Those moments....

Had one of those moments today where I couldn’t help but smile at how awesome my life is right now. They happen often here in Malawi, and sometimes a whole stack of moments are all rolled into one week, or one day or even one hour.

It was a crazy day again packing Christmas presents. Two of us were crammed into a room the size of a cupboard surrounded by boxes of clothes all labeled according to their sizes… baby girls, baby boys, 2-5 girls, 2-5 boys, 5-8 girls, 5-8 boys, big girls and big boys… then the same number of boxes for all sorts of different toys. We attach the child’s name, a plastic bag and a Christmas story into each, and then proceed to tailor make presents for all 398 children on our list. They receive an item of clothing to match their size, and a toy that will be suitable for their age, disability and therapy focus. For hours and hours we sat and packed and packed… our target was over 120 per day… we fell short terribly today, so tomorrow will be a big one! it quickly became obvious we were well short on clothes for the 5-8 group, so we took a trip to the market which was so much fun, we only had 30 minutes to spend 5000 kwacha. They always always over charge white people, regardless of how great your bargaining abilities are, so Mirium and I devised a plan… we split up and searched the wooden shacks with their piles and piles of clothes. I made little piles at different places…then I’d run to Mirum and get her to do the purchasing. Not sure if the vendors caught onto what we were doing, but it worked fine and we giggled a great deal at our sneakyness!! So we left with about 40 dresses, 40 t-shirts and 20 pants for the boys.

At different times during the day when the rest of the team weren’t running groups or seeing kids it was all hands on deck, with unorganized madness laughing at each others choices, arguing about whether this top would fit that child, or if that colour would suit this girl, or whether this child would eat that toy, or choke on that one. It is a great deal of fun, but I will also be very glad when it’s finished. Last night I dreamt about packing presents and kids crying cos we’d forgotten them. It was easier when it was just Mirum and myself, this was a chance to regain some of the organization I had before everyone came and messed it all up so we can manage the huge job ahead of us…. It makes me laugh that I am the voice of organization in this little venture… cos its not usually the hat I wear (I can see a few people nodding in agreement now…those of you aren’t nodding… I must have hidden it really well!!)

I walked home in the storm that had appeared out of nowhere, as often happens, and breathed in the beautiful rain scent. Amazingly today I had my “brolly” which was much needed as it certainly wasn’t “spitting” outside… I throw theses words into conversations as much as I can here, cos it will invariably cause hysterical laughter at my “funny words”. And today I learnt some funny expressions of my own from my friends here. We were having a general staff meeting and our social coordinator was taking an evaluation of the staff Christmas party at the lake last week…..we took a vote as to who had “lost their keys” on Saturday… now understandably I was amazed at how many people had lost their keys…and also wasn’t sure of the relevance to our little survey…… well apparently the question was relating to the food we ate at the lake, and whether anyone had been ill the next day… the literal translation of the Chichewa word for diarrhea means “the door is open”… so their chosen expression is to say the door is wide open, and on that particular day, you really want to shut that door and lock it… but you just cant seem to “find the keys”… makes sense right? Well now I know…I was greatly amused…. So I don’t think they should be picking on my “brolly” and “spitting” words anymore!!

There’s something about the rain here that is just awesome. I stood in one spot for ages marveling at how dry I could stay under my smiley face umbrella while watching an absolute waterfall around me… yet conveniently you can have a refreshingly cool foot bath as you take in the sight and scent of rain. The rain falls directly to the ground like a big giant shower head. Sometimes it feels like one of those cartoons where there is only a cloud above you and no where else…localized storms are rather common around here, and fun to watch!!. Oh I have never seen lightening in the day time quiet like here, its pretty spectacular, and terribly scary… so the thought of being a human lightening pole standing out in the rain…. and that I had a washing line full of clothes…. snapped me back to reality. I ran for home as quickly as I could, which is never easy when the road has become a river and your wearing rubber things. I got completely tangled in my clothes, the umbrella and the washing line as I collected the drenched clothes wetter than when I hung them out (…but cant be left on the line overnight, as they wont be there in the morning if you do!!) I also discovered that each week of rain seems to bring new and even more strange creatures out! This weeks discovery are giant snails… and im talking giant… I think stepping on one of those would be like standing on a small cat… they really need to be avoided!! I’ll try and get a photo for you!! Apparently they keep getting bigger later into rainy season… I wonder how big…eek!! Im going to have nightmares tonight!

So my house is now covered in clothes and linen hanging from every possible drying space, making the place even more humid than necessary.

Just as I sat down to open my new mail from the Bartletts ( which I was SOOO excited about!!) I noticed two giant big holes in the ground on my front lawn…it looked a bit like someone was digging up my yard for treasure, or else two meteors had landed during my afternoon at work. On further inspection there seemed to be a few of these around the place… not long after the rain stopped I found kids swimming in the holes that had now become muddy little lakes. They told me that the gardeners had dug holes for chemicals to kill the termites…does anyone else see a problem with that picture?? I love swimming, but you ain’t gonna find me swimming with mud, termites and deadly chemicals on my front lawn!!! I convinced them it would be more fun to play with my water pistols… just as the rain started up ones again, not surprisingly they laughed at me and kept splashing around with the termites and chemicals… I could only smile. Nervously.

Back to my mail…wohooo….so now I have just had the most fabulously relaxing evening eating chocolate, reading mail, magazines and my homemade “tamala newspaper”, washing my hair with real shampoo, and checking the temperature every 5 minutes on my new thermometer (balmy 28degrees tonight!) and decorating my walls with fantastic artwork from the Bartlett girls!!! Yay!!! A sensational evening all thanks to the thoughtfulness of my dear friends the Bartletts & Mel Wilson!! Havn’t had mail in about 3 weeks, then I got two awesome packages and a letter in two days….wohooo….!! chistmas has come early!!! The Bartlett’s mail arrived in only 14 days, which is the record so far!

I just caught and killed a mozzie with one hand…kinda wish someone was here to see it… really was pretty awesome… its not easy to do!!

The remainder of my evening will involve some extreme creativity with crayons, and some clowning around with juggling and balloon animals!! I have lots to do in preparation for the worlds biggest Christmas party (well that’s what it feels like)

There are still about 100 more paper hats to decorate for the Christmas party… ahhhhh…… im getting crayon elbow and my artistic ability is being stretched to its maximum as well. Thankfully I have inspiration from the beautiful paintings the Bartlett girls have sent me… plus I still have heaps more chocolate for energy food…wohooo…

My juggling needs a little practice and so do my designs for balloon animals… im not thrilled about doing 400 puppy dogs… so trying to work on a few African animal designs. Although im not sure that I really need to go to so much effort to entertain the kids here… I stand out so much anyway that its entertainment enough for most of the kids… sometimes it reminds me of what its like to be in a clown costume… some kids laugh and smile and have great fun… some cry and run for their mum and some point and giggle, looking around to check if anyone else has seen the funny looking person…. Who would have thought I didn’t even need a clown outfit for that over here!!! But none the less, I will still be entertaining the kids tomorrow… with some more creativity than just my white skin and funny colored hair. !

Wow, the sound of that rain is simply amazing!

What a great day… Best feeling in the world to go to sleep with a big smile on your face, not wishing to be anywhere else than where you are & doing what you are right now.