Oct 4, 2010 (Mon) – 9:26pm (GMT +2)

So I was just out making my self some food (lunch and supper). Just after I got back to the house the power finally came back on. There was a scheduled power outage from about 8 this morning till about 9 this evening (scheduled in that we know power was going to be out today, we however had no idea for how long it would be out). Saturday the power was also out for 3 or 4 hours ending just after midnight, as far as I know that one was unscheduled or at least unannounced. Anyway, a few minutes after the power came back on a bat started flying around the house. I have to say it is a bit unnerving how close it gets without ever actually hitting. I watched it for a few minutes then went and got my video camera and started recording it. At one point it landing on one of the window bars in the sitting room and I started to get closer for a better shot when suddenly a large owl smacked into the window trying to catch the bat. It was just a bit startling. If it hadn't been for the glass that bat would have had its life ended quite abruptly.

Two of the guys from Loma Linda left this morning. Jere is staying for another two weeks to work on setting up some biometric time clocks and start training on the patient finance accounting system. Of course right after they leave (well technically the night before, but after any useful time of them being here) we discover that the squid proxy we have set up to control web access doesn't allow through SSL connections like gmail which is a problem. Wednesday I'll be able to get in touch with them and hopefully they can help me figure out a solution if I haven't by then. (In the interim I've just routed all https traffic around the proxy which is definitely not a long term solution.)

On Friday Elisa, Christy, Alex and I went to Mount Mulanje (the third highest mountain in Africa) and climbed up the the waterfalls. Christy called me a little before 10 am to invite me and the phone ringing woke me up. She only gave me about 10 minutes notice so it was a bit of a scramble. The climb up the the falls took about an hour and by the time we got there we were all very hot and sweaty so jumping into the cold water felt good. After a minute or two the water stopped feeling cold once out bodies went numb. At one point I looked at my hands and they had completely lost all colour. Once we were sufficiently numb we got out and Chrity and Elisa laid on the large rock by the pool while Alex and I climbed up to the head of the waterfall. After awhile Alex went back down and strung up a hammock he had brought with him and I explored a few hundred meters further upstream. We headed back down the mountain around 4:30pm and got down just as the sun was setting.





Saturday we had a welcome potluck for the Haytans. A whole bunch of people came out from Blantyre and some of the peace core people in the area came as well. There was at least 50 people. The variety of food alone, never mind the quantity, was quite overwhelming. It was hard to know where to start and what to leave for seconds, thirds and fourths. I think I gained back all the calories I lost climbing the mounting. It was nice to be able to socialize with more people. After eating a group of us younger people (it feels odd that I can't categorize us as teenagers anymore) went down to the hospital to show around those who hadn't been there before. A little later some of us went out walking again over to the tea field this time. I hadn't been out that direction before so it was new for me as well. I discovered about half way through the walk when I went to take a picture that I had left the memory card on my desk. I'll have to get back out there soon with a fully functioning camera.

As I mentioned earlier the power was off for the whole evening. We had been going to have a movie night but projectors don't work well without power. I ended up teaching everyone (except for Alex who already know and was quite good) how to play Slaps by flashlight. Anthony kept apologizing every time he hit someones hand and I kept trying to convince him that that was unnecessary.

Yesterday and today were pretty much normal work days although yesterday I did spend awhile skyping various people in the evening. The mosquitoes have been getting worse and so has the heat.