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Published: December 17th 2008
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It doesn't really feel like December here...100+ degrees, rains, floods and cholera. BUT, I did have a great Thanksgiving and Birthday!
At Thanksgiving we were invited to the Ambassador's house. Unfortunately, we had pork instead of turkey, but there was still PLENTY to eat. AND a pool! By 4pm I was absolutely worthless, and I went back to the transit house with a handful of others to lounge around. BUT, many of my friends (despite the fact that they had what they dubbed as 'food babies') went to another party afterwards at Christine's house.
The Friday after Thanksgiving we spent much of the time in more sessions talking about how to properly hand in our paperwork...BORING. That evening Cathy, Kelly and I met up with Moni, Jeanne and Judy at the hotel they were staying at and we met some really nice girls studying here from the states. They even offered to take Kelly and myself back down to the south the following day (beats public transport). So we met the following day with them, helped them rent a car and spent the day traveling to Blantrye. That evening we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant, which was actually nice.
Sunday I managed to get a ride back to Fatima in the College bus (even though they were 4 hours late), and I came back to find that my cat had doubled in size!
The following week I introduced Medical-Surgical Nursing to the first years. Britt also sent me Strawberry cake mix for my birthday, so Elly invited me over to her house Thursday evening to bake it since she has an oven. I made 2 small cakes. Elly, Hiram and I ate one Thursday night before they left for a VSO convention in Senga Bay, and the other one I saved.
Cathy made it to my house Friday (after spending 3 or 4 hours in the back of a matola) and we decided to eat the other cake, as well as macaroni and cheese. It was GREAT.
For my birthday Becky had organized a way for us to spend the night at Zulere Lodge (located between our sites). Cathy and I met her and Ross there around 1pm. A short time later Kelly, Tracey and Katie arrived (in not the greatest mood because of transport difficulties...no one seems to believe me when I say 60K
Cathy's portions...
Yeah, we had PLENTY of food! off the tarmac on my road is NOT fun). We ate lots of chicken and chips (kinda like french fries) and candy. Unfortunately the lodge did not have electricity, so the drinks were not cold and we played UNO by candlelight...But it was a nice and calm birthday.
The following morning my friends got up at 4am to try to get a ride back out of Nsanje, but were unsuccessful. Ross and I slept in and ate breakfast before parting ways (he went back to Becky's house to spend the night). I got a bike taxi back to my house. It was odd because even though my taxi driver spoke to me in descent English, when I told him to stop because we were passing my friends on the road he didn't seem to understand. I think people must have that I was crazy because I was waving my arms and pointing, but the driver was just oblivious.
It was okay though because I got back to my house with enough time to shower and clean up the mess Zuze made as revenge for me leaving him alone again before Cathy, Katie, Kelly and Tracey arrived on my
doorstep.
They were not happy about not getting a ride, but I think when they remembered that I had a refrigerator things went better. We made frozen coffee drinks and had cold sodas. Katie led dinner plans, and Falice my counterpart even came over and we played cards. We finished the evening with a movie:
The Kingdom, but I didn't make it through the entire thing.
They left the following morning with hospital transport. Since then I have been finishing my introduction of Med-Surg lessons, and I prepared an exam for the first years, which they took Monday. Yesterday evening I got a ride to Blantyre with the Norwegian Church Aide organization, and tomorrow I plan on making my way to Lilongwe.
Saturday I plan on getting on a bus with 4 others to Tanzania. We plan on spending Christmas in Zanzibar. Don't worry, I will take lots of pictures!!
Merry Christmas!
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