First Day in the OR

Mondays have become my ward clinical days--rounding and clinic which are really fun but also very depressing. Tuesday I finally go to to to the OR for the first time. It was excellent except I could only really scrub for one case because of lack of gowns. I didn't have my camera, but found this pic of the OR online.

Weekend Adventures With Tim and Judy

On Saturday we went to Dedza for Lydia's birthday. Raphael was already there and we took evelyn with us. First in the morning we went to the Farmer's market and got some goods! However, on picking up Evelyn our car battery died. We got it jumped and then drove it to the mechanic and got a new one. woohoo. ANOTHER car expense. All the more reason I hate cars! We then drove to Dedza where ben got a speeding ticket for going 9 Km over the speed limit--he was overtaking in front of the police so in my opinion it was well deserved.

It was great to see Lydia and go out for desert at Dedza Pottery where they have the BEST cheesecake!

Margaret and her amazing Malawian feast

Our Goodies from the U.S.--feels like Christmas

Tim and I sampling strawberry coolers at the farmers market

the view from dedza pottery restaurant

Our favorite Malawian family (-3 of the kids)

Behind Again...Past Few Days in Review

Sorry another busy week and didn't have enough time to update the blog.

Lily's Week in Review:
1) Monday---had full clinical day with surgery ward rounds in the morning and  clinic in the afternoon, it was really fun and felt good to get back into clinical work, but also very depressing. We went out to our favorite Italian place for dinner.
2) Tuesday--Started Interviewing ladies for my project, nothing too exciting otherwise at night. Discovered lovely garden at la dolce vita for lunch.
3) Wednesday--Dinner Club resumed, after many weeks of both its absence and ours. It was small gathering but great to meet new people. Several of the USAID folks actually knew--Jock, a good family friend of Tim and Judy who had a long successful career at USAID.
4) Thursday--our fist quiz night and first trip to the Living Room Cafe, our team did ok and it was fun. I also won a voucher to an italian restaurant we haven't been to yet that I wanted to go.
5) Tim and Judy Arrived!!!

La Dolce Vita Garden

My dinner at Buchanan's  for dinner club

quiz night

Tim and Judy relaxing 

Breast Cancer Awareness Day

I was so honored to be part of the organization committee first every breast cancer awareness walk and activity day. It turned out to be a really wonderful event with a huge turn out and all Malawians! Ben was only white male, and one of less then 10 males. The head of the women's caucus was there and gave really wonderful speeches.

New Blanket Finally!

6 weeks waiting for my custom made alpaca blanket by an amazing organization that teaches vulnerable women how to knit. the alpaca is ethically sourced from South America.

Internations

Last night we finally made it to an Internations event. It's a global expat organizations that exists all over the world and has a Lilongwe Branch. Met some new people and saw lots of familiar faces too. The other Fulbrighter I met back in June was there, she just arrived a few weeks ago. Ironically she is staying with my Dutch Friend Marije. Here is pic of Marije and Elizabeth off to the side (the fulbrighter). Small world!

Dinner and Games

Our Friends Lauren and Chris took us out last night as a thank you for watching their amazing pups! then we played cards against humanity (british version so interesting and bit different because of cultural references) and I got to play with the pups :)

Lonely Day at Work

I'm beginning to get settled in at UNICEF.  I haven't had a regular work week yet -- started at the end of the week, went to Cape Town at the end of the next week, was still in Cape Town the beginning of the next week, and now there's a public holiday tomorrow (Happy Malawian mother's day to Mom, Gran, Mew, Alicia, and all the mothers out there!) -- but I've worked enough now that I feel like I'm getting a handle on the issues surrounding violence against children in Malawi and where we go from here.

Yesterday was a bit weird though, I was basically the only person in the office as everyone else was off at an all staff meeting.  Evidence:

R&R in Lilongwe

After much traveling, we needed some rest and relaxation. Ben planned a whole "date day" for us on saturday. We got massages, caught up on TV shows, had dinner at one of the fancier places in town, and went to a music concert. Sunday, Ben got his first pedicure! He loved it. We also enjoyed some meals at home with our new veg box.

fish cakes at kumbali

dinner at home

fresh herbs and tomatoe sauce pasta at home

Add caption

after dinner mojito

snorkeling at cape maclear

On our way home from Lake of Stars we went snorkeling at beautiful cape maclear! this part of the lake has one of the world's largest cichlid fish population

Some Backtracking on the blog

the past 2 weeks have been quite busy! my friend Catherine came to visit in Malawi and then we went to Cape Town with her too. Ben already posted about our lake of stars experience so I won't mention that--other than it was fun.  Otherwise, we had our first dinner guests--Lauren and Chris and  we had our first petsitting--Max and Teddy, the amazing pups of Lauren and Chris, and we celebrated Rosh Hashana with some fellow jews and non-jews. Our friend Yoel even played the banjo and one of the guests made amazing Challah!  Other than Lake of Stars Catherine and I had some Lilongwe market adventures and a fun embassy event as my friend Ian was ending his embassy internship.

Yoel and his Banjo

Max and Teddy ready to come over to our house in the cube

Catherine's first night in Lilongwe..dinner at Mediterraneo

Max giving me kisses

the crazy manmade bridge to cross in between the markets. I was scared!

Catherine and I on the bridge

the chitenje market

Max greeting me

Lake of Stars

We've had a busy few weeks of traveling so apologies for the lack of updates.  Our friend Catherine came to visit (she and Lily met at Harvard last year) so 2 weeks ago we went to this Malawian music festival called Lake of Stars and then we spent last week in Cape Town (where Catherine is originally from).

Lake of Stars has been going on for a little more than a decade now and brought together a lot of local Malawian musicans, along with performers from all over Africa (we also watched acts from South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), and some from far beyond (most notably an awful rock/rap group from Scotland named Stanley Odd).  As the name suggests, the festival is on the shores of Lake Malawi in Mangochi.  The music was hit and miss but overall, it was a very fun weekend.

Lily, Catherine, and I on the lake.

The main beach stage.

View of the lake.  It was very quiet on Friday (presumably as many of the concert-goers were making the 4 hour drive from Lilongwe or 2 hour drive from Blantyre) but picked up that night and on Saturday.

The first head-liner, South African rapper Reason.  Our consensus favorite performance.

Relaxing on Day 2.