our new number…

while on holiday in TZ, and while here only!  if you would like to send us an sms or call while in TZ only-you +2550683164702.  at least i think that’s the number. 

and we’re here.  it’s almost as hot as moz was in 2003.  and has much of the same feel.  can’t wait to get to zanzibat in the mroning. 

merry christmas again!

merry christmas…but not happy new year, yet

we’re off tomorrow to zanzibar.  (i know don’t hate us!  i would rather be with family and some place chilly.)

apparently, there is no power there, either.   so i doubt that we’ll do much blogging from there.

so merry christmas.  and can’t wait to share some photos with you when we get back.

we’ll be back to malawi on dec 30ish.  (our flite has lready changed once, so i’m not holding my breathe)

love y’all!

this is how tired we were

we also got christmas packages yesterday (thanks family!) plus lost season 5!  we did not even start to watch it.  but poppyseed just went into work after lunch, and maybe some extras might get watched without him.

i guess that is what i get for bragging about cool illnesses

so for the 1st time in malawi, one of received treatment at the hospital.  crazy!  this past saturday, was unc’s christmas party for the staff here.  it was a great time.  lots of minerals and adult beverages.  plenty of food for everyone.  people bring large purses so that they have food to take home food for 3 days.  it’s just fun.  a dj that plays music.  so, we were dancing and having fun.  people made some speeches.  some eating started.  more chatting and dancing plus some replenishing of fluids.  i was chatting with a med student and one of the staff when rob walked by said that he was going to the car but since it was only 1 am, i “assumed” that he had just had enough and was going to sit down in the quite.  45 min later, i wondered over to the car since he had not returned.  yup and he was vomiting.  not because of too much beer as i had guessed but because he had swallowed some goat bbq while talking.  he said that he was feeling a bit better but still wanted to head home.  so we looked for some animals on the way home.  (always look otherwise, you’ll never see anything.)  finally, we got into bed around 3 am.  rob said that he got up about 4 am still feeling tightness in his chest.  but didn’t wake me up. i got up later in the morning  after i realized that he was n’t returning to bed.  i went to check on him. and he had been “spitting” up all nite and unto this morning.  but silly boy was trying to swallow pills and taking big gulps of water.  so i made some ice cream to see if that would go down easier.  it went down but didn’t stay there for long.  that’s when we called mina.  mina said to call john.  john came and got rob.  and said let’s get to the hospital.  so we waited in the md’s office while there was a c section and then something else.  then john suited up and rob striped down.  after the surgery, john was more than happy to report that he did not see the goat meat but that rob’s throat was very inflamed and irritated.  it was amazing, who knew that kch had a scope for that.  then mina and john discussed his course of treatment with a bunch of medical terms that i can’t pronounce much less spell.  but in the mean time, we went to 4B.  which is the paying ward for people at the hospital.  but this time rob hadn’t had any fluids for about 12 hours in 90 + degree heat so he was looking a bit wilty.  but lots of people were around to offer medical advice.  and the iv’s were started.  but here’s the sad part-we were in the best government hospital in LLW in the paying ward and i still had to change rob’s iv during the nite.  in malawi when you are admitted to the hospital, you bring a family member to act as your guardian.  usually, this person is the same sex. (ie a sister or your mother or brother)  but we can’t do that since it’s the 2 of us but this person does everything for you.  cooking of the food, getting firewood, changing simple dressings, reminding the nurses that you need medications and making sure that you are breathing during the nite.  i mean everything.  the cooking wasn’t a problem for me since rob wasn’t keeping anything down but he did turn nasty when i would only let him have a few sips of water and sprite.  he woke up during the nite and started to guzzle the water and then threw rite back up, painfully.  after that, he wasn’t so mean with the sipping rule.  unlike most of the other guardians, i refused to sleep on the floor.  i just stayed at the foot of his bed and tried to doze.   the malawian doctors were in first thing morning to follow-up and see how he spent the nite.  i guess about 5 am this morning, he could tell that he was feeling better.  it hurt less to swallow.  he reported this improvement. then little by little some of the unc staff came by to visit.  his color improved.  i made him sit on the porch with me since they were changing the dressing of the guy with foot rot in the next bed.  yucky!  but funnily enough, we were the only people without fans.  he finished another iv, was hungry and ate some chocolate  (don’t yell at me-what else could i have feed him but that would have kept until he wanted to try, that would be soft on his throat???) and kept it down.  john went to the pharmacy in town to get us some medications and we went home.  he’s already in bed sleeping and i’m not far behind.

a list of my favorite illness that we’ve gotten in africa (plus 1 indian one!)

blisters-after i climbed mulanje in 2002-after wearing just flip flops for 5 months, some friends and i decided to climb the mountain.  i borrowed (i know big mistake but they fit but my feet just weren’t use to shoes) some hiking boots.  we had a great trip but i would have been better off in my chacos.  i have a picture of my feet after we made it down to petal’s house- urgh!  but the pictures hangs in my kitchen when we are at home.

giardiasis-very smelly diarrhea.  you get it from food or water.  but i usually get it from the water but since we buy “clean” water now-we should be okay

schisto or bilharzia-lovely little worm thingy.  (flukes)  but you have to get in the lake here. or cross some stream. or any other body of water.  you just take some medications and move on.  *

*side note-lovely little abscess from the schisto-but at least i got med-evac to south africa.

dengue fever-this one is all rob!  you get it from mosquitoes.  if you need to see a picture-there one of the family at my parents house and you can see that rob isn’t having that much fun.  high, high fever for a long time!

pneumonia-last christmas.  not fun.  really!

bot fly-during the night. this certain fly lays it’s larvae on your clothes and the warmth of your skin cause the larvae to “hatch” on you.  so you end up with these bug bites that have worms in them but then you get to “pop” them.  and it’s entertaining.   but if you iron your clothes then no problems.

but we’ve been lucky.  not tb, rabies or hep.  so, we’re pretty happy.

another side note-its really fun to get uti and yeast infections here.  especially when the medications is out in town.

but the reason for this list-i have a boil!  man, does it hurt. i’ve had a head ache and just not felt well all week.  then on thursday nite, rob finally rubbed my head from me for a bit and felt it.  so thanks to john, i finally got “lanced” and my head feels much better!

lets play where is the fuel today

still none in most places around the county.  but in hanging out with some embassy people at a quilt show (i know-i’m an artist now).  it is difficult to judge if it is just embassy “paranoia” or if we should be worried.  but they were chatting about how malawi is not far from zim now in trouble.  which is a same.  they are all holding onto dollars and have 1 month’s worth of fuel.  which is a bit scary to think that.  ohhhhhhhh!  but i think that it’s just this time of year.  when things get scarce and you have problems because are saving money to buy seed and fertilizer.  maybe when we return from christmas holidays, we’ll be okay!

one of our favorite activities

rob loves looking for wild life around town.  amazingly, you can see plenty just around town without too much work like birds.  but since we’re american and not too much into birding.  we try to look for some bigger things.  the place that we like to coffee at has monkey in the woods plus some other stuff that we’ve not seen.  but really our favorite way of seeing stuff is to drive around the certain road (hint, hint-you go right pass the embassy and high commission) with a spot lite that we brought back with us.  (but some how-we always forget it at home and are just using the headlamps on the car.  but you can’t do it just at anytime.  so, usually it’s after we have been out and on our way home.  so, last nite after we started celebrating someone’s certain 41st birthday, we went for a drive.    it was awesome.  who knew that bushbabies hopped like kangaroos  and had such fluffy tails.  plus, we finally saw the hyena again.  i’m pretty that the malawians that passed us on the road think that we are strange.  but in our defense, it was 3 am! but i think that rob was a bit sad-no po-10-c!

christmas season has arrived

i love christmas.  i mean, love christmas.  at home, i have decorations in the bathroom.  and bedrooms plus, ngombe’s house. and the outside. in my car cup holder.  (but not on the outside since that might catch fire!)

this morning, i put up our “tree” and stocking.  yummy!  plus the textile table runner.  yiippe!

however, it’s a bit warm here.  a lovely 87 in the house.  i’m not sure that we’ll have a white christmas.  (which i miss-can’t wait til 2010!  we’re home for christmas then and it had better snow or we’re driving north until it happens!) more like a “sweaty” christmas.

but still excited about zanzibar!!!!!!!

i may not see any matches

but at least i am seeing the cup.  we had a great time.  even the rain couldn’t scare us away.  i’ll try and get more snaps from my friend later on.  but this is the official snap that i got from fifa.   it’s also available on the fifa.com but its not up yet!  don’t forget to watch the drawing this friday!

you can really tell that there is no petrol in town

one of the big difference last time and this time living here is the “booming” middle class.  most of these people work for ngo’s or are in business of some sort.  but they all have purchasing a vehicle in common.  it’s usually some sort of small car-4 door stick shift.  that’s fine.  but lately, the roads have gotten much easier to travel on since there aren’t as many cars on the road.  but last nite, i really noticed the effect.  people were queing to get the mini-buses (city public transportation) to head home but the ques were about 100 people just stadning around hoping that a mini-bus would come by soon to take them home.  it’s got to be bad when even the mini-bus (that frequently don’t have enough fuel anyways) really don’t have any fuel! but i will say that at least for the last 2 weeks, fuel has been on it’s way here from beira! but for 2 weeks.