Bees

                Today our main item of business was the solar dryer again but this morning I went with Whitney to talk to the families instead of working on the solar dryer. Betha translated for Whitney and Austin (another intern from Bunda) translated for me. When we started we planned on just doing five each and leaving some to do tomorrow but we ended up finishing the interviews with all the families we had nutrition packets for. Now all we have left are the ones we didn’t get packets made for, we will do those next week with Dr. Johnston.

                Our sweet potatoes dried great. They all dried by the end of the day and I don’t think the dogs got to any more of them which was nice. We are still nailing down which treatments we are doing for our runs and exactly how many slices we’ll need for them. We have a few things we want to do with them when they are done.

                While Whitney and I were taking measurements after lunch, two girls came in to see what we were doing and they wanted to get into everything we were doing. It was a little stressful because we didn’t want them to mess up what we were doing too much but they were so cute and were ready to play with us. We just couldn’t play with them.

                Another thing about taking measurements, when the potatoes are dry, we put them in some bags to take back to BYU to do some testing. We left the bags in the conference room and found out later that we needed them because a lot of the samples were dry and ready to bag up, so I went to the conference room to get them but there was a swarm of bees in the building and you couldn’t get in or out of the conference room. I almost walked right into them but I heard them before it was too late. So I had to have Emily pass the bags and marker through the window. It was funny, and scary. Fortunately, nobody got hurt.

                There was a lot of down time again today so I took a shower and the water only ran out on me at the very end so I just had to rinse my hair with water from a bucket that we save water in for just such occasions. I also washed some clothes but they weren’t ready to dry until after dinner so they dried in my room overnight and I’ll put them outside in the morning. I also had some time for a nap which was so nice.

                It’s all getting to be pretty routine here. Nothing exciting, no new pictures, just doing what we came here to do.

Research Bugs

                We finally started our research today. We didn’t really know what exactly we were doing but we just needed to start so we knew what we didn’t know and how to fix it but we also had to start talking to some families and getting information from them for Dr. Johnston. So we split up. Emily and Whitney went to talk to the families with a couple of translators while John and I started getting the sweet potatoes ready to dry. There was a bit of scrambling around to try to get everything ready in the morning but somehow everything got done well enough.

                For our research we are looking at different ways to treat sweet potato slices before drying them to help them not brown, dry faster, rehydrate better and stuff like that. We are also comparing Dr. Steele’s solar dryer to traditional air drying on a drying mat. The treatments we are looking at this week are soaking in water, soaking in salt brine, soaking in brine with salt and brown sugar, another one with white sugar instead of brown sugar and blanching. Emily and Whitney finished before we did so they helped us finish pretreatments and clean out the solar dryer so we could put stuff in it. The solar dryer is a cool concept but the one we have here is not all that impressive so we are going to see if we can just make it a little bit better. Fixing racks and stuff like that. Basically we’re just seeing if the solar dryer is worth the investment because if it’s not as good as air drying, nobody is going to want to use it.

                It took half the day to get all of the samples drying and we were all a little tired after that. Then we finally could check our emails and such from the weekend. It was a pretty lazy afternoon which was ok because we were all a little tired.

                After dinner, we had to take the water activity of our potatoes again to see how they were drying and it took an hour and a half. Emily, Whitney and I were I a spare room in the boy’s hostel and it was dark so the bugs came in and were annoying. I do ok with most bugs now but there this one kind of bug that’s big, fat, ugly and stupid that I can’t stand! It flies around and gets really close to you and runs into stuff and you can hear it run into the wall it sounds like a marble hitting the wall, the worst part is that this bug will fly around in circles up near the light and then it’ll just stop flying and like dive bomb you. Occasionally they get in and just fly around and I was doing ok with it. As long as he was leaving me alone I could ignore him but then he landed on me and I just couldn’t take it and I freaked out and it all just went from caution to pandemonium. After I screamed and jumped around to get him off, Emily and I left the room and Whitney grabbed the nearest weapon, a plastic spoon, to take care of him. Whitney just has this way with bugs, they now that she’s just trying to take them back outside. Anyway she eventually knocked him down and was able to get him outside and we all calmed back down and finished up what we were doing, packed up and went to our hostel. Yeah, weird day and now I’m the girl that flipped out about the bug. At least we don’t have them in the US or I would die!

Everybody has those days

                Yesterday morning we started the day with our boat safari. I also got lots of good pictures for that. I’m obviously not going to include them all because that would take forever but here are some of the hippos, alligators and such we saw. Henry told us that the two most dangerous animals in Africa are the mosquito and the hippo but in Malawi it’s the mosquito and the alligator. The hippos can be violent when you annoy them too much but mostly they’re just shy. The safari was really nice and warm and the water was nice and gentle and I’m pretty sure a whole bunch of us were ready to fall back asleep by the end.

A monitor lizard! Just like in Duck Dynasty!

Yellow Fever tree. It actually cures malaria (or yellow fever, I don't remember which) instead of causing it

These birds have a name and they were also everywhere

A raft of hippos. That's what they're called because they sleep on each others backs and made a raft

more birds

Alligator! We saw lots of these too. 

 After the safari was checked out and said goodbye to the good life to move on to our next adventure. We seriously spent the rest of the day driving to Lilongwe to stay there for the night. Our driver had to go back to SAFI Sunday so we didn’t have the van available to take us to church so Moses took half of us and the other half stayed at Mabuya. Sunday was a really lazy day. We didn’t do much during the day but when it cooled down, Nicolle and Whitney ventured out and met Edward. He works at Mabuya and is a really cool guy. I haven’t really met him but they really like him so he must be a cool dude. They also ran back into Gift who we met at the market last week. He helped us look for Adam. Gift was drunk and possibly on some other drugs so he was actually kind of annoying but funny. He was hitting on everybody. Obviously he didn’t get anywhere because he was hitting on the wrong group of girls but whatever.

That night we learned that game I talked about earlier, I keep hearing different names for it. This time is was called Bao or something along those lines. It was at Mvuu and Akim, our driver, was teaching Nicolle how to play and she mastered it with Gift and his friends and then taught the rest of us. Adam has been spending a lot of time trying to figure out this game and he thought he understood it so he and Camille were playing but it was so not the right rules. Good thing Nicolle set us straight. After we finally got away from Gift and convinced him not to try to get us to stay with him another day, we watched Alice in Wonderland and went to sleep.

This morning Emily had a meeting with Moses and then Nicolle and Camille talked to him, so that kept us entertained for most of the morning. After that we all went to do whatever while we waited for Akim to pick us up which ended up being around 4. Adam, Whitney and Nicolle went into town to get lunch and some other things they needed. Emily worked on the survey she wants to use for her project, John played video games and emailed home (I didn’t because you had to buy it, not worth it), I thought Camille went into town but she actually sat by the pool and tanned. I played Bao by myself and read the Great Gatsby. It was a boring afternoon. On the plus side, Whitney and I have a phone now! We get to share because we’re almost always together and it’s mostly just for when we go to town and split up and such so it’s no big deal.

We were expecting Akim and noon but there was something about dropping other people off in Lilongwe and two guys from BYU coming to SAFI that pushed back out pick up time to 2 which is why our afternoon was so eventful. On our way back we were excited to meet these new people that we weren’t expecting. When we got back it was time for dinner and we were told to save some for them so we thought we might meet them at dinner. One guy did pop his head in for a second but he didn’t look like a student. Then we finished dinner and left without seeing him again. I was walking back with Whitney and was almost to the hostel when I realized that I left all my stuff at dinner so I went back to get it. When I got there, Emily and Nicolle were talking to the two new guys. They are from a non-profit to just help SAFI improve for a couple days.  I think they’re from Feed the World or something like that. Anyway, they showed up on Sunday, they are not BYU students, at least no anymore and they were really awesome. They were telling us all kinds of stuff that we didn’t know. They work with tons of programs to make them work and they weren’t too impressed with SAFI but still thought they were doing some awesome stuff. Basically they roughly did what Nicolle and Camille came here to do in a couple of days. They had lots of information and gave us lots of help for our projects. Nicolle got a copy of their survey that they use in lots of places and we’re hoping to get a copy of their nutrition lesson plans. They were just really interesting to talk to. They are both LDS so we also talked a little bit about how we cannot bring the gospel to these people until they can feed themselves and think about something other what they are going to eat next. So in a sense we are doing pre-missionary work. They were just really smart and helped me understand this whole process a lot better. It’s very intuitive but hard so lots of people don’t really get into it.

Anyway that was awesome and then I came back to the hostel and got into my room to find something not awesome. When they were mopping the hall this weekend, or something flooding, there was tons of water on the floor and it got into my room. My room didn’t flood, it’s just in one corner but it was in the one corner that I had my clothes, blankets, sheets, suitcase and everything that would absorb water. So all my clothes are half wet. I didn’t have and furniture in my room to hang it one so we pulled a couple of chairs from other room and just hung everything everywhere we could find. Tomorrow we’ll put as much as possible on the clothes lines. It just wasn’t an awesome experience. After everything dries and a pack it all up in my suitcase, again. I’ll have to make sure I keep it away from the door so it won’t get wet if that happens again. Not my best day and I’ll admit I kind of just discovered it and pulled everything out of my suitcase and Emily hung it all up while Bernadette and Chimango were cleaning up the water. It was just one of those situations I was too tired to care about.

On the plus side, since everything was pulled out of my suitcase, while I was looking for my flashlight, I found (drumroll) my memory card! I totally don’t remember packing it and I swear it wasn’t in there before but it is now! Too bad there’s already another one on the way. Oh well. An extra memory card never hurt anyone.

I hope everyone is doing well and is happy and healthy. It’s almost June which means there will only be two months left. Time is flying by!

Elephants!

                I finally got to see some animals! We got up early to leave for Mvuu and spent six hours driving. On the way a bee got stuck in our bus for two and half hours! Most of the time he was stuck in the back and didn’t bug me but sometimes he would try to make a break for it which stressed me out a little because he would buzz around me. Eventually, Whitney saved the saved the day and got him to go outside. I don’t think he’s going to find his family though. Sad day.

                We finally got to Mvuu around two and we were all famished. Nicolle even broke out the crackers she’s been saving from South Africa. We did get lunch here and we’ve been taken care of. It’s a really nice place. Probably the nicest place we will stay in while we are in Africa. We have nice big, comfortable beds with pillows that don’t deflate when you lay on them, multiple rooms in our chalet, warm water and everything. We even got a card to welcome us with most of our names on it. We actually got two notes. The first one was for Emily, Dekam and Renee. Whitney got left out and Emily got both of her names. The second one had everybody’s names. After checking out our rooms and taking pictures, we looked at the lake just outside our door to see what we could see. We saw some hippos way off in the distance and some monkeys hanging around. Then we went on our driving safari. It was the most fun I’ve had since we’ve been here! Our driver’s name was Henry and he’ll be taking us on our boat safari tomorrow morning.  He asked us if there was anything in particular we wanted to see so we told him elephant and zebras. He delivered. We got the best pictures of elephants ever! We also saw some hippos up close, warthogs, antelope type animals, mongeese, a python, Jesus birds, and a few cool trees. We did not see any zebras though, or the lone lion in the park. We will go to more parks and hopefully see zebras and giraffes. At one point after the sunset, Henry stopped the jeep and told us we were walking back to camp and that it would be an adventure. We all got a little excited and then he told us it was a joke. It’s a good thing we didn’t walk because it got dark and the hippos were out.

On the boat ride to Mvuu. We had to cross the lake to get there

Whitney is excited

Akim attempting to teach Adam Bao

Pumbas!

This room is nicer than lots I've stayed in in the US. I think the one with the robes is the only one better

Our View

Our bathroom

Ready for the Safari!

Don't remember the name of these but there were lots

Baoba Tree. Elephant can knock these over!

Elephants!!!!!

Sunset (Obviously)

Anaconda but it's just a baby  

                 That’s pretty much all we did today. Sorry this post is short but it does have lots of pictures!

Net Ball

                Today we woke up early so we could go for a run. Nicolle and I decided to just walk because people that run are crazy so the Whitney and Camille who were running just ran ahead of us. While we were walking we talked and watched the sun come up. We ran into a few women who were getting water and they told us about the funny people running. Apparently men will run and train but not women.

                When we got back we had breakfast and usual. After breakfast we went over our lesson plan today but it was postponed until tomorrow at 9 in the morning. Since our afternoon had just opened up, we decided that we would start our laundry. It’s a long process. We had to fill up some buckets with water and then I had to wait for my little detergent packet to dissolve and then I had to wash as many clothes as I could fit in that bucket by hand. Then we left our clothes in the bucket to soak a little. After lunch we went back and rung out our clothes and emptied the buckets only to fill them up with new water and ring them out again. It’s a good thing Donna didn’t come because her hands would be killer her. After we rung out our clothes a second time we hung them up to dry.

                While our clothes were soaking we worked on the nutrition packets that the international nutrition class made to give to the families. We chose one packet the had the best section about nutrients and why they were important so we could translate it once and give that part to all of the families. Dr. Johnston also wanted us to collect some information from the families so started the survey sheets for them and tried to match up the anthropometric data we collected yesterday to the right families but we didn’t get very far. We couldn’t figure out which children belonged to which family because sometimes we didn’t know the name of the children or the names were spelled wrong or were wrong but we did get a few matched up.

                The rest of the day has been pretty open about what we do. I spent lots of time reading. I got a little nap in in the conference room which felt good. I’ve been tired today so I’ve been resting my head on everything when I’m not doing anything and people have asked if I was feeling ok. I’m ok, just tired from stupid Jillian, yoga and walking. I even called home on Dr. Steele’s phone but nobody answered, sad. But I did get an email that said to call back so it wasn’t because I’m just unloved. When the phone did get back around to me, I did finally get a hold of my crazy mother. She just wasn’t expecting to get a call from me. Maybe next time I’ll try to catch her at 6 in the morning because she likes to do that to me. So while we were talking we discovered something funny. You remember that Malawian I texted? Guess what? That was my mother! I thought she knew that I would be texting from a different number and I have texted her from that number before but it didn’t register to her. Crazy Mom, and here I thought I wouldn’t be able to call or text her all summer. I SMH. It was good to talk to her anyway. I love her so much.

                After I got off the phone I went and watched the much anticipated (as is all day) net ball match. It’s basically basketball without a backboard and you can’t walk with the ball like in ultimate Frisbee. It was fun to watch but it was more fun to play with the kids. Just like usual, it was mostly the boys we played with but Ernest who is an intern here from Bunda College has a daughter who is visiting she is very cute and I got a picture of her just for my mom so she can see a cute girl instead of just the boys. The problem with taking your camera out with the kids around is they all want to be in the picture and do strange poses and then they want to take pictures. They will take no for an answer though unlike the people at the market. Some older kids, such as Yohon, decided we were cool enough to hang out with so we were a little better at communicating. We even got them to sing us a song! They sang a song about white fish but I didn’t really understand what they were saying so I can’t replicate it yet. They got really into it though.

Net Ball

Got a picture of a little girl!

Dancing with the boys

This is what happens when you pull out your camer

                Here are some funny stories that happened today. While we were in the conference room working on our various tasks, a bat flew in! At first I thought it was a bird and then when I saw it was a bat I freaked out a little inside. It just flew around a couple of times and flew back out. We also found a frog in my room today while Whitney was watching me organize all my stuff because I’m so great at keeping everything organized in my suitcase. We watched him climb all the way up the wall that was the first of I think five frogs I saw today, they are everywhere. There was even one in my shower! Apparently I’m very biased towards reptiles. At Mabuya, there was a lizard on the wall above my bed and it freaked me out but when they’re outside I think they’re cool. However, the frog in my room was just cool and I wasn’t afraid it would attack me. I’m just weird that way.

Froggy

Anthropometric Measurements

                This morning we were all planning on going for a little run/jog to kick off our little workout regimen but only two people had alarms and woke up apparently. So Emily and Camille went running at the rest of us woke up wondering why nobody woke us up to go running and who actually ended up going. We were promised that we would get a wakeup call tomorrow. Whitney was really excited for the run because she’s a pretty active person and hasn’t been exerting herself very much lately so she planned a run before dinner.

Today we had a meeting to talk about Emily’s project and to nail down specifics with Dr. Steele so we could get started. I got assigned to be the data logger person, which is actually pretty cool. I got to download the software and try them out. What data loggers are is they just keep track of things like temperature and humidity over time. They are handy to keep track of the conditions in the solar dryer while we have samples in there. They are nice too because we can put them in the solar dryer and when we are finished we just plug them into my computer and they spit out the data. I played with one a little bit and it works so that’s a plus.

                Next, we took anthropometric measurements at the school/daycare here. We started with the younger group of kids and they were doing alright until one of them started crying because she was afraid of us. Then everybody else got a little nervous and they were starting to get bored too so it got a little rowdy and loud. Right after we finished with the little kids they were let outside and the big kids were brought in and they went smoothly except for they were also loud and we moved them through faster which made it a little difficult for the people writing down the measurements. The process of taking their measurements was really simple. First we would measure their height in inches on an L shaped board with a measuring tape on it. We would put another L shaped board on their heads to make sure we measure accurately. Then they would move onto the scale which was just a bathroom scale (one of those with the dial that moves when you stand on it) and measure their weight in kilos. We are going to put that data together later to find out how well the kids are doing as far as how big they are for their age compared to other children.

                The children here are so beautiful. After we took their measurements they sang some songs for us. I really enjoyed it because we’ve been trying to get them to teach us songs or sing for us. They were so enthusiastic when they sang. Their instructor just had to say the first couple of words to the song and they would take off. They weren’t as nervous around us when they sang. They just belted out whatever it was they were singing. I just love children. I’m so excited to meet my new niece when I get home. Her pictures are so adorable.

                Later we hung out in the conference room a little more to do research and shoot emails or just pass the time. While we were doing that we all became Facebook friends, even Dr. Steele. We also started following each other’s blogs. Then we started talking about lesson plans because we still don’t have any direction which is hard because the families here have been taught all of their lessons and are leaving after harvest. We still need to prepare the nutritional information packets for them to take with them when they leave so we decided to do a two part lesson on those. The first part is just to go over the nutrients in the packets and explain to them that the packets have some information on them, why there are important and what foods they come from. Then we are just going to go over than information pretty briefly because we only have an hour. Teaching is interesting, it’s just hard when there isn’t really and direction and you come into it at the end of the class. I think teaching the new families in a few weeks will be exciting and fun.

                Whitney decided she didn’t want to run before dinner because Nicolle wasn’t feeling too hot and she didn’t want people to watch her run. Surprise, Surprise, nobody here works out to stay in shape. They just work so they think it’s a little weird for us to just run. To be honest, I side a little more with the Malawians that I do with the Americans on that issue.

At dinner we had Nsima which looks like cream of wheat but it’s made with corn flour. I wonder if we will be seeing it more often because the family farmers are starting to really get into the processing of corn into corn flour. We’ll have to see if we can check it out tomorrow. Anyway on our way into dinner, our lovely cooks told us how to make it so we can have an nsima party when I get back. They also decided that they were tired of us using utensils to eat it so they also showed us how to eat it with our hands. I actually thought it made eating it a little easier so I had my whole piece with my hands even though it made my hands messy. Don’t worry I used hand sanitizer on them first. Before dinner we had a little devotional and hymn to “relieve any tension between us” and per Dr. Steel and Adam’s request. Apparently there is tension between us. I didn’t know that. After dinner Nicolle and Camille finally convinced Whitney, Emily and me to try out one of their favorite games where one of them makes up a song and other follows along to try to make it sound like it’s a real song. I might bring that home too! I didn’t get too into it just because I’m shyer than most people but I did participate in a group song.

After all of that we did find an empty room to do Jillian Michaels and yoga in. Jillian Michaels was a little too much for me to be honest. It was only 20 minutes but she thinks of the hardest things to possibly do for 20 minutes. I roll my eyes. Doing yoga right after Jillian Michaels wasn’t the best idea either. Your body just needs a break to calm down a little. Anyway I liked to yoga a lot more. Apparently at some point while we were doing yoga, somebody was watching us which was weird. It didn’t really make me want to work out more. I felt like I was doing pretty good with all the walking, talking, singing and whatever we were doing. Apparently if you really want to get in shape you should exercise for an hour every day. I guess that is a bit of an exaggeration because we’re not here every day. We plan to have trips almost every weekend so we’ll take it a little easier on those but it’s still a lot. It’s just more intense than I’m used to but maybe it’ll grow on me. Tomorrow there is a group run/jog/walk and I’m opting for the walking part. Nicolle is a very persuasive person. (I feel like I’ve been talking a lot about Nicolle but she’s reading these now so I have to mention her J) Hopefully I’ll also be able to get in a shower and if I could get my laundry started that would be the best day ever! We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

I want to tell my brother and sister-in-law congratulations on Rylan’s arrival. So far she is my favorite niece. I wish I could visit with everybody and spoil her but maybe when I come back the new will be worn off and I can have her all to myself! I was showing pictures to everybody here and we had lots of fun. It made my day to have the surprise when I finally was able to check my email and Facebook. I’ve been trying to think of something I could possibly get her while I’m here but there isn’t a whole lot for babies. I guess you’ll just have to share with her.

I love you all. Don’t be afraid to email me. I tried to wifi text my Mom today and it doesn’t work while I’m out of the country, go figure. I got a text back from some confused Malawian. If I have time I’ll see if there’s one that works internationally or maybe I’ll call with Dr. Steele’s wifi phone before he leaves. Be on the lookout.

Mice!

                We went to church yesterday at the Lilongwe branch. It was fun and interesting. In sacrament meeting there were seriously a dozen confirmations. I didn’t actually count but it took up most of the meeting and we didn’t even have time for speakers after that. There was only time for a testimony from an Elder that just got back from his mission. We don’t know where he went but he spoke English really well but had a hard time speaking Chichewa which was unusual. There were also tons of missionaries there, like three companionships. I’m guessing we hit them on an unusual week.

                We also went to Sunday school and Relief Society of course. They were both good but I think we were all tired and had a hard time staying awake. The teachers would go back and forth between Chichewa and English a lot so it was harder to stay awake during the parts in Chichewa.

                After church we had meeting with Ken and Thompson who are with BFI to nail down what they wanted us to do for them while we are here. It turned out to be a really long meeting and I feel like the Food Science students really had much to do with it so that was also fun. Towards the end of our meeting there was precipitation! I felt it a few time and I got really excited but it didn’t really get anything wet. There was debate over whether it was actually raining or not and the definition of raining.

                After our meeting we went back to Mabuya Camp and just hung out.

                This morning we slept in because the only thing on our agenda was to come back to SAFI. BFI took the van to get the rest of the seats put in in the morning so we still had a lot of free time. We decided that we should go back to town and see it some more before we met up with Dr. Steele at the Sunbird hotel where he was hanging out to get picked up.

                We ended up walking through the market which was a little stressful. Camille and Nichole met a couple of cool people there that were friendly but they got ripped off a little bit for some paintings. They both got two paintings and Whitney also got two paintings but got them for about a third of the price that they did because that’s all the money she brought. I didn’t get anything because I thought it would be better to observe the first time through and get an idea of how it worked and get used to it a little. It was stressful because people would swarm around you and they wouldn’t leave you alone and some of them would even invade your bubble. There were some people there that were actually very respectful and understood that I didn’t want to buy anything that day but most of them were really aggressive and pushy. After we met up with Dr. Steele he gave us some tips and I think I have a pretty good idea of what to do when I want to get something. I do have an advantage because I will be here all summer so I’m not in a hurry to buy anything. I just haven’t really thought about what I would get. There were paintings, carvings, fabric, bracelets, earrings, purses and some other fun stuff that I didn’t really get to see too much of but if anybody wants anything in particular you should let me know because I think I can get lots for pretty cheap. Whitney got two paintings for 7500 kwacha which is about $10 apiece.

                While we were in the market Adam wandered off by himself and he didn’t have his phone because he gave it to Dr. Steele to use while he is here so we had no way to find him. We spent some time looking for him and hoping he would just turn up. Gift and Chico (the people Camille and Nichole met) called up their friends and told them to look for a tall American named Adam which we really appreciated. Eventually we decided to just go meet up at the Sunbird because we thought it was time to get picked up to pick  up our luggage we left in a storage room at Mabuya and go back to SAFI. As it turns out, Adam was there. It was kind of annoying because we spent so long looking for him and were worried but he really didn’t even consider us when he was making his decisions. Emily was especially stressed out because she’s the facilitator and is kind of responsible for us.

                We ended up spending about two and a half hours at Sunbird waiting for our ride because the van wasn’t ready until 3ish. We made bets on when we would actually get picked up and the latest guess was 3. I think we were actually picked up after 3:30.

                On the way home we passed some vendors selling mice and Dr. Steele had our drive (Mike) stop to check them out. They were on a bamboo stick and I should’ve got a picture but everybody else did so I should be to find one for you to see if it’s not on Whitney’s blog. They were boiled and still had the fur on them and were really gross looking but we bought them anyway because they were 300 kwacha which is less than a $1. The only problem was that there is no way any of us were eating them and we still had at least a 2 hour drive until we got home. When we got home we gave them to Chimango and told here we got them for her because she’s from here and we thought she ate mice. She told us that she didn’t. I used to think I could try anything once but I think I’m going to modify that to I’ll try anything that they locals would recommend once. Chimango told us that she would find somebody that would eat them so hopefully she does and whoever that is enjoys it.

                It’s nice to be back and SAFI but I do miss us all sleeping in a room together a little bit. I just like listening to everybody else talk and having fun. Especially with Dr. Steele here, our imaginations run a little wild. Right now there is an inside joke about John and Camille getting married, Emily and Adam hooking up and whoever gets married first can live in Dr. Steele’s basement as long as he approves of the match. We have also planned our reunion at Dr. Steele’s house for September 25^th and apparently we are all supposed to bring dates. It’ll be really fun and it better actually happen. I officially have one week under my belt and have about twelve more to go. I’m having a good time and I’m still safe and healthy. I did get sunburned but that is slowly turning into a tan and mosquitoes haven’t been a huge issue. I haven’t forgotten to take my Malaria medicine so everything is still going well. Tomorrow morning everybody else wants to start a pretty intense workout routine. I’m going to try to just take it easy until I really feel like I can get into it. It is going to make a lot more dirty laundry though which means we will have to have washing parties more often. I guess that’s just life.

                I love you all. I still get emails so let me know what you’re all up to. Don’t forget about me!