Driving

I am working on getting up some photos of our house, but here is a driving story in the mean time. Today I drove our beast of a car for the first time. There are a few reasons that I haven't driven it before now, mostly because we have been fairly busy, but also because it is huge and a manual, which I'm not used to driving. So when you consider those things and then consider the roads around here, it has been enough to make me want to give up driving altogether. 

Before we left Australia I did do some practising in a manual, but without having a manual car to practise with regularly, I never really gained a lot of confidence in my abilities. But here we are, in Malawi, with a manual car, a big, turbo diesel, manual car, which I need to get used to if I want to gain some independence. 

So today we went for a drive. We chose this afternoon because the roads are a bit quieter on the weekend and with our language lessons Monday to Friday, the weekends give us a bit more time. Ok so I may have only driven about 20km, but during that 20km I avoided hitting any of the 100+ people walking or riding on the road. I also avoided hitting any goats, chickens or other cars, so all in all quite a successful outing I think!

We did get a few weird looks as people saw Ben in the passenger seat, you don't really see a lot of women driving their husbands around. So although I am not quite ready to drive around by myself, I think I am almost looking forward to our next lesson.  

A trip to the nursery.

Today on our way back from the lake we stopped in at a nursery to get some plants for our new home. I had a few things in mind, but not sure what plants they would have, I was trying not to get too ahead of myself. I have been wanting to grow some aloe vera for a while, so that was first on my list, second was a nice plant for inside the house, thirdly some herbs, and fourthly, whatever else took my fancy. 

Walking through the nursery was great, they had a wonderful range and signs in English, which was very helpful. After spying a few herbs on the way in we walked up and down the rows of plants just seeing what else they had. Thankfully right about then someone came to help us and steered us in the right direction of the aloe vera, hooray- aloe vera: tick. 

Next a plant for inside, there was lots to choose from, so we ended up with a bamboo palm and another smaller plant for inside. Inside plants: tick. 

Thirdly was the herbs. We had seen mint, oregano and basil on the way in, but we were also guided to rosemary, chives, garlic and lavender. Herbs: tick. 

Next was whatever took my fancy, and I have to say I was really quite restrained and we only bought one more plant, a beautiful flowering plant, I think it is a type  of bougainvillea, but I gues we will find out. 

And now for the surpring part, all of this set us back 7,200 Kwacha! A whole $20! There are definitely some things more expensive in Malawi, but I'm happy to discover plants are not one of them, and we all know what that means, more trips to the nursery for me!!

1 month In

It has been 1 whole month since we left Perth, and I can't believe how much stuff we have done! We have spent nearly 10 hours in airports, 15 hours flying, we have been in 3 countries and stayed in 5 different houses, and that is just the start!!

We have also had some really good and some really tough times, but we are so grateful that we have an amazing God, who knows it all, and is taking care of us. 

The girls have been amazing, doing so well with all our moving around and uncertainty. They are loving playing with all the other kids, and getting braver everyday with all their new aunties and uncles. 

At the moment we are spending some time with our team, which has been so wonderful, and this weekend we are getting ready to move into our house in Malawi while we learn language and culture before moving to Mozambique, so look out for some pictures soon. 

A Great Birthday!!

Well last week it was my birthday, that is right, I have now turned the big 24, and yes, only 1 more year before I can rent a car haha. For my birthday Ben kept everything very hush hush, and although I teased him about getting me a puppy (a very impractical gift) he got me something both lovely and practical, a bike. But he also got to go with the bike, helmets for me and Elizabeth, a bike rack for the car and fitted the back of his bike rack with a seat for Elizabeth, which she just loves. And aside from a short ride to test out my wonderful present we had a lovely restful day at home with lots of family time after our time away at the pastors conference without Elizabeth, yes you read right, we left our little angel with my parents and had a few nights by ourselves at the conference. So my birthday came just in time and we had a great day playing and resting together. And of course no Good birthday is complete without an ice-cream cake, and it was so good!!

Elizabeth loving her bike seat

My beautiful bike, we have called her Tiffany because of the colour.

The yummy ice-cream cake Ben made me. 

Playing Outside

Elizabeth loves being outside, like really, she LOVES being outside. She cries and throws little tantrums when it is time to come inside and she spends a large amount of her time inside going to the back door and looking out, waiting for us to say yes you can go play out the back, but really how can we deny her when she looks so happy...

Spoilt or what...

How lucky am I, 2 mornings in a row I have been blessed with breakfast in bed! And just incase you can't make out the picture, that is a warm banana muffin, a hot milo and a piece of mars bar slice, so I have to say, spoilt or what! What an amazing husband I have.

C c c cold!!!!

Ok, so I know it is only April, and I know that some of you may be shocked to read that we have put our winter quilt on the bed, but even more exciting than that, our electric blanket has also made it onto the bed! I know, I know, it's not that cold, and I would tend to agree, but my cold little toes definitely disagree! And just so you get a better idea, as I am writing this, it is 11 degrees, which is definitely cooler than last week, so the only thing that comes after winter bedding... lighting the fire, bring on winter!