Finding my long lost love....

After sitting down and talking with each kid we have on scholarship, I was amazed to hear that none of them have school books or access to them. Apparently no one in Malawi does. They learn from writing down what the teacher teaches in class, and then they study the notes. Crazy. I just think about how many bad teachers I have had in my lifetime. At first, I felt like crying each time I heard this from a kid, but then I just got fired up. This is just ridiculous. How can you expect kids to pass and get a good education like this?

So, I have spent the last month and a half trying to get my hands on some text books for our kids to be able to use. I am not exaggerating when I say I probably spent more time in the last month and a half trying to get these books than I did studying my entire senior year in college. These were harder to get my hands on than a Cabbage Patch Kid was in 1984. I am not kidding. We can not even get the books for Form 3 and Form 4 (11th and 12th grade) as they have not finished printing them yet. Um….we are more than half way through the school year. I asked why they are not out yet and they said because the demand is so low. Hmmm….I am definitely not an economics major, but wouldn't demand be a little higher is the supply was there at the beginning of the school year as opposed to the end? Sometimes I just give up on trying to understand. I have been learning to just let things go.

Hippos - Guppies - Potato - Patato

I went to Lake Malawi for the first time last weekend. It is the third biggest lake in Africa. It looks more like an ocean to me.

I have found that most Malawians do not know how to swim. I found it a little funny when we got there at night and one of the guys was scared to go in up to his calves. I kept laughing at him. Well, the joke was on me when the camp guard came down to the lake and asked if I would not go near the water as the hippos feed there at night. What the!?! Seriously?!?….that would have been nice to know that hippos live in the lake - thanks guys. They are only the most dangerous and territorial animal in the world. It reminded me about how nonchalant Australians are about having crocodiles in the water when swimming. Um….I don't even like swimming in a lake with guppies swimming around me.

I took this picture early in the morning. I was hanging out on the rocks and looked over to find a family of monkeys on the wall of the campsite. Well hello. I wish someone would have told me there were monkeys hanging around. I just think what would have happened if I greeted one on my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. You know the scariest thing I worry about running into while camping at home is a squirrel. A little warning here would be nice. Maybe that is too much to ask.