Productive

Yesterday was an especially busy day!

After breakfast in the morning, we hurried and started peeling sweet potatoes ('batata' in Chichewa). While Emily and I were using the extremely nice peelers that one of our professors, Dr. Johnston, was able to bring with him for us (among many other things for our research), Renee finished up making the brines, and John started to use the mandoline so that we could have consistently thick slices.
We allowed the slices to soak in the brine when we were all done with slicing and weighing.

Next stop, fixing the solar dryer.
Unfortunately, the solar dryer was in poor condition when we arrived. The corners needed caulking within the solar dryer so that heat wouldn't escape as fast. Also, the door to place the racks of samples would not close completely allowing heat to escape as well. Not only that, but the chimney directing the heat to escape broke off.
The mission: Fix it all before the sweet potatoes were done soaking. Meaning 2 hours time.
We began. Emily and I were the main caulkers, we had to use our fingers. Supplies are low generally speaking.

Emily: Is Akim eating raw cassava right now? I don't think he should be  eating raw cassava...
Me: Whoa, whoa, Akim. I don't want any of that raw cassava.

Then, we were to fix the door. Luckily we had a lot of help from Akim, and one of his friends in placing rubber from a bike tire to help close the gaps from the almost closed solar dryer door. Then we used string to wrap around the solar dryer and hooks to tie it on to then have the door more securely closed. It all sounded great to us, but it was hard to explain to Akim and his friend. At that point we could only have so many people explaining a concept to carry out, and only so many bodies can gather around the solar dryer and still be useful and not crowd the area, so I came up with a game of miniature croquet whilst we waited.

Tape formed into balls to play croquet with!

It was really fun actually! Well, maybe I was the only one who thought so...oh well!
Then we thought about making miniature pool, but that was not as successful unfortunately.

The repairs on the solar dryer took longer than we anticipated, so the soak was definitely longer than two hours. Right after the repairs were complete, Emily, Renee, and I hopped to it and worked on getting the slices onto the air drying mat after weight them, as well as into the solar dryer after weighing them. Not even half way through the pretreatments, the scale we were using broke. We thought it was just the batteries, so we grabbed three more double A batteries quickly and replaced them. Still nothing. Maybe it was the rusty looking spring that connected to one of the batteries. We didn't know. Either way, it wasn't working and we didn't have a replacement scale. I had to bring the bad news to our research leader, Emily, who took it with great stride. Looks like we had to finish up without weighing the samples and that was that. So we continued working without getting lunch because time is our enemy once the soak is done. It's best to have everything drying at the same time. Everything runs much more smoothly when we get that done. Poor Renee has been sick and she suffered through it with Emily and I. Yes! We finally got it done! Off to our cold lunch.
Camille and Nicolle were so nice and while we were working had asked if they could watch over the solar dryer and the pretreatments so that we could eat lunch, but again, time was our enemy. But it was so nice of them!
Then, later that night after dinner, Emily volunteered to take the water activity of each pretreatment in both solar dryer and air dryer. Renee and I decided to do it with her, because the water activity meter takes a while to read, and it can get pretty boring. Also, it's easier with another set of hands to open and close the solar dryer and hold a flashlight, and another person for more company. At this point we all were thinking that we would be a true team. Plus, it's just nice to gather the data with some company.
Emily, Renee, and I felt pretty united together after all of that.

Other than that, we worked some more on the nutrition packets, and taught another nutrition class this morning and gave out the packets that we made in our international nutrition class to the families. They liked to look at the picture of their family on the front. Dr. Johnston explained a lot about the packets for the families and how it would help them. It was really fun as always!

The past two days the internet has not been working, and a lot of us have been needing to check emails from professors or get pictures sent from email printed off for the families. It's amazing how useful the internet is!

Joyce and I! She is always so happy! She is so wonderful!

Solar Drying/Air Drying Week and Beach Weekend

This past week has been full of solar drying and air drying sweet potatoes. We've been taking water activity laboriously in the morning, the early afternoon, and in the dark of the night so that we could have an idea as to how long it takes to dry them in a solar dryer compared to air drying them. Also, we can then see which pretreatments were best and which cause too much discoloration as well as take longer to dry.

Air drying mat with different pretreatments of sweet potatoes. The net is to keep bugs out and animals from eating them as much as possible.

Recording the readings that I tell them from the water activity meter. We make work look fun!

One of our meals! We usually get either rice, noodles, or potatoes with chicken, eggs, or beef, and peas, green beans, cabbage, or salad. Some things we are less likely to get than others. One of our favorites is cabbage! It is so delicious, and it is even delicious served hot!

Usually we get chicken, but one day we got nyambo (beans) for lunch! Yum!

I've been trying to capture my favorite part of the sun rising and setting each day, but it is actually quite difficult. The sun shines through the gold and pink/purple plants in the ground and it is just so beautiful. The eyes just see things so much differently than a camera. This is my latest attempt at capturing such beauty. The sun is just so bright that my camera reacts to that light and shadows everything else even though it is as bright as can be too! Down below the sun shining in between two of the rays of light, there is a little bit of the purple/pink that I was talking about. You can get a glimpse of it at least. Just imagine that all over the ground.

This is SAFI. Under the overhang describes the purpose of SAFI. I will get a picture of it so that you can read it. It was too dark at that point in the day when I was taking pictures.

 We went to the beach in Salema on Saturday during the day. Here is our view. There was an island out further at Lake Malawi. We took a boat to the island with a guide named McPherson. We went snorkeling and saw beautiful vibrant blue fish and other fish as well. Then I realized that they might not clean their scuba gear like certain guides in America. I didn't feel the need to keep my gear on after that, but I did keep the goggles on so I could still see the fish. Then McPherson took us on a hike to the highest rock on the island! It wasn't too far or too high, but it was still a really nice view! We got to see part of Mozambique way off in the distance. They mountains or hills were barely visible. And then McPherson showed us the section that was still Malawi. It was really neat. Sometimes it's hard to believe where I am!

This beach is cleaned everyday. The rest of Malawi has a lot of trash flying around. There are no trash cans to throw things away near the sidewalk and so people usually just drop trash on the ground or in ditches. Sometimes people come around and pick up trash wearing certain clothes, but I do not know how this is determined. It was nice to experience such a clean beach. It was pretty deserted too. 

I did get a nice burn. Renee got a really bad burn though. She is already getting blisters. Ouch! Mine isn't that bad, but I'm making sure to put Aloe Vera lotion on it. I usually don't burn too badly, but I think since I'm wearing the same short sleeved type shirts and capris that when I wear my swimsuit my poor back and shoulders haven't seen the sun for a good while compared to my forearms. It's okay though, I'm sure it will wear off soon.

Dream On, Dreamer

Somehow, I have had this ability to remember my dreams pretty well while I have been on this trip. And, it's really quite strange.
I don't know what to think of them.
Carolyn helped me analyze one though. That was pretty helpful.

Last night I kept waking up.
I had a grand total of four dreams.
The first one is harder to remember.
They are all pretty strange.
Brace yourselves.

Dream 1:
Just a regular day. Except, oh wait, I have super powers. I can fly, and that's it this time. I am seen as a super woman type heroine though. There is one little kid that continues to be mean to me and everyone. Who would have thought a kid could bully a superhero! I decided to teach this kid a lesson. I picked him up and tangled him up in some wire. He was pretty high and I started flying around him talking to him about life lessons and helping him understand others better. It seemed super inspirational even though I have no idea what I said.

Then I woke up. It was dark. Back to bed!

Dream 2:
My brother and I wanted to workout, so we went to a weight room to pump some iron. This weight room only had three full weight machines with a wall as a mirror so that it seemed a lot bigger. Really weird. My brother began immediately, and I suddenly decided to go upstairs. It was like we were in a hotel. I saw on a sign that there was a fundraiser dance performance being put on by my sister, Morgan. I had no idea she was doing this!?! She didn't tell me! I ran down to tell Preston, but he didn't really feel like going, so instead he just drove my car somewhere. I hurried back up and sat on the front row on the ground floor with my sister Carson to watch the performance. My parents were there too. All of the sudden the theater was full, but Morgan and her friends were doing a practice performance in front of everyone, but no one minded. Morgan and one of her friends, Jenny, was not satisfied with the performance, so she and Morgan came over and convinced Carson and I to be a part of it so that they had enough people to make it look really good. We didn't know the dance moves or anything. It was an interpretive ballet type dance. Strange, and there's no way I can do anything like that. Oh well, it worked out. The fundraiser was successful.

I woke up again. Still dark, no roosters. Falling back asleep.

Dream 3:
Somehow the first dream carried over a little bit and I was flying home. My room was really open. It wasn't really outside, but I didn't have to open a door to get to it. And I can't go through walls or teleport. Very strange, right? Anyway, I get into my room and find Clover and Ginger (our dogs) on my bed and two cats (we don't have two cats at home). All of the sudden there were dark clouds and it was somehow known that a huge natural disaster was going to occur. I don't know what. Then I found out there were a couple of other people next door with a bed too. For some reason if you wanted to survive this scary situation, you had to stay on your bed the whole time. So, good thing they had a bed! AND, somehow it was just known that they were trustworthy, and that was good too. I had them take care of our dogs while this disaster occurred and I took care of the cats. I noticed a little kitten house on my bed and the kitten that my parents very recently got came out of the little house to say hi. So I was taking care of three kittens during the disaster. Everything went smoothly, and we didn't see any natural disasters going on, but we stayed on the bed just in case. It was known that the disaster was over, so I got off the bed and found out that Clover and Ginger were still safe! Phew. Then my Mom came over to me out of nowhere. We had to hurry through this large maze of classrooms and unorganized chairs and desks. It was dangerous. There were men all around us and it seemed like a correctional facility or something. My Mom was walking in front of me and we had to be single file. Suddenly a super skinny, really creepy man came over to my Mom and tried to seduce my Mom or something. She wasn't having any of that, that's for sure. Go Mom! He was really persistent though, so then I squished to be in front of my Mom and I told him to leave us alone. He was getting upset. I felt in danger, so I started teaching him a lesson with a series of punches and then I kicked him to the ground and pulled his hands behind his back like a police officer would. All the other men around us were pretty shocked. They got the message. We continued on. Off to another part of the correctional facility...it was more a cafeteria scene. Then the black guy on High School Musical was there. He was strong and mean and wanted to beat us up too. He was more of a challenge for me. I was still in front of my Mom, so I did some kickboxing moves and then he fell to the floor unconscious. Winners!

Then I woke up. Dang, it's still dark outside! I'm so tired, I'm going back to bed.

Dream 4:
Off to see my sister Lindsay! I was going to her apartment. I came inside and Lindsay was her regular self, but there were three 'pumbas' (warthogs) in her apartment. She acted like it was normal. The place was dark and strange looking. A lot of deep purples and grays. One of the warthogs just woke up from napping on the floor under some sheets. And apparently when the pumbas are hungry, they are pumbas, but when they are not hungry, they turn almost into human beings. (Don't ask, I can't describe it any better than that.)  Then I realized that I needed to go to the bathroom, so Lindsay guided me there since this was not her real apartment that I remembered so well. I get in and the base of the toilet seat is basically connected to a chair with arm rests, but the toilet was most of the sitting part of the chair. So strange. Also, it tilted forward, which made it really hard to go to the bathroom. I finished my business and suddenly there was someone else in the room. It was Eden, Camille and Nicolle's friend. She lives in their apartment back in Utah. I've never met her before, I've just seen one picture of her. Suddenly the bathroom extended and was a room. She was at the window then walked over to the bed. For some reason, her left leg was a purple color and her right leg was some blue-green/gray color. I don't know if it was tights or not, it was definitely not paint though. She and I were talking, I have no idea what about. Then my sister comes in and says that I need to go because the pumbas are getting hungry again. So I left.

I woke up and it was actually light outside! So I checked the time on my iPod and it was time to get up. I stayed on the bed for a bit thinking back at my dreams. At first I only remembered the last three, and then when I was telling Renee about them this morning at breakfast, I remembered the first one too! It's so crazy how that happens.
I don't really understand them, but dreams are pretty cool. It's fun for me to try and remember them. Often for me, my dreams have barely any speaking, it's like I communicate with others by observing them and speaking through my mind or something. It's strange, I rarely remember words actually being spoken. And maybe I do dream in color, or do I just get the feeling that colors are there and attribute a shade of gray to a color.
I really have no clue, but either way, it's fun to think about.

It Builds Character

Like I promised...some stories...

So, after our super safari special in Mvuu, we headed back for Lilongwe. We got in a little later in the day at Mabuya Camp (the usual), and saw a party going on by the pool. Nicolle and I were pretty tempted to join, I don't know for sure how the others felt about it. It didn't really matter though, none of us went. Apparently it was extremely nice dress wear, not exactly black tie, but dang those ladies were wearing some nice evening gowns. The dress was actually pretty varied, but we came in too late because people were drunk and high already. Not really that fun.

One night, Nicolle and I were pretty hungry, not ravenous or anything, but we only brought so many bars to eat for the weekend, so we headed over to the Mabuya Camp restaurant. Good choice. The restaurant is so nice! It's a really cute set up, and it was just a relief to sit at a table and get your order in a very calm environment. Not that we don't usually do that, but for some reason this was extra special...maybe it was because that was where we met Edward. (No, nothing relating to or in anyway like the Twilight Edward. How dare you compare him. This Edward is the bomb.) Nicolle and I talked to him and immediately knew he was a cool guy. Unlike other Malawi men, he didn't try to charm us or anything like that. He was pretty chill. And we found out that he made the 'weight room' that I put up pictures of earlier about Mabuya camp. So cooool! We found out that he works at the restaurant and goes to school and does a couple other jobs. Busy guy. He even works out with Mr. Malawi (Nicolle and Camille have met him I think, but I have no idea who he really is...but it sounds cool). Nicolle started playing him in Ntchuwa, and that's when other visitors came over. Gift, Moses, Hippo, and Amanda joined in on the fun. Apparently Gift and Hippo are brothers and they all know Edward. Amanda is Hippo's wife, or soon to be wife? (It got a little confusing because of Gift...you'll soon see why.) Gift keeps asking Nicolle where she learned to play Ntchuwa, and whispering the question. He seemed pretty out of it. Then Moses was slurring his words some and Hippo actually seemed pretty normal. So basically Gift and Moses must have been pretty drunk. At first I was actually pretty nervous. I had never been around anyone who was drunk, so I didn't really know what to do. Is it okay to laugh at them? What if they get mad that I'm laughing?! Different people get certain ways when they drink...what if they are angry drunkards!?! I exhibited a certain level of confidence so that they wouldn't smell my fear. It worked pretty well. We knew Gift from the market, so he finally realized that he knew us too, and then he kind of didn't want to let us out of his sight. Nicolle and I said that we had a meeting with our friends after we slaughtered them in Ntchuwa and headed over to our friends sitting outside. Gift followed. Aaagh! By then Edward was playing pool with a friend and he gave us an "I am so sorry" look because Gift is crazy. Nicolle recorded Gift for a little bit. It was actually pretty entertaining for a while, but then it got really old. He kept saying how he was going to cry because he missed us and that when he meets good, nice people like us, then he doesn't want them to go. Nicolle and Edward exchanged numbers, and this was visible to Gift. Suddenly Gift looked a little angry. It looked like he thought Edward was entering in on his territory. It's okay though, it's okay. No fighting occurred. Anyway, Nicolle and I are only going to hang out with Edward together if we are even able to. Don't worry! Buddy system all the way!

Monday morning was full of fun! Nicolle, Adam, and I walked to the grocery store area in Lilongwe to get some groceries and some food as well before the van came to pick us up to head back to SAFI. We had a good time. Nicolle and Adam got into one of their friend arguments...well, serious discussion I guess. It was pretty funny. I zoned in and out of the conversation a bit because they kind of kept repeating their point with slightly varied diction and phrasing. I just drank my orange Fanta happy as could be. We ended up seeing the missionaries that we see at church! They are so cool! One of them used to work in a bakery. He's funny. It was nice to see them. There are three pairs of missionaries in the branch we go to in Lilongwe and one of the three are sister missionaries. We even saw the other set of elders later that day in the same area!

Then we found out that the van was going to pick us up and then we would head back to SAFI. Wahoo! I realized that I really needed to go to the bathroom...really...(yes, this is the story).
In Lilongwe, even though there are restaurants and such, only the really nice sit down restaurants have bathrooms. In the grocery store we got picked up at, there were no nice restaurants, and no grocery stores have bathrooms, and so Nicolle and I found one in a fast food type restaurant (without the drive-thru). I ventured in. Nope. Door was locked. I knocked. No answer. Hmmmm...I'll wait? So I waited. I knocked again. Maybe there is a key at the ordering area. Sure enough a young employee noticed my struggle and was about to bring me the key. Victory! Soon my mission would be complete. Not so. I had heard another employee saying "No water! No water!" I thought he was speaking to someone behind me, so I walked onward. I entered after struggling with the lock, I turned immediately to lock myself in, not noticing the state of the bathroom.

Here is what I saw and then my thought right afterwards and the order I saw these problems:
Problem: No toilet lid.
Thought: Hey, no big deal, as long as there's a---
Problem: No toilet seat.
Thought: Dang, I'm no good at the squatting thing, so we'll have to double up on toilet paper on that lack of seat and balance well.
Problem: No toilet paper.
Thought: Really?! Hmm...paper towels...? Please!
Problem: A wad of paper towels.
Thought: Huh? What's in this?
Problem: A dried surprise in the paper towels.
Thought: Sick nasty! Okay okay, this can work. It has to work! I'm about to pee my pants, and that would be probably, uhhhh...maybe worse than this. Okay weigh my options here...I could pee my pants and suffer public humiliation, or endure this nasty bathroom and clean up really well after I relieve myself.
Problem: No soap.
Thought: Gah! Really? Okay, this is happening. Is there at least water?
Problem: No water.
Thought: Shoot...that guy was trying to tell me that...I can't even flush...

I then tore the safe parts of the paper towels and set them on the base of the toilet and got other pieces ready too. Phew, I made it! So I couldn't flush and I couldn't wash my hands. This was necessary. I unlock the door cautiously, finally lock it back up and give the key back to the employee. If I was that employee and I knew that the bathroom was like that, I would never touch that key when someone came out of that bathroom. Then I held my hands out very aware of them and if they were close to my clothes and went directly to the van and asked Emily for hand sanitizer. She thankfully is always prepared and kindly let me use some. Wow. But hey, it builds character.
Be grateful for having always flushing toilets and always running water in any and pretty much every form of restaurant, grocery store, and home.

We got back to SAFI! Phew!
That night was really hard to sleep for some reason. I didn't have any nightmares about evil bathrooms at least!
Tuesday morning we got started talking to families with SAFI and it was so fun! We are filling out a survey with their ages of every member in their family and what they ate 24 hours ago and what crops, and animals they have and how much they harvested. It was so fun! I was able to do it today too and I love it! They are such wonderful people. They wanted to teach me some Chichewa. I learned 'soya' is soybeans, and 'nyemba' is beans, and 'ntedza' is groundnuts. They are so great. One of the families even let me pet their rabbit. Also, they offered me some groundnuts even though they have so little food compared to me. They told Betha (she was translating for me) that I was free to have any, but I said that I didn't want to take any of their food from them and they should be able to eat it. Betha told them and they seemed to understand and smiled. They are so sweet. They offered me food. Something so precious, so necessary to survival here. I was amazed.

After I finished interviewing families on Tuesday, I helped out with the rest of the solar drying group. We are trying out different pre-treatments for sweet potatoes to see which ones we are actually going to incorporate in the study. It's been interesting. We have come across different hurdles and realizations that we can only do so much by way of cleaning in between samples and such. It's been fun though. Last night we were taking the water activity of each pre-treatment. A bug came inside the room we were in...we call them the dive bombers...they have large bee/wasp-like bodies and fly around the room and all of the sudden dive bomb randomly in different directions. So annoying, especially if they are around when we are eating. Anyway, one got in and Renee was adding the values in her computer as she sat on the green, plastic chair. Sudden dive bomb to the leg! Renee freaked out! It was the most scared and freaked out I have ever seen her! Hahah! I was laughing so hard! She had screamed and yelled at it to get away from her. Emily and Renee left the room immediately. I found myself alone facing the dive bomber. Weapon of choice: Plastic Spoon. Actually, it was pretty much my only option. Hiyah! Hiyah! I kept missing it! Finally I was about to give up and let down the spoon. It dive bombed at me and so I swatted it down with my hand. Brutal. It stayed down. I felt bad, so I got the spoon and took it outside. It wasn't dead, just stunned I think. It dive bombs into walls all of the time, so it's probably used to the trauma to the head.

Today as I was getting water activity values again in our little room, Renee was with me keeping me company and working on an Excel spreadsheet and inputting data for me. I walked outside to get more samples of pretreatment and when I came back, a woman was setting her baby on the wooden bed base (it has no bed). She was going to leave her sleeping baby there to give her back a break. This was fine, except for I had other samples sitting on the bed that she moved around and mixed up. They were all chopped up and ready to go too! Darn. Her baby started waking up, so she took him away again. I looked down, was a little exasperated, but then I realized that I could still cut up the other half of the sweet potato and it was a good thing I remembered which one was which too! So, it was all good. I just had to do a little more chopping. Then, two little girls entered into the room. They were pretty cute, so Renee and I endured. At first we didn't know what to do, and then we started singing the Yodeling Austrian song, and that entertained them and kept them from touching anything important. I hurried to get more from the air drying mat and they followed. On our way back, we raced. I won so I could get a head start on measuring. One of the girls liked to read the numbers that showed up on the scale to Renee, so we let her have at it. You read that scale Maoi! (Her name means luck.)
Then the girls kept handing us everything that we needed and then followed us back to the conference room. They hung out with us and the other interns for a while. We told them that we could have them leave whenever they wanted us to. They were okay with them for the beginning. It started getting a little funny though. Maoi was cutting the cheese and trying to make us show her pictures every second and getting mad at us when we didn't. Not cool. It was getting difficult for Emily to concentrate and by then we were all ready to have them leave, so we kicked them out in a kind way. It was fun while it lasted!

It's been nice getting to work.
It's been amazing talking to families.
It's been great here.

Safari Special!

Sorry, these pictures are kind of out of order...stories coming soon! :)

Adam: I don't think Whitney knows how to use a camera... Nicolle: Those birds are trying to paint behind me! John: Look, I can touch my nose with my tongue! Emily: Did Twilight finish loading yet?

Camille: Haha, there's a bamboo about to get Adam. Me: Did you just say we're gonna see Crocs? Not the shoes, right? Renee: I see Zebras everywhere I go, everywhere I go. Emily: But really, what happens to Renesmee/Nessie/CGI baby?!?

Our amazing hotel!!

Check out this bathroom!

Explanation: I was smelling the flower and the petals just stuck up there in my nostrils so I couldn't smell! Figured it was a kodak moment.

Renee: Ha! Catch me if you can down that super slick slide!

Renee got an action shot on the tire swing! We wer both swinging and she got this picture on her second try! Skill.

Getting ready for the Safari drive! I wanted the very front seat...but, that was for the night part of the ride. One of the guides shined a bright light so we could spot the eyes of other animals and then see them better.

We saw a bunch of elephants! They had their ears up at us like they were ready to charge, so we moved on some.

Crazy trees/cactus? Weird, right?

Pretty Sunset

Sneaking around hippo.

They sleep on each others backs. What good buddies.

The crocodile!

Aaah! I can't remember what these are called.

Just a picture I took while we were on the road trip. Africa is not exactly what I thought it would be like.

I promise I will have stories to tell! I just haven't had time since being back. Oh boy, these stories are good too! Especially the bathroom one. It was definitely a character builder for me. Stay tuned. I will update again this week.

Another Day at SAFI

It's beautiful I tell ya!

It's been a good one. A run was not in the cards for me in the morning. I don't have an alarm, so that obviously didn't work. Luckily Emily and Camille plan on waking everyone who doesn't have an alarm up for our morning runs/walks.

The food science students (including me) met with Dr. Steele to discuss odds and ends concerning Emily's solar drying proposal for here at SAFI. It was an informative meeting. Then we hurried along with Betha and did some anthropometric measurements on the little kids at day care. We wrote down their names and asked them their age and such and then measured their weight and height. We used a wooden board with the measuring tape attached on both sides and then used a wooden board to make sure we were reading it correctly and then recorded it. Then we sent them to be weighed. It was not very exact, that's for sure. They would round the numbers a lot; we were just there to assist. Since it is the families that are leaving, it is best to measure them the way that they were measured in the beginning when they first came into the program. At least that's how I assume it's going down and the main purpose of it all to see improvements.

Anyway, the funny thing was that the really little kids were incredibly scared of us. Some of them would start crying once they got closer to us, or they would just stare at us with those big eyes! So cute! I can't blame them, I mean really. Most of them are probably seeing a white person for the first time, and my goodness, there are four of them! It reminds me of how I vaguely remember being in nursery. All I remember was crying because my Mom was leaving me and not wanting to be anywhere near those strange faces! We must have seemed like aliens to those kids with our white faces looking at them and measuring them. It probably gave them nightmares…let's hope not.

Next stop: Reading.

I started reading up on the solar dryer that we are going to be working with. We have set up a plan of how our weeks are going to go. It looks pretty good! Hopefully we stay on schedule. Some decisions need to be made still, but we are getting it figured out. Emily is really good at leading, and she is a good student facilitator. She's pretty dang organized, that's a huge plus. Camille and Nicolle have been working on their papers and getting sources and such. Sounds like no fun to me, but they have been really dedicated. I'm impressed. Who knows what Adam does…but really, no one knows what Adam does.

This chair would be an awesome reading chair. I want to make it when I come back. It seems simple enough of a concept. We shall see. I'm no master wood worker.

Workouts, oh yeah!

Here's our plan: Wake up and run, and then after dinner we will use a Jillian Michael's DVD (compliments of Camille) and then a Yoga DVD (compliments of Nicolle).

Last night was so great! I seriously loved working out! Aaaah! It is so fun! I love the burn and I just love it all. I feel so good afterwards. If I didn't workout, I think I would go crazy.

 Before Jillian Michael's workout DVD.

Okay, so this is what I think everyone in the picture is thinking...Me: Mhmm...let's get this started. Renee: I'll punch yo lights out! Camille: I've been holding this position for hours! Emily: Why are we doing this again guys? Nicolle: Who put Baby in a corner? Get her out of there.

(These statements in no way reflect what was actually been said or thought for that matter in this exciting time of working out for the before statements, and the following statements. These are intended for humor and laughter, or as Dr. Steele would put, ROFL.)

After Jillian. Before Yoga.

Me: Guys, that really burned. Camille: Next time, no cameras. Renee: Guys, that was nothing, I am super calm right now. Emily: Yeah, you can't touch this. Nicolle: Mmm...guys, I think I've developed a nervous twitch.

After Yoga.

Me: Must. Hold. Position. Renee: All I'm saying guys, is that I'm totally at peace right now. Camille: Where'd Jillian go, I can totally take her right now. Emily: I am grounded with the Earth. My spine has elongated and I feel whole. Nicolle: This is not a Kodak moment. I will use my Yoga powers to destroy your camera!

This morning I was able to go for a run. It was amazing. I stuck with it even though I hadn't been running in a long time, and it was worth it. Apparently lots of the Malawians were laughing at Camille and me as we ran by because they stay in shape by doing their harvesting, and making dinner and repairing parts of their house, or balancing things on their heads to carry them as they walk around (so jealous of their talent). That makes sense to me I guess. At one point, I ran by a bunch of kids and they were yelling 'asungu'!! It's just so funny! Another little girl started running a little bit with me with a big smile on her face. It was pretty funny. Another man was walking the other direction and with a smile asked, 'Are you running?' I told him, 'Yes, yes I am running.' He said, 'Oh good. Have a good day.' It was so sweet…even if he was laughing at me after he walked by.

Last night was interesting. I probably had the coolest dream ever! So, I don't remember it all, obviously, but we'll work through what I remember…

So it all started on a very high building. I was there atop it and had a knowledge that I have super powers. Suddenly, I see Spider-Man there too. He's chillin' on top of the building with me because that's what he does sometimes. Anyway, suddenly, we both realize danger is coming, but mine is not the spidey sense kind, I'm just super smart or something I guess. So Spider-Man suddenly lost his webbing, and somehow I could fly with my powers, so I carried him along and we flew away. It was a pretty rough air chase and we were dodging attacks from I don't even know what was chasing us. Then I needed a break, so we landed. All of the sudden, this evil gang came out of nowhere and was out to get him. I was sick and tired of the madness, so I used a series of kickboxing moves to scare them off and get them out of my way. We ran inside a building and took the elevator up. There was another Spider-Man that looked exactly like him but he didn't have any powers. It was so strange. So then I started taking him around with me or else he would have definitely gotten beaten to death by the gang too! Anyway, we end up finally away and really high up on this concrete slab connecting two skyscrapers together. Somehow, this other chick was there too. She loved one of the Spider-Man's, yadda yadda. We were just trying to do some figuring out as to who was who and what was with the lack of webbing or any of Spider-Man's powers and such. This part gets a little hazy now…but I just remember it being some kind of thing where the Spider-Man's had what the other was lacking in power and then they decided to give the full power back to the original Spider-Man, and then one girl ended up being with the normal guy, and then some other girl ended up being with the original Spider-Man. Wahoo! Happy ending!

So I thought it was a happy ending at first when I woke up…but now as I've been thinking about it, it kind of was, but wasn't. I'm glad they ended up happy and all, but I helped out two Spider-Man dudes…how did I not end up with either of them?! These girls came out of nowhere, seriously, they came out of nowhere! Oh well, it happens. Right? When you have super powers, you don't end up with someone else maybe…oh wait, the original Spider-Man ended up with that lady and she didn't have any powers. Oh well, it is what it is. Plus, I don't actually have super powers, but I can still use those kickboxing moves on people. Meh, I'm satisfied.

I wonder what I'll dream about next!

Lilongwe Weekend

On a walk at SAFI

The path. Not straight. The clouds. I find a path in them too.

We travelled to Lilongwe this weekend. The sociology majors (Camille and Nicolle) were going to meet with some BFI leaders, as well as a meeting with Thompson from Bunda College. All of us students went along because it is a good change of scenery and we can go to church in Lilongwe too. The city is interesting. There is a place called Old Town, and then there is the main city. In the main city, there are many grocery stores and different eateries. We even got to eat Indian food on Saturday night at a restaurant. It was pretty good too! Our first night we ate pizza though. When we are at SAFI, we have a small room where we eat every meal at specific times of the day. When we ate pizza in Lilongwe, there was a TV, people were in their hustle and bustle attitudes and were trying to cut us in line because we weren't right behind the person in front of us. When we sat to eat, there was little to no conversation, while at SAFI we always end up talking and bonding. I felt like I was so bombarded in Lilongwe! Distractions were everywhere...not to mention stares from every direction. I appreciate the meal times we have at SAFI much more now.

In Lilongwe we stayed at Korea Garden Lodge first. Apparently there is an increase in Asians coming to Africa. And apparently they are taking over. Asian Invasion! So we stayed at that hostel the first night. There were many cat fights going on...and I mean literally with cats. They sounded so evil! Then Renee heard a little meow and she told me to come look. I came out and there was this tiny kitten that was so skinny peeking around the door. I have this soft spot for black cats (well, if they're nice) and this one was very nice. It was rubbing on my legs and being so cute. The thing was, it wanted to come in the room with Renee and I. We couldn't let that happen though. So I ran away and called the cat. It followed, thank goodness. It was getting late, so I ended up leaving the cat outside. I really hope it found it's mom!

Cute little black cat

Due to price changes at Korea Garden, we went and stayed at Mabuya Camp for the next two nights. This hostel was actually really cool! I liked it a lot. Renee and I were walking around and found a nice swimming pool, clothes lines, and then...a weight room...minus the room actually. We found an angled bench and two sets of weights with different sized concrete slabs connected to a metal pipe. I was holding the lighter of the weights. It was actually pretty heavy. This was just so cool! I felt like all of my friends would love this place! Carolyn would love it. Kenzi would love it. Kristi would love it. Let's be honest, everyone would love it! We have decided to try and stay at Mabuya Camp so that we don't see older people everywhere at Korea Garden. That is a more quiet place, and we are kind of loud and crazy. At Mabuya Camp, we feel like we can be ourselves.

I can't do curls with this.

While we were in Lilongwe, we found a bunch of older men playing a game called Ntchuwa.

Ntchuwa

None of us could really grasp the game, but it was interesting to watch. It seemed like a very large and complicated form of Mankala, but who knows.

Also, I found this interesting ad...take a look.

I feel like this is some scam.

Why would they want to look more like us when they get to look like them!?!

The thing is, I don't think anyone is using this...or else I probably would have noticed and so would everyone else.

Trekking into Old Town.

Okay, so Old Town kind of made me nervous. I was so nervous, I didn't even take a picture. Yup, I know. Don't worry, we will probably go again and I will get used to it, I'm sure. 

Picture a very narrow pathway guided by little shacks where there were people were trying to sell jewelry, food, DVDs with Jackie Chan on them, clothes, the works. It was just so overwhelming! I felt so stuck, so I just followed whoever was in front of me in our group, taking little time to look around.

We got out! YES! I was a little bit on the exhausted side...but I want to go back so that I get used to the crowds. That way, I won't have any breakdowns when we go every other weekend.

We went to the market in the main city, but not just the regular market. This market was the kind of market where many people come up to you and try to sell you different things for a lot of money, even though they are not worth that much. I ended up getting two paintings for 7500 kwacha, which apparently was really good compared to some of the other students. I won't name any names...

I told the man that I only had so much money in my pocket and I liked both of the paintings, and I could give him what I had, which ended up being the 7500 kwacha. He said that I had to give a little, but I told him I couldn't. So I took the money out and counted it and gave it to him. He counted it and gave me the paintings. It was pretty wonderful. I think that's what I'm going to do every time. Or just walk away after I tell them what I will pay them because they follow you for a LONG time. One guy followed Renee even after we crossed the street, went to the ATM, left the ATM and went to the store. Then he finally left her alone.

Surprisingly, I loved the market!! It was really fun to me. I liked talking with some of the sellers and I learned some of their names so that I could come back to get something from them because I liked what they had, but I did not want to spend any more money. I did not want to buy all my souvenirs in one day!

Overall, it was really productive!

Church was really great too! There were so many confirmations at Church on Sunday! It was so wonderful to see! Also, there was a return missionary that spoke and he seemed so strong. It was really exciting. The Sunday School teacher translated a lot of his lesson for us, but in Relief Society, all I know was that it was on Temples. There was rarely a translation. I really enjoyed it even though I didn't understand it. It was really cool to be in Malawi, and seeing the men exercising the priesthood and the power that they have. I loved it.