Letters from Malawi

Safari in Zambia

2010-07-14T21:19:00.002-07:00

For all of you who have long awaited this post...

Female water buck

Where we stayed

Starling

Puku

Female puku surrounded by male impalla

Lovebirds

Grey hooded kingfisher

Impalla

hyena

How many heads do you see?

How many crocs can you see? All the log things are crocs! At least 10!

There are 4 different types of birds in this tree. Mostly vultures of two varieties but also hawk(or eagle) and a stork.

a bee eater

White baby baboons! The guide says they out grow their white though.

A field of baboons, maybe they are doing evening yoga.

We will be posting a final post when I have time again. For now I am off to New Orleans, when I return family reunion and then I head to Georgia and Bryan to Washington. When we return from that we are off to California on a road trip! Busy summer! So just keep checking in!

May 2010 2nd post

2010-05-22T02:59:00.000-07:00

Our Farewell at the primary school

Our village chief dancing.

Juve Dancing

Keah Dancing

Teachers Dancing to present us with a gift!

Calvin blowing bubbles

Us and the Murrys

Little Mia, with a disposable camera we gave him as a toy... he loves it!

The Kanyanga Family and Us! We are going to really miss this family.

Left to right, Joshua, Tereza, Esnut, Baby Samuel held by Christopher, Amayi, Chisomo. Front four from left, Lockalo, Dorica, Dave and Mia.

Louis looking sharp on his new bike!

The drive to Lilongwe we took the Dedza escarpment... we could see the lake from some of the points!

Thats the lake reflecting between the points

Thats all for now! We are headed home so soon but we have one more safari first in South Luangwa, pictures will follow!

May 2010

2010-05-22T02:39:00.000-07:00

So We wanted to give you a quick update, but then I pulled all our pictures off the camera, totalling 1,500! So much for a quick and easy update! This post is in two posts because there was just so many photos!!! Enjoy!

Matt killed his first chicken... a nice very large black rooster! All the headmasters kids are looking at the photos from Matts camera.

Calvin with sun glasses and Rafikki

Keah in one of the primary school gardens

The other garden we decided to do some transplanting and fixing up. So this is it cleared of everything but the tree, and lemon grass. It had cape goose berries in it but they did too well so we transplanted them to a better location that they can take over. Below is them transplanted.

Bryan leading the permaculture class and any one who wanted to assist in planting out the garden.

Now it just needs lots of water and time to catch up to the other garden.

This is the other garden we planted 8 months ago, it is doing amazing! The tree is taller than Green! (The guy in the garden his name is Green)

The oven we helped to build for the wives of the scouts.

We baked 2 loaves of bread and a cake the week before we left.

It tasted so good and the women are so happy!

Bryan blowing bubbles for the kids!

Faces around the camp

Justine a new PCV moved into our old house in Sharpevale and we envited her to visit us so we could talk about it. So she came... this is us returning from the chippies stand with a bag full of chippies! (Chippies are like frys only larger and not as cooked)

Bryan on the Charlie Charlie doc

Chitini the staff boat taking the staff to work really early in the morning.

Our final Project, a Medicinal Permagarden

The chosen location next to bananas on the slope on the hill. Can you see Bryan in this photo?

Now we clear the land

Then we dig some holes, burms and trenches for water catchment and control.

We made three beds. The whole garden is a triangle shape so the three beds are small med and large.

Adding manure, then we mixed it in

Planting the medicinal plants, this is Bryan teaching about aloe vera.

planting a tree and more teaching from Bryan

Two days later we returned to the garden and the people had created a fence around the whole garden so the goats don't destroy it all. They had also started digging a shallow well near the bananas.

The group

Another post coming because there are just too many pictures!

May begins

2010-05-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

We have been following the doctors orders and just hanging out around our home. We spend alot of time on our front porch with our camera. See what we see!

Yes FeZZik this is baby Samuel!

Now we go into the park... first the fence then on safari. Bryan requested to see fish eagles and boy did we see fish eagles!

White breasted cormerant

This is the fishing village located just north of the National Park at the southern tip of lake Malambe.

A Tsitsi fly as big as a horse fly only it can carry sleeping sickness. I am just afraid of their bite, they hurt! Luckily the tsitsi flys in Liwonde National Park do not carry sleeping sickness.

Reed Cormerant

He's looking at you!

Catching You Up to Date

2010-04-07T02:46:00.000-07:00

So this has lots and lots of photos... sorry but we love to take photos!

This first group of photos are from around our home. People and stuff. This is Little Anna coming home from pre pre school (she is only 18 months old!) The second our neighbors harvested their maize and had to higher an ox cart to bring it all home! They are hoping to get 35 bags of maize!!!! This year is a bad year but those few lucky people who replanted at the right time like this one family have bumper crops! But sadly most people are not those lucky ones. Our other neighbors only harvested about 3 bags of maize... their family eats 24 bags in a year.

This is Joshua who had just returned from the hunt!!! His family will have a nice lunch! (Yes we eat grasshoppers) Joshua's Mom with Samuel on her back asleep as she washes laundry and Mia (Jerimah) helps.

Mrs. Kanyanga again and little Samuel (Our other neighbors)

Bryan really likes to photograph the moon and stars!

Sunsets from our home.

Mrs. Kanyanga does basket weaving and so Bryan taught her and Christopher (her husband) to make haning baskets that she can sell!

Us just chilling at our home. The front porch is the coolest place afternoon on...

Okay the following group of photos are thanks to Bryan. He felt that all our photos are of him and other things so he has been trying to capture my life in photos. So After a month here is what we have...

Yup that sums up my life here...

This is the oven project with the wives of the Scouts. We are still in the building stages.

The Women...

We went on a boat safari before Easter here is what we saw!

Blue Cheeked Bee eaters

An Elephant

Chinguni Hills (the south side of the park) View from the river.

Open-bill stork

Sun rise over the river

We barrowed a friends wide angle lens and had a blast capturing the river and clouds!

We went to Sharpvale our old home to visit one last time... We sat on the porch of the agogo's house and just chatted. Sadly not everyone was around but it was a suprise trip!

Socko the pup we gave the Liwonde family! Bryan really does love dogs!

The big dip going to the house... almost didn't make it out! Thanks Tim for the lift to our old village... You truly made us and our old village happy!

Us with Mr. Mzimba the original Rhino Tracker at Liwonde National Park!

Check this out on YouTube!

2010-03-06T00:19:00.000-08:00

We just uploaded this Gule Wamkulu video to YouTube... More will come but they are very large!

Our Work at the Sanctuary

2010-02-25T07:18:00.000-08:00

So here is what we have been up to!
Gathing, pringting, cutting...

Laminating...

Displaying

Checking out the Wildlife Sanctuary (across the street)
Yellow Baboon

Blue Monkey

Painting, replacing old photos on old displays.

Bryan Treasure Finding!!!!

He found 10 of these shelves! Full of stuffed birds!

The unusable stuff, the rats and mice had found them before anyone at the sanctuary!

The Baobob tree location

Bryan working with the chicken wire

Making a tree limb!

Our guys helping to paper mache

Today we hung one of the tree limbs and stated putting paper on the other!

A baby duiker that was saved and brought in then taken to the wildlife sanctuary.

We painted park, reserve and sanctuary maps on 3 black boards...

Then posted information!

Then they hung animal skulls up...

We still have so much to do unfortunantly we have to go back to site tomorrow. We will leave it in there hands to finnish!

Random Photos

2010-02-20T04:11:00.000-08:00

This is the church that HELP Malawi built to replace the mud and thatch church that collapsed last rainy season. The church is the group who donated the land for the primary school. The church has also said that the school can use the church during the weekdays to cut the standard one church in half (standard one has 200 students!. Also they want the church to act as a community center, of which does not exsist elsewhere!

Brown Throated Weaver

Bryan caught this one!

See No, Hear No, Speak No Evil!

Look at these flowers!

Kasungu

2010-02-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

We conducted another Graphic Design training only this time in Kasungu!

One day we drove over to Kasungu National Park!

Trying some native fruits... not sure what they are...

Look at the view from the lodge!

Beautiful Grasslands

This is on our way back to town, a house built for a past president. No longer is it a presidents house.

Another post coming soon! Before the end of the week!

Night Shots

2010-02-14T05:34:00.000-08:00

We took these photos at our place over several different night to experiment with night shooting!

This week we hope to post two more posts one from our training we did in Kasungu and another of random things! So keep checking in! Sorry it took so long this time.

Around our place

2010-01-22T21:54:00.000-08:00

Our fire wood saving stove... it uses something like one fifth the amount an open three stone fire does.

A pin-tailed whydah that has been visiting our house.

Fire finches

Staff jetty on the Mvuu side.

I think this is Jasmin, it smells like honey suckle and lavender.

Bryan and CG at the staff jetty on the Mvuu side.

CG by flowering tree

When we talk of the staff boat aka chitini this is it!

The rains have brought colorful skys!

I love this one

Look at this rainbow!

A Beautiful Weekend

2010-01-13T05:10:00.000-08:00

Car work...

We went across the river to Mvuu for last weekend...
The view from our side of the river looking south then across.

This one is for Shawna! Look how green it all is!!!! See not always dry and hot, just hot!

Oh the cute vervet monkeys!

Some birds, its breeding season so they are everywhere and showing off!
BeeEaters first the Bohems and the small

The southern brown throated weavers, the male female and nest which the male builds and then the females pick their mate based on the house!

Lilac Breasted Roller

Fire Finch

Maribou Storks

The Fish Eagle

Malacite Kingfisher

Hippos

Turtle

Elephants, they haven't all gone north... I think it is because we haven't had much rain, in fact two weeks of none!

See the old injuries on his trunk? Maybe from a croc or a poacher.

The shire

Marilie and Keah on boat safari!

Beautiful Malawi, Africa

Christmas Day at Makanga Camp

2009-12-29T23:12:00.001-08:00

Here it is, our Christmas at Makanga Camp with the neighbors! Bryan and I bought 6 chickens and 2 whole crates of soft drinks (20 glass bottles in each. This is Christoper cutting up all the chickens... he is quite the cook!

Lonely making some small donout like snacks for desert.

The girls winnowing the rice.

David brought over some beens to be cooked, so I too cooked something!

The place we chose to dine together was behind the houses in the woods. The families wanted a change of scenery. So they found a clearing and layed out a very big tarp.

The food arrived in bowls on girls heads. We had rice, chicken, beans, mustared greens, boilded eggs and of course a drink and snack!

Bryan keeping guard of food. We were out in the baboons territory after all.

Little Anna on the phone

Awaiting food, the wonderful cooks!

After eating I handed out crayons and paper to all the children...

Esmay

Lockalo and Yamakany

Dorica

Joshua

The older kids and little Mia

Here is some of the drawings

Parting shot, Mia so happy!

P.S. This post took 3 days, 6 different times when the generator came on, and each time with lots of disconeting from the internet... I hope its worth it!

Malawi Music Project

2009-12-08T09:17:00.000-08:00

Last week we assisted in putting on the Malawi Music Project (Band Camp!). Bryan was to video the whole event for a documentary... wish you could have helped Shakesphere! I was a camp counselor (just making sure the kids were on time to classes) and photographer.

The kids got to go on a game drive and saw waterbuck and elephants...

Lesson on sound waves. Beat a drum over plasic with rice on top.

H.E.L.P. Malawi sent 3 band members and 7 students to learn

Sarah, the volunteer hosting, also had the band from her village attend. Notice the village made instruments.

Dance session! See Bryan videoing?

Banjo parts lesson

Each band worked together and learned to build a banjo!

Bottle blowing music!

We are now in the middle of the Print Design training, more later!

Rhino Release!

2009-11-28T21:17:00.000-08:00

November 27, We went along for the release of the rhino that was captured while Shawna was here. So they put a radio transmitter in his horn so that they can keep track of him because they released him outside of the protected sanctuary, but still inside the park.So in order to put in the device they actually drill a hole into its horn. The horn has a woody feel to it and it is made of the same stuff as our fingernails, only alot stronger. So here is the doctor drilling.

He also has to do the tip...

This is what is needed to fit the device...

This is what the device looks like

tape to keep all the dust and dirt out while the next step is prepared.

Freshly mixed acrylic is then used to seal it in.

The best way to monitor a drugged rhino is to stick your finger up his nose so that you can feel his breathing.

Once they got him to the release location they also clipped his ear in order to decifer from a distance which rhino the trackers are looking at.

The sausage tree is one of the rhinos favorite to eat so they found an area with lots of them. See all the spectators?

The area he was released to...

Other food rhinos like are these cut from what we call the cactus tree (euphorbia). It is actually quite dangerous to humans, if you get the milky, sticky white stuff in your eyes you can go blind!

The people who helped and came along...

The gal is the vet who stayed with the rhino while he was in captivity to monitor him.

Yesterday we talked to the trackers who went to find and check on him. I guess because the bush is so thick and the rhino so far from where he was released they had to climb a few trees with the radio reciever device. The rhino had headed back towads the sanctuary, 5 kilometers he walked. We are hoping he will come across the fence to the sanctuary and just be happy staying near it. We hope he does not try to reenter the sanctuary for his own safety. The trackers will continue to monitor him for two weeks or so until it looks as if he has settled down somewhere. We hope to go out with them one of these days and get some photos of this guy awake!

The last weeks

2009-11-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

Shawnas last weeks with us in Liwonde National Park.

We ran a day trip to mulanje and back just to purchase a carved cedar chest! What a beautiful place! I hope to return with Bryan so that we can hike the mountain some!

Shawna and I went to the local grade school and gave the children grades 1 through 7 an hour or so of art class. We actually just brought supplies to the kids and had them draw or paint, allow them to have a creative time. This is something they do not get at school. These pictures are the 7th graders painting their homes all next to one another creating a large village scene! What fun they had!

The women (wives of the scouts) had their party (every 6 months or so)where they dance and buy gifts for their secret pals. Someone bought a whole set of pots for someone. It is a time to have fun together with the women.

neighbor kids, Yamikani, Mia and Lockylo

Bryan and Mia giving each other the thumbs up, well sort of!

Shawna!

The women purchased bricks so that the construction on the community center can start. I fear the rains will come before they can get it all done.

Bryan got a kids ball and played with the kids... Shawna joined in too!

Christopher our neighbor returning from work and giving Mia a ride on his bike!

Some Dutch visited the lodge and challenged the loal soccer team and so they all played together! Louis the kid helping us around our home was on the local team too! He looks happy!

All the players together

Shawna leaves here Thursday, so we have some more shopping to do and lots of packing! It has been so much fun to have her here and to share this experience with her... I think she has changed some as a result. But in good ways! I will try to post pictures of the packing and her leaving later this week! Thats all for now!

The Painting is Finnished!

2009-10-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

Look a pic with all three of us!

Day 5 working on the painting... i think

Today day 6 the final day we recruited Terence to help with the final touches and get anothers opinion.

This is a dirt filled creek that used to attract birds and wildlife up close to the nature sanctuary. We are hoping to get this cleaned out and flowing again.

We signed our work...

The final piece

Painting at the Sanctuary

2009-10-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

In the Lilongwe Nature Sanctuary we have started painting one of the walls...

This is the spot. I am showing the heighth of the elephant, well sort of.

We started by painting the wall the color the rest will eventually be.

Brayn painted Shawna's nose so its time for revenge!

Look we found a ladder! Great now we can paint the elephants head!

So this was the quickest idea to get the pics on the wall... Wonderful things projecters.

So you can't really see it but at the end of day two we had the whole thing sketched.

The third day went so fast! Look you can tell what it will be!

The end of day three and three animals mostly done...

Shawna found the hand on section...
Look at that jaw! It was a hippos, but it looks good for Shawna!

Nice face...

Look out! Don't worry Mom it was only a flesh wound.

This is the elephant skull and Shawna has her head in the ear socket.

Today we painted more...

This is where we are at... hopefully one more day to finnish the buffalo and hyena then maybe do some touch ups... What do you think? We wanted life size so people who have never seen them close up can get an idea of size.

More counting and birthdays!

2009-10-17T03:33:00.000-07:00

We walked all across the park, litarally. Here is what we saw...

Male Waterbuck

Elephants

One day the trek was across an expance like this

We awoke a very very old bishpig from his sleep

Keahs footprint inside an elephants

A rotting croc

Look at the different shapes of these trees!

Patrick, Bryan and Shawna

Look what the elephants have done to this trees trunk.

Shawna thinks this is just Crappy but Bryan seems to like it.

One day they drove us two hours through then outside and around the park through the villages...

See village

Look at this huge baobob and fig tree! Can you find Shawna and Keah?

Here we are... inside the tree, it is huge inside!

The last day we walked on the side of the river where we live, the vegitation was different alot more of it and green too!

Brown headed kingfisher

Vervet monkey

Another bushpig

Birthday party time! We celebrated Shawna's 19 and Anna's 1st birthdays on Oct 14. We baked three cakes and they were gone in less than five minutes!

Anna eating her cake

Shawna dancing with one of the girls

Baby Anna

Last weekend

2009-10-09T23:57:00.000-07:00

We helped out at the animal count at the watering holes here is some of what we counted (of course we didn't count the birds).

Zebra

Warthogs

Mongoose (I think) black tip

You have to keep in mind the size of these animals, this sable family by itself compared to one with warthogs then some with elephants!

A concern to alot of people was that so few roan where spotted

Some birds...

The jewel of Liwonde National Park Lillians lovebird

the lourie, beautifull colors blue and green and then it speads its wings to show its brilliant red!

my favorite the kudu

the ever present impalla

A hippo, look at his foot! He leaves a funny foot print!

heartabeast with baby

elephants, and lots of them they love to play around in the water holes

an older one that remains with only one tusk

nap time, he laid there for 15 minutes

I noticed they love to cross their back legs when resting

the eland always seem to be camera shy, these are the best shots we could get of them

Bushbuck male and female

Shawna while sitting at her water hole one day got invaded by buffalo! They just came out of the trees! They counted 94 of them!

baboons

a large baboon and a bushbuck together at the watering hole

Sorry we did not get more photos of each other but we were separted for the actual sitting in the hides... so we got lots of animals and not any people pics. So after the weekend we went back across the river and to our home. One morning we heard a hippo had been killed so we went to see...

they had already started cutting it up, this was one of the many chunks of meat

They let the blood drain into the ground and left the head to ward off other animals trying to escape the park to go eat from the dry season irrigated gardens.

No wonder they get out often, the fence is above Shawna's head here!

On our way to that spot we spotted two other skeletons from other hippos killed outside the park.

Our portion, made for a nice dinner!

We also took Shawna to see the school. They have water flowing through the taps now. The problem is very very salty water so they can not drink it, they shower and wash clothing in it. This tap they have diverted the run off into the small orchard.

The church is coming right along, because the church donated the land then the church collapsed HELP Malawi is helping them to build a new one, it looks very nice!

The plant nursery is coming right along also, only that the shallow well has run dry.

THe headmaster at the school requested a puppy. So when we heard Mphatso our little gal had pups again we agreed to get one for him from Danny the volunteer keeping Mphatso. This is the headmasters kids with the puppy. A female named rafiki, she has alot of her mothers mannerisms!

Thats all for now, but we are currently doing a large animal count (transect walks) in the park and will post pictures after the weekend!

Rhino Capture!

2009-10-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we stayed over at Mvuu camp in order to help out with the rhino capture. Saturday morning Shawna and I went on a walk about around 5:30am. We were looking for the jewel of Liwonde National Park the Lovebird, but did not find them. We did see lots of elephants though!

The rest of saturday was spent in two different blinds observing all the wildlife.

Kudu females and young males

The beautiful male sable, arn't they handsom?

This sable went horns to tusk of a warthog who stood his ground...

Heartabeast

Look at these ones! Tourists on safari! Yes they scared away some sable and zebra!

Sunday was the day to dart the rhino. This is Shawna with the rhino trackers our neighbors and great friends!

People were put in trees around the water hole where the rhino was then the doctor with the dart gun and the trackers went in. We waited with the trailer that would pick him after he was asleep.

The rhino Leonard ran 600 meters along the road then fell right beside the road, very easy access. This is Jess a guy brought in from Majeta, African Parks in southern Malawi.

They wrapped his face with Chris's shirt to keep all the dust and dirt out of his face.

The doctor gave Shawna a job. He had to remove the heart monitor while we all tried to move him so it didn't get broken so he asked Shawna to moitor Leo's breathing. She was glued to him from that point on. As the doc said, "Mamas are much better than men at this sort of thing." And seeing Shawna and I were the only two female in the group, well Shawna got the job!

Getting ready to move the mini giant.

Bryan and Shawna

Shawna had to ride in the trailor with the doctor and Leo to keep monitoring him.

How cool is this!!!!

So the reason this one was darted was because of injury and health. As you can see he is young, he was kicked out of the family group and then another male decided to teach him a lesson. He had bad stabs and cuts under his rear legs.

All the blue is medicine sprayed on the minor cuts all over his back from brush and such.

After all the work of moving this guy they cleaned him up and tended to the wounds and then Shawna's job was done as they woke him up and we let him get his bearings. This guy will be kept for at least a month to feed him and let him heal. Then most likely he will be translocated to another park, Liwonde's sanctuary is just not large enough for so many males, and they can not be released into the park because the fences are not kept well enough to protect the rhinos.

This weekend is the water hole count and next the large animal count so look for more photos soon!

Sorry devoted readers

2009-09-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

We sold our computer and have new, but still trying to get all the programs so I can edit the hundreds of photos taken while in America. Thanks for sticking with us though! We made it back to malawi safely and are headed South today so Shawna can see our home! I will post more from there.

first week in back in Oklahoma!

2009-08-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Lets go to Lake Tenkiller

Zeke joined us too

Kelsey

Bryan and Blake walking Zeke

Austin

Anthony

Austin and Blake looking at crawdads

Marki and Austin

Wildlife at the Lake
turtle

Hummingbirds!

wheres your fishing pole!

Things to do at the Lake
Blake is playing fetch with Zeke on the island

saining

Zeke liked the minnows

a lake rock puzzle!

sun bathing

Keah

Tubing Kelsey and Keah

Fez tubing

Swinging!
Austin

Anthony

Cliff Jumping!
Anthony

gotta climb up

Water fight!!!!!

The Family

Back row left Anthony holding Wicket, Kelsey, Kristin, Blake, Zeke, Keah, Bryan. Front row left Mark, Austin holding Sugar, Marki and Jay.

July is here!!!!

2009-07-21T04:16:00.000-07:00

It is here, can you believe that it is already July?

We celebrated the 4th of July at the American ambassadors place, Hambergers and hotdogs! And lots of desserts!!!

Alicia and Matt

May

Brian and Kristie Rolig and Brian Kennedy

At the primary school again, this child is processing hybiscus by pulling off its pettles for washing and drying then keeping the seed pods...

More after school activities, tin smithing...

The shire river

this photo is a little out of focus but really cool, it has hippos, a water buck posing in front of a rock and some birds on the left.

This elephant was photogenic

hippos

I had to get this photo, our neighbor put out their infants socks and diaper on dried grasses...

We made some gardens (in bags)around the house! We hope this prevents the sweeping from knocking our house down...

Shawna this is for you, orchid tree flowers!

June in three posts... sorry

2009-07-20T00:33:00.002-07:00

The Women's group I work with...

We are working with an NGO called HELP Malawi. They built a primary school and are needing to build more buildings like an administration and library but first a church. The land was donated by a local village church. The village church actually housed classes while the school was being built, but last rainy season the mub brick, grass thatched building collapsed. Peace Corps has a stablized soil block press so we are barrowing it so that HELP Malawi can use it to make bricks. The traditional style of brick making is done by lots of mud and water pressed into molds then they are sun dried and stacked for firing. They burn an enormouse amount of trees in order to fire them so we introduced this press that requires little water, and a mix of clay, sand, and cement (like 10 to 2 to 1)then they slow dry covered in grasses and watered daily... no firing. Also the press we have make interlocking bricks so no morter requiried!

Dan is another Peace Corps Volunteer who came to Malawi when we did, he has also extented for a third year. He has used a stablized soil block machine/press in his village and so came to teach the HELP Malawi people as well as ourselves to use the press.

they screwed on two long boards and burried them in the ground to hold the press in the ground. Bryan is standing by the lever that is pushed up and on the other end people pull down to press the bricks.

2009-07-20T00:33:00.001-07:00

The group that learned to use the press. Mostly employees of HELP Malawi. When they make the bricks for the church (which they are actually doing now) these people work with and teach volunteer members from the church to help them.

Another project on campus is getting water to everyone. So they have two large tanks, we were around when they attempted to get the second one up on the tower... it didn't go so well...

2009-07-20T00:30:00.001-07:00

They (the Malawians) kept tying slip knots that was, well, look! I wish Ryan were here to show them a proper knot!

after an unsuccesfull try they sent someone in to bang back out the round tank into its round form.

Last week we outplanted a whole planter into its own guild. Bryan and I designed it as a tea garden/guild... the permaculter class helped (as well as many other) to plant the garden.

Often Matt and David give tours around the school to visiting tourists staying at the local lodges, this group Matt asked Bryan to do alot of the explaining for the garden... now he helps in most of the tours talking about permaculture.

Across the river where our HELP Malawi friends live we found a black mamba. It was in one of the offices and had already been killed, so Bryan decided to make use of it, we had to choose between eating and art (neclaces, bracelets). And so we decided on not eating this one. Look at the length! Bryan is even standing on a crate!

So Matt helped Bryan skin it and well here they are holding the two parts...

They pinned the skin to a board to dry...
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and burried the body so that nature can do its thing to clean the bones. We will then dig it up in a few months and use the vertebrae for making jewlry, isn't that what you want to wear? Mamba?!

Our neighbor boy (6th born) Jeramiah (but they call him Mia), he was tired...

Two beautiful bee eaters

Rhino Tracking!

2009-06-04T01:08:00.000-07:00

We went rhino tracking with two scouts! Patrick and our neighbor the head tracker Christopher

Tracking through the bush!

Fezzick wore a kilt and had to clear the road for the vehicle. The roads had not yet been cleared for vehicles!

Me and Fez!

A rhino print!

Me (Keah)

We see buffalo!

Heartabeast

Sable

The Buffalo

Shire river

Me and my buddy the camera!

The largest baobob fig combo tree!

The tree can hold lots of people!

The interior

See the guys?!

Most of the time you only see this much of a hippo...

But we saw more!

Smile!

I like this one!

Croc infested water

Baboon and Impalla

Impalla

Warthog

Elephants

Bushbuck

Bee Eater

Kudu (my favorite!)

The guys hunting Warthogs... okay not really

Another waterbuck

Impally lily

The guys filled our dug out canoe with dirt and plants! Looks nice in front of the house!

Sadly we saw no rhinos but we did capture this rare African Jack a lope (they are much larger in size that the Oklahoma ones!)

Our First Week with Fezzick

2009-05-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

While awaiting Fez to arrive Bryan worked with the inventor of the concrete water pump to get it ready to be used in a village.

We took it to a village just outside the park where farmers do dry season irrigation and tried it out then gave it to the farmers to use and tell us how to make it better.

The inventors sister Marianne who is interested to write a book about the whole FullBelly project

Group shot

Gifts from the farmers

Fez took lots of video...

We went to church with Christopher's family and we named their 8th child, a son, Samuel Blessings

We went to Cape McClear to enjoy the lake. If you come to Malawi, you have to see the lake!

We spent one night on Domwe Island so this is us leaving looking back at the Cape

The walkway connecting the place to sleep to the island...

Our tent

Snorkling to see all the beautiful fish, cichlids

Cormerant drying off in the sun

One awesome guy!

This guy like Fez's balcony

Next time I willpost photos from our tracking trip in the rhino sactuary!
We miss you Fez!

Fun with the Sun... birds

2009-05-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

We are in the City again. We are happily awaiting Fezzicks arrival, planned to be a day or two ago... but he is stuck in a sand storm so we are stuck here. Luckily lots of people have taken advantage of our presence and given us plenty of work to do. Better to be busy than idle...

So here are some pitures of birds found in someones back yard... I think some are sun birds but I do not have my bird book to know what type or what the others are.. Enjoy.

This little female was very photogenic

Our new home

2009-04-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry to leave such a sad depessing post up for so long! Now however we have moved! So we can show you around the place...

This is Sarah one of our neighboring volunteers who knows the people we are now working with so she escorted us to our new place and stayed the first two nights with us... that was fun, the three of us sleeping on the floor together under the one net we remembered to grab! The baby on her back is Ana, the happiest malawian child ever!

This is our house... 2 bedroom one other room...

Behind the house is the bafa (place to bath and kitchen

Looking in the front door at the back door which is by no means secure... we are haveing a new door and frame made this week... hey at least it keeps the monkeys out!

The front office... where we play scrabble (in English) and they ALWAYS win!

The front gate...

This is Louis he is our helper... We pay his secondary (high)school fees and he works for us like sweeping the yard, getting water... whatever he can do. He is a cool kid!

last Sunday we were told a hippo died and they were to go see it and invited us along so of course we go... They had just confinscated a large net on their way in...

When we arrived to the spot they said an elephant had killed the hippo... four scouts had spent the evening/night chopping and smoking it... so when we arrived there was a pile of meat three feet high!

The rib cage... it was so big! I decided not to include the photos of the head and well the rest... sorry if it grouses you out.

A white breasted Cormerant

Baboons near our house!

We are so happy to be moved and working with these people who are awesome! Our house has recieved a white wash as high as the tops of the door frames... and our furniture is in the house... we have ordered bunk beds for our guest room so that Fezzick has a place to sleep when he comes! We will be around for a few days... maybe more pictures will be posted!

In Memory of Jenifer

2009-03-23T04:39:00.000-07:00

Last week the Liwonde's youngest, Jen passed away from rabies. She was bit by a dog that they did not know was rabid. We arrived to Malawi and a baby Jen but how she grew over the last two years, learned to walk, not shy away so much and actually chant and sing our names. We missed her funeral which was large in attendees. I am glad the family is supported so much. This death was hard for us to deal with since we had grown to love and take this child as our own. We know that she is in Gods hands now. But how we and her family miss her. Here are some memories we have of her...

The whole family when we first came in April 2007. Jen is the baby being held by her mother the standing women.

With her sister Mary

With her Mother

With her Father

All back home affected Jen too, these huge playing cards were sent from the states and the children loved them, even Jen.

Jen being traditionally carried by her sister

The last photo we took of her playing in a tub!

Bryan's Mom found this song that helped us with this loss, it is beautiful, maybe you already know it...

Building 429 - Always
From the album Building 429
I was standing in the pouring rain one dark November night
Fighting off the bitter cold when she caught my eye
Her face was taught and her eyes were filled, and to my surprise
She pulled out a photograph and my heart just stopped inside
She said, "He would've been three today
I miss his smile, I miss his face"
What was I supposed to say, but

CHORUS
I believe always, always
Our Savior never fails
Even when all hope is gone
God knows our pain and his promise remains
He will be with you always

He was living in a broken world, dreaming of a home
His heart was barely keeping pace when I found him all alone
Remembering the way he felt when his daddy said goodbye
Fighting just to keep the tears and the anger locked inside
He's barely holding onto faith
But deliverance is on its way, cause

CHORUS
I believe always, always
Our Savior never fails
Even when all hope is gone
God knows our pain and his promise remains
He will be with you always

Friend, I don't know where you are and I don't know where you've been
Maybe you're fighting for your life or just about to throw the towel in
But if you're crying out for mercy, if there's no hope left at all
If you've given everything you've got and you're still about to fall
Well hold on, hold on, hold on, cause

I believe always, always
Our savior never fails
Even when all faith is gone
God knows our pain and his promise remains
Always, always, He will be with you always

Lots of Animals!!!!

2009-03-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

We have taken the camera out...

Our Warthog friends!

My favorite animal in the park is the Kudu! We happened upon this large and strange group of 3 large males one young male and many female (around 20)!

Me and Kory our neighboring volunteer...

The easily found and in great numbers, Impala

We also came across some Water buck including the little one. These guys are easily identified by the white bulls eye on their back sides!

Look what else we found out there! Very rare and hard to find!

The red bishop

Ground Hornbill, this guy is huge 3 feet tall standing!

Geese

juvenile fish eagle

This bird loved the palm trees and he was very camera shy!

Small bee eater

Free ride!!! Yellow baboons

Hope you all enjoyed this!

Noises you shouldn't hear at the Dentist

2009-02-24T05:01:00.000-08:00

We had our dental appointments today, okay not even appointments, they told us to come at 9ish and they would try to fit us in this morning. We filled out the necessary paperwork (that yes is even required in Africa) and took a seat to wait our turn. This place is actually the Adventist Health center next door to the main Adventist Church in Malawi. So one half of the building we went into was the dentist and the other a clinic. Some time passed as we chatted and waited when all of a sudden an ear peircing screem came from the dentist side. Bryan and I looked at each other nervously then Bryan says “Not the kind of noise you want to hear at the dentisit.” Soon a young girl came out with a wad of gauze in her mouth, tooth in hand and a large smile as her Mom asked, "Was that you that screemed?!"

Luckily our visits with the dentist went well and we actually like this place a lot more than the other we went to last year. We both had cavities but are having them taken care of. Halfway through our visit to the dentist we started to hear funneral wailing… someone passed away on the clinic side (clinics can be hospitals here) so by the time we left the funneral service was taking place and lots of family and friends had gathered. What an experience!

In Transition

2009-02-20T01:53:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since we had last posted!

First we returned to Sharpevale and settled beck into our home. We knew our time there was drawing to an end very quickly.

We got to see the puppies… two look like their mom with floppy ears and long bodies on shortish legs, the other two however look like chiwawas!

Alicia moved in with us the end of January. We had two weeks together for us to show her around and say good bye to all our friends. We did a lot in that time.

Our last week in the village was very crazy. Starting Sunday night with me burning my foot by stepping on a hot tea kettle which dumped its contents onto my foot! It hurt so very bad but the next day (first photo) it looked almost normal! I felt bad it hurt so much then it got bubbly then well took the course burns tend to go, the last photo is just two days ago.

Because of the foot I stayed home while Bryan and Alicia attended meetings Mon. Monday night a member of our village family passed away. She had been very sick and had lost her infant son just the week before. She was HIV positive but since the babies birth had been very ill. Bryan and I did all we could to support her and the Liwonde’s who were caring for her. So starting at 1am when the medical person announced her dead a wailing went up and on for an hour. The people from Angoni decent really wail, like what it talks about in biblical times. All Tuesday was funeral activities and lots and lots of people.

Wednesday we met and said good bye to our Africare counterpart Mr. Ching’amba. Thursday was move day. But first we gave a rooster to our village chief as a thank you and remembrance.

Also all local PCVs cam together to say goodbye! Front row left, Jen (ENV 08-10), Me, Caitlin (Education 08-10), Alicia (ENV 08-10), Bryan and Mr. Liwonde back row.

Because of the funneral all the family to our village family came in. We got to say good bye to everyone! This photo is me, Loveness and Mrs. Liwonde in the back row. All these women are sisters! The baby belongs to Loveness.

This is Mordesta with Alicia'a sunglasses!

Thursday we moved out. Our messy house.

The largest two things we own

The neighbors helped to load us up even though they didn't want us to leave.

We got everything in two trips! But it was close and very stressful but it is done!

So where are we now?

We are currently living in Liwonde National Park. Our new home will be the northern end but because the roads are impassable we are to wait at the southern end till the roads clear or they will take us by boat up the river a 45 min boat ride! We are so excited to be living in the park! Our nearest volunteer is Kory

She lives at the Southern end in staff houseing wich is very near where we are temorarilly living so we hang out alot. We have been doing dinners together...

We have decided to start making lots of flat breads because we will be unable to get any type of bread on the northern end or snacky foods!

We are looking forward to this new chapter in our service here in Malawi. We will miss the village and our friends but we will return to visit them and continue on some projects. We are in town now to do our end of service medical stuff that has to have results soon to officially let us extend so we will be around town awhile. I maybe able to post a more in depth closer look at what is coming next working with Liwonde National park!

PICTURES!!!!

2009-01-17T02:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas pictures…

Bryans and my families this past December.
Also us:

Back in Malawi
We just returned from our Close of Service Conference held in Nkotakota at the Pottery lake resort. The conference was very informative and we had a wonderful time seeing all the members of our group, Environment 2007 – 2009. We lost four people over the two years, two due to medical separation! Crazy. Peace Corps said that this is very good for a group of over twenty.

We met in the shade of the trees behind the lodge because our meeting room was so hot.

We saw so many types of birds and even some monkeys and such. Can you find the two monkeys in this picture?

The lodge made us buffet meals for each meal. They even provided two tea times so we ate 5 times a day, they like to do that here. Bryan caught me with my spoon on my nose!

We all got to paint some pottery…

The lake is beautiful! I awoke to see the sunrise over the lake.

While taking the photo I heard a Fish Eagle call not so far away so I went searching for her. As I approached some trees and rocks I heard her again then before I knew it she was off out over the lake flying away. I was sad but realized all the other birds out so I started looking for different birds I heard. Before long she was back I heard her calling from the tops of the trees. I decided to take the trail through the woods to the others side in order to see if I could locate her. I found her high in the tree tops.

She had just gone out so I found a comfy seat overlooking the lake hoping she would go out again. While I sat I saw the many Pied Kingfishers flying around and doing their hovering high above the water then dive down! I caught this one as it spotted a fish below.

As I sat and saw the beauty around me I decided to switch to my smaller lens to get a picture of the sun rays over the lake.

Of course as soon as I did the eagle took off again, out over the water. I switched back and waited and watched and saw her swoop down then head back toward me… She must have wanted to show off because she landed out on some rocks in front of me and ate her catch. She is one of God’s most majestic creatures!

Parting shot the waves splashing over the rocks near to the resort.

Back in Malawi

2009-01-11T05:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas and New Years
Was Wonderful visiting the United States of America! (photos and more info to come)

We visited some churches that have been some of our large supporters. We were able to do some presentations and sharing what we have been doing in Malawi. We visited:
Zion Lutheran, Stillwater
Zion Lutheran, OKC
St John’s Lutheran, Lawton OK
Emmanuel Lutheran, Breckinridge OK

Our flight back was an adventure in itself! We got into Johannesburg and were supposed to meet our friend Ben. Who was a PCV in Malawi also, but he was nowhere to be found… and it would be hard to miss Ben. He is the tallest person I’ve ever met. He’s the one I went to South Africa for my knee surgery last year. He’s a great guy and he had the idea for the hostel we would stay in, but because he was not there we found a hostel on the net and grabbed a taxi to it. The hostel was just so-so but we felt safe and were thankful for a shower and a place to lay our heads!

The flight from South Africa to Malawi was very nice and then we ended up two checked bags short which came yesterday. That was an amazing story in itself. As we waited for our bags to come watching the baggage claim conveyor belt people started to get there bags and disappear and still nothing… finally I started getting a little worried when there were only a few (10) of us left and they started telling us that all the bags were on the conveyor belt, but then two of our four bags came and my hope was renewed just to be crushed again when the other two ended up lost.

By the time we decided our bags had been left in South Africa the other ten people were deciding the same thing and some of them were starting to get very upset. We were told we should go stand in this one line and tell the person the particulars of our bags. Many of the people in this line were very grumpy about loosing their bags. I figured, it’s Africa, what do you expect, it’s bound to happen once or twice. So we told them our particulars and our bags came the next day, but the thing that upset me was the way some of the people were treating the baggage claim guy who they were telling about the lost luggage. They kept belittling him as if it was his fault that their bags were lost talking about how incompetent Malawians were and how it always seemed to happen to them in Malawi when flying in… The thing is, who really lost their bags? It wasn’t the Malawian they were talking to; it was the people at the airport they had just come from! So, why are you getting all mad at the guy who is trying to help you get the bag back?

I found it made me feel better being civil to the baggage claim guy, and I think that made him care a little if I got my bag back. I don’t know if this is true or not, but we got both of our bags back and South African Airways will pay us back for the taxi ride when we go there on Monday. What an adventure!

What’s Next?
This week is our COS (Close of Service) conference. This is were we put in our extension request for our third year, only we have already identified the site to move to and we are moving soon so really just the paper work needs to go through. The conference is held at a beach resort, Peace Corps way of saying thanks.

Yes, we are moving! We are excited to tell you we are moving mid February God (and rain) willing. We have seen the place our home is very much like our current one only slightly smaller. We will post pictures and more info when we get it!

Alright once we have pictures from anyone of these events we will post again!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

2008-12-30T13:41:00.000-08:00

For those who do not know we came home for Christmas to surprise our families! It has been an wonderful wonderful trip. We had my cousin pick us up from the airport with her new baby (well not new new, I just hadn't met her yet!). We ate some good ol junk food then went to her apartment to shower and change. We surprised the families by we telling our Dads so they could try and gather all the fish in the sea (our siblings) to a Wednesday night church service at my parents chuch in the city. Katie walks in with two Christmas cards with our ticket stubs in them and hands them one to each mom. Of course my Mom puts it down to help get the baby out of the car seat untill Marki points out the tickets. My Mom opens hers and says "There Comming!?" Katie says, "I think theres a date" and Marki yells, "there here!!!" My Mom almost wailing, "There here?! Where?!" as we walk in... yes tears followed.

Bryan gave a short video presentation before the church service started. After church we all paraded to my parents house were we continued with the laughing hugs stories and eventually bed, it had be a long 40 hours.

Oklahoma has not been to hash on us, it has been in the 50s to 70s almost the whole time! We are surprised, we even got a good ol thunder and lightning storm with the tornado warnings going off on night. Oh, Oklahoma, if you don;t like the weather stick around it will change shortly!

Between Christmas Eve and Day night we visited five homes for all the family fun traditions we could cram in... The days after I came down with a head cold and alot of my family with other bugs, it has been sad. But we all get to sleep and watch movies! Anyway, New Years we are with more family then soon back to Africa where we are about to move, and have new jobs and well lots to look forward to!

I will post pictures soon!
Happy New Year to All!

Its now December!

2008-12-01T00:50:00.000-08:00

Lets catch you up on November...

Summer Camp
I spent two weeks in Zomba at a summer school run by the Education sector of Peace Corps. Every education volunteer sends a boy and a girl to this camp totaling 90 some odd kids. I went to each the environment tract… I was a liason to all the environment volunteers coming in to teach things to the kids through out the two weeks. We had 23 kids in our tract. We went on a field trip to the botanical gardens and introduced the typical American lunch to the kids (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches).

We gave the kids money to buy trees to plant an orchard. They did a good job choosing!

Every evening we played “all camp” games. For this one I was used to be an example to show the kids how to play! I had to listen to my companion to direct me to a paper ball and then I had to throw it at another blind folded person.

The weekend between the two weeks the kids and only a few staff went to Liwonde National Park. So some of us took a brake and went up Zomba Plateau. Some of us rode horses (the first I’d seen in almost 1 and a half years). After the ride we met up with others just hanging out by the dam that hold Zomba’s drinking water.

We also ran into town from the school often, we wanted to get a picture with all the Christmas decorations!

Here the kids are out planting their trees with Bryan’s help.

Back Home
The puppies are now getting larger and the rains have come and mangoes are still falling! Mangoes everywhere!

We are doing well, we spent Thanksgiving at the Ambassadors home. We had roasted hog and swam in the pool... More pictures to come! Happy Holidays to All!

We have Pupies!

2008-11-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

November1st our gal Mphatso (meaning gift) had her pups, 4 in all.

She bore 3 male and 1 female. 2 of the males are white, most likely to turn tan/yellow. Here is the runt followed by the big boy.

The other male is tri colored, like his mom and has a wave on his head. The little girl is the darkest one but will also be tri color.

Mphatso takes very good care of them, they are living in our kitchen. When I saw them last there eyes were still closed.

We headed south of Sharpevale to Liwonde National Park. We visited two current volunteers then the next day headed up to the North end of the park to look at it as a potential third year placement and assignment.

One of the volunteers has a flame tree in her front yard… they are in full bloom this time of year.

We would live inside the park gate, with the families of the scouts. Here is the gate…

The compound of housing

One of the houses. No electricity or running water. Tile roof, two bedroom and a living room. Each house has their own chim and detached kitchen. We would have to watch for elephants and the troublesome monkeys. While sitting chatting with a women’s group outside the gate I saw two different kind of sun birds! Lots of wild life!

The work is endless… The women’s group, the scouts wives, the scouts themselves, the surrounding villages (mainly elephant problems), the two cultural lodges, and Mvuu Camp/lodge just across the shire river. A lot of work can be done, we will just have to decide what we want to do… I like the idea of working with the women’s group and the scouts wives… Anyway, we talked of moving as soon as February… it will depend on our current site, when we feel like the projects seem sustainable and such…

We stopped to take photos of the baobob flowers in full bloom

End of October

2008-10-31T23:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, it is really hot. We though 100F was hot, this whole past week was 120F. I am grateful that our bodies have somewhat adjusted to this heat. Thursday evening we had our first rains. They lasted about an hour, this is called the mango rain. So called, because within two weeks the rain will have ripened all mangoes and they will all fall off the trees. It is the warning before the real rains come. There is normally a two to three week gap between. Now the farmers will all make sure their fields are ready for planting. The school term ends next week so all students can help their parents work in the fields. I think they have a two month break.

We have a cell phone tower that now marks the turn off to our house from the highway! We can see it from our yard, it makes communication so very nice! No more holding the cell phone in the right exact spot tilted at just the right angle! Now even in our house we have good coverage! We are happy! 

We visited Amos who is our site mate’s (Jen) counterpart. He had his first child three months ago, so we went to see him. He is adorable. Sleeps a lot, but with it so hot, I would too if I could! Custom is to give a gift for the baby or parents so we gave a jar of jam and brightly colored fabric measuring a meter and a half square.

Last Christmas our Agogo (Grandparents) gave us a male chicken. One of the Nkook boys stole it and sold it off. Then we were told the Agogo gave us a hen. We went away awhile and asked for them to hold it till we returned. It laid eggs so they kept it so it could raise its young. Tuesday they came over with 4 chickens, 2 male 2female. The babies of the hen. They are almost full grown. We gave one male to our neighbor to prepare for lunch, the rest we kept in the kitchen till nightfall when we snuck them in the hen house. This makes for easy integration.

Mphostso was about to burst when we left for the city. We hope she has her pup(s) soon. Mwamboli is doing very well. She is so very healthy. We looked back at the photos from when we got her, she has improved 100 percent!

It is hot

2008-10-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

We are now in the hottest part of the year, 100F before 9 and 10am. We are having to do things to keep cool like hanging wet clothes in the windows, but when the wind dies so does any hope of coolness. We just don’t do much during the hottest part of the day.

We read and write and if we have to go out we try to jump from shade spot to shade spot. Ending under a tree...

Mangoes are comin! Every time the wind blows down comes mangoes. The mangoes are so sweet this year a Malawian who tasted one asked if we had dipped them in sugar. No, but the reason they are confused is because the mangoe rains that sweeten and ripen the mangoes has not come yet? Our tree does not care, its ready!

Bryan has been peeling them and slicing them for drying. I have been avoiding them until I can not resist anymore! They smell soooo good, and the taste, a fresh mango is irresistible! But then I break out in my poison ivy rash… and restrain myself. Why did it have to be Mangoes? I could take allergies to Papias, but mangoes?! You know I thought you had to not like something to become allergic to something, but I was proven wrong.

Our puppy is pregnant… so I decided we can’t call her puppy any more. Now I call her lil mama. We think she will have her pups the last week of October. We are very thankful that our big girl is not pregnant, I don’t think we could feed her the amount of food she would need… No worries for homes for the pups, because a new group of Peace Corps Volunteers swear in when they will be 6 months old so we thought about just bringing them to the city to give to those new volunteers.

We are in town to volunteer at a fundraising dinner for the Summer Camp next month. Today we cook serve and cleanup after about 50 people… We will stay Sunday so we can attend a church we found here in the city… So that’s whats up with us.

Lots of Crocs!

2008-10-06T02:48:00.000-07:00

We were in town for a long time, I got put on medical hold for most of it. I was having pain in my lower left abdomen. The docs ruled out a bunch of stuff, but never really identified the cause, so I am still feeling pain every once in awhile but not as bad as originally.

While we were in town we visited the Nature Sactuary. Actually it was like walking into an open zoo (no cages). We saw all kinds of birds and even some crocodiles. The second picture is of weavers nests in a tree over the river.

We also got to do a lot of baking and cooking, we made strawberry/apple pie!

So October first came around… I officially became 26 and we had friends visit! Lyndsey (Peace Corps Zambia), Mark (studying abroad in South Africa) and Mark’s room mate Hans. We took them to Sharpevale to see our home and then to Senga Bay, Lake Malawi. Sadly I do not have photos of people, actually the only time we had the camera was at the croc farm! So here are some crocs!

We visited the Croc farm in Senga Bay were they breed crocs for there skins. We got to watch them feed the big ones. They said the big ones eat 15 -20 chickens each! Good thing they only feed once a week!

Once I get pictures from our friends I will post more! Our friends headed out yesterday, leaving us in Lilongwe again. Tomorrow we shall head back to Sharpevale...

September

2008-09-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

We are back in the capitol city again. But let me update you on what we have been doing in Sharpvale the last month.

We went to see the Nanyango Irrigation Club’s gardens. It took us two days to walk it all. We met many of the farmers and even saw the treadle pumps in action! The most amazing thing is how much land the group is cultivating! One man in working 4 acres for his family! He already harvested two ox carts worth of dry maize (white corn) this dry season. When we saw the fields the new maize was waist high. This man and his family will have gotten two more planting seasons meaning he can plant three times a year.

This club is named after the river they are located along, here is a man using a treadle pump in the sandy river bed.

This picture shows the watered gardens compared to the surrounding land that is dry and dead.

Some different crops maize at two different stages and sugar beans

Fields… some of the furthest away

This is on a shoot off of the Nanyango river, it flows year round making it easier to utilize the water.

Bryan always asks the farmers what they plan on doing with all the crops from their gardens. Will they sell or eat? Most said some of both but some (those who had terrible crops last rainy season) said they would eat all! And they said it in a Praise God we aren’t going to starve this year fashion.

A family working in their garden

Mother with two of her children, look how happy she is!

All these kids help (try anyway) their parents in the gardens and fields.

I like this picture because of the completely grown maize and how the kids are just hanging out.

The man with the 4 acres Bryan asked what he planned on using the food for and he said “Eat it, eat it all.” I then promptly asked how many people in his family he has to feed? He replied looking off in the distance eyes glazed over as if picturing them, “Too many.” His crops did fail last rainy season and he and his family were worried about hunger this year. Now even as the days are getting hotter, he gladly spends his days tending to the fields.

The Man with some of his family

Our Agogo Wamuna (Grandpa) in the village has been gone for 3 weeks to Dedza Hospital. One of his sons works there. We were told he had an operation, but as best we can tell it was kidney related. This man is a trooper, he returned two days ago, the girls singing and people chatting! We went over to give a dozen eggs and see him, he had gone in but came out to greet us. He comes out greets us then says Tiowanana (see you later). We think he was exhausted from travel and excitement of getting home and he isn’t so young any more. Over all he is doing amazing and the Agogo Akazi (Grandma) is so happy and relieved to have him home.

As for the rest of our village family, they are well Loveness (one of the Grandparents granddaughter) has found her x-husband and sees him as a way out of the village. The x-husband and his family live in Blantyre. So he has re-proposed which entails paying the chief some moola. Sad thing is he did it behind the whole families back, he is not liked by the family or village for that mater. Even the chief said he was not welcome back to the area… he did some bad things, mainly steeling. So now Loveness has gone back to Blantyre. We do not really expect her to come back. I am sad because she and I chatted often, she speaks fluent English and she helped me connect with the women of our village.

Here are some pictures of our families kids:

Mary and Jenifer (Mr. Liwonde’s oldest and youngest 1st and 4th)

This is Loveness’s first Shalom

Mr. Liwonde’s 3rd (only boy) Charles

The kids love to hang out with us and play games, they really like Uno! From Left to Right: Memory, Shalom, Bryan, Charles, Mary holding jen and Lockylo.

Our well has dried up, so we have spent the last three weeks trying to get it fixed, but all that has happened is they,as Malawians say, crashed (broke and removed) the top of it. The women have to travel the 3 kilometers round trip again… needless to say the plants are suffering, but we reuse any and all water we can. We even bath standing in a basin to catch the water! Crazy… but it works!
Our other large problem is a stray male dog that has been hanging out around our ladies. This dog is sneaky and we have been trying to catch him and scare him off but he just won’t leave! This is one of the thorny traps we made for the hole in the fence. Thing is he is too smart.

Mr. Liwonde has three baby goats and he is expecting a few more. He has a set of twins and one other… They are fun to watch at such a young age they fall often but get right back up and bounce everywhere! The one other (not the twins) is very cute, he has huge floppy ears!

We have some pictures from last month…
Bryan working on wiring our village home thanks to Uncle Don who sent mass amounts of boxes and moola. We now have solar electricity! It rivals the electricity in the cities because the cities power is always going out! Ours does not!

Keah (Me) pitting masaw and cutting in half to dry… reminds me of pitting cherries at Grandma and Grandpas!

We distributed the last of the treadle pumps, 3 to a small group. I like this group a lot, they were very prepared and ready!

Last time we came into town we brought chicken to Peace Corps staff who wanted them, so this is how we transported them!

By the way Bryan is doing amazingly well and his head has healed up Great!

Matches

2008-08-19T03:09:00.000-07:00

We are back in the city! We came in for a few reasons…
First Bryan had a sore on the back of his head that looked to be infected
Second this past weekend was Iron Chef
Third helping with a training session for Response Corps
Fourth Africare
Fifth chickens

The sore on Bryans head turned out to be more staph. Bryan and I are puzzled by these reoccurring infections around the body… in Bryan’s words, “I am not one of those volunteers who thinks they don’t have to bath!” My words, “You’re married!” No but really we are doing our best to keep clean and take care of ourselves in the village. Crazy thing is that two other people are in on Med hold due to staph infections, luckily Bryan’s is not the worst! Today he may be released!

Iron Chef is a fund raiser where Peace Corps Volunteers sign up in groups of three and have a cooking competition. Each team is given the secret ingredient (that must be used) then they are given a few hours to shop and then they cook a starter, main course and dessert. We have judges and then the rest of the volunteers around get to sample the food cooked! It is a fun get together.

A new Response Corps volunteer arrived in Country last week and we were asked to come in to meet him and do a session on what the trainers didn’t train you. This new guy is coming to our boma, so it was fun to come in a visit with him.

We also want to visit with Africare’s head office here to just see how things are going and see if they can utilize us more.

We sold some chickens! Finally got rid of the extra roosters so they will quite eating all the layers mash food! We also got rid of a few hens. We brought in 12 total, a lot of weight! Thank God we did not have to carry them, it took both us to do what little we had too!

So… I do not know what else to say… oh so a little funny thing. The stores here generally don't have small change for you and so they normally throw in some candies, well today they are throwing in some matches!

As July comes to an end...

2008-07-31T04:51:00.000-07:00

We find ourselves in our boma (capital of the district) where Africare has a field office (the one we are placed with). They have many computers and now even wireless internet... but they do not know anything about anti virus stuff here. You see when a computer gets so bogged down with viruses they just take them in to the "shop" to get fixed... in other words in the mind of these people it is broken. But what those "shops" don't tell these people or do for them is put free anti virus stuff on. I guess that insures more business to the "shops".

Bryan being the computer wiz has taken on the job of debugging them all... a simple thing you may think but there is always that one virus that of course all computers in the same office will have that is determined not to be removed! Luckily instead of being paid (because we are volunteers and working with Africare anyway…) they are treating us like royalty, taking us out to eat, then putting us up at very nice places for the night and providing transport to and fro!

In the village…

The weather is wonderful, more of a real winter than we had last year, cool and even here in the boma cold weather! It is wonderful!

We have constructed ourselves a solar dryer… it is much better than setting the fruit in the sun unprotected from insects and falling mango flowers…

We are currently drying lots of masaw and even some papaya.

Yes our Mango trees have flowered and now they are dropping their billions of tiny pale flowers everywhere and in everything. We have even noticed tiny very immature mangos falling. They are the shape of the true ripe fruit only miniatures! Soon it will be raining mangos again!

One of our neighbor girls injured her toe and Bryan helped show her proper care to keep it clean and healthy… It looked like she had lost part of her toe when she first came over but after a deep clean we saw it was just the dirt and swelling, it is really just a flesh wound. She handled the whole thing amazingly, not one ouch or tear the whole scrubbing process, surprised both Bryan and I!

We have had so many masaw that after filling the solar dryer we decided to introduce pie to our neighbors… very simple thing and so very tasty! They all loved it a lot!

Finally I leave you with this photo… of a minibus lot. Bryan and I laughed and thought of Animal when we saw the brush (probably more like goat) guide here!

Sorry for the confusion

2008-07-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

So that new mailing address... you can use it or our original one:

Keah and Bryan Payne/ PCV
c/o Africare/ Malawi
Ntcheu Field Office
P.O. Box 341
Ntcheu, Malawi

We thought there was a large possibility of us moving sites sooner than later, but that does not seem to be the case... We will let you know when to no longer use this address, but for now it is the better one, because it comes to our site directly.

Fourth of July and More!

2008-07-19T02:39:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful way to spend the 4th of July! You see in Malawi their freedom day as they call it is the 6th of July so both are very close. This year we had a group of boy scouts in Malawi visiting and they scheduled a Guli Wonkulu performance at Mua Mission. We have been to Mua many times but never seen the dances so we went! They actually presented not only Guli dances but Angoni and others from around Malawi!

Guli pics, the first a women and the second a monkey.

We went with several other Peace Corps volunteers two of who came back to our home to celebrate the 4th with us. We decided being a special occasion and all we should kill one of our roosters… we have 6 too many anyway and chicken sounded good for dinner!

First however we have to select the best looking or the most annoying in the morning to eat! So Bryan goes in and with some help from me we got one.

Dinner time comes around and we ate a feast! We had instant mashed potatoes with dark gravy and stove top stuffing (Thanks Mama Roggow!) with our chicken!

It wouldn’t be a proper fourth without some fireworks! Bryan and I picked up a few in Salima, some sparklers, a few high pretty ones and of course some loud annoying ones. Our neighbors had never seen such things as fireworks let alone hold or light them! They had so much fun… a little scared at first then they were dancing with the sparklers!

Jen and Jason were the two volunteers who came to help us celebrate, here with Bryan showing off their sparklers!

I too had my fun!

Our Agogo (Grandfather)

Bryan helping Yohan

Tengani

Mrs. Liwonde lovin it!

Everyone looking up at the high air ones. We had about 12, so Bryan and Jason would lite two together and the color was beautiful… Can you imagine what our neighbors are thinking?

Other things that are going on…

We had our 2nd Treadle Pump distribution to 21 families, here is the group (1 member from each family)

This is what they receive with their treadle pump… seeds, tomatoes, onions, maize, and beans. Fertilizers too.

Our grass fence was in need of repairs so Mr. Liwonde and Bryan got to it and put up new grasses. Bryan also put in a wonderful new gate in for me beside the small fenced in garden. It gives me a direct path to and from the borehole from our bucket.

Our chickens are laying eggs!!!!! We get 10 to 15 a day right now but they are only 6months old, so by next moth we could be getting up to 25 eggs a day! I guess we don’t have to worry about getting our protein in!

Our neighbor kids got to try out the ground nut sheller before we took it to the Nanyango group. So here Yohan is shelling while Ida is winnowing.

We use the shells for our gardens so the kids come over and help by pounding the shells to smaller pieces. Here is Lucky and Mordesta.

I am still getting organized… we got a new shelf and Bryan put up some small shelves for our spices.

When we are at home sometimes we take the time to have a really good breakfast like french toast! Yes over a fire… but we have enough eggs to make a lot now!

I am daily reminded of Gods Promises. Aunt Cindy Perkins sent us a small wind chime that I hung in our living/dinning room window. It just so happens the sun rises on that side of the house so every morning our main room is showered in dancing rainbows! It makes me so happy every time I see them! One can’t help but smile!

Well that is all for now… I have been looking ahead at our calendar pages ( I print them off google and then color them!) not much coming up here… we will be working on several projects… but not much planned at the moment… The next few big things are not until the end of the year… Thanksgiving at the Ambassadors and the rainy season starts in November and Christmas in December but in January we have our Close of Service Conference (COS)! Of course we are trying for a third year, but the COS is at a resort on the lake… all paid for by Peace Corps! We are excited!

Until next time take care!

Oh the shower

2008-06-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

The last 3 nights I have gone into the shower and just stood under the spay of hot water, enjoying the shower itself... I do this thinking (each night) how wonderful this last shower is before going back to the village. So tonight I will have had my 4th "last shower" in a row. Things just keep holding us up. But this means I get to post again.

We plan to go back tomorrow, but only tomorrow will tell!

Life in the village goes on…

2008-06-25T01:46:00.000-07:00

We are continuing to sit on reed mats and chat with our neighbors and friends…

We started a seedling bed in one of our raised round garden beds…

We have attended many meetings relating to treadle pumps… One new area identified by the people is in out village but our Chiefs brother asked for some land and he granted him some in our village and so the brother decided to name it his own small village and so that is the people who have asked us to come. They have a natural spring fed river (very small) which never runs dry. Families with land along this are already gardening they just use a watering can and it takes 4 to 8 hours a day.

This is our first time to the area… see how dry everything around the garden is…

We found them watering and even applying manure to the gardens, it was great to see Malawians trying so hard to apply the knowledge they have to garden throughout the dry season.

Of course we brought a treadle pump to try, and so you can see the water source and one of the men pumping the water…

Bryan showing them different ways to actually water their garden

We also met with the Nanyango Irrigation Scheme and did a long training on how to use and care for the treadle pump and then we distributed 14 treadle pumps. One treadle pump per three families. The people where so happy, and even more people have come to us and asked to make their own groups for irrigation.