10 March

Apparently time is flying by—I thought it hadn’t been very long since my last post but I am way off about that. I’m not really sure where to begin with the updates. Work wise there is little to report (as usual). You all probably think we don’t do anything but we do...just nothing that is super exciting to report. The past week we have been working on a HIV fact sheet so that we can teach lessons to the patients at the hospital. Not sure when we will start doing that but Dr. Tambukwa seems like he really wants us to and it is sure to be entertaining. We’ve also been working on a survey to administer to a few people who are supposed to be receiving nutrition assistance from the various NGOs. The ultimate goal is to get a better idea about exactly what nutrition assistance is being provided. It’s a project that I think will be really worthwhile assuming that we get it off the ground. No one was in the office last week, they are gone again this week, and next week most people will be in Dar. Luckily Mwaipopo will be around so hopefully he will be able to help us out. We’ve also made visits to the CTC to check on the toy corner that we set up and it seems to be a success. One day when we went up to check on things we found that the nurses had locked up the xylophones and the mini piano things presumably because the kids were making too much noise. If they are playing with them you can hear them out the windows of the CTC when you are walking up there which is really funny. I’m glad the toys are finally being put to use, especially on the pediatric HIV clinic days—I think it’s only fair that those kids have something to look forward to when they come to the CTC.

We got our visas extended until the beginning of April (we were given two months when we first arrived). Mwaipopo happens to know some high up guy in the migration office here in Mbeya, so Juliana took us there (Mwaipopo was traveling with everyone else). Not sure what will happen in April but the worst case scenario is that we will have to cross a border. Two weekends ago we spent Saturday night at Utengule, the coffee plantation that’s about a 20 minute drive away, with Elizabeth. The place is beautiful and sits up on a hill overlooking a valley on the road to Zambia. We ended up eating with three Irish people and while the food wasn’t too spectacular (although the banana splits for dessert were amazing) it was nice to be out and about. Sunday we hiked again, getting lost along the way. We ended up in a village where some angry children threw dirt at us (they were mad we didn’t have anything to give them). After booking it out of there we finally made it to the cross that is on top of the mountain sort of behind our house. It was a nice hike although very slippery on the way down and, much to the amusement of Melissa, I ended up on my behind a few times. This past weekend we didn’t do a whole lot of anything which was nice since the last few weekends have been busy. We walked into town and bought some little ice cream things which were very tasty but other than that we just lounged. One of the Germans has left and the other one was at Matema (the beach on Lake Malawi) for the weekend so we had the house to ourselves which was nice. I can’t think of anything else to report except that Mama Martha now thinks my name is Jenny and Melissa’s name is Mona (or Mona Lisa depending on the day). Today is a day off—it’s some Muslim holiday based on the moon so we had no idea which day we’d get off. We thought Monday was supposed to be the holiday but we got no calls telling us it was and Melissa likened the feeling to getting pumped for a snow day only to wake up and realized the storm hasn’t actually happened. It was a nice surprise then when Jenny told us last night that we didn’t have to work today. She told us that we should use the day off to “Sleep, sleep sleep, eat, watch dstv, sleep, sleep, sleep”. This weekend we might be driving to the Zambian border just for fun (Dr. Tambukwa’s idea) so we’ll see what happens...it could be an interesting/entertaining Saturday excursion. That’s all I can think of to report for now. Hope everyone is doing well!