jumped on the offer and we took a drive through the park....

pumba!!!

 

 the next morning after a tasty breakfast i went on a canoeing safari…my fiancé told me before I left that he didn’t think it was such a good idea to go on this safari because he didn’t think it was very safe…it took a lot of convincing from the lodge owner before I decided to go…I may have had a few minor panic attacks when we first got on the canoe “because every noise I heard in the bush I thought it was a hippo coming to get us” BUT, this safari made my whole trip worth my while...it was incredible…just being so close to the enormous animal would make anyone’s heart skip a few beats! I knew that once my fiancé had talked to the lodge owner that he too would have gone on the canoeing safari…so that gave me the extra courage I needed to embark on this extraordinary adventure…

i was super nervous in this picture!!

quite extraordinary!!

the first elephant i have seen in the wild...

very brave fisherman

i cant take credit for this picture...there was a girl i met who was from Ireland staying at the same lodge I was and she was in a canoe a little bit behind me with a much nicer camera...such a great weekend!!

another remarkable day

I just returned from the preschools and today was another remarkable day…

we were greeted by an old diminutive woman when we arrived…she had to have been in her eighties…I could only see a few teeth peeking through her contagious smile…she welcomed me by giving me a powerful hand slap “it stung a little” and then held my hand for a few more seconds as she welcomed me in Chichewa and, for the first time without hesitation I said “zikomo kwambiri”  and then we walked into the preschool…she wasn't a teacher but seemed to enjoy the company of the students and you cant blame her for that!

 I bought some school supplies before I left the states to use while I’m here and to give to the preschools. This week I have been giving the schools I visit a box of crayons; I haven’t visited a school yet that has paper but I figured they could use them to learn new colors as well as drawling when they have paper. I bought computer paper while I was in “Blantyre” on Monday for the “drawling shapes” lesson I’m teaching this week.  I have been passing out a piece of paper and a crayon to each student. My goal was to teach the students shapes and  for them to learn the correct way to hold a crayon. First, I stood in front of the class and showed them how to pinch their crayon and the correct places to put their fingers. Then I took a piece of paper and drew a shape (the supervisor was translating what I was saying) Then I went around and made sure each child was holding their crayon the correct way. For the majority of the class I had to take my hand and put it over theirs and drawl the shape with them.  A few of the students just had a bewildered look on their face when I approached them. I’m sure it was the first time a white person had been that close to them and to have touched them...When I approached the few who seemed hesitant and even a little scared; I used a method one of the other DI’s had taught me. I flip my hand over so my palm is facing-up and then I flip their hand over so they can see that they are similar in color…I have found this method gives them a little comfort to see that we share a similarity…I also try and do this with the children who start hysterically crying when they see me…it sometimes works but not ever time…BUT, today it was working…while I was making my way around the class room, I was bent over helping a student and then felt a little tug on the back of my shirt…when I turned around it was a little girl holding-up her circle and looked at me and said “circle”…I about fell over when I heard her English and saw the perfect circle on her paper…I couldn’t help but to bring her into my arms and give her a huge hug and tell her great job…little did I know this had started a chain-reaction… they all started coming-up to me showing me their picture and trying to say circle in English…I ended-up hugging almost all of them and praising them for their efforts…it’s astonishing to me how children at such a young age are able to pick things-up so quickly…it’s almost like they are a little sponge absorbing everything they come in-contact with...

then we all walked outside the preschool and i went and found a stick and showed the teachers and students that they could practice what i just taught them without crayons and paper...i then started drawling the shapes into the sand and showing the teachers that they can use their nature resources to continue helping the students to learn how to "draw shapes."

After my lesson was over the students then had play time...i was in disbelief when they started playing the game "head-shoulders-knees-and-toes" because that was the first time i had seen a preschool play this game, so of course i had to join them after i snapped a few photos...

One of the many things that I will miss when I leave this exquisite country is the free time I have to reflect on my day. I’m not consumed by the fast pace in the states like "getting off of work and hoping on the interstate to drive home, trying to return emails and phone calls, finding time to walk my dog, clean the house, laundry, go to the grocery store, etc…” I’m sure you all get the point and understand exactly what I mean…this reflection time allows me to really enjoy and cherish each special moment of everyday I have here with these amazing students… I know I’m not here long enough to follow-up and see if they are remembering everything I teach them…one thing is for sure though…I will remember everything they have taught me for the rest of my life…

this is what i have in my fridge at all times... the peanut butter is so-so BUT the bananas are excellent and the Nali pure honey is first-class...it's so yummie! i'm not sure that i have ever tasted pure honey before coming to malawi...

some of the locals use the government built dam to wash their clothes

 On the way to the preschools this morning there were animals bathing in this same water. Also, I saw women filling-up buckets full of water and placing them on their heads...i asked the guard who was
escorting me today what he thought they would use the water for? he told me they would use the water for: drinking, bathing and, cleaning. I asked him if they would boil the water before they used it for drinking? he replied "some of them will be it's unlikely" 

I loved seeing the teacher's teaching the HIV/AIDS interactive game I taught them at TTD

Mango preschool is held in the village church because they don't have a preschool in their village

awww,one of the many memories that i will always cherish from this experience

MARCH 3rd

March 3^rd was a public Holiday in Malawi…this day is devoted for the freedom fighters of Malawi…on this day Malawi remembers those who died in the fight against the British to gain independence… People go to the churches to offer prayers for the parted souls of the martyrs…

It's a rule in Malawi that if a holiday falls on any Saturday then the previous day will always be a holiday. If any public holiday falls on Sunday then the succeeding day will naturally be a local holiday…so March 3^rd fell on a Saturday this year so we had Monday off…yesterday I took a minibus with two other DI’s to closest city "Blantyre" which is an hour away and we went to a French hotel called Hostellerie De France ….

 

The hotel had a salt water pool with a spectacular view…

 and had really cool statues....

the french guy who owns the hotel was really nice, he asked us which country we were from and then made flags that represented them ...Mexico, Untied States, Bulgaria, and my state flag North Carolina "he had a really good time trying to mimic my southern accent with a flick-of-the-hand when saying C-AAA-R-O-L-II-NNNN-A"

when you look over the ledge you will see a 10ft tall brick wall that has broken pieces of glass cemented across the top....accompanied by some malicious looking barbwire...we had amazing banana crapes while we were there....BUT, there was some very unusual items on the menu like: goose liver, frog legs and, goose liver truffle...i chose to stay away from those!!

this was a huge palm tree outside of the hotel...i have never seen this kind of palm tree before...there are over 2,000 different kinds of palm trees that can be found all over the world...before i visited Thailand i thought there was just one kind "the one you usually see on postcards or tv" the Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera)