Updates...

Of course I am hopelessly behind on updating this blog again. Oh well.
My neighbor made a comment several weeks ago that it is hard to cross things off your
"To Do" list here because issues never seem to actually be resolved! At the time I thought she was being a bit pessimistic but as I look back over my posts I see her point!

• John's computer - Thomas installed the processor and it worked!! for about a day... We really think there is an issue with the power supply and actually were afraid of this the whole time we were going through the motherboard procedure. Anyway, John gave the computer back to Thomas to get worked on. That was before Christmas and we still haven't heard anything...
• Our road - this one gets funnier and funnier(sort of). After December 14th or so they did not work on it until after the holidays. Then for 2 weeks they worked on the 100 meters of road that passes directly in front of our gate. There was a nice dirt detour but to get to our house you had to go over the stretch that was being worked on. We would just get out, move the drum that was blocking the road, go through, and then put it back. It took so long because they had to put in a culvert just a few meters down. Then one day they were suddenly gone! Which was odd because the road clearly is not finished. It needs another layer of tar or something! According to our guards (who enjoyed the entertainment outside the gate) someone stole some of the money for the road so they have quit and aren't going to do any more! The sad thing about it is that there is no way the road will hold up through the rains. By this time next year it will be in worse condition that it ever was... Unfortunate

• water board - After spending an hour figuring out the problem (8500 kwacha suddenly appeared on our bill) I went to the water board to resovle it. The man was quite nice and agreed with my calculations of usage and bills paid etc. He gave me an explanation that made absalutley no sense about the extra charge but assured me it would be fine... Since karis was running everywhere, I couldn't really hear/understand him through the window and it seemed futile I just said "okay" and left with nothing really resolved! Later John went to try to figure it out as well he also came home a bit defeated from the logical explanation standpoint but assured that if we paid the amount for December we would be at a "zero" balance. Of course, we're yet to actually see the bill for December but I went ahead and paid the amount the other day. Of course when i went to pay the man had no change! I normally just let them give us a credit but since the goal is to get to "zero" I wanted change this time so I had to go shopping to get some change! I did that and then got back in line only to be behind someone paying muliptle bills with coins! It took about 10-15 minutes and by the time he was done the cashier had enough change for the week! Theoretically we should now get a bill for January with a zero opening balance and the charge that mysteriously appeared will have disappeared. If not, there will be further updates!

Satemwa Tea Estate

We visited a tea estate while Sara's parents were here. It was really, really beautiful and relaxing. We had been to this estate before - in the dry season. This time we stayed in a house that was higher up the hill and it is rainy season. We made it but it was pretty sketchy in our little sedan! In fact, we were a little worried that if it rained too much while we were there we would not make it out. I kept assuring myself it would be fine and then it rained for HOURs the night before we left! Thankfully it was actually not too bad, even though it had only been few hours a lot of the water had been absorbed already. We decided we must have arrived immediately after a rain the first day.

Fuel shortage

We are having a pseudo fuel shortage - the rumors are rampant and a lot of stations are out of fuel (indicated by placing fire extinguishers or orange traffic cones in front of the pumps) but several stations do actually have some it just seems to rotate as to which ones! Friends said they could only find it in one place on Saturday and that place was a total madhouse with a rather long line (1.5 hours). I found it this morning and the station was certainly busy but nothing crazy. However that was at 8 and they are now out but other stations do have it. I have heard three reasons for the shortage:

• Prices are about to go up and people are trying to fill up before they do and there has been so much rain in this whole region that the tankers are having a hard time making it through.
• Both our fuel and fertilizer come from Mozambique. Malawi is incredibly dependent on maize and every year need more and more fertilizer to get a good crop and there is so much fertilizer coming right now with planting season that the customs officials are getting behind and the fuel is not getting through...
• Stations are hording fuel because prices are about to go up and they want to sell their fuel after the price hike

Your guess is as good as mine as to the true reason! In the meantime, i am just happy for a full tank!

Our Little Swimmer

Karis currently enjoys nothing more than running around in her swimsuit! I think she has worn a swimsuit for a signficant portion of pretty much every day for the past few weeks. Keep in mind that it has rained pretty much all of those days as well so we haven't actually been swimming! She just likes to wear swmsuits! Swimsuits are one thing but she is also beginning to like the idea of NO clothes! We were at a dinner party eariler this week and she actually took off her trousers and then later tried to convince me she was "hot" to take her shirt off! I happened to have a short, sleeveless outfit in her diaper bag so we just changer her into that! We'll see how long each issue lasts!