What to do, what to do? At least the power is on!
Monthly Archives: August 2017
For the Love of Toast
We have British outlets and plugs here in Malawi, leftovers from the days when Malawi/Nyasaland was a British Protectorate country. They're big and chunky, but generally work well.
The tricky part is that we live closer to South Africa than England, so most electronics come to Malawi with South African plugs: two round prongs instead of three rectangles. They fit, but it takes a little work. You have to use a small object, say a key, to depress the safety button in the top hole so that the bottom two holes will open for the South African plug to go in the outlet. 
Don't let your children see this picture! Yes, I'm putting my keys in the outlet! But it's ok. The outlets here are switched, as in the red button next to my finger can switch the outlet off and on. And the hole my key is in is the ground, so there's no power going to that hole anyway, even if the outlet is switched on. Honestly, it took me a couple years before I was willing to do this with keys – I would always run and find a chopstick… just in case!
So with all the issues with South African plugs in British outlets, we really like it when we can get a good appliance that has a British plug. For instance, a toaster. We have had an American toaster oven for years. I love it. But, we do have to run it on a transformer here, and it only toasts 2 pieces of bread at a time. That's ok until you have more than 2 people in your toast-loving family. Enter the British toaster. 
Isn't she a beauty? Well, she is to me! When I was getting ready to go to England in May to hike Hadrian's Wall, Matt and I realized that this was our chance to get appliances with British plugs – from England! So Matt bought this beautiful red toaster, and a new hair dryer, on Amazon UK and sent them to a "parcel pick-up" (American: locker) location. After the hike, I found the parcel pick-up location near Kings Cross Station, tossed my new toaster and hairdryer in a duffel bag, and took the Underground to Heathrow to fly home. 
This pic was proof to my family that I had the toaster and was on my way home. And the extra effort has been worth it. Did I mention that we are a toast-loving family?!
Adventuring in Town
Before we had kids, Matt and I did a lot of adventuring in Lilongwe and were really familiar with what was available and where to find things in town. We even adventured in town when we had only Abigail. But it's been 4 years since we really looked around the older part of town and could say we really knew what was there. So we did it today! 
We did need a few things, so headed first to Select & Save, an old favorite. This place is fascinating! It's very well organized, but there are parts and pieces, and tubes, and generators, and metal sheets, and 6 types of roofing nails, and 85 different types of hammers… EVERYWHERE in this store! Matt found the lock he needed, and I found the little screw I needed to fix my old Singer sewing machine. 
We continued through town as the streets started to fill with the morning crowd. This is seriously such an interesting part of town. I forget how much I enjoy exploring, looking for that gem in the dusty streets and crowds of people. You never know what you will find! Case in point:
Who wouldn't want to sit comfortably in the grace of God?!? And who, especially the mother of two little girls, wouldn't love a room full of ribbons?!?
The town is bustling, but many of the stores are the same as they have been for years. It was nice to know that some things stay the same, even if they have a fresh coat of paint. 
Before we headed home, we had one more piece of adventuring to do. We had heard of a new place called Round and Square, and were curious about a place that was advertised as a little coffee shop that promoted art and local artisans… in a sketchier part of town. We were pleasantly surprised to find a very nice coffee shop, filled with books on art, design, cooking, gardening, etc. 
Such a cute place! We really enjoyed it, and are hoping it stays in business for a long time! I'm already planning my next visit there!
As we drove home, Matt commented "It's places like that that keep us exploring." And he's right. Every once in a while, you do find a gem. Maybe the one you've been looking for, maybe an unexpected one. But you have to be out there to find it!
Drinking Water
Remember summer days of drinking straight out of the garden hose? Well, we don't do that here in Malawi! We have a great water filter for our drinking water and for years we only filtered. However, about 9 months ago the city stopped treating the water for a period of time and we started researching the boil and filter option.
Ugh. Boil water every day? Not me, not in my house. I don't want to pay more for gas to boil 20 liters of water every day, and I REALLY don't want to heat up my house every day with 2 huge pots of boiling water! This is Africa, in the tropics, we're already hot enough! I'll just clean those filters again, and we should be fine! 
But then I learned the difference between how to get bacteria out of your water and how to get viruses out of your water. Our Katadyn Gravidyn filters remove something like 99.95% of all chemicals and bacteria from the water. But viruses are so small they just go straight through the filters. Boiling kills viruses. Done. End of discussion. I became a firm believer in boiling AND filtering water that day! I'm not even going to get into the details of the sewer pipe that leaked into the water main of the neighborhood just north of us… Boil and Filter is my new mantra! 
So we fill up our two 10L pots with tap water almost every evening and bring them to a boil (which takes about exactly 67 minutes). We crack the lids and let them cool overnight, and in the morning we pour the cooled, virus-free water into the top part of our two filters. Over the next couple hours, the water works its way through the filters and stores in the bottom of the unit for easy access. Is it a process? Yes. Do we have fewer tummy bugs now? Actually, yes. Do I carry the water on my head. Um, yes… a 10L pot of water is too heavy to carry in front of me without spilling, so I lift it up on top of my head to carry it across the kitchen. Sorry, no selfies of that – I'm not that coordinated! 
And that's how we get drinking water here in Lilongwe! We drink it, cook with it, and wash fruits and veggies in it. I'm thankful for the modern technology of such great filters, and for the ancient technology of fire that now rounds out our water treatment process. I do think that all that work makes the water taste just a little bit sweeter!
Church Family
We had a church picnic yesterday!
This was the second time during the school break that we got to spend a Sunday afternoon with our church family, picnicking on the lawn.
It takes a lot of hot dogs to feed this crew, so we've learned a few tricks. Did you know you can cook 60-70 hot dogs in a crockpot? The ones on the edges even get a nice sear!
I brought some bunting for a festive look, but needed a little help to tie it up. You never know when your husband's tree climbing skills will come in handy! 
It's always good to spend time with church family, but this day was especially sweet. Just before the picnic, one of our elders, Gideon Manda, had preached on the unity of the body of Christ from Ephesians 4:4-6. For such a diverse church, this was an important reminder, and made our fellowship time a reminder of our unity!
As I looked around at the people on the lawn at lunch, I thought about how some of them are more comfortable eating their lunch with forks and spoons, some with chopsticks, and some with their bare hands. It's the times when we focus on those differences that we miss the beauty and eternality of the unity Scripture says we have as the body of Christ. One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. 
This picnic was just a foretaste of heaven, when people of every tongue, tribe, and nation will join together to worship the Lord!
Cheap Lunch
At $1.23/pound, crocodile tail is the cheapest meat in town. We usually eat more beef, chicken, fish, and pork, but every once in a while we have crocodile. Like when my 6 year old asks for it.
And in case you have the idea that we go hunt crocodile, skin it, and eat it, I'm sorry to disappoint you. We buy it at the grocery store!
There aren't a lot of recipe blogs that tell you how to cook crocodile. A few years ago I found a few adventurous cooks who gave some great pointers and came away with this: crocodile is like pork. Cook it quick and fruity. So until today I've done just that. Barely defrost, cover in fruit chutney, and fry in a skillet or grill it.
Today, I decided to do a quick sear and finish it in the oven. Power is off (no defrosting), and we don't have much chutney. So, a little experimenting.
This shot give you a good idea of the cross-section of the bone in crocodile tail, as well as the rings of fat that run through the meat sections.
The verdict:
It passes the 3-year-old test! We decided it is good with mustard, and really great with homemade barbecue sauce!
My favorite part? The timer. Seriously. My hands were full with 9 crocodile steaks and two kiddos, so I told Siri to set a timer for me:
Just another lunch in Lilongwe!
Anti Malaria… Tea
After Matt's recent bout with malaria, we are very interested in never getting malaria again, any of us. However, this box of tea is probably not what we are looking for. Everyone just drinks 3 cups a day! Oh wait, disclaimer says that children and pregnant/nursing mothers can't have it. It also says something to the effect that you also have to take malaria meds for it to be effective. Um, so you still have to take the meds? And what non-effective ingredients are in it that kids and moms can't have?!? Pass. I'm good with just a picture of this one!
Here We Go Again!
Yep, we’re back at it! After a year of hiatus, we’re bringing the blog back to life.
If there’s anything you’d like to know about life on the mission field, Malawi, or the Floreen family, let me know in the comments and we’ll get this thing rollin’!