Its now December!

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!

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