mon, 4/5...day 95

A day of getting ready for our trip to Southern Malawi.
My nieces in the kitchen, hamming for the camera. (Aggie, who helps with the household, is in the background.)


Going shopping means bringing a lot of bills, unless you're going to write a check. The biggest denomination is 500 kwatcha, which is about $3.

(Notice the Nestle's Quick. Niall will be pleased to have one of his "comfort foods" here so far from home.)

Every day we've gone swimming! The girls' school has several big pools which aren't used this week because of a two-week Easter break. Niall is in heaven. :-)

sun, 4/4...day 94

My sister gave us her big bedroom to stay in while we visit. This is Niall sitting on my bed, reading one of the "Wimpy Kid" books, which he's just discovered.

Sieglinde fixed us a delicious roast chicken Easter dinner.

Mercy and her daughter Ali joined us. Delighted to meet them after hearing about them for so many years. Mercy was Laly and Tori's nanny when they first came to join Sieglinde and Vicki, when they were just over a year old.

sat, 4/3...day 93

We look awfully bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for being so many hours into our 24-hour trip through Amsterdam and Nairobi and on to Lilongwe!

This is us on the plane to Nairobi...

...and Niall, just after we landed in Lilongwe. It was nearly midnight local time, and we'd only catnapped for a few hours on the Amsterdam-Nairobi leg of our trip.

It was wonderful to see my sister, who met us at the airport. And then to get to her house and fall into bed to sleep. Ah, to be horizontal - bliss.

fri, 4/2...day 92

We are off on our adventure! Niall and I headed to the airport this morning and got on a plane for Amsterdam.

It's a ten hour flight, so we were busy having meals, reading, watching movies, and so on. Niall decided to look out the window about halfway there, and we were delighted to see ice floes!

We had several hours in Amsterdam before leaving on our next flight, to Nairobi. It was early morning in Holland but felt like evening to us, still on Seattle time.

thu, 4/1...day 91

This evening Niall performed in the long-awaited "Annie" production at school. It was energetic and lots of fun.

We got to see two shows, as the chorus sang after the scene from "Annie." Between the families of the actors and the families of the singers, and with all the room taken up by the stage (so the kids had room for their choreography), it was quite a snug fit in the Center Room.

wed, 3/31...day 90

The brothers ready to head home from school after Extended Day.


And some very dramatic clouds at an intersection just down the hill from our house.

tue, 3/30...day 89

Loved the long shadows at school today.

(A camera in my pocket for quick photos is my new must-have!)