Night in the Village

Hi Everyone (If anyone checks this blog anymore!),
This past weekend my mom and dad spent two nights out in the village so they could experience what village life is like. They had a great and interesting experience....cockroaches, rats, bathing in cold water, eating nsima (stable food in Malawi) and eel, etc. I don't think I would ever want to sleep in the village though! Jordan and I got to stay with my brother, my cousin, my brother's best friend, and some other college kids who stay with them at the school where my brother is teaching at. We had an awesome time and it was so much fun being with all the college kids! We went for a hike one day and found a swimming hole out in the bush a bit. There were all these little village kids bathing in the water and it was so funny when they saw us coming. They all started shouting," Azungu, Azungu!" (White man, white man!). It was really funny and we had a great time there. Jordan and Terrence (my brother's best friend) went swimming. We also just hung out at their house and read a lot. It was very relaxing and a nice break away from the city that I live in.
-Terra

Jacobo

Well I couldn't really think of anything to post about so I'll write about Jacobo. If you look on my family's blog (apcmalawi.blogspot.com) a pretty long time ago we posted a post about a slum called Mbayani. In Mbayani they have a committee set up to organize things and run the pre-school and stuff like that. The chairman of the committee and his wife recently had a baby. A couple weeks after the baby was born we were in Mbayani and my dad was asking the chairman about the baby. One of the questions was, "What is the baby's name?" The chairman told my dad he and his wife were waiting for my dad to name their son! My dad told them that it was a huge honor and everything and that he would have to think about what to name him. It wasn't until about a week ago that my dad went to their house to name the baby. The baby was now over a month old and still had no name! My dad wanted a Chichewa name from the Bible so he chose Jacobo which I think is Jacob but I'm not sure. So that was really cool! We have some pictures of the baby that I'm going to try and post either in the night time or in the morning. (The daytime isn't a good time to post pictures.)

Mission

The mission team left on Thursday but we had a great time with them! My favorite part was molding bricks! We were working alongside the local poor village people stomping around in the mud and pounding bricks into the molds! It was a great feeling because even though most of the people couldn't speak English it felt we were getting to know them by working with them. Another one of my favorite parts was when I got to know this little 3 year old boy named Happy. He was so cute and I think he really liked me. He would only want me to pick him up and hold him and twice when I picked him up he immediately fell asleep on my shoulder. It was adorable! I'll try and post pictures later but I'm not sure if I will.
Terra

Sports Day

I know I haven't posted in a while but if anyone is still checking this blog then I've decided to put a new post. When I was in school we had a big competition between all the houses. It happens every year and is called the Inter House Sports Day. Every person has to go to it even if they're not in any of the competitions. I was in the 200 meters and I was sooooooo nervous because last time I did the 200 I fell and it was so embarrassing! This time I didn't trip but I was so scared I was going to that I didn't run my fastest but in the end I came 6 out of 8 people so at least I didn't come last! This picture is of me and my best friend, Acacia, who will come to visit me in New Jersey sometime next year. (It's not a very good picture of me or her though.)

Mulanje

Most of you know that with my family we climbed this really big mountain called Mount Mulanje. Man, it was tiring!!! It was 6 hours up and 5 hours down. Some parts were really steep and hard to climb but it was really rewarding at the top! We were so high up and we could see for miles! We hired porters that carried our bags all the way to the top which was really nice. The bags were really heavy to. I don't know how they do it!! Also, Jordan climbed the whole thing barefoot!!! This was a big and hard mountain to climb with shoes on. She's crazy!

Claire

Hi Everyone,
I know I haven't posted in a really long time but I'm not good with keeping up at things. I just wanted to post some pics of Patrick's 2 year old daughter named Claire because she's so cute. She isn't scared of me anymore! YAY! She lets me pick her up and play with her now.

Patrick

Here we have a house boy who does all of our cleaning. His name is Patrick. Everyone has people who work for them. Most of my friend have lots of staff but we just have one. It's just kind of expected if you have the money. Patrick and his family live right next to us. There is just a wall dividing his house from our house. We also have a night guard that comes every night to watch our house. Patrick and his wife have 2 children and 2 other relatives that live with them. We pay him about $50 per month which isn't much considering all of the people he has to support. It's really nice though because Patrick comes at 7:00am and works until 5:00pm for us everyday except weekends. He does all of the chores so I don't have to do anything! YAY! :) This picture is in his house. We brought over a cake because it was Claire's birthday and he didn't have any presents for her. He is holding up 2 fingers because she is turning 2. I'm going to try and post a picture of him and his family. His wife's name is Theresa. He has two younger girls. The older one is 7 and her name is Patricia and the younger one's name is Claire. She's 2. It's really funny because Claire gets scared of us whenever she sees her and will start crying. Usually we have to lure her to us by having a banana or a piece of candy. There is so much to tell so I'm not sure what else to say about him but ya. If you have any questions though just ask and I'll email you back.