Friday in Mulanje District

link to photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/105226841757151966002/AfricaDay4July9?authkey=Gv1sRgCJL49qHcttGlfg&feat=directlink

Today is market trading day and so Chitikale was hopping. People everywhere selling their goods off of blankets spread on the ground, we stopped and purchased a couple live chickens to transport to Juma with us - a few were disturbed to learn they would become todays' lunch. There were several 'Lion- pig' jokes along the ride, surprisingly enough the first one was made by Tadeo and directed at Barb - his sense of humour has come a long way in 4 days!
He has mentioned we may watch the World Cup final game tomorrow - the group is split between Spain and Belgium.
The work site was different today as Robin was sick at home and both Tadeo and Babie had to leave to attend meetings and do office work so we had a new leader named Jahn and no translators - we did very well with hand signals.
Turns out that Jahn also knew more English than we thought he did.
Work was slow though as several teenage boys also appeared today to help out so we had way more hands than jobs to do.
This allowed for opportunities to play with the kids, walk around the community and visit. The soccer balls that Taylor and Deb brought were big hits as was the skipping rope once again.
Grandma's wound got redressed and it is uncertain as to whether or not Marleen felt there was improvement but it has only been one day.
By day's end the interior walls were nearly as high as the exterior ones are and so Babie will drive to Blantyre tomorrow to purchase the timbers (used for the roof)
The only glitch we have if you can even call it one is that there is rarely hot water for showers, they are solar powered and the other group staying at the lodge gets in earlier than us and so the hot has run out by the time we get to it. We have improvised very well using water bottles and the sink to wash our hair - boy is it very dirty - the water turns rather orange in color, all the dust from the bricks.
Not gonna lie passed on the chicken for lunch - definitely not because they travelled in the van with us or I happened to stumble across the man that killed them as he was doing it but mostly because they were cooked in the same pot as their heads and feet - yup I wussed out on it...the rice and cooked veggies were fantastic though!
Tadeo arrived for supper a tad late and was most concerned because he could not make you tube work and so I am to help him out with it later.
Many members of the trip have cam corders here and so we have told both he and Nancy that we will film them and post it onto YouTube when we get home and I will send them each an email so they can watch it - they are stoked - now I will need a lesson on how one posts to YouTube!! :) pretty sure all of my SCI students could do it.
Tomorrow is the annual race up Mount Mulanje and the hike that normally takes about 5 hours will be done in about 2 by the winner - we are hoping to catch them at the finish line. The lodge is preparing lunch for 450 participants!!