Home made meal

Today I left a few recipes for Margaret and she did an amazing job. She made real buttermilk biscuits and this pizza tart with puff pastry, shitake mushroom and sundried tomato pesto sauce (i bought in cape town), and lots of cheese. I made a salad to go with it too. Everything was delicious!

I also got a few more participants today for the breast course and luckily one of them was in Lilongwe at a meeting so I met him to give the books!

crazy day and fun night

Another day of mixed emotions. First, I've been calling my friend and cancer nurse Ella since 2 nights ago to coordinate taking her car and my driver on a journey to deliver the breast course books. It took me a while to get in touch with her, but miraculously the second participant from the other district called and said he will give my phone number to his boss who is at a meeting in lilongwe. She then called and sent her driver to collect the books/course materials. I then learned that there is a meeting of all the district health officers in lilongwe. It was so frustrating because if there was enough planning and foresight i could have easily met with them all and passed out the materials if they had the participants ready. I was then put in touch with one them and he told another of the leaders about the course. She hadn't heard it before although she was supposed to get the invitation email. Anyway at least she came to my office to meet me and get the books. She doesn't have the participants yet, but will get them to me by friday. I was also running around like crazy with some clinic patients and study patients, but all was fine in the end. At night we went to try this new no frills Indian restaurant. We did take away because it wasn't a nice atmosphere, but the food was amazing! we then watched the oscars!

Ben waiting for our food to go

Dentist

Today Ben and I went to the dentist for his toothache. I was really pleasantly surprised and impressed with the nice facilities. It felt very much like a suburban American dentist. It was very clean. The dentist was nice and diagnosis not so good: wisdom teeth need to be pulled!

On a different note, to my pleasant surprise, one of the breast course participants from Kasungu (a district 2 hours from Lilongwe) actually came down to Lilongwe to get the book and for me to go over teh instructions. I was so thrilled and touched. After all the frustrations lately and false promises and system malfunctions, it was nice to meet someone who actually cared and made the effort to be in the much needed course!

Sunday dinner feast

We had our American doctor friends and their families over for dinner on Sunday. I made (Ben did do a lot of assisting) a whole feast that apparently came out quite well! Mac and cheese, roasted eggplant, roasted okra, chickpea salad, garden salad. Ben made delicious sangria. Laura brought amazing home made fudge.

Saturday Excursions

Saturday morning, Andrea and I went to the real market in town to look for an 80s bridesmaid dress for spa day for Lisa's wedding. It was not successful in that regard, but otherwise an interesting experience. We had milkshakes too. Then Ben and I went to a benefit gospel concert for the cancer association of Malawi. It was really good. Even one of the UNC drivers was there a member of one of the choirs! At night we went out to dinner at our favorite Italian place.

Bad day and good night

Friday was just another one of those days. Started off bad and continued to get worse. Basically started off day late, then some staff issues, then poor clinic turnout, then more staff issues. Anyway, at the least the night was a big success! We hosted another movie night that was a big successes with 10 international guests from the following countries: Malawi, Ireland, England, Norway, France, and Iran---yes my first Persian friend in Iran!! i'm so excited!! I didn't even know 3 of the people because they were friends of friends but it was really fun! Sadly there are no photos of this because I asked Ben and he forgot.

huge downpour and even tree fell over by our car at work

Happy Lunar (Chinese) New Year

On Thursday it was Chinese New year. Our friend Jen hosted a delicious Asian potluck. I actually made food that was quiet tasty and well received. All the food was wonderful!

the green beans and sweet potato noodles are dished i made

one of my Chitenje tailored skirts

Translocation to China

Last night, I went out to dinner with 2 of my Irish friends for Hot Pot at the Golden peacock. First, the hotel reminds me a lot of the Chinese hotels I stayed in while in China last year--pretty much same thing, but nice. We had REAL hot pot.  In a private VIP room with lazy susan also exactly like the many meals I had in China. The food was excellent!

Mac and Cheese Monday

I now have become quite good at making Mac and Cheese! I made dinner AGAIN Monday night. We also discovered a funny sign at one of our nearby shopping plazas. It is a barber shop, but has pictures of various U.S. figures on its sign. I also had a heart to heart with one my ladies. Her partner left early because she wasn't feeling well, so I taught her how to use the computer so she can enter the data. It was her first time using a computer. she did pretty well! We also talked about her teenage daughter some. Sadly she had to transfer her from the better more expensive school to the lesser quality school because of financial reasons. Her husband has been unemployed since July and she just started working for me in December. In Malawi, everyone has to pay school fees for public school after primary school. So there is no free schooling. Its really sad and explains a lot about educational attainment and cycle of poverty.

Valentine's Weekend

Last year we stayed in and watched all of season 2 of House of Cards while staying away from chilly Boston and eating trader Joe's goodies. This year we enjoyed beautiful sunny weather, more trader Joe's goodies freshly brought from the U.S., and binge watching of "The knick." I also went to the spa on Saturday courtesy of Ben. Saturday night we went out to a good dinner and Sunday I cooked more experimental dishes, of which didn't turn out so bad!

our lovely dinner out

Sunday lunch: toasted cheese sandwiches and salad

sunday dinner: mussel in wine sauce salad and Susan's roasted tomatoe with tuna fish salad

Perfectionist and Ana's last meal

My team overall has been amazing. Today we actually reached 1/3 of our sample size---in one month of work!! Incredible. However, we have been having some communication issues and some minor issues on the data collection. However, these issues have been building up and today came to a head in a big discussion on research vs. service and my "management"style. Basically, sometimes I get mad and are mean. I don't think I'm mean, but they are very sensitive and I know I get frustrated really easy and i can see how I can come off mean. Its because I have no patience. I think we resolved all the issues, but I still feel bad they were upset because they really have been doing an absolutely incredible job. I never dreamed it would be possible to get to 1/3 of the sample size in 1 month. Ive learned my lesson and I plan to give them cards and chocolate

Ana, our Swedish friend that Ben met at UNICEF, is leaving on Saturday so we had her over for dinner last night.

Another great highlight of the week was Dr. Ruth English, a British breast ultrasonographer was here for the week. It was wonderful to have her around and do some QA/QC. It was actually quite enlightening and informative. We are now working towards setting up a teleradiology system with her! i will also come visit her in Oxford when i got to London for the commission launch.

Ben and Anna

my new tailored skirt

date night in my new dress

I forgot to take a picture on monday of all the treats Ben brought from the U.S. Last night we went to our favorite Indian restaurant. Charles, the tailor, came on Sunday with the 6 pieces. Two of them were perfect, but rest needed further alterations. I wore a dress yesterday that was well received!

We are one concert

On Saturday, there was a cool initiative with 3 cities holding big charity concerts for the floods. The lineup in Lilongwe was quite good. I went with Evelyn and her friend and Kingsley. It was good to actually hang out with King because its been too long and also because he knew all the musicians so it was fun meeting them too!

evelyn in dance competition on stage!

Mexican Fiesta

On Friday night, I was invited to my friend's Andreas and Fran mexican feast with fajitas and frozen margaritas. My other friend Anil came along too. It was a delicious feast! The margaritas knocked me out!

nice dinner ambiance

Margarta glasses ready to go

the chefs and Anil

the feast

The margarita master

World Cancer Day Symposium

After a stressful week of painful meetings and VERY last minute planning, Fridays World Cancer Day cancer symposium actually turned out quite nice.  I gave a talk on breast cancer and got good feedback. Ultimately there was a good turnout.  there were several survivors and the cancer association of malawi was there which was nice to see.

Guests with cooking skills

This past week my friends Suzy and Harvey stayed with me a few nights to keep me company. Turns our they  loved my kitchen and have amazing cooking skills. We had an Asian stir fry rice noodle dish, a prawn curry, an amazing home made cauliflower based pizza, and stuffed tomatoes with tuna fish salad.

Asian stir fry feast

home made chipatis with wine bottle as roller

final product: prawn curry

the best pizza i ever had!

pizza meal! i made salad and margaret made the fried feta

Slumber parties

I spent friday and saturday night sleeping over at the UNV house which consists of 4 amazing Irish girls, 1 italian guy, and 1 ethiopian guy. On Friday night they had a huge going away party for an australian guy. there was a real DJ  and a cocktail bar. I was up till 2 am and then had to go to bed while the party kept going till about 4 or 5. The next morning there was a breakfast feast. Saturday afternoon, Evelyn was back in Lilongwe so I met up with her and went to visit Ida at her school. It was really great to see both of them!  Then Evelyn and I met up with Olivia for amazing ice cream and some real food which was also very good. Olivia and Evelyn are going to the same school and starting the new semester together next week so it was good for them to get to know each other.  Saturday night I slept over again at the UNV house where we have a movie and pizza night! Today I got home and worked and Charles the tailor came over to to get measurements and fabric from me. He is making me 6 pieces! Should be getting them next week!

the cocktail master

Sipo made breakfast in the morning

me and Ida and Evelyn

me and evelyn and Olivia

Ferraro Sundae

movie night with projector

today's breakfast club

Charles the tailor