Never a dull moment!

Hi everyone,

Another episode for our never ending story. The trip to the lake was fantastic unfortunetely on the way back our car broke down. Lisette waved down a pick-up truck full Bob Marley look alikes and as luck would have it 2 of them were mechanics. The pulled us to the next village and within an hour the was mended. The orphanage keeps us busy teaching the children English, playing games, painting drawing and trying to get some structure into their lives. Lisette made a swing out of an old piece of wood and rope and we can watch the children from our house swinging backwards and forwards. (Great fun). The older children are on holiday so we have set up a small business. we buy nuts from the market, the girls roast them with salt and put them into small bags and the children sell them to the street, we won't make millions but it keeps the kids busy.
The trips to the hospital are still more or less a daily occurance, several children have malaria, the wounds have been healed accept for Willardi whose toe is infected to the bone, we now soak it in soap twice a day and he takes antibiotics if this doesn't work they may have to amputate it, we hope that doesn't have to happen.
The shoes that Jacques sent arrived 80 pairs of All-stars all colours and sizes. The kids thought they were cool it was funny to see their reactions and all the kids all walking around in the same kind of shoes (Thanks a lot IAS). We also received 8 Ajax footballs, Ajax bags and lots of other goodies. It felt like Christmas opening all the boxes (Thanks Hein and Arlette). By the way the photo of Fela is hanging on our wall.
Saturday we had a volleyball tournement. Another orphanage came here and we started playing at 12 o'clock. The teams were split up into different age groups and the atmosphere was great, everyone singing, dancing and chanting. At the end everyone had a meal and a fanta, the day was a success. We met a girl Dana from Israel who is working at the other orphanage on the way back to Blantyre we picked her up as she is going crazy being on her own. That night we had a meal in an Italian restaurant and then we went to the Blue Elephant a disco. What a scream! When we walked in it was like being in a zoo as you can imagine 4 white girls, well 3 white girls and one old girl. We've never been so popular before and we shook our arses all night. The next day I was struck down, at first I thought it was the wine but I spent Monday and Tuesday in bed sleeping and I had high temperature. On Wednesday I still felt dreadful and I couldn't move far from the toilet, everyone thought I had Malaria so off to the hospital again. I spoke to our Dutch doctor Roland who tested me for Malaria fortunately it was negative, he thought it was just a bad stomach virus. Thursday I felt fine again but still spending a lot of the time on the toilet (what a way to loose weight).
On Sunday there is a fair in Blantyre to raise money for the orphanages so we have been making all sorts of things to sell. We won't make a fortune but every little helps. The weather here is boiling, last night was unbelievable we could hardly sleep. Oh yes I forgot to tell you 2 nights ago we were in bed and at 4 o'clock all three of us woke up to experience a very small earthquake. (talk about never a dull moment) the whole house shook but nothing was damaged. Well time to stop. Great to hear all your reactions and thanks to those who phone glad to know people are thinking about us.
Until next time
Love Sue