mid-afternoon in Zomba

Moses, Cosmas, and I are on our way to the open space in the hotel at which I'm staying to work further on the standards we're creating. Moses went to a workshop in summer 2007 in Ethiopia but has made very little progress on creating them. He's going to Ottowa in June and needs a ton of work done to present, since the Canadian donor requires accountability. Essentially, I'm the task master in the mix, so needless to say, I'm a blessing and a curse for him!

I wanted to tell you that each agenda for the workshop has timelines, then at 3:30 p.m. it says, "Knocking off." I met a woman named "Ula" last night at the hotel eating dinner who has worked in Africa off and on for "Doctors without Borders." She's from Denmark (LJ/SK--can you find Denmark on the world map?) and going home one day after I leave Malawi. She is a clinical lab tehnician and travels all over the world on short term contracts. She's going to retire soon, and I asked her what she's going to do when she retires to Denmark. Guess what her answer was? Travel! Anyway, Ula said people say, "I'll meet you after I knock off from church."
Another thing Ula told me is that in another country in AFrica (I can't remember which one), they say, "isn't?" at the end of the sentence. Sort of like "not so."

Today when I went into a class of 6 - 8 year olds, there were 75 children sitting around six large tables. The teacher was wonderful, and all the kids were having a great time. LJ, wouldn't that be crowded? Can you imagine 74 classmates in your room?

Then, I went into a room of 10-11 year olds. There were 65 in that classroom and they were sitting in three rows sharing desks. Some children didn't have shoes on.
Again, all the children are very polite and so are the adults.

I also wanted to tell you what I saw yesterday:
There are no screens on the windows, so when they are open, animals can come in. I noticed a cat went on the window ledge in the kitchen and ate something from the plate. I think Max would like it here.

When I went to the hotel at the top of Mt Zomba, I saw a monkey in the inside garden on the hotel. My, I got a good picture of him! I also saw people walking bicycles down the hill with wood piled high on the bikes. Since the mountain rood is steep, it was really hard for them to hold them back from rolling down the hill and spilling the wood all over. They sell the wood in town.

Make sure you find where Denmark is, okay?