I Forgot!

I forgot to mention that Renee has a blog too!! She mentions a lot of cool things that I don't forget to mention and looks at everything in a cool way. Also, she has a nicer camera than me and her zoom is amazing and sometimes doesn't even have to move to take pictures! Crazy, right? Anyway, she explains some things way better than I could, like about BFI and such. So, when you get the chance, check our her blog too!
Here is the link:
http://reneeinmalawi.blogspot.com/
:)
Zikomo!

Let's Play Catch-up

The internet has been out the past couple days, so forgive me for getting behind.

Let's see, I'm going to have to think back, and even still the days can get squished together.

Hmmm…highlights…

We visited with Ernest and he showed us the ponds around that he works on to make sure they are full of fish. He also helps to grow sugar cane! He is really cool and gave us each a full stick of sugar cane! How crazy is that? So what you are supposed to do is use your teeth to get the out layer off so that then you can bite off a chunk of the inner soft-ish wood and then chew it so that the sugar cane juices come out. Then you spit out the wood parts after you get all of the juices you can. That's pretty much the extent of the candy out here.

Me and my sugar cane!

One night Camille and John were talking about how they haven't had a lot of mosquitoes in their rooms and that was because they had some spiders that would take care of the mosquitoes for them. Then, I went in to my room that night and after a bit, I realized that I didn't really have any mosquitoes in my room. Oh no. Oh yes, the spee-ider, arachnis deathicus! So I hurried along, got in the bed and put my mosquito net all around me tucked in under the mattress. I realized I forgot something, so I opened a little part of the mosquito net and grabbed it and jumped bag on the bed and tucked it in again. The light was off but I had left my flashlight on my bed lit up. As I looked to grab it, I noticed it was shining to the right and a spider was crawling towards me! I flicked it away quickly, but I had the net closed, so I opened it up and flicked the spider again off my bed. Though I am grateful for any spiders that help eat any mosquitoes, that will be their only form of food in my room, they better not try and come on my bed to get me!

John, Emily, Renee, and I taught a lesson on Food Safety to the parents of the families in the SAFI program. Esther translated for us and it was really cool! We learned that 'zikomo' means 'thank you'. I was supposed to teach them about separating their raw meat from ready to eat foods when preparing meals. Esther wrote up the Clean, Separate, Chill, and Cook words on the board and then wrote them in Chichewa (their language). Since mine was separate, I paid attention to how they said it, so I then said it when they stood up. I can't remember what it was now though. It was so cool! They sort of laughed when I said it. I figured there was nothing to lose. Either I would say it right and they would understand, or I would say it wrong and they would probably laugh some and appreciate me trying. They are such a happy people and they love to laugh. Indeed they did laugh at me some, but it was a nice laugh, not at all a making fun of me laugh. Esther is a wonderful translator and would clarify what we said if a word was hard to understand at all. At one point, she had to ask us what a 'taco' was, and then she explained it to the students. It was so cool! I just can't get over how neat it was. Also, we introduced ourselves, and they could understand us! Then, they introduced themselves to us in English. Their English is really quite good and when we were teaching, you could tell they were trying to understand us anyway. The little kids that we walk around with point to things and we say what they are in English and then they say what it is in Chichewa. The only one I can remember right now is 'azmut', which is woman.

Renee got a shower yesterday. LUCKY! I was using Camille's Jillian Michael's DVD to workout and then I was going to take one too, but the water wasn't working after my workout. I was pretty bummed. Oh well, hopefully I can take one soon. After Renee showered, I attempted to braid her hair. I have never braided someone's hair before, and Renee and I are both no good, so we have a goal to be pro braiders by the end of these three months. I decided to go with the single French braid right down the middle for Renee. I made my first attempt...it was a sorry excuse of a braid. Then I made my second try...it was significantly better. My learning curve is pretty good...maybe. You can be the judge. Honestly, I think Ty did it much better than me on his first try when we were on the Havasupai trip...you can be the judge...it might be hard to tell from the lighting, but do your best!

Ty's first french braid

My first french braid on Renee 

My second french braid on Renee

When we were walking to dinner one night, since it gets dark at around 5:30ish and we have dinner at 6:00, Renee was looking at the stars and sky and she goes, 'Oh look, a shooting star!' So I looked, and then she said, 'Oh yeah, it's still going. Wow, that's a long shooting star.' Well, turns out it was just a telephone wire that she was looking at in the sky. Haha! I laughed so hard!

And then, Renee was saying that Adam was a strangler…I think she meant to say stranger or straggler…and then she just combined them together. Haha, that was funny too. We were all kind of surprised and did not know what to do, especially since he has this strange desire to kill a deer with his bare hands…I'm guessing the best way to do that is to strangle it (a scary image, I know), so her word really did work.

I finally got a shower everybody!! I hadn't showered since Saturday morning! I know, it's pretty nasty, but everyone else said that they couldn't smell me. Renee said that she seriously couldn't smell me, and she said she would never lie to me…so we'll go with that. Then Renee braided my hair this morning. Okay, she is seriously a natural! I was incredibly impressed!

Renee's first try

Renee's second try

When I was walking back with some kids escorting me the other day, a man who had trouble walking and a little sack connected to a stick kept asking me questions. It was hard to understand him, but he did know some English. He wanted a ride, but I couldn't help him there, and he wanted kwacha, but I couldn't help him there either because I hadn't converted my money yet. So I said I was sorry, and he ended up moving along. I felt sad that I couldn't help him even a little bit. It looked like it was so hard to walk. I just didn't know what to do especially since none of the other people were around and I was just by myself and the kids going to my building to my room. The kids tried to help me understand him though. They were a little older. Manuel is one of the boys who was with me and he likes to learn English words, and he was helping me a lot.

We played duck duck goose with a bunch of the boys in SAFI. They are so funny! They found lots of ways to cheat. It was hilarious. I think it was their favorite game that we played with them. We just taught them by doing it to each other for a turn, and then we picked one of them next! Some other boys were just watching and would laugh if we made it and the boys didn’t catch us since we're girls, and if we ever caught a boy too. That was rare. Sometimes the boys would run a little away from the circle and that would make it so I could be between them and the circle easier. It was really funny. One of the boys was going all fighters stance on me, kind of Muhammad Ali style. It was so funny. He did not trick me though! I must say, I was impressed.

Yesterday, we went to Kasunga to go to a BFI (Brighter Future Initiative) Farmer Training session. It was all in Chichewa, but they would sum up what they said to the students for us periodically. We got snacks consisting of a roll and Fanta! So yummy! 

And we had lunch too! They gave us so much! I could not finish it for the life of me. Even some of the farming students could not finish their food! Anyway, it was a really cool program that we got to see.

Here is their practical where they get to go outside and apply what they learned in the classroom.

The sociology students are working with BFI a lot, and us Food Science students are going to try and help in any way we can as well. The funny thing was that the ride there and back only had four seats in the truck, and the rest of us went on the short bed of the truck. So we got nice and cozy on the metal and lasted about an hour and a half or so just going for the ride there. We had a lot of dirt road and a lot of asphalt. At one point we had three men, five women, and a baby in the back of the truck on the way back. It was pretty impressive. I stayed in the back of the truck both times since it makes you pretty dirty from the dirt and at that point I still wasn't able to shower yet.

Before we started our ride. Yes, we are happy now because our bums aren't sore yet.
Sunglasses complimentary of our wonderful friends in the truck! We have the best fellow students ever!

Just this morning I was getting my camera cord from my room so I could upload my photos. The young children of SAFI were sitting out waiting for daycare. As I approached them, they all started yelling 'nsungu' which means white person (asungu means white people). It is so funny!! They all started running at me and when they got to me they all grabbed my hand or arm. It was so great! They don’t really run to you if you are with other white people though, just when you're alone I guess because then they could probably easily overtake you. It was just so cute. I looked down at them and they would look back up at me just observing me. I would tell them 'Malibwangi' (Hi how are you?). Then when I got far enough, I would tell them goodbye and they would say bye back and we would both wave.

Some of the daycare kids not running at me because I was with another 'nsungu'.
Please not the adorable boy in the corner of the bricks with his fingers together during his wave.
I smile every time.

This weekend we are going to be in Lilongwe until Monday evening. We leave today after lunch. It's pretty exciting. We are going to go to the store and get some things that we need, and maybe even a traditional skirt, then I can wear it to church on Sunday! It hasn't even been a week here yet, but it feels like I have been here quite a while actually. I feel like that's strange. Maybe it's because everyone is so nice and they always say after we introduce ourselves that they are a part of us now and we are a part of them now. They really try to connect and make us comfortable so that we can have a home here too I think. It really is an impressive culture.

Day 2

Looking back quickly to the airplane ride...

Me and Renee before our long flight!

The airline gave us free toothbrushes and toothpaste! I definitely used it...twice.

Me and Renee after the flight!

It was oh so long! But we look pretty good for how long it was!

Alright, enough about the flight, I just wanted to make sure there were some fun flight pictures in the mix. Oh, and yes we are both wearing tie-dye, and no we did not plan that.

 Today has been a good one. In Tennessee, the frogs usually are the surrounding noise when you are about to go to sleep, but here in Africa, it's the mosquitoes that buzz around your head that keep you awake, or comfort you to sleep when you get to that point. Good thing I have a mosquito net! With out it, I would probably have been bitten to death! Woke up in the morning to the roosters crowing and after breakfast, we went on a walk to explore more of the land owned by NuSkin and SAFI. These little boys were waiting for us and ready to explore with us!

Some of the cute escorts I was telling you guys about.

 On our walk, we would pass friendly faces and wave at pretty much everyone. The little boys would hold our hands, and sometimes when I had a free one, I would take pictures of the beautiful area. After you take a picture of the boys, they usually want to see it, so I showed them their photo. One of the boys motioned that he wanted to take a picture, so I let him. It was a really good one of everyone walking behind us. Emily was telling me that sometimes if you let them use your camera, they will set you up with all of the other kids to take pictures. Photographers in the making right there.

So pretty! I love Malawi!

 This building is full of little surprises, like the water not working frequently, so washing your hands, flushing the toilet, and taking a shower is often not an option. Solutions: I have hand sanitizer, we don't flush until the water is working, and we deny ourselves of showers until the water in the tank fills up. Hence, I still have not showered since Saturday morning. Don't worry, no one here worries about that too much. And we're pretty sweaty all day anyway even in their fall/winter season.

The building I live in.

 My room is pretty big for one person after living in a small apartment and sharing a room in their...even though I don't have a closet, or any furniture, this room makes me very happy...especially the mosquito net.

Here is my room!

My window would not close all the way, and so Emily had a brilliant idea of stuffing toilet paper in the cracks so that the mosquitoes and other bugs would not get in. My windows are going to stay closed because there is no way I am going to use more of my precious toilet paper. I survived last night without any mosquito bites, happy as can be! It's really refreshing to go to bed a little after the sun goes down, and then wake up when the sun comes up.

Lately we have been going to meetings and we met with Esther and will be teaching a lesson to the families in SAFI tomorrow morning with a translator. I am excited for this experience!

Escorts!!

While we are in SAFI we have been getting escorted almost everywhere, sometimes by two or three...little boys. They are adorable and have been really good escorts. These little boys run up to us once they see us leaving a building, and they put their hands in ours and walk with us wherever we are going. Even if they were in the middle of playing soccer, these boys are dedicated and stop playing soccer to come take us to the next building. And they know that they are not supposed to go into the girls building, so we start slowing down and saying goodbye and they let go of our hands and wave. It is probably my favorite part of the trip so far!

We have a meeting with the SAFI nutritionist tomorrow and later this week we will be doing anthropomorphic measurements and helping other students do research with a baseline survey. I do not know much about that, but I will find out soon I am sure.

Pictures will be coming soon! I'm just dying from jet lag and am supposed to stay up until we actually need to go to bed so that I can get over the jet lag faster.

Okay! I'm off!!

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

Oh boy, I have to go fly out to Africa soon!! Wow! I still feel like it isn't going to happen even though it is hours away until I start my flights and layovers. Everything I need is in my possession. I'm not stressed, just nervous. Really nervous. I'm no international traveller, but hopefully people understand that and give us some instruction as to what we are supposed to do.
Since I was in Tennessee, I got to fly back to Utah to meet up with a friend so that we could go to Africa together. Coming back to Utah made it so that I could see my sisters and brother-in-law again before I go as well as my friends.
Off to see my friends! I texted Kenzi asking if she was at her apartment, and she figured out real fast why I was asking. It was so fun to see my friends again! Kenzi told me that she was supposed to work later tonight, but she had a feeling that she should come back home. Then shortly after, she got my text!! How cool is that!?! I missed out on seeing Kristi though. :( I got to see the wonderful friends that I have, sent my last snapchat, last instagram, the works.
I gotta say, I have been pretty active with my phone lately, unusually active because I know I won't be using it at all for three months!
Then I was able to eat out with my sisters and my brother-in-law at Malawi's Pizza!!! It was so fun!

Oh, and when I was riding in the shuttle to fly back to Utah, our driver had an awesome rough voice...and he is Russian (his last name proved that). When he was driving, I kept imagining us in a car chase or something because he is really undercover. We even had a guy in the army in our car, and the Russian driver could be a double agent or something! So sweet. Great car chasing scenes were speeding through my head, and then the guy in the army was asleep and slowly falling on me. Not cool. I had my ear buds in listening to music and he wakes up and then starts talking to me as if I could hear him. Well, I could hear him, so I obviously talked to him. But he was breaking social norms by talking to someone with ear buds in, for reals! Anyway, he found out that I went to BYU and mentioned LDS in conversation. And then I wondered what religion he is. I was curious, but couldn't get the courage to ask. He ended up mentioning that he is Baptist...oh boy. Baptist people really do not like LDS people generally speaking. At that point I was scared that I was going to get Bible bashed or possibly physically bashed by this man. Anyway, so with help from the Spirit for courage, I asked if he had ever read the Book of Mormon (which I had one in my backpack). He said that he had looked at parts of it and compared them to the Bible and that they did not agree in many ways. He kept talking about that and seemed like he was getting a bit worked up...so I did not push it. I really haven't had a lot of experiences like that, but it was cool to have one even though it did not turn out amazingly or anything. I know that it helped me along in talking to others in general about religion. Looking back, maybe I could have replied and asked if he would be interested in reading it the whole way through with prayer and through the help of the Spirit. But I guess I did not think quickly enough. I am grateful for that experience. So grateful. Hopefully I will be able to have more experiences of that sort.

T9 word keypad example (in case you forgot)

Right now my sister is helping to change my phone from the iPhone to the Chocolate so that my iPhone stays safe in the US, but so I can still text or call while I am in the airport leaving and coming back to the US. Brings me back to memory lane...I haven't used T9 in FOREVER!!

Well, I can't wait to tell you guys about Africa!!

'Hamstars' and 'Murder She Wrote'

Went to Pier 1 Imports today. That was pretty great, especially since I noticed a car that looked like...

THIS!

A good old Kia Soul. That right there on the hood...it says 'Hamstar'. That's right everybody, it was on the hood, and it was on the rear. My Mom and I ventured into the store and found one of the employees to help us out. She had noticed me taking a picture of the car, and said that I should have seen the other identical one that was parked right next to it earlier. I was pretty shocked...TWO Kia Souls with the same wording on the hood and rear! Then the woman mentioned how it is hers and the other is her sister's. Whoa...really good thing I did NOT make fun of the cleverness of the car because not only would I have offended her, but I would have offended her sister too! Double whammy right there. Anyway, she was saying how lots of people don't understand why she has the 'hamstar' on the car, but I told her I definitely knew that she was referring to the hamster commercials advertising for the Kia Soul and that I had her back. I definitely remember that advertisement as one of the strangest advertisements for a car that I had ever seen. Who wants to feel like they're the hamster in the car just like in the commercial when they drive the car. Sure, maybe they're free compared to the ones running in their hamster wheels...but by golly, they are still hairy, and still hamsters whether their hamstars or hamsters, it makes no difference to me. Though the commercials are pretty ridiculous, I gotta say, the 'hamstar' is really creative. Props lady. Props.

Moving on to another topic...

Murder She Wrote

Jessica Fletcher--best female detective

Murder She Wrote is known in my family as the most effective sleeping pill cable can buy. Something about the thrilling mystery has a way of causing heavy breathing and occasional snoring, depending on who is watching. My parents and I were watching some TV tonight and the movie ended that we were watching and lo and behold Murder She Wrote came on. Unlike many families, we fight to NOT have the remote so that we don't have to pick the next show or channel to watch. This was one of those moments. The remote was closest to me and so I put it near my Dad so that he could pick the next show even though he was playing an intense, timed game of solitaire. He finished the game, but didn't grab the remote so I told him to hurry up and change the channel or else we would all be asleep in 20 minutes! My parents got a kick out of that one, and agreed. They know Murder She Wrote is proven to cause them to fall asleep 98% of the time, every time.

So if you're ever in need of a good way to fall asleep, try it out! And if you need some testimonials, I can always get my parents to type something up on here too.

The Havasupai Trip...

How do I even start explaining how awesome this trip was? Great friends. Beautiful water. High hikes. Invigorating sun. Wicked wounds. Hungry animals. Whelp, actually, that pretty much sums it all up!
Alright, you're right, I do have some stories.

Let's get to it.

The hike down to Havasupai was incredible. It was beautiful, really. Sometimes we had to remind ourselves that we were actually in the Grand Canyon. We arrived at Havasupai in the morning and was the first group that had arrived all day because we had left so early. Since we beat the mules carrying our tents and such, we decided to play around in the incredibly clear water. Waterfalls were in abundance, and there were good spots to jump in.

At one point, we travelled downstream, and I was catching up to the group and thought body rafting would be a quick method to get to my friends. The only thing was that I did not check what the rocks were like at one high water flow area. Needless to say, I had really good form, but that did not help me out too much with such rough rocks. High up on my left leg, I got some pretty good scratches, and let me tell you, it was a bumpy ride. My feet even got some scratches. I got out and tried to pretend like nothing happened, which is understandable because it was pretty dumb on my part not to check the rocks. Honestly. *Open palm to forehead*

Ya thirsty?

After the mules arrived, the tents were set up and we put our food up high in order to keep the animals out of it. Those animals though, their pretty sneaky. When we got back from more water fun, we hear a scream! Kenzi had seen a squirrel in our food bag! I hurried over and then took the bag down and opened it up to find a squirrel jumping out latching onto my face! (Okay, there really wasn't a squirrel in the food bag, but it was a worry of ours.) That squirrel got into my trail mix dang it! Turns out they don't like raisins so much. That's understandable I guess.

After a short night of rest, Kenzi, Carolyn, and I woke up to find Kristi by the bags of food hanging on a rope...with a horse. It had been eating Richard's food! We hurried over and Sparkers (yes we named the horse) was eating his trail mix. So I made squirrel trail mix, and Richard must have made horse trail mix. Since everyone else was still asleep, we were trying to be quiet and to get it to go away at the same time. Carolyn ended up getting a stick and tapping at the horses bum, and that got it going. Richard's trail mix must have been the best Sparkers has ever had, because she ended up coming back for more.

Chillin' in the water

There was a sweet cliff jumping spot. I used to not get scared of heights at all, but going for this jump actually scared me. It was about 30 feet high. I was at the edge, psyching myself out and could not get myself to do it. My friends were yelling and cheering for me to go, but I was just so nervous. Then, I looked down at Alan, he was cheering too, and then all of the sudden I saw him giving me a count with his fingers. 1-2-and on 3 I jumped. It was so freeing, so great to jump, to go for it and pencil in the water.

We went on a long hike one day that was really fun too. Up a bunch of ladders, climbing up rocks. There was one moment that was one of the funniest moments of the trip. Alan and I got a picture by a cliff. There was a tree that angled to have branches hanging over the cliff, and we called Steven over to be a part of the picture. The tree was sturdy enough for him to hang onto, but not completely reliable. So Steven was hanging a little bit over the cliff hanging onto the tree, and he was shaking the tree a bit to be funny. All of the sudden something started scurrying down the tree and crawled over Steven's hand and down to the trunk of the tree and then ran in between my feet and down the cliff behind me. The best part was that Steven did not know that it was a lizard running down the tree and over his hand, so he was pretty freaked out. His eyes were huge, and his face was just priceless. I was pretty scared for a second too, mostly because I did not want him to let go of the tree and fall down. Right after it happened I started cracking up though! It was so hilarious! I'll never get over how funny that was.

The Men

The Women

The hike back out seemed so fast. I stayed behind with Alan and Steven to have the mules take our bags up. Since we were the last wave out, we were booking it hiking out to catch up to everyone. Steven and I ended up catching up to Richard and so we hiked quickly together. They ended up having a faster pace than I did, so they kept it up while I kept my pace. Then we had the long uphill hike...really uphill. The change in motion of my legs felt strange and was really hard. I was surprised at the difficulty. And I thought I was in shape! I made a deal that I would not stop on the switchbacks, and so I didn't. It was like the tortoise and the hare, except I was probably slower than the tortoise, and there wasn't really a hare that I beat...So maybe I was just a snail. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Everybody finished the hike safe and sound! Load up and head out!