Wohoo Aj & Jarrod are here!!!

Getting ready for my visitors was definitely adventurous, my fridge broke down about three weeks ago, so not only have I dealt with the frustration of that myself, I was getting really worried about not having a fridge for them, I finally got a fridge a few days before they arrived. As I left for the airport I had neither water or electricity… and after their marathon flight, I was really hoping that would be all back in order on my return. My little friend Tesha who insisted on coming to the airport proceeded to vomit all over the car I had borrowed to drive to the airport, so with a few stops, no clean clothes for her, and a very big language barrier between us, we certainly had an adventure. I was certain we were going to miss the plane arriving, but thankfully we made it in plenty of time to not only see the plane land and cry and wave like crazy (at the wrong plane) and then later at their plane which had been delayed. But we also managed to remove Tesha’s clothes, wash them in the sink, and get it semi dry again, so all was sweet. And by that time Tesha had fully recovered (for the moment) and was running around excitedly pointing at everything. When she managed to tell me she needed to go to the toilet, we set off only to have a rather fun experience where she screamed and then laughed everytime I put her on the toilet, so I was quickly reminded that it was all so foreign for her. We managed to run outside and find a bush (without getting arrested for public urination) and she was fine again.

Waiting for the guys to get through customs with their luggage was torturous, I couldn’t believe how much excitement and anticipation I had, seriously the most amazing feeling. It was just so unreal to have them on the other side of the wall, rather than the other side of the world... which is where everyone else I love and miss are, and have been for the last 5 months!!!

It is just sooo awesome!!! as everything has been since they arrived, so fabulous having their company!!

We were unable to open the boot of the car, so not entirely sure how we managed to fit all the luggage inside, but AJ certainly was crammed into the back with very little breathing space. Good practice for public transport here in Malawi, nothing like early orientation! They both looked amazingly spritly for the the little sleep they had over the past 24 hours!

We arrived back to the village and they had some quick intro’s before I took them to my house. I had to go back to work for an hour, and they settled themselves in, as well as hiding all sorts of fun goodies around the house that had been brought over for me!! It was soooo much fun!!! Still couldn’t believe they were there! It felt massively unreal! SOme village kids gathered to meet them, and as quickly as anything Aj & Jarrod fitted in fabulously, much loved by the kids!!!

It was rather terrible having to go to work the next day… I so just wanted to play with them!! But the next few days proceeded to be filled with all sorts of little bits and pieces...We had a trip to the hospital, lots of intros to new people, stove breaking, then working again, trip to town, dinner with a new volunteer arriving, late night adventures with a sick AJ, (who is now fine, and will always take his doxy with food and fluid and well before going to bed!!) Aj has spent time with henry making wheelchairs, Jarrod met with a clinical officer to learn a little more about health care here in malawi, they both cooked me food, have settled into life here in Malawi with occasional naps to get over their jetlag! The boys have been on a medical outreach clinic and then we had an Australia day gathering at my place with some aussies I had met down in blantyre the week before! Today we got stuck in the rain and had to jump over rivers of water with unpleasant contents inside!! its only been a few days, but so much more fun to be had, and i have a smile so giant i can hardly describe it!!

A stroke at 14

there are a few thing that can stop you in your tracks and really make you think about life, think about those close to you, and think about what you are thankful for.... sometimes its when a minibus nearly hits you, or when you narrowly miss a nasty confrontation with a snake, or when the bus you're travelling on suddenly has a fan belt snap and a tyre burst all in the same day, causing frantic wobbles all over the road before reaching a safe stop...... but none more than meeting a young boy of 14 whose life has completley changed from a stroke! 14 i say, he's only 14.

He arrived at work late in the afternoon, and as i met him and started taking the first of his details, i quickly realised his sympoms where far more familiar than i wanted them to be. i know it can happen, but i wasn't prepared for what i was seeing. hundreds of strokes i have seen, hundreds. but never 14. Why? He is HIV positive. He is the last born of 7 children, both parents infectected, and 6 of the children also infected.... the eldest boy is the only one negative. How? the unfaithfullness obviously happened before the 6 children that followed.

ARRRGGHHHHH!

Heartbreaking, infuriating, overwhelming, and completely unnecassary suffering.

New Years Resolutions

pretty proud of myself that i can make the following statements and have absolutely no trouble making sure it happens!

1. No Macdonalds
2. Less tv in my life
3. Do more exercise
4. Spend less money than i did last year
5. Get up earlier in the morning
6. Eat healthier food

Easy! everyone should move to Africa!

hehe.... oh i make myself laugh!

Another Language Mistake

the words are just so similar...

Ndikudwala mmimba = I am sick (stomach)

Ndikudwala mimba = I am sick (pregnant)

and its not even the difference of a good letter like "s" or "t" so that it
is well differentiated... nope instead there is another "m" ....???!!!! and
when arthur was telling me the difference he said one sounds like m and the
other like m.... and im telling you... there wasn't any difference that i
could tell! so im just going to stay well clear of that one!! especially
considering my first big language... if i accidently combine the two I'll be
a marijuana smoking pregnant girl versus a girl whose eaten fish and now
feels a bit sick in the stomach.... heheehehehe.... that could give people a really wrong impression!!! eeek!

first class travel into the new year

New years day was one of my favourite days so far. We woke lazily after little sleep and no rush for anything at all… spent the morning lazing around the bush doing sudoku, cooking toast on the fire, and slowly packing up, just as we were about to set off for home, a giant storm hit, as we had traveled down in the back of the car, we had planned the same return journey, but unfortunately, The others chickened out and choose the squishy inside of the car, I coulnd;t fathom the concept of four hours with no breathing space when there's a perfectly sensational tray on the back to ride in! anyway I declared it would be fine, and im sure the rain would stop in a ten minutes or so…. it didn’t…freak storm that continued for the entire four hours. I was drenched, but the happiest girl alive.

I was in a little air pocket comfortably perched on a mattress, with coke, biscuits and my mps player, so I had nothing short of the most sensational journey home that I could have hoped for! Any time the car slowed to less than 60km, I would get wet, as the airpocet would be gone… but ....I had the most spectacular view of mountains covered in cloud, flat land as far as I could see covered in maize, village after village, people walking along waving at me, I better view than I have ever had, I could wave at people, buy things easily as we stopped along the way. I had my own little soundtrack, I could sing as loud as I wanted to, and I had four hours to watch the world fly past, and think about my time here, think about my time to come and just think and pray and reflect. Not only was it a highlight of my time so far, but it would be a highlight of my life.

I felt a freedom that I can hardly describe. What a fabulous way to start the year.

Letter to the editor - A Woman's Work

I read an awesome awesome article in the paper the other day, it was a letter to the editor in response to an article written a week earlier. Unfortunately I didn’t read the original article, however from what I can gather, someone had written this article addressing issues of health education, family planning and maternal death, are the responsibility of the woman to enforce… highlighted mostly in this quote..” putting essential health knowledge into practice really is womans work”. it appears that this male writer had been highlighting all the reasons why it was the woman who should be educating the children about health issues, why it was the woman who should be more careful and not get pregnant again, and that their must be something the woman isn’t doing right if babies are dying at birth… all pretty out there statements, but all flippant comments made to identify that it is the women who need to be responsible for contributing to the changes needed in these issues…
Anyway… this response is fabulous, and I felt like cheering when I read it…
“So it seems there is another job for the women to do… They already grow most of the developing world’s food, market most of its crops, fetch most of its water, collect most of its fuel, feed most of its animals, weed most of its fields. And when their work outside the home is done, they light the third worlds fires, cook its meals, clean its compounds, wash its clothes, shop for its needs and look after its old and ill. And they bear and care for its children. Why is it exactly that it is also their sole responsibility to protect the lives, health and growth of the family on their own. Who has the right to say that it is them who are responsible for putting the essential health knowledge into practice, when it is usually the men who are also significantly responsible for contributing to this health crisis…. And largely by their unfaithfulness.
You know what made me want to cheer the most? It was a man who wrote the letter!!!!
Now here is the success of the future. The man who wrote this letter has daughters & sons. His children will grow up with a different attitude.

I know there is a bit of a theme lately with my thoughts on women here in Malawi. A can’t apologise for what im seing and what im feeling about what im seeing. I guess I really have a burden on my heart for the woman here in Malawi.
I highly recommend you to watch a movie called “Yesterday”. It tells a story of so many stories here. It’s a foreign film made in south Africa, it won heaps of awards so it shouoldn’t be to hard to find. Its beautiful and heart breaking all at once.

think I'll apply for the next survivor

So we did new year survivor style, we sat in a big round house, with torches and lanterns everywhere, and it was our constant joke all weekend, do something good we got immunity, something stupid, you were up for eviction, do something unforgiveable and you would be left out for the lions to eat. And there was a big thatched round clearing that looked remarkably like it could have been tribal council.

Our biggest immunity challenge came just after 11am on new years eve, we had taken a drive out to the field where we’d seen elephants and warthogs, antelopes, impala etc.

On our way back, our campsite was covered with monkeys, they were everywhere! So we all jumped out to take photos and as we did, howard was backing the truck up to turn it around when suddenly one half f the car disappeared down a big hole which no one had seen, A quick inspection and some massive attempts to try and drive it out quickly highlighted that we were in some big trouble! There was clearly no easy way of getting out!! Two of the girls gave up, said we were stupid to try, and left to go and read their magazines… so Howard, Christine and I took this on as a challenge, determined to prove them wrong!

We found a rope that we wound up around one tree, then a giant log that we tied the other end around and proceeded to push the log down the hill to act as leverage, it worked only very slightly, but enough to allow the front wheel to gain some traction on the wall of our hole, which with us pushing behind helped lift it up so we had atleast the two front wheels back on solid ground. The back rear wheel was still completely airborn, and as it spun around Kristine and I were completely splattered in mud!! As we stood behind to push, but got a lot more laughing done than pushing.

The last wheel was a worry. We tried lifting the car…. Pointless, we tried pushing it sideways, also pointless… but then we built a little bridge, about 2 meters long and about a meter high with wood, branches and rocks so we could drive it out of the hole. It had to be stable enough, or we risked the whole truck tipping into the Hole.

Mid way through we had attracked quiete a crowd, there were more than 20 monkeys, impala and some squirrels. All staring at us, looking remarkably amused as they chatted amongst them selves.! It was absolutely fascinating how much amusement it had caused them.

We finally freed the car!! And victory was ours, we declared ourselves immunity and thus got out of dishes that night, it was great!

Unexpected encounters with monkeys

Seriously funniest home video moments:

The first… I was sitting under the rotunda reading my book and I hear the rustling of a plastic bag in the direction of the BBQ… I knew no one was around, most were still asleep, and howard was having a shower, so I peeked over the railing, a little nervous I might find a big lion ready to eat me (really over active imagination!!) only to find a cheeky monkey staring back at me like he wanted to say…yeah what are you looking at! In one hand he had a bread roll…. OUR bread roll….which he was periodically feeding into his mouth, which was spilling over with bread…. The other hand was searching around inside the bag to see what else he could find. Not sure whether he spoke English or Chichewa but I fired him with a variety of different obsenities… which had little affect…. he returned with a steady stare of defiance…. I jumped up over the railing and ran towards him, which thankfully did the trick. He fled into the bushes rather quickly…. Not but 5 minutes later I had to put my book down again. Not impressed as it was a really good spot in my book…. And sure enough, the same monkey was perched up on the BBQ….well I think he was the same, or he’d called his friends over for a feed. He looked at me almost victoriously this time knowing full well I couldn’t reach him in time. He quickly lifted up the bag from both bottom corners, empting the bag of remaining rolls onto the BBQ…
Which he than grabbed and ran…. By the time I reached the BBQ, he had turned around, and I swear to you, looked at me and smiled, then disappeared into the bushes.

I tell you, he was so human like i stood with my jaw on the ground in absolute shock at the cheek of that monkey!!!

I wish it had been caught on video.

My next encounter…. I was wondering down the path towards our tent, but not looking in front of me as I was speaking to Kristine over at the tap… she also was looking at what she was doing, but looked up just as I ran into the monkey who came up to my waist…he also was looking in the other direction and obviously hadn’t heard me coming (not sure how that was possible…I think he must be deaf!) He got a fright and so did I, after we had both jumped, we sort of looked at each other and then both fled in opposite directions.

Oh so funny!

Hungry Hippo's

New Year hippo sunset boat ride

My first night camping in Liwonde National Park was not the most relaxing experience i've had! there was little sleep with sounds around us that i have never heard, it was ok in the day time, but there is something unearving about hippos, elephants, lions and all sorts of weird animals making sounds all around us. AND with the still calm night that it was, you were almost certain the lion was sniffing your tent he seemed that close!! and before i went to bed i woke the gaurd, so i knew he wasn't our most reliable protector!! but we survived, of course! I woke early to view the elephants treking toward the river, it was awesome, awesome awesome. New Years Eve was a great day, there were nine of us camping in the middle of nowhere, in a lovely campsite that was fit for kings... (as campsites go) we sat around chatting and playing cards, it was so fabulous to be out in the beautiful bush, enjoying the fabulous creation!!

we decided to take a boat ride on the shire river at sunset, probably the coolest adventure ever! we loaded up in a tiny wooden thingy that they call a boat...hehe...
not but two minutes after leaving the dock our "tiny" boat was surrounded by hippos, it was awesome!!! i must admit, there was a small element of fear after i enquired how easily they could tip the boat... i wasn't thrilled with his answer... but it added to the adventure!

We had been told that with rainy season we were unlikey to see elephants close to the water, which ended up being true, but the waters were full of hippos and crocs!!! Hundreds of them!!
They are just amazing animals, big and fat, but often you can only see their nose and eyes above the water. they can stay under for about 5 minutes, and they have an air hole somewhere on the top of their heads, cos it spouts up
The noise they make is loud loud loud, and it sounds like they’re laughing, sooo awesome!!

Its strange how dangerous hippos are to us humans, and yet they dont eat us, just grass... dont you think thats stupid! they really only kill you if you appear to threaten their meal, so if you are standing between them and the food or between them and the water...watch out!! they can kill you with one chomp of the jaws, but then they wont eat you, i think its a bit selfish of them personally. They could just ask you to move. No one needs to die, selfish if you ask me!

A few times they stopped our boat and we could just listen, it was amazing!! we were in the middle of a river, in the middle of a giant national park, in the middle of malawi, in the middle of africa (ok the geography might be a little off) and there was no sound but the hippos, it was still and calm and new years eve and AWESOME!!! unforgettable!!!

My Christmas in Malawi

I never did make it to Zambia over Christmas with Wheka, which was rather disappointing, as I would loved to have seen how the Malawians and Zambians celebrate Christmas…. village style!! But alas, nothing can be done about stupid visa troubles! Despite my initial disappointment, I really did have a lovely Christmas! It snuck up on me rather fast though, there certainly isn’t the months of warning and crazy commercialism to constantly remind you of the fast approaching holiday! But for me Christmas eve was upon me before I knew it!
The day before I had started AND finished my Christmas shopping with ease (imagine that!). I even had time to chill out at the market finishing off my day with some singing and dancing with woman selling materials while they waited for the end of the day, and while I waited for the tailor to finish making my skirt. It really was a priceless experience, easily making it onto my favourites list… Unfortunatley I picked a bad tailor that day… the skirt had some major compilation deficits…. I think he may have sewn it together updside down, inside out, back to front and with a completely different person in mind… it resembled nothing of a skirt from what I can see…. Thinking of sewing a seem along the bottom to make a bag.

That night my friend Kristine (AVI radiographer from likinu hospital) invited me to share in Christmas dinner with her and newly arrived visitors from Aus, We sat for hours by candlelight chatting and reading magazines that Kim had brought with her from Australia. Despite the complete futility of it all, we thoroughly enjoyed reading about celebrity marriages and divorces, best & worst dressed of 2006 and upcoming movie reviews. ( I think happy feet looks like it could be very cute!!). On the Sunday I went home to do cooking, washing, visiting and some high volume christmas carol singing around my house. Lucy arrived at 6:00 to collect me for Christmas eve dinner with her family. It took my breath away as I walked inside, the table was set for about 20 people, it was amazingly decorated, and the room just smelt like Christmas, as it should with the biggest Christmas tree I have ever seen fit inside a house. There was awesome music, and the smell of amazing food. Unfortunately it was at this time that I knew something was going rather wrong with my health. I had known I was feeling a bit strange over the weekend, but had decided it was from the goat I ate at work on Friday… but I’m not so sure anymore! It was positively torturous, there was food everywhere…food I was so desperately wanting to eat, but I simultaneously couldn’t handle the thought of food. It was a bit of a nightmare really!! But the evening was awesome, all sorts of different people arrived, people I had met at all different places, and some I had never met, but had seen around town. At about 8 we all piled into cars and left for the midnight mass…which was actually at 8pm…. It was a pretty boring service to be perfectly honest, Im not afraid to say that if Jesus was sitting next to me, he would have yawned for sure! but I still thoroughly enjoyed myself, the choir was fabulous, I got to hear the Bishop of Malawi speak and Lucy and I whispered during the service discovering that we were both Christians, which was a pretty fun discovery!!

Honeslty the rest of the night was a big blur, I felt worse and worse as the evening went on, although despite that, the spread of portugese food for dinner was amazing, and the company was awesome! After dinner I arrived at Kathy & Steve’s where I was to stay for the night. Kathy and I were up wrapping presents for the girls late into the night and I made dough for our fresh bread Christmas morning.

I was a little amazed to wake before Amy and Alisa (thanks mum for the good training!!) and we had a lovely relaxing morning of present opening! It was so much fun to share in Christmas morning with little kids. Can’t wait to have my own!

Christmas afternoon was tough, after chatting to my family I felt quiet sad, which I’m sure was made worse by how sick I felt by that stage. We had lots of different missionary families all over for dinner and it was great. But all a bit of a blur, as was the next 6 days or … so after a few doctors visits, a number of tests, a few tears, and lots of sleeping, I finally began to recover. I’m told it was a parasite of some sort, probably from bad water.

Although I had really wanted to spend the day in a village, once again I can see how things turned out sensationally well, especially not being well, it was lovely having the day with a family who were such a blessing to me!

amusing signs....

check out the snail....

He was bigger than my hand!!

Morgan & Eli

Sunday 17th December
I spent today with Morgan and his fantastic wife Ellina. It was awesome. I work with Morgan everyday, so we’ve become good friends, but I actually met his wife even before I met morgan…. I was with her the day we waited at the airport to greet them home from Canada after their year away studying… Ellina was an extremely excited, nervous and emotional new wife… who had so far spent more of her married life with him away overseas than they had actually been married, having left 9 months after the wedding. I remember instantly liking Ellina, she has a genuine friendly, confident and warm charm about her, which matches perfectly with Morgan whom I have grown to respect immensely in my time here so far. To work with he is great fun, genuine and a man of great integrity. I was really excited to be spending the day with them, as I hope they will become even better friends over time, and I was particularly keen to see his wife again.

Morgan arrived at the gate to pick me up at 8:30, I was joining them for church at which Morgan was preaching today, we walked back to his house and were greeted by breakfast all set out on the table for us, along with a giant hug from Ellina that made me feel so welcome I wanted to cry. We were late for church, but time never matters in Malawi (love it!). Their church is called living waters community, and it is a local meeting of a massive Pentecostal church in Lilongwe. They were describing the church to me as we walked, it was a small community of around 50 people, they didn’t yet have their own building, nor did many churches in area 24, so they used a school classroom at a local high school. They explained that all sorts of different churches used the same compound, so its pretty noisy. So as we walked in there was singing coming from all sorts of little classrooms. We met this person who goes to the Baptist, that one who goes to the CCAP, this one who goes to the Anglican etc etc…I don’t even know how many in the end, but it was sooo awesome. it sounded a bit like heaven. The classrooms are filled with wooden two seater benches and desks (like in anne of green gables) there was no fancy, decorations, just a piece of chitenji draped over a desk on the side with some wood across the top for a pulpit. The worship leader stood at the front of the room in front of a wrinkly and cracked old chalkboard.

There seemed to be no room left to fit even a few chickens, yet amazingly there was plenty of room for dancing!! The singing was just spectacular, my favourite so far. It does something to your soul. Something refreshing, something uplifting. Something exciting. How does everyone know how to sing so amazingly, just voices? In such amazing harmony, in such amazing volume. It really is unforgettable.
The service went for hours and hours, but I didn’t even realize. Morgan spoke awesomely, and I was captivated, He started by saying the church as we know it today is pretty much dead, we have lost our way, and there is no life remaining. He then went on to speak about God doing a new thing. I might write up my notes, it really was awesome!


The entire time you could hear amazing voices. Maybe from the church on your left, or maybe from the church on the right. Afterward, there was mingling and chatting outside with everyone…. all the different denominations as everyone wandered in their own directions to carry on with their day.

Ellina was really excited about lunch, she had made a traditional Malawian meal, of rape & pumpkin leave salad with ground nuts, relish, beans, and nsima and bananas for dessert. It was awesome, and I promised to bring them over for an aussie meal…(?what should I do???)

Because we don’t use cutlery, washing hands becomes a big ritual before meals, but I love how it’s done. There is a bowl a towel and a jug. One person holds the jug for you, pouring the water over your hands, then hands you the towel, and then you return the favour.

Nsima is served in a paddy, you break off a little piece roll it around your palm, then mop up what’s on your plate with it, or for any chunks of food, dip a hole in the middle which food can be scooped into. You have to learn to proportion the food well with the nsima… otherwise you have a whole lot of juicy food, and nothing to eat it with.... or else you are left with plain nsima, which is bland and boring. It’s a bit like a really thick mashed potato or…clag! hehe

Part of what I loved about sharing the day with morgan and Eli was to see more of what I would expect a normal relationship to look like. There is so much inequality here, and its often so sad to see how the marriages work. The traditional Malawian woman would always be kneeling before her husband, she must never approach him to talk about anything, she may only speak if he has first addressed her, Any males in the house will sit on the chairs or at the table if there is one, the woman will sit outside on the verandah or on the kitchen floor… this is the traditional culture. The more middle class Malawians do not behave in this way, but M & E where even more normal as far as I was concerned, it was obvious they were in love. But even more importantly they are good friends, and respect each other. There is action required in loving someone, and I enjoyed witnessing that between the two of them.

We then sat in the living room where they played me their favourite music, ellina gave me malawian dancing lessons, morgan showed me photos from his Canada trip and then
they both escorted me back to my village. But I have learnt now that escort, means you walk someone half way. The time when you know your friend will be turning around is when the walking slows right down (even more than the usually slow pace) and farewells are said over and over again.

I walked away with such a warm fuzzy feeling about how much I loved my new friends and how much I loved my life, that I got completely lost and ended up somewhere far from where I was going. But nothing could spoil my day. The more time I spend visitng people the more I realize life really is about family, community and just spending time together. On arriving home a whole stack of kids were eager for some company, we had a giant water fight and once again another fabulous day was over.

Orphan crisis in sub-saharan Africa

Loads of Stats:

• 1990, fewer than 1 million sub-saharan African children under the age of 15 had lost one or both parents to HIV Aids
• At the end of 2001 (a decade on) 11 million in this same age group were orphans because of HIV/Aids, nearly 80% of the worlds total
• By 2010, 20 million in this age group are likely to be orphans from ths single cause, comprising half the total number of orphans expected in this region.
• Although HIV has reached almost every part of the world, no other region has been harder hit than sub-saharan Africa home to nearly ¾ of the worlds people living with AIDS (in which Malawi is the most densely populated and arguably the poorest of nations)
• By the end of 2002 over 29 million people in sub-saharan africa were infected with HIV, which is on an a steady increase every year. (that’s more than the population of Australia!!)
• Malawi is one of the most densly populated countries in Africa, when compared with Australia at a population of 20 million…?? Not really sure!!) and 12 million people squashed into a country that is just slightly smaller than Victoria. (with 20% of the country a lake!)
• 8 out of 10 children who have lost parents to HUV/AIDs live in subsarahan Africa. In the decade between 1990-2001 the population of orphans whose parents died from HIV-Aids rose from 3.5% - 32%, it was expected to double in the following decade!
• Infant mortality rate sits at 200 per 1000 births – 20%...however this is only recorded based on the registration of births…. The statistics may be much much worse especially considering the percentage of birth registrations:
Zambia – 10%
Tanzania – 6%
Uganda – 4%
Zimbabwe – 40%
Kenya – 60%
Rwanda – 70%

That’s a sample of a few… where’s Malawi… they didn’t even register on the graph!!! So are estimated at less than 2% of births being registered!!!

Malawi stats:
• 50% population less then 14 years of age
• 16% of the country are urbanized
• GNI $183US
• 15% of the population has HIV aids according to this study, although current reports for 2006 indicate on average in Malawi infection is at 25% of the population… higher in some regions, lower in others.
• 20% of all children are orphans
• 1 million orphans, of which 50% a result of HIV/Aids
• The 2006
• The estimated figures for 2010 indicate the same 20% of all children to be orphans, however due to population increase this is estimated at 1.2 million, With an increase of 15% in the primary cause of death of parents up to 65%
• The average number of orphan run households is at 20% with an average number of orphans per household at 1.7 per house.
• With a male headed home at 1.5 and a female headed homw at 1.9 (males are more reluctant to take in orphaned relatives than females are.

what a great name for a shop!