Month 2: the adventures continue

Namandanje Village

The bluest sky overhead. The reddest dirt billowing up over the road. The greenest bushes and brownest grasses I’d ever seen, flanking the road on both sides.

Namandanje

Walking around the village of Namandanje, I couldn’t imagine a more glorious display of God’s creation. The stillness of a place that’s yet untouched by the messiness and busyness of Western living. Just families, farms, and a small village center. 

This was the backdrop of our overnight clinic this past week.

Nurse Jean, Nurse Eleanor, and Vegas - O/N clinic dream team!

We left early Wednesday morning to serve our most remote clinics – Chamba (which, fun fact, means marijuana in Chichewa. Not to be confused with Chambo which means fish or Chombe which means tea.), Chikweo, and Chipolonga. 

A good book (The Pilgrim's Progress), good conversation, and good food made an electricity-less evening pass quickly. It was a refreshing trip!

Chipolonga clinic 

Other highlights of the week included preparing for the PUFA study acceptability trial (essentially me finding out if children will like the taste of a new recipe of Chiponde as much as the current Chiponde. The trial starts tomorrow, and my goal is to complete the 160 kid trial in three weeks! Let the fun begin!), going to see the Black Missionaries perform a live concert with my housemates (they are the most popular band in Malawi -and pretty good! - so the concert was packed. Survived my first encounter with crowd control tear gas, and got to dance along to some of Malawi's best reggae, all in one night.), and driving out to Zomba to hike on the Zomba Plateau. The road to Zomba is under construction, yet amazingly we managed to follow all the dirt detours and arrive without a map. We enjoyed lunch at the top once we’d finished our hike – definitely a fun day trip for anyone living in Blantyre. 

taking in the views on Zomba Plateau

Zomba Plateau hike with Lauren

One last thing: This past week I had to miss special days for two of the people I love the most (and who've joined me on many an African adventure!) - my dad and my baby sis. Happy Father’s Day and happy birthday Kels! I love you both and can’t wait to celebrate with you in July.

mandatory Daddy-Christy safari selfie in Botswana

Zambian new years with Kels. Can't believe you're 19!