People have been wondering some things, so let's get down to brass tacks with an FAQ:
How do you spend your mornings?
Matthew, Lev, and I all wake up to roosters or cicadas by 6 AM, but Thea needs a little more sleep. We crowd in our galley kitchen, bouncing off each other as we prepare breakfast (eggs & toast, oatmeal for Thea), then sit on the back patio to eat it, watching morning sun filter through the canopy. It is very lovely this time of year, cool at night, 72 during the day with little rain, so we can all wear bathrobes at the table (which we had previously felt stupid for packing). We play a round of cribbage or backgammon while we eat. We greet the neighbor's guard dogs - Max and Piri - who have adopted us as their second home. We inspect whatever insects were attracted to our security light overnight and then mysteriously died; Lev carefully adds them to his bug collection. While we're getting ready, we conduct rescue operations if needed (see below). Work and school starts at 8 AM (except my work at the district hospital, for which I leave at 7 AM).
Please forgive the Nelson Mandela joke.
How do you know what temperature it is outside?
We check our combination luggage scale/thermometer, of course.
Where do you get drinking water?
The only time I've been sick was the day that I mixed up my water with someone else's unfiltered water at the district prison, where I go most Friday mornings for a mobile health clinic. Schistosomiasis is endemic there but I didn't catch it. I did have diarrhea streaming out of me all night long, though. 
Our kids normally read from Kindles but Lev must have forgotten his.
Chess Club
We were so surprised when this large, normal-looking grasshopper opened its wings.
It is important to use filtered water. Here is how we get ours:
Where do you buy food?
Every 6-8 weeks we drive to Blantyre for imported and manufactured goods, like shampoo or real butter. We stock up and try to avoid going back for as long as possible. It's only 1 1/2 hours away but it's a really stressful experience and our kids have grown to despise it. We run around like crazy and have to depart for home again by 4 PM sharp. (In the tropics, when the sun goes down, it's instantly black. It's very stressful to navigate on a dark road that has no shoulder and is full of pedestrians, children, and bicyclists.)
Produce, beans, milk sold in bags, and eggs we can get in the local markets. Matthew goes every Friday to Mulanje boma, which is 5 km away, to buy what we need. If we're short a tomato, we can send the kids down the street to the humble mission market where people keep an eye on them and love to exchange Chichewa greetings with them. Women also come door to door selling bananas or passion fruit from baskets on their heads and we always appreciate that!
We're vegetarian so it's no change for us, but this area is currently having an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever - spread via sheep, goat, and cow meat - so people are avoiding those. Seeing the hunks of grey-looking meat sold in the open-air stalls always makes me grateful we don't eat it.
(For what it's worth, our area is also having cholera and polio outbreaks right now.)
Where do the kids go to school?
Thea & Lev love their school. It consists of seven expat kids (ages 3-10). They meet in a little classroom across from the church and are taught by a lovely Malawian teacher they call, simply, 'Miss'. Each child works semi-independently through a curriculum at their level, in a classic one-room schoolhouse setting. Miss's contract is done this summer so the parents are hoping to hire a native English-speaking teacher, who can expand on the Cambridge curriculum that we're switching to for next year.
If you know anyone who wants to do that for a reasonable stipend and free housing, let us know and we'll send details!
Parents contribute to the school, too: Our Dutch neighbor David is a PE teacher in his regular life, so he teaches "Sport" every Friday. Matthew teaches Chess Club and music theory (using a recorder and a ukulele).
They get a 30-minute tea break and a 2-hour lunch break everyday, so what's not to love?
Seen any cool animals?
The insects are truly fascinating - but there are no giraffes or anything like that around here. It's too populated. We do have monkeys. There is a national park about three hours away with all the classic African mammals and we hope to camp there when Matthew's sister visits in July.
What do you miss from home?
Matthew: Cheese, coffee, chocolate, ice cream, friends/family - in that order, har-di-har.
Thea: Reading physical books, ice cream.
Lev: Fishing, Oreos, and ice cream, ice cream, ice cream.
Me: Walks with friends, our church, Parmasan cheese.
What time does your local church start at?
6 AM - and that's not even the first service of the day. The contemporary service starts at 5 AM, but Malawians don't find anything unusual about that. We usually arrive around 6:30 AM, which is a very acceptable time to arrive, and stay till the end around 8:30 AM. By then, we all are hangry and the adults have caffeine headaches; but we always make pancakes afterward. Thea invented the most amazing topping, which is butter + local honey + passion fruit + cinnamon. Very yum.
Why doesn't Matthew ever blog?
Thanks for asking. Because writing pleases him not, but I shall inform him of your interest.
How do Malawians transport beds?
Like this!
How do you spend your evenings?
Fridays are Movie Night. We play a lot of games, go on walks, read. Kids run around with friends, do Legos, get creative with paper and tape - same as America, basically. Next week we're getting two goats and some chickens, once our bamboo fence is finished. All Africans assure me, oh yes, goats are very easy.
Lately, we've been doing this:
Submit any other burning questions if you want a round two!
3 comments:
The question a lot of people ask us here is about Ebola. Are you safe and what if…? That is also my burning question. Mom
Do you think maybe the beetle was small when it climbed into your sink and then has been getting bigger off of your spit and toothpaste?
*Leslie gags and tries not to barf* Also, yes- I think that's 100% correct, Ginger. And finally, Matthew: for doing the dirty work of rescuing the world's most disturbingly overgrown beetle, I salute you.
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