Life in Lilongwe

I just realized that I haven't posted since last Friday! How does time pass so quickly?
Anyways...last weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday we had a chill night in. I have started watching Buffy again (SO addictive) so we watched a few episodes.
On Saturday we got up to go for a walk. Jules had a coffee while Regan and I had some beauty treatments at the salon and then we did some grocery shopping at the market. Since we have been walking everywhere lately, this whole procedure took quite a bit of time, so luckily we ran into Heather, who offered to drive us home. Before we went home though, we found a new restaurant (well, new to me - Jules's colleague had taken him there before). The restaurant is called Amina's take-away and serves local fare. What was remarkable about it was the size of the servings...Jules and I had decided to split a t-bone and rice - when they brought out the t-bone, it was the size of the whole plate! And the rice, veggies and beans were on a separate plate! Between us, we couldn't finish it all and we were stuffed. The whole meal cost $4, so it was $2 each....I don't know how they can stay in business.
After I got home I had to bake some cookies and arrange some flowers to add to my Martha Stewart costume for the Alter-Ego party. Before we left in the morning, I had sewn my apron and looked up Martha's actual number to put on a black and white striped shirt. Once the cookies were ready, I helped braid Heather's hair so that it looked crimped for her 80s rock-chick costume and helped Jules get his hair to stand up for his Einstein costume. I haven't downloaded my pics yet, so check out Heather's blog if you want a preview.
Sunday was sweet - we relaxed by the pool at the Capital Hotel (where the water is NOT green), while Regan spent the day hanging out at ABC and playing frisbee.
This week has been busy so far - I was able to work from home for two days (Monday and Wednesday) to try and finish up some followup activities from my workshop. I also had a tripartite meeting (these are meetings with the partner organization (CADECOM), the volunteer and WUSC), where we discussed what I shoudl focus on during the remainder of my time here. Although the goals are still very ambitious, I am happy that I feel they are acheivable. Some of the items originally included in my workplan have been removed and we will inclued them when we write a position description for another volunteer so they will get done eventually.
Last night, Chambo with Head won our first game of the season (and it's only our second time out!!!), so that is super exciting - we look forward to a better season than last, with a couple new players and a great core team.
Tonight Jules was invited to a formal reception - I am a little nervous that it might be a little stuffy, but we will check it out and see what it's like.
No big plans for the weekend - apparently the Portuguese Club pool is scheduled to be repaired and treated this week, so maybe it will be a good place to go on the weekend - we will see.