Monday, March 31, 2008
Karis is going to be a big sister!
Yep! Number 2 is on the way! I am "due" October 14. So far I feel fine as long as I eat often enough which is certainly doable. We are excited and there's not really much else to report about it so we'll leave it at that!
England!
We spent a fantastic 5 days in England over Easter! We planned the trip to visit our friends, Stephen and Julia Cheung, but it also worked out that my sister was also there at the same time so we got to see her and her husband as well! It really was a wonderful trip starting with our flight on Virgin Atlantic! We enjoy flying new airlines and had heard good things about them and were not disappointed! Stephen and Julia then picked us up and we stayed with them in Reading. It was rather cold the whole time we were there - 30s-40's most days but we bundled up and were quite comfortable! As the purpose of our visit was to see friends we did not hit all the sites but we did visit some gardens, drank coffee at Starbucks across from Windsor Castle (we decided that was adequate as going inside would have cost $30 a person) ate at Wagamamma's twice and did some window shopping! We had planned to take karis to the zoo but the day we were in London it was REALLY cold and rainy off and on so we decided to go to the museum of natural history instead. Just one small problem: the place was absalutely packed! Easter is a big holiday in England with everyone off school and work and everyone had the same thought process as us - the museums are inside and free!
Things are really expensive in England. Most things "cost" the same amount (or more) in pounds as they would in dollars the only problem is that the exchange rate is $2 to 1 pound! So an 8.99 menu item is really $17! Needless to say, we did not do a lot of shopping and there was a conspicuous lack of tourists from the U.S.!
Things are really expensive in England. Most things "cost" the same amount (or more) in pounds as they would in dollars the only problem is that the exchange rate is $2 to 1 pound! So an 8.99 menu item is really $17! Needless to say, we did not do a lot of shopping and there was a conspicuous lack of tourists from the U.S.!
The Soap Opera Ends!
Finally! The soap opera of our compound seems to have come to an end with a positive conclusion from our standpoint - all three guards and the housekeeper are gone!!! I am not sure how I have said about all this so I will give a brief recap! The issues started about 6 weeks ago with the housekeeper accusing the guards of stealing food from her. They most likely did but of course vehemently denied it. Unfortunately, in the process of investigating the issue we discovered that she had been talking really badly about us herself. We looked to her as a leader for the compound and this is clearly not the sort of leader we needed. This was also the final of several issues relating to housing and transport etc and so we decided to let her go. (but it was a drawn out and difficult process). Meanwhile the issue of the food was never really resolved but that ceased to matter because
a week later MK 15,000 (approx $100) was stolen out of our car!! We have never left money in the car like that before and also always lock the car but came home from a trip and in the process of unloading etc etc just forgot to lock it. Two guards and the gardner had access to the money!! And of course, they all denied it! Thomas, the gardner, was very contrite and very upset. He is smart enough to know that the standard procedure in this case is that 1)they all get fired and/or 2) the police get called in which case everyone gets roughed up a bit till the truth comes out... The guards (Samson and Lloyd) on the other hand were rather obnoxious with their denials and kept saying, "you should have locked the car"... Because we are too soft and because we really did not think Thomas did it and we couldn't fire the guards and not him, we decided to deduct the money from all their salaries. Again, Thomas handles it well knowing this is the best case scenario and the guards whine and complain. A few days later, our third guard, Immanuel, comes forward with some information that indicates Lloyd was the one who took the money. Since we wanted to give it time to learn if Samson had also been in on it and because we did not want to fire people and then leave immediately we did not do anything prior to leaving for London. The day we returned was payday and we were going to address it then. Well, we come home to discover there has been an "emergency"! Immanuel had called our friends on Monday saying they had to come and take our car because Samson and Lloyd were going to steal it that night! Thankfully, the malawain administrator from Baylor came, heard the whole story and fired Samson and Lloyd on the spot. So we came home the next day to just Immanuel who then said that he was being threatend by the other two and just couldn't continue to work here - unfortunately not surprising for how things work here. So we paid him his salary and some severance and sent him on his way. The next day the other 2 show up to plead their case! They of course say that they know nothing about stealing the car, they don't even know how to drive, that Immanuel had actually been in trouble before for stealing a car and that he was the one who hatched the whole plan and when they wouldnt go along with it he used his cell phone to get them in trouble! (they don't have phones) To be honest, their story could be true... But I don't care!!!! I am just so happy that all three are gone. All three had bad attitudes and had been fairly difficult for a while - not the sort of clear cut issues you can fire over but just attitudes and there was too much smoke surrounding all of them! The sad thing is that jobs are hard to come by and they are all three living at a very, very basic level and have families to provide for. The other thing that disturbs me slightly is that Samson and Lloyd still say they did not take the money and Immanuel was not here to have been able to do it... so are Samson and Lloyd lie to the death or did Thomas, the only one I (think) trust and is still working, take it???
a week later MK 15,000 (approx $100) was stolen out of our car!! We have never left money in the car like that before and also always lock the car but came home from a trip and in the process of unloading etc etc just forgot to lock it. Two guards and the gardner had access to the money!! And of course, they all denied it! Thomas, the gardner, was very contrite and very upset. He is smart enough to know that the standard procedure in this case is that 1)they all get fired and/or 2) the police get called in which case everyone gets roughed up a bit till the truth comes out... The guards (Samson and Lloyd) on the other hand were rather obnoxious with their denials and kept saying, "you should have locked the car"... Because we are too soft and because we really did not think Thomas did it and we couldn't fire the guards and not him, we decided to deduct the money from all their salaries. Again, Thomas handles it well knowing this is the best case scenario and the guards whine and complain. A few days later, our third guard, Immanuel, comes forward with some information that indicates Lloyd was the one who took the money. Since we wanted to give it time to learn if Samson had also been in on it and because we did not want to fire people and then leave immediately we did not do anything prior to leaving for London. The day we returned was payday and we were going to address it then. Well, we come home to discover there has been an "emergency"! Immanuel had called our friends on Monday saying they had to come and take our car because Samson and Lloyd were going to steal it that night! Thankfully, the malawain administrator from Baylor came, heard the whole story and fired Samson and Lloyd on the spot. So we came home the next day to just Immanuel who then said that he was being threatend by the other two and just couldn't continue to work here - unfortunately not surprising for how things work here. So we paid him his salary and some severance and sent him on his way. The next day the other 2 show up to plead their case! They of course say that they know nothing about stealing the car, they don't even know how to drive, that Immanuel had actually been in trouble before for stealing a car and that he was the one who hatched the whole plan and when they wouldnt go along with it he used his cell phone to get them in trouble! (they don't have phones) To be honest, their story could be true... But I don't care!!!! I am just so happy that all three are gone. All three had bad attitudes and had been fairly difficult for a while - not the sort of clear cut issues you can fire over but just attitudes and there was too much smoke surrounding all of them! The sad thing is that jobs are hard to come by and they are all three living at a very, very basic level and have families to provide for. The other thing that disturbs me slightly is that Samson and Lloyd still say they did not take the money and Immanuel was not here to have been able to do it... so are Samson and Lloyd lie to the death or did Thomas, the only one I (think) trust and is still working, take it???
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Karis
I really will make a concerted effort to be a better blogger! Just putting "Karis" as a title makes me realize how far behind I am her antics!
The two most recent developments are that she was pretty sick last week and she has started "school". Whether school contributed to the illness is up for discussion but we don't really think so! Basically she is going to nursery school a couple of days a week and really seems to enjoy it. I had been contemplating sending her a little anyway just for the chance to play with other kids and then I got a temporary teaching job and fired our housekeeper/nanny in the same week so that expedited the need to have a place to send her a few hours here and there! I do have a few concerns about the school but to be honest, I have concerns with all the schools here. Safety standards just are not what they are in the U.S. but there is a good ratio of adults to kids and they are all well supervised everytime I am there. She will definitely go at least three days a week for the next "term" which is April thu June because those will be days that I am teaching but I am not sure after that. The advantage of this school was that they were allowing us to pay by the day so it was pretty cost effective to just send her one or 2 days a week. Now we have to pay for full time. It is worth it while I am teaching but I am not sure after that. Also I have not replaced Mathilda in the house so I am not paying that salary. If we end up replacing her I can't afford or justify employing someone full time and send Karis to "School". However, the next few months are sorted out so I will worry about that later!
Meanwhile, karis was sick all last week with high fevers off and on, no appetite and diarrhea. Of course, if your intake for a solid week consisted of milk and avocado the latter can hardly be unexpected! We took her for a malaria smear on Weds after she actually had chills on tuesday night but it was negative. Still, the fevers continued so on Thursday we took her in for labwork and antibiotics. John of course had not been verbalizing much but had been ruling out various diagnoses all week. By Thursday he had narrowed it down to salmonella or typhoid (and I think those 2 are actually related to one another or even similar) She certainly had the symptoms for typhoid he read out of the medical book and we know she ate muffin batter with raw eggs and went swimming in lake malawi so certainly could have been exposed to goodness knows what! Unfortunately, they had a really hard time finding a vein in her chubby little arms and hands so even after 3 sticks did not get enough blood to really diagnose the problem but an injection of a broad spectrum antibiotic worked a miracle and she seemed to recover almost immediately! (did the sickness run its course or the antibiotic just work... who really knows!) We are just really thankful she is better!
The two most recent developments are that she was pretty sick last week and she has started "school". Whether school contributed to the illness is up for discussion but we don't really think so! Basically she is going to nursery school a couple of days a week and really seems to enjoy it. I had been contemplating sending her a little anyway just for the chance to play with other kids and then I got a temporary teaching job and fired our housekeeper/nanny in the same week so that expedited the need to have a place to send her a few hours here and there! I do have a few concerns about the school but to be honest, I have concerns with all the schools here. Safety standards just are not what they are in the U.S. but there is a good ratio of adults to kids and they are all well supervised everytime I am there. She will definitely go at least three days a week for the next "term" which is April thu June because those will be days that I am teaching but I am not sure after that. The advantage of this school was that they were allowing us to pay by the day so it was pretty cost effective to just send her one or 2 days a week. Now we have to pay for full time. It is worth it while I am teaching but I am not sure after that. Also I have not replaced Mathilda in the house so I am not paying that salary. If we end up replacing her I can't afford or justify employing someone full time and send Karis to "School". However, the next few months are sorted out so I will worry about that later!
Meanwhile, karis was sick all last week with high fevers off and on, no appetite and diarrhea. Of course, if your intake for a solid week consisted of milk and avocado the latter can hardly be unexpected! We took her for a malaria smear on Weds after she actually had chills on tuesday night but it was negative. Still, the fevers continued so on Thursday we took her in for labwork and antibiotics. John of course had not been verbalizing much but had been ruling out various diagnoses all week. By Thursday he had narrowed it down to salmonella or typhoid (and I think those 2 are actually related to one another or even similar) She certainly had the symptoms for typhoid he read out of the medical book and we know she ate muffin batter with raw eggs and went swimming in lake malawi so certainly could have been exposed to goodness knows what! Unfortunately, they had a really hard time finding a vein in her chubby little arms and hands so even after 3 sticks did not get enough blood to really diagnose the problem but an injection of a broad spectrum antibiotic worked a miracle and she seemed to recover almost immediately! (did the sickness run its course or the antibiotic just work... who really knows!) We are just really thankful she is better!
Shades of Gray
Corruption is rampant in Malawi as it is in most African nations. From a personal standpoint I feel like it is really important to not contribute to the corruption - because as Christians we need to honor the Lord and as expats that are here to help "fix" the situation and who are constatly horrified by the corruption we certainly don't need to contribute to it. Sounds pretty simple, I mean, after all, its pretty black and white. Or so I thought! I have two different sets of observations on the matter. 1) I have been pretty humbled to see how easily I am tempted to do things that aren't quite right because it is to my advantage, easy and "everyone else is doing it" 2) There are more shades of gray than I can even begin to describe! Here are just a few examples:
- When we bought our car last year we were told it was a 1999 but then one of the forms said 1997. And no where in the car could we initially find a year! We suspect that it is a 1997 but there are import issues that make it easier to bring in and register/inspect cars that are less than 10 years old...
- Taxes are really high here (sales tax is 17.5%) so basically, no one charges it. If you go to pretty much any of the Asian owned shops (which is the majority of shops) they don't actually give you a receipt. They use an adding machine to get your tally and write it on a scrap of paper. How they cook their books at the end of the month/year to justify no sales is a mystery to me....
- Everyone has household staff and the employer is technically required to withhold income tax from their salaries. Yet no one does. I've recently discovered that if income is less than 6,000 kwacha ($42) a month you do not have to pay taxes so some people are technically legal because they pay their staff poorly and then add on things like food, transport, and housing allowances etc (thought the topic of allowances in Malawi is a whole other nightmare for future discussion).
- A large number of businesses (run by expats and malawians) operate totally under the table - the owner may or may not have a work permit and they certainly aren't paying any taxes. It is a bit of a vicious cycle - it is so much hassle to attemp to do it legally so people just don't bother. But maybe if everyone actually paid taxes the government wouldn't have to tax so high?!
- For a little bit of money and knowing the right person you can expedite almost any paperwork you might need to have done such as car inspections etc, etc. Depending on what you want/need this procedure can fall into the clearly not legit category or much more gray!
So let me just wrap up by telling you about my morning yesterday. It started by exchanging money with a friend. He needs some U.S. dollars and I needed some kwacha so we made a mutually beneficial trade. He is using company kwacha to collect company dollars to buy things for the company in the U.S. He will not mismanage the money and the company benefits by being able to buy more, better quality items from the U.S. to help their business... Then I went to a very nice shop in town to buy gifts to take to the UK tomorrow. I know the owner so he sometimes gives me an unsolicited "discount". Then I went to the travel agent to check on some issues inclduign the fact that the charge for our tickets to London has still not showed up on my credit card bill... despite that I "paid" for it a month ago. She thinks it will show up in the next few days but recommended I just wait till we get back to pursue it further! and this is getting long so I will save the story of the electricty bill for a different post!
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