March...And most of February

Alright, so I realise that I haven't posted anything on here for a fair while. This is largely due to me finding emails more interesting than my blog so they take priority when I have limited internet surfing time!

Since I last wrote nothing particularly dramatic has happened other than I have turned 19 (W00p!). My birthday was wonderful. I woke up for my 7am lesson to a treasure hunt around our house which ended up at school in my desk drawer which was full of flipflops, sweets and cards from Nancy and one that lots of the teachers had signed.

Flipflops were definitely an excellent present as mine had broken the week before while on the way back to our backpackers in Blantyre. Walking with one shoe on up the road trying to carry a bag full of four and washing powder caused much staring but now I have some shiny new ones. I think I'm going to invest in a spare pair of shoes lest this tragedy ever occur again and I am left shoeless with no upcoming birthday to replace them.

Pre-birthday Nancy and I had done a mega food shop as a sort of birthday present. We bought mayonnaise, gherkins, hot chocolate, sausages, jelly. We managed to find both cream cheese AND brie which was amazing. My birthday food was a highlight and Nancy and Michelle made me lovely cupcakes. All in all it was a wonderful day and a birthday that I'm sure never to forget. I also had a substantial amount of post which is still coming in slowly but surely. Thank you to everyone who has sent something, even if it hasn't arrived yet - I have faith that Malawi may be unreliable when it comes to punctuality but that eventually most things reach their destination.

Our project is going really well at the moment. The village drama group is pretty much ready to perform and rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet are in full swing. Despite losing two members of our cast without warning when they transferred to other schools, we have some fine actors and some classic comedy characters. I feel that most of the funny stories are not going to translate onto here but there will be plenty to tell and act once I am back. Suffice to say that some of these kids are crazy and so, so funny. Nancy and I have been in tears on too many occasions to mention.

Lessons are also going well, students are gradually beginning to understand that I don't really want them to sleep in my lessons. I have taken to knocking on their desk if they are sleeping. Usually this gets them to wake up and start working, however reluctantly. One boy however managed to render me incapable of response when I knocked on his desk and asked him to wake up to which he replied, "Five more minutes..." Unsure of what to say to this I just wandered over to help some other people. Sure enough, five minutes later Joseph jerked up, eyes wide awake, stretched a little and got out his book. It was very surreal and I had to try hard not to laugh. I need to keep up my 'Miss Taylor' appearance, not that they take any notice!

At the moment Nadia from Project Trust is here and is coming to Nsanje to check out our project. It's very exciting having someone from home over here. Nancy's parents come in less than a month which is incredibly exciting. I can't believe how time has flown. Our half-way mark was on 7th March and I have a strong feeling that the second half is going to fly by!

Haven't got much time now but I promise to get a proper blog post up and running soon!

Missing everyone lots, but I'm not coming home for a little while!
C xxxx