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!

John's computer

While in the States in October we bought a new computer and were given a wireless router so for about 2 weeks we were in technology heaven - we each had a computer with Internet access (and it was even running a bit faster) and Karis had her DVD player to watch her "moosh" We loved it but had a bad feeling it was "too good to be true..." Sure enough, "John's" computer decided to die. However, he was able to get on the Dell chat line and they decided it was the motherboard and he needed to send in his computer for repair... He was able to convince them to just mail him the motherboard Hurdle #1) we had to give a shipping address on the spot so gave my grandparent's. Someone needed to sign for the package and they are retired and usually home and very dependable... EXCEPT, unbeknownst to us they were on vacation. Thankfully, a neighbor must have signed for it. Hurdle #2) getting it here - one of John's colleagues made an unexpected trip to the US and was able to bring it back. These SHOULD have been the hurdles. However, who knew that there were 20 different screws to get the thing apart and that several of them would be virtually impossible to get out. Thankfully, the IT person, Thomas, at his work was able to help. He was so excited the first night to get it done and then had to give up on the screws. Next day he took it to work, Thomas got the screws out and John sat down the next night to fix the whole thing, got down another level and found anothr screw that would not come out so had to take it back to work again! Finally, the third night he was able to actually get everything apart and install the new motherboard and it wouldn't work!! So he took it back to Thomas for him to check it out and was rather dejected. Today Thomas had time to look at it and said, "John, it looks like you did a great job and everything is installed correctly you just forgot to put the processor back in!" The feeling of foolishness is far surpassed by the joy that the computer might actually work again! Thomas was supposed to be installing the processor tonight so keep your fingers crossed!

Someone Important Must Live on Our Road

1/12 We have decided that someone important must have moved onto our road somewhere because what was already a rather nice tarred, 2 lane road well able to handle the flow of traffic has been transformed into the nicest dirt road I have ever seen!! First, huge piles of dirt appeard every 20 feet or so and then they have spent over a week spreading and packing this dirt (and apparently pulling up the tar underneath) I suspect they will start tarring anyday which could get rather interesting since we only have one way off our compound and it is straight onto this road! We could not have left if we wanted to on Saturday afternoon and I suspect it will be unpassable again at some point in the near future. When we arrived a year and a half ago it was totally "bush" across the street with no development but in that time a school and several houses have been built and we can tell it is going to be developed more and more so it is reasonable to work on the road. THen this morning a friend said she heard this road was being widened to make it sort of a bypass around Lilongwe!! Aghh! since this would ahve a huge impact on the traffic I can only hope it is a false rumor... and praise the Lord we only rent this house and will be long gone before they actually finish such a bypass! (this road deadends about 2-3 miles from our house. to actually connect it as a bypass to the cities in the south they will have to build several miles of totally new road)
12/17 -I didn't post this the other day because I wanted to load a picture and the internet was too slow. Today I am getting an odd error message so I will just post minus the picture. The development on the road in the past week? Well, they spent 4 days grading and packign and smoothing till it was the best dirt road I have ever seen and then they dug it all up and started over because there was "a failure" somewhere. I think that means they made a mistake. One of Thomas's responsibilities for the week is to keep an eye on the progress and to let me know before they start tarring in front of our house so I can get the car off the compound instead of getting totally blocked on!

Snake Encounter!

Yesterday karis and i went swimming at our friends Beth and Jeremy's house. Beth is currently in the UK and Jeremy was at work but their two lovely daughters Claire (8) and Brianna (7) were home as well as a friend who is staying with the family, Kate. So we had a nice swim and then Karis and I went to the bathroom to change. I walked in, put Karis down, dropped my bag and closed the door all sort in one movement and then looked up to see a large green snake in the shower about 6-8 feet in front of us! It was a littler surreal, I grabbed Karis but she of course was already walking away from me - toward the snake (though I don't think she really saw it but was just stepping away after I put her down) so I had to grab for her twice then had to turn my back to open the door which of course stuck the first time!! Thankfully, the snake was more occupied with getting out of the shower by attempting to climb up the wall that I don't think it hardly saw us.
I get out of the bathroom, slam the door and yell for the girls to call the gardener! Thankfully, all people and all 4 dogs were in the kitchen area and out of the way. So Brianna runs to do that and Claire, who is fearless, is crouching by the door to see if she can see it (I wouldn't let her open it) The gardener dutifully comes in with a stick and a machete. We show him the bathroom door and then close the hall door and stand and wait! We closed the hall door so that if the snake got out of the bathroom it didn't come straight into the room with the kids and the dogs but I still felt a little guilty and I stood in safety and sent him off to kill the snake! We waited about 2 minutes while we hear whacking from the bathroom and then he comes out pushing a still writhing snake along the floor, leaving blood spots. ughh.


The girls and the gardener said it was a Green Mamba (very poisonous and aggressive) but I think that is a pretty standard answer for all green snakes so I am not sure. However, we couldn't find the snake book so we put it in a bucket and put it up high where the dogs couldn't reach it to await Jeremy's assessment.

Oh, I just got a text from him and he said it was 100% a green mamba and that it was about 1.5 meters.(this is why little girls have fathers - there was no way I was going to measure the thing and Claire was the one who put it in the bucket!)

On the one hand I making this a pretty dramatic story but on the other hand, this situation had potential to be really dangerous - My theory is that the snake got in throught the open bathroom window above the shower and it just wanted back out when it couldn't get back up the wall there is no telling where it would have gone! Claire and Brianna of course run all over their house and karis tends to run around too and any one of them could have encountered it and had it even been curled up in the shower versus trying to get out then someone could have stepped on it. Had one us gotten bitten it would have been a really, really big deal so I just praise God that it worked out the way it did! AND that the gardener was there! Kate and I discussed that had he not been there we really would have had to have been responsible adults and killed it ourselves!! And had that happend we would have done fine BUT praise God for the gardener!