Oh yeah...blogging........maybe I should start that up again......sorry.
So we've had bit going on lately. In early December we started working on the school finally. We got funding and began to getmoving. The problem with starting projects in December is that it is the begining on the rainy season. The roads may or may notbe good enough to get a truck down on. But we got lucky, the roads were good and we had great transport. Work started really well, the cement floors went in really fast. After the floors, the chalkboard went up. To my surprise they are just cement, smeared on the wall and painted black. Never would have guessed.
About this time in the construction I took a sabbatical. And by "sabbatical" I mean plane ride home. To those of you who assisted, and you know who you are, thank you for that. Everything was going well untill I hit the States. We landed in Washington an hour late and I only had a two hour lay over! Now, in Lilongwe when I got on the plane they told me my bags were checked all the way through and I wouldn't have to worry about it. In D.C. they said yeah, no, you need to go find it and drag it through customs.
Crap.
So I spent 30 minuets of my one hour waiting for my duffle to stop dragging it's feet and show up.
You always see those movie scenes where someone is running flat out through the airport. That was me. Women were grabbing small children out of my way. Luckily the people at security were super nice and moved me to the front of the line...yay!
Quick! More running!
So I finally made it to the gate, only to find out that they had sold my ticket cause I was about 30 seconds late. So 5 minutes and a few tears later I am sitting on the plane headed home! It really is amazing how far out you can see Pikes Peak.
Going home was amazing and let me just say that I want all of you to go to your local supermarket and take a look around the produce department. Be happy for what you see...very very happy. Do the same thing in the frozen food, dairy, and deli departments (ignore the rice and potatoes). Then go out to your car, do the doors open and not fall off? Hug it. Walk to you laundry room, find the washer and dryer. Kiss those. You have no idea how easy it is to laundry there. Never again do I want to hear that laundry is hard in America. Here, doing laundry takes all day, at least. During therainy season though, stuff won't dry for two days. In a dryer, it's what, 30 minutes? Gimmie a break.
It was not nearly long enough. For some reason I actually envisioned myself having a day to just sit and veg out. Did not happen. I actually think my feet didn't touch the ground the entire time I was home, we were so busy! Shopping, seeing family, friends, and animals. I also had about 150 hats to sell from my women's club. And to those of you who broke down and bought some, we say thank you! I'm actually impressed that almost all of them sold so thank you.
Coming back to Malawi was yet another long long plane ride. Just one thing about Ethiopian Airlines. They rock! Both of the airlines I rode on in the States felt like they should have been in another country, not America. Ethiopean was nice, you have a ton of movies and the food in actually really good, except the desserts, those were just bad. Otherwise, they were the best part of the trip. And all my luggage made it!
So now I'm back in Nkhotakota and I am happy to report that both the dog and cat survived me being gone and the house was only
slightly soaked. The tube of caulk I brought back really has gone a long way to fixing the holes in the roof. So far things have been quiet and I'll get back to you when I can!
