more pictures

even more fun malawi pictures!

the curio market!

here is bech and our favorite stand. wilson and witness (and their friend) are pictured here.

a village house

my sweet (well most of the time) 7th graders

how can he even ride with that on his bike? amazing!

pictures!

we uploaded katy's pictures onto our computer before she left...i decided to share some of them with you all. the great thing about her pictures is that she took some that we would never think of taking! so much here that is strange seems normal to us.

here we are in the big market, by the women that sell fabric...definitely not hancocks!

there are so many choices! 2 meters is 400 kwacha, and 4 meters is 800 kwacha. i love all of the colors!

on the way to salima, we passed this "vehicle," which is not an unusual site.

this is the entrance to the big market...it can be really intimidating, with vendors swarming all around you, trying to get you to buy a homemade mop or broom. you just have to shake your head no and say "don't need."

just a few quick prayer requests and praises:

- We need energy! Katy was just here and Bech's parents come next Tuesday. We loved having Katy here and know we will love having Mr. John and Mrs. Karey here as well, but we are exhausted. Luckily, we have only a week and a half more until spring break! We need it! Pray for all of the other teachers here as well, as they are all super tired as well.
- Our friends Josh and Emily Ketchum both have plus 4 malaria (about the worst you can get). Thankfully, they caught it quickly enough, but otherwise, plus 4 can be deadly. Pray that they will recuperate quickly and fully!
- We have had so many visitors...which is so good for us! We often feel embarrassed because almost everyone in our immediate family has visited us. We both have sweet and wonderful families and are so blessed to have had them visit!
- I'm pretty sure I didn't catch sleeping sickness...I didn't think I would, but I was still a little worried.
- 3rd term is due...and I have at least 1 student failing! Please pray that God will help me to help my student.
- On the same note, some of my students who were being sluggish the past few months have really been kicking it in gear! I am so thankful for that!
- Finally, Bech and I are trying to figure out jobs for next year. If you think finding a job is hard, try doing it from another country! Pray that we will find jobs!

picture update!

here is jacob with our new friend, robert the warthog!

aslan

okay, so i know this pictures is a little big gross...but come one, isn't that an amazing shot?

a giraffe...duh...i mean you know its a giraffe, but still. i have to put some sort of caption.

emily in front of our little plane!

i am so sorry i haven't posted! katy (my sister) is here right now visiting, so we have been pretty busy. she got in last saturday (the 7th, i think?), and will be here through this thursday. we have already spent an afternoon at the lake. she has been helping out in Emily Ketchum's 3rd grade classroom during the day, then seeing Malawi in the afternoon. along with the lake, we have taken her to the crisis nursery to hold the babies, to bech's afternoon activity (art club), to the big market. also, she has eaten twice at the college cafeteria...and one of those times it was nsima! pretty impressive for only having been here a week.

this weekend, we went to south luangwa park in zambia for a safari. we had a wonderful time! i will put pictures up of that soon!

i did want to explain to all of you americans about two different flies over here. the first is the putse fly. the putse fly can lay eggs in your clothes if you dry them outside (ironing will kill the eggs though). the eggs then burrow into your skin and grow into little larvae. at some point, you can pop the larva out, or you can just leave it in their until it becomes a fly and flies out on its own. i know, it sounds absolutely disgusting! but we have had a few people here get them lately, so please keep them in your prayers...it is not fun! apparently, it really really hurts!

another fly is the tsetse fly. this fly carries a disease sometimes (in the same way that some mosquitos carry malaria) called trypanosoma ("sleeping sickness"). from what i have read, this disease is much rarer than malaria. i got bitten by tsetse flies all weekend! i don't think i am in any danger at all of getting "sleeping sickness," but the bites really hurt! i am about to go over to the clinic to get some antihistamines, so hopefully that will help.

also, grades are due next week, and i have a few students who are failing or close to failing...please pray for them, that they will have motivation to increase their grades.

i am still trying to get this whole picture thing figured out! i uploaded those pictures straight from blogger, but i set the size too small! oh well, i will work on it!

we were talking the other day at dinner with the jones about how many things doesn't gross us out anymore. i know that sounds weird, so i will give some examples:

i have a small roach that lives in my medicine cabinet above the sink. normally, i would scream and freak out the first time i saw the roach, try to kill it, get bech to kill it, something along those lines. but instead, i see the roach, think, "oh well, what does it really matter?" and go on about my business.

also, ants are something that don't really bother me. there are ants EVERYWHERE here! emily jones was saying how a few months ago, she would have thrown bread away if it had ants on it. now, she simply wipes all of the ants off before eating.

however, yesterday i did opt out of using the bathroom at the village church. it was a hole in the ground (completely surrounded by flies and mosquitos) in a small cement structure...um, no thanks! i can hold it!

another fun thing about malawi is the way malawians speak english. some malawians have amazing english skills. even so, there are little phrases that always make us laugh.

the first is, "of course, i can say." you might ask someone, "are you from lilongwe?" "No...of course, i can say i have lived in lilongwe for many years."

another one is using the word "yes" as an "umm" or "er." example: did you make this? "yes...no, no, i did not make this."

i just wanted to share some of our experiences here! i am sorry i don't post for a week, then post several times in 1 day!

visit to a church

yesterday, we went with dan and beth robbins to a village church called madalitso ccap. it was about 1 1/2 away from lilongwe. here is bech with pastor maxford. pastor maxford gave us some potatoes when we left.

here is a guinea fowl...my favorite bird in malawi

the church

goats are everywhere here!

here are bech and dan with pastor maxford and the church elders (and of course, baby elijah!)