Monday we awoke to quite a cold day. I was even cold and for those of you who know me, that is pretty unusual. I can only imagine how the underdressed, underfed, underhoused Malawians must suffer during this time of year! The clinic was crazy busy. Interestingly enough, the fear of H1N1 (Swine flu) is every where here. And it doesn't look like the country has anything to treat it with (Tamiflu). So now, I get not only 'could it be malaria' but also 'could it be H1N1?' And no test for that here! I did get the tragic news that the little one I had last week died. And no one seems to know what was the underlying cause of his death, but the folks at the central hospital are thinking a congential brain abnormality or injury at birth and a bleeding disorder.
Jose spent some of his morning at the Korean hospital, teaching one of the clinical officers how to teach CPR. Jose feels that his biggest impact with CPR will be teaching the nationals how to teach each other.
After work, we decided to go to the grocery store - Again, you may ask?? Yes, because shopping here is a challenge. Not every store has every thing.. not even what we consider the 'basics'. We really wanted to make carrot cake, but the icing called for cream cheese. The best bet in town for cream cheese is Foodworth's - a small store with a gas station. It has a fantastic bakery, and carries items from South Africa (occasionally even US items - one time we saw Miller light in their cooler - ha, ha how funny is that?). The down side is that it is expensive and the hours are shorter that other stores. So off we went to Foodworth's. After our shopping spree, we returned home to find NO POWER!! However, being the eterenal optimists that we are, Jose started making the cake batter. The carrots we bought from a street vendor and had to be washed and grated by hand (my job). Jose put together the batter - by candlelight.... measuring and reading the recipe by candlelight has it's challenges. Once the entire batter was together and mixed, the power did come back on. We ended up able to not only bake the cake, but also cook a delightful dinner of chicken, chips (fried potatoes) and beans. The pictures are of the traffic en route to the grocery, Foodworth's, Jose mixing batter (note the candle in the background) and Jose cooking potatoes once the power was back on. Later today, maybe a picture of the finished cake..... we shared the cake with our neighbors, the guard, and Bambo Whiskas and his wife. Not bad for a first attempt at an African carrot cake - although Jose has a message for his grandmother - 'MaMaw, you still hold the title as the best carrot cake maker around!'
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