June 25 - First day at the crisis nursery

Tristan and Jayme outside the crisis nursery

Today was my first day at the crisis nursery and I loved it! I just got to play with and feed babies all day! While we were there, the staff was having a party for one of the nannies who was retiring, so we danced and ate lunch with them. Lunch was rice, some sort of coleslaw type stuff, and a kind of fried chicken.  We drank soda out of glass bottles and ate with our hands. Yum!

Feeding time at the nursery!

A new baby came to the nursery while we were there. It was a little girl named Maria who was just a week old.  However, upon undressing the baby to change and clean her up, we realized that Maria was actually "Mario." This little baby's own father didn't know he had a son instead of a daughter.

"Mario" - picture by Danielle

After leaving the nursery, me and three of the girls (Jayme, Megan, and Tristan) all went to Crossroads, a westernized/Americanized shopping center, to use the internet and buy groceries for dinner. We're having to get really creative with the ingredients that are available here. Tonight we had eggplant curry with toast and brownies for dessert (made with mix brought from the States.) We had to bake the brownies in a pot because we didn't have a baking pan. The pot worked well and I actually kind of liked the round brownies.

Walking to Crossroads

Also, on the way home from shopping, Tristan started feeling really sick, so we took a taxi instead of walking back. When we were almost to our street, Tristan threw up inside the car. She would have gotten out of the car, but the door didn't have handle on the inside and she couldn't get it open. Poor thing, she was so humiliated and miserable.  The driver was really nice though and told her not to worry about it, that it just happens sometimes. He brought us all the way to our front door (instead of dropping us off at the path from the main road) and told Tristan to "Feel better, my sister!" She's still feeling sick tonight.

Jenna and our living room at Teethsavers

After dinner, we watched some of the World Cup and I finished a baby hat that I had been knitting.  Megan, Mike, and I ended up staying up talking until midnight.  I was fun just hanging out with them.

I'm learning Chichewa and getting better at keeping up with kwacha. Tomorrow we're going to the market!