(Ann, Kate, Lillian and Amy at Senga Bay)

Life continues to remain interesting. First, one of my dear friends from Austin, Tina Applin, passed through Lilongwe as part of her 45-day overland adventure tour. In between searching for rare mountain gorillas in Rwanda, discovering the beauty of the Serengeti, awing the brilliance of the Ngorongoro Crater, witnessing the magic of Victoria Falls, etc., etc., etc., Tina’s enormous truck stopped in Lilongwe to restock supplies! I took advantage of their two-hour delay and met her at the Shoprite parking lot (only the finest of tours for Tina in Malawi). Despite the visit being so short, I absolutely loved spending time with her!

(Tina en route to Zambia)

I took her by my house where we cooked up some Tex-Mex (thanks to my consumable shipment). We hung out on my back patio while desperately trying to catch up on each other’s lives! I was sad to say good-bye yet grateful to have had the opportunity to see her.

Work is moving right along. We finally submitted our COP at 5pm on Friday! And I spent a good portion of the week following up on discussions stemming from the Standards Workshop. In fact, it just so happened that there was the 6th International Conference on Open Access to ICT (information communication technology) for Social Economic Development in Lilongwe.

I snuck into the first day of the workshop and made some fabulous contacts with organizations currently forging public/private partnerships to address ICT as a tool to bring developmental change to Malawi. By collaborating and utilizing emerging networks being developed for other government sectors, the more likely the chances we have at succeeding. After all, taking on the entire health information infrastructure is no easy task!

(Running on the beach)

On Thursday, we continued to celebrate Obama’s victory at a full moon party. I still marvel at the amount of interest that this Presidential campaign has generated – not just from Americans and Africans, but from all persons around the globe. Malawi has approximately 50 embassies in-country, ranging from Iceland to China to Japan to Ireland to Germany to Belgium to France, etc. It doesn’t matter where someone originates, he or she is extremely knowledgeable of the issues at hand. Ironically, I was wondering just how many Americans are up on politics in other parts of the globe?

(Roberto, Christine, Emily and Andrew at the Full Moon/Obama Victory Party)

And this weekend was somewhat indicative of what is now becoming my weekly routine. Friday night was spent with friends at a dinner party, followed by an early morning run on Saturday (a small group gets together at 6am for a long run and brunch). After the run, I spent a few hours working and then went to the lake mid-afternoon.

Kate, Ann, Lillian and I chilled out at the A-frame, cooked some fish and played a mean game of Scrabble. Finally, Sunday is truly a day of rest…

(Alisha and Amy at Ewa’s birthday party on Friday night)

Am getting ready to head to Mozambique for Thanksgiving to meet up with Paula and Brett! We are heading to Tofo Beach to go diving with the whale sharks – am getting very excited.

(Amy and Kamal at Full Moon Party)

Please continue to keep in touch! And I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by friends and family!

(Lillian – Kate’s friend visiting from DC)

Much love,
Amy