1 Year

One year ago today, Ed11 swore in as PCVs. One year from today, we will leave Malawi as RPCVs. Glad to be a part of it. 

We're really doing it Lloyd!

(Full credit to Michael for the post title)

Yup, that gigantic mass on the horizon is what we will be climbing soon. I'm a bit more scared now that I can see just how massive she is, but I've never been one to let fear dictate my moves, plus my excitement level is marginally higher than my fear. Here goes, well, most likely everything I got in me. 

Mzuzu Food Market

Donald took some pictures in the Mzuzu Market.  This is far larger and nicer than your standard market (it is the northern region capital), but it gives you and idea of what an African market looks like.

Standard fruits and veggies

More exotic foods that are impossible to find in most village markets

Irish potatoes (a.k.a. normal, non-sweet potatoes)

Rice, more potatoes, and other foods

Peas and lemons

Beans

Usipa

Tomatoes

Mid-Service Training

Education 2012 has now cleared the 50% mark, and is rapidly approaching the one year left point.  This means, it’s time for MST (Mid-Service Training).  As I write this, I’m sitting in a session room where they’re re-teaching us about monitoring and evaluation.  As I am sitting here, surrounded by the remaining 17 people in our group, I am honored to be one of them. 

 Yesterday, we got to go to the Village Fairwell for the Education 2013 group still in Pre-Service Training, and it was very interesting to watch our group meeting and greeting these new people days after the last of Education 2011 left the country.

Ed13's Village Fairwell Dance

As I look forward to the rest of my service, I’m excited.  Not only will I be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro very soon, and then going on a Serengeti Safari, but my work over the next year should be fun and productive.  We’ve been told before that your second year of service is when things can really start to click and you get the most done, so hopefully that holds true for us and in 9 months, when we are all in the same room again for COS (Close of Service) conference, we are all proud of our work here.

Admiring our new friend, Sonic.

So, here is my salute to Ed12 and a big “Thank You!” to all the people that have supporting me this far.

Puppies!!!

Yesterday, I was informed by the person working on my fence that Fletcher had apparently been digging a serious hole.  I looked, and he was right, it was a big hole.

This morning, I go out to look at the hole, knowing the only reason she would have dug something so large was that she was due to have puppies.  It had transformed from a hole to a cave.  Within the cave was one dog and five puppies.

The birthing cave, but what's that in there?

Unfortunately, as I've previously stated, I live in a very sandy area, and Fletch's lack of engineer knowledge meant that this cave was rapidly collapsing, so I had to relocated the puppies to a safer place.

My puppy cave, and yes, I bought that bag here.

 After I let her back at them, Mama Fletch quickly went to work.

Mama Fletcher and her iwes.

So now there are five puppies to add to this crazy household, four males and one female.

Fletcher's first litter of five healthy puppies.

I'm going to go with 31 July 2013 as their birth-date, since I'm not sure if they were born before or after midnight but Fletch was not going into labor when I went to sleep so I'll believe it was after midnight.

Baby Buckman, male

Baby Sledd Hero, male

Baby North Bruce, female

Baby Key Dazi, male

Baby Graham Fitzwilliam "Fitz", male