I have heard it said that if you have nothing to talk about, then you are to stick to two subjects, the weather, and everybody’s health. (Extra points to those of you playing along at home who can guess that musical).
So we’ll start with the weather. When I came to Malawi everyone said October was hot hot hot hot. I’m not so sure that is true. So far, October is a lot like June, it has been cloudy, windy, cool, and everywhere but Nkhotakota it has been raining. A lot. So some crazy weather front is pushing all rain out of the teeny tiny 16 km radius of my house. Why!! I don’t want to water the garden anymore! However, unseasonal rain causes problems. Some people think the rains are coming early this year and that can mean big trouble. For starters no one has planted corn yet, they normally don’t do that until November.
Planting early won’t always mean a harvest, if the rain stays until normal (Dec-Jan) the corn will be ripe but it won’t dry. Rains this time of year can also mess up volunteer projects. Construction, tree planting, bore hole digging, etc, all have to happen in the dry season. So, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, hopefully the hot season kicks in and the rain holds off until the proper time.
On to health, it’s much better thank you. My throat no longer hurts and I have been off antibiotics for a while now. The puppy (Dora) however has been a little off. I have been wanting to feed her dewormer for a while now but I have been waiting until I felt she could handle it. She has had a huge belly but you could still see her ribs and hips and she would eat anything, pretty good signs of worms. So at the end of last week I started feeding her the diotamicious earth that Megan sent. Nothing was changing until about two days ago. Basically over night I guess she passed all her worms, her belly is gone. Obviously this take quite a toll on a tiny system like hers so she has been taking it easy the past few days and finally ate some scrambled egg for me this morning. Pang’ono Pang’ono.
The other volunteers also seem to be quite healthy. Some of us, Twila, Shawn, Erin, Annette and myself all got together at Nkhotakota Pottery to meet the new US Ambassador to Malawi. She and her husband are both very nice. They bought us all lunch. Ohmygosh, that was the first steak I have seen in ages and the most fat and protein I have consumed in a single sitting since Feburary 27th I think. My body may go into shock.
Next week on Thursday I will be in Lilongwe, I have a report to file. I would be doing it from Nkhotakota but because I am the biggest idiot I know, I broke my computer and can’t do it from here…yay. On the Brightside though I get to have free internet access and get some work done. So until next time, tiwonana!
