January 10, 2009, The First Evening

We have just finished a delicious supper prepared by Vincent, the cook here at Namitembo. It was a kind of shepherd's pie, broccoli, green salad with lettuce, tomatoes and the best, crisp cucumbers I've ever tasted. Next was "the cheese course," followed by several kinds of dessert from which we could choose. Fresh mangoes, fruit salad, pound cake and a vanilla pudding. Cold, filtered water is available in a fridge. We can fill our own water bottles as often as we wish. The tap water is from the local well and is potable, but the filtered water is likely to be kinder to our insides!

Now we are listening to Father Frank, the 93 year old resident priest who has been in Malawi since 1943. He's telling us about his trip from England to Nyasaland in a convoy back and forth across the Atlantic during WWII. Except for "trips," he's been here ever since. Frank is slowing down a bit, but he's a great story teller, and a tease. He'll be saying Mass at one of the nearby parishes tomorrow.

We are in the rectory building which has a large comfortable living room. Everybody comes in here before dinner to have a glass of cider or wine and visit. There is wireless internet in here too.

Chet and I will be staying in a two bedroom cottage. It has a small living room, an eating area and a kitchen. It is great. I'm told there are lemon, orange and grapefruit trees in the yard. We'll sleep under blue mosquito nets. After worrying about the fact that I'd not bought mosquito repellant in Seattle, and finally getting some in Joburg airport, I found multiple containers of repellant, shampoo and other things left by previous visitors. I think I'll make a list for future visitors!

Fr. Owen and Fr. Phillip are not here tonight. John D. came with us; a Peace Corps friend of his, named Salima, from Maryland is here visiting. There is also a young woman from Manchester, England. She is a pharmacology major who decided she needed to try something different for awhile. She will be doing something with the new daycare center. There will soon be a two week Montessori course for potential daycare teachers. I may sit in.

At this point, I think our present job is to get through jet-lag, figure out where things are after the terrible job of packing I did and learn a few more words in Chichewa. We'll probably attend a "prayer service" at Namitembo Church tomorrow. It will be led by some of the local people since Father Frank will be at another church and the other two are gone this weekend.

My watch says 10:30 a.m. and here it is 8:30 p.m. It is dark now. It is fairly humid, quite warm and crickets are making their music. We'll be glad for the ceiling fans and the smaller fans in our house tonight.

Love from the adventure of our lifetimes!