"That"

It is November 26, 2007 today and I hope the rains are here to stay. We are on the brink of rainy season here in Malawi, where the locals rush to purchase maize seeds, the grounds is tilled by hand, and everyone prays for the rains to start. And it’s not just for the sowing of crops that I anticipate the rain; it is because of the heat. It is hot here, hovering at around 40 degrees between 11:30 and 2:30. Andrea and I have decided that the favourite time of the day is between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM where you can see the shadows shift and the temperature change can be felt on our skin. The sunset this evening was beautiful as we rode our bicycles back from another couple’s house who we met. The men seem to find it quite amusing to watch two white people bike by when we’re normally seen in Land Cruisers. We just tell them that we’re from Peterborough and a little bit more down to earth than the rest.

On that note, Andrea and I always speak quite highly of Peterborough wherever we travel and whomever we meet. We talk about our friends, dinner parties at Lynn’s, Frisbee in the park where you have to step on the concrete pad, breakfast with the boys on Saturday mornings, canoeing to work, the cafes and restaurants, the Third Space, Church in the City, motorcycling along River Road to Lakefield; it really is home to us and our favourite place on earth. We anticipate good times again at the Bean, we have no idea what we’ll do in terms of occupation between when we return and May 1st, but it always works out well and there has never been a need to worry.

Back to Lilongwe, we played Ultimate Frisbee last night having been invited by the aforementioned couple. Mike and Heather are from Minnesota and work with Partners in Hope, and HIV/AIDS clinic offering testing and ARV’s (anti-retroviral) which work against the progression of AIDS in the body. They brought us out swimming on Saturday afternoon with their children and then we went out for dinner with the two of them to a really nice restaurant where I had a nice steak. I scratched by knee up pretty bad at the game last night and Andrea has been calling me ‘tender’ today, but I think I’ll tough it out. We brought the two Canadian girls, who were staying at the Bowlers, to the airport today. That means we move into the guest room here at the Bowler residence for the remaining two weeks in Lilongwe. Although understanding the family dynamics of living with their two children might prove difficult, we do have our own room to escape to and we are learning to love them.

We are attempting to change our tickets to fly out of Lilongwe here rather than in Harare, Zimbabwe. Although we don’t often shy away from adventure (Zimbabwe being a bit of a mess right now), it would be great to stick around Malawi for a while longer, possibly visit Africycle in Zomba which is in southern Malawi and fly out of here. Please pray for the ticket changing process, that it goes smoothly and doesn’t cost too much to change. We’re still loving it here and we just received the last discs of season 3 of Lost. I’m a bit more excited about that than Andrea. Tomorrow morning Andrea has something exciting though. One of the local churches is opening up a youth centre downtown that will have a really nice café. Andrea is on to be a consultant tomorrow morning in the café opening process. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Anyways, to all the folks back home. We love you and miss you all.

Michael and Andrea