Jan 7, 2011 (Fri) - 2:30pm (+2 GMT)

I'm sitting in the car in the pouring rain waiting for Randy to pickup some sheets of glass for a building project that is going on at Malamulo. Elisa is getting back tomorrow with my new hard drive so I can fix my laptop. I am now happier than ever that I bought a netbook to bring with me. It has turned out to be one of the most useful things I brought. That along with my computer tool kit.

The rain is reminding me of two weeks ago when Christy, Jacquie, Anthony, Diane and I went to Mount Mulanje to climb up to the waterfall. It started raining just before we got there and kept raining during the whole climb up, the whole time we were there and the whole way down. Not a real heavy rain, but enough to keep everything wet. The waterfall was a lot larger than the previous times I had seen it due to all the rain we have been having. Usually one can swim up to the base of the fall and hang on to the rocks but this time we couldn't swim closer than about 20 feet. It was still fun even with all the rain and when we got back we made tomato soup (a really good recipe Christy had) and grilled cheese sandwiches with the last of my cheese I got in my Christmas box.

I was finally able to withdraw money from my bank account this week which meant that I could buy food again. Ryan Hayton (the hospital's surgeon) threw out his knee on Tuesday. He has had 8 previous knee surgeries (4 on each knee). Wednesday he flew down to South Africa to get another surgery. Sharlene heard from him after the surgery and it went well, he is just waiting for the hospital to discharge him to fly back.

A few weeks ago I started teaching computer classes for the hospital staff. I have a small computer lab set up with 6 stations so all 39 students are split up over six class periods (I can pretty much count on at least one and usually several of the employees not showing for various – often legit – reasons). The computer knowledge of my students ranges from zero (they have never touched a computer and don't know how to use a mouse or keyboard) to several of the students that are decent typesets and quite familiar with MS Office. After the first two weeks I had assessed their skills and reorganized them into classes of similar skill levels. This last week I had my higher level classes working on typing with Mavis Beacon and my lower level classes making pictures on Paint to practice using a mouse.

Also this week two new people came at the same time as the Lutz' left. Megan is an SM this year from Walla Walla and she was in Namibia but her project ran out of funds so she is going to be here for the remainder of the time. She will be working on starting up a school for the missionary kids and some of the national kids who are of a “certain class” as the pastor put it. Apparently that “class” includes the pastor's kids and the doctors' kids and I think a few others. We all felt a bit odd putting people into classes that way. The other new person is an infectious disease doctor from the States who is going to be here for a month to check things out and see if he thinks Malawi is a good fit for him to spend several years in.

Next Thursday a few of us are going to the lake (finally) for a long weekend. I am looking forward to doing some SCUBA diving as well as being at a beach for the first time since leaving the States. We are going take public transportation up which should be interesting as always.