A very social week and weekend

It has been a very busy week and weekend socially and a bit slower with work which isn't so bad. We actually ended up forgetting to take pictures a bunch! Work started off a bit weird with my ladies since the big discussion from the last week, but definitely got better as the week went on. Two of my ladies I think really go the message and were trying really hard this week. The youngest one actually even apologized to me for what happened in the stadium. The one lady who missed the whole talk but who received the text from me was definitely a bit passive aggressive and had a bit of attitude early on. Then one day when we were alone, I approached her and asked if there was anything she wanted to talk about. She said no and that she was just not feeling well and was a bit off. She asked what specifically i meant and i said basically you seem less friendly and less happy at work. Since then she basically went back to normal.

Socially, on Monday we had dinner at the surgery house. Dr. Charles is here this week and that was fun. Tuesday night we and girls night with me, 3 Irish girls, and Julia my Italian friend. We had a healthy potluck and just hung out! On Wednesday, I went to try on my dress for Lisa's wedding and it was a disappointment. It just didn't look the pictures at all. I was upset so we went out to dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant. On thursday night we went to a goat braii potluck at Rob and Rita's house also for Dr. Charles. Rita made amazing key lime pie. Another girl, Ali, brought home made sushi which was awesome. Friday night was Japanese night at Serendipity cafe with amazing homemade Japanese food including sushi from ladies in the Japanese community. I actually ended up befriending one of them. She said I have to come over for dinner and i'm looking forward to her inviting us soon! We also went there with and at first hung out with Lucy's parents Jon and Kate. They're really cool. On Saturday we did some shopping and ran errands. Picked up my dress which looks so much better then from Wednesday, although still not exactly what i wanted. Saturday night we had dinner at our house where John, a British friend, helped cook and what a feast@ Gnocchi with tomato sauce, fried calamari, fish, roasted veggies. We then went to the amazing St. Patricks day celebration which was quite the event. Every ex pat was there! They had cheese and beer from Ireland. Our friends did amazing Irish dancing. Today Sunday, we had lunch with Dr. Mitchell, the Harvard prof I met through the Sun award I received that ultimately helped Ben get a job. At night Julia and I went for a walk in our neighborhood.

our housegutests

japanese food

saturday night dinner

St. patricks day friends

awesome irish dancing

more Irish and Malawian friends

my chitenje jumpsuit

another new chitenje dress

Fun Day trip to Kugoni cultural center in Mua Mission

On Saturday Ben and I had a really fun adventure. It took 2.5 long hours, but once we go there the Kugoni arts and cultural center was awesome. Beautiful grounds, amazing art and history, great guide, food not so good, but people so friendly. We did a big shop too and got all sorts of beautiful gifts for ourselves and for friends and family at home.

Week in Review

mac and cheese dinner on monday and continuation of house of cards marathon as tuesday was a public holiday

finally had Fantasia for dinner on Wednesday night with our good friends: hanna from Norway and her partner Damien from france. Before dinner I was over at the religious Islamic Indian tailors house in my bright pink bra trying on the the lining of the top of my dress for Lisa's wedding

Thursday was quiz night and i ordered nachos which were actually doritos with cheese and guac

our awesome team! we did pretty well ranking 5th or 6th

friday night we had dinner with a bunch of new friends at our favorite indian restaurant: Country lunch

this was followed by drinks at the living room where the table next to use had this crazy club like light up cooler filled with beers

we also go the pups friday who will be with us for 10 days! they're so cute, but not as cuddly as lucy. but still love having them in the house

this long awaited world cancer day event actually did finally happen on friday and my team and I had CBE breast cancer screening tent which was a huge success. There were probably at least 50 women screened. At first there was a big mosh pit in the tent and i said i won't start until there are only 4 women (we only had 4 exam beds). This took some time and lots of yelling among the women in Chichewa. One woman even said to me, they are debating who goes first. I told her, well everyone is an adult so sort it out because the longer it takes the longer the delay to start will be.  Another few ladies actually got on the exam tables and undressed! There was still a big crowd outside the tent pushing to be the next one in, but in the tent we had calm. In the afternoon, I had another big "discussion" with my team. While they are excellent with patients and doing exam, they are lacking in attention to detail and respect for the job. This came to a head in the afternoon. Basically the outcome is this, i will follow the contract to the letter and they will to and if not there will be the necessary repercussions. 

Another weekend flies by!

We ended up staying in Lilongwe this weekend. Saturday morning we ran errands include a bunch of gift shopping for my upcoming weddings! we had lunch at Mamma Mia's. Then we mad new friends with a cool American couple when they came by to drop off their amazing puppy Lucy. we met through lilongwe chat where basically I offered myself as a dog sitter! They're a cool couple so i'm glad to have more new friends and Lucy is amazing!! her personality is very much like Coco! Its nice to have a small lap dog around! Today I got a facial and then hung out at the sunday night jazz which was nice, while ben and his new british friend watched soccer. I later joined them. i was impressed with the diversity of attendance in this jazz night: lots of Malawians, fair amount of kids, some Mzungu's (white people), some Indians, Muslims, and Chinese!

our grasshopper friend went on a big journey stuck to our car across town

LUCY!

made our bed hers

cuddles with ben

Sunday night jazz

Malawi Music Awards

As a gift for Prince's (one of the kids in the Malawian family we like a lot!) birthday, we took him to the Malawi Music awards at the big conference center. It was his first award show and first time being that big conference center. We all had a great time. We had hime over for dinner first too. Of course in true Malawian style, the show was supposed to start at 6. We got there at 8 pm and still wasn't going. It started around 9! the first hour or so was quite boring with lots of speeches. But all the performances were wonderful!

earlier that day, Agnes (my co-investigator and awesome doctor at UNC Project) took a photo in our chitenje dress! She had to wear it because it was black history month in her son's school that morning and she went to a presentation there. they were told to wear national dress. I was surprised to hear about black history month in Africa!!

red carpet style

wall of cool baskets

nice art

performace

85 year old amazing musician

son of one of my breath health workers

Ambassador's cocktail reception

On Thursday night we went to a lovely cocktail reception honoring U.S. education exchange program alumni. It was a really nice evening and we met some really great (and important) people. The house is also just stunning! We live only 2 houses down the street :)