As July comes to an end...

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

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!

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!