HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I know this is long overdue, yes, we have made it safely to malawi. We are 2 weeks away from the end of training which has had its share of ups and downs.

Malawi is Magical. We have just returned from visiting our site for the next 2 years. We are in a village called Nambuma. It is about an hour north of the capital city Lilongwe. (almost 2 hours by the way of these horrible machines they call mini-buses.) It is an area that is being developed by the Bill Clinton Foundation. Our school is very new and beautiful. We have a library that has some books but could always use more and a science lab. They are hoping to have electricty and running water by the time the term starts mid-December.

Our house is also beautiful. It is bigger than most of the apartments we lived in Reedsburg or Madison. There will be plenty of room for visitors! We may have electricity also but we are so used to living without it neither of us are terribly excited. We met many people in our village and are looking forward to working with many of them. We already have so many ideas for projects and Kris has already mapped out the tree nursery for the backyard. We also met the local vet and he has said that he will find two puppies for us to have when we return in December!

Things are really going well here, the people in our training group have been wonderful, we get along too well I think. The girls in my village made me an Olive Garden style dinner as a birthday surprise and even baked a cake. My friend Esther has made it her goal of training to master the art of baking with two fires and we are enjoying all of the bread and cinnamon rolls.

If you would like to send us more things, a great idea is spices. Although we love the food here we would also love to share some american dishes with our neighbors at site. Any pens, notebooks, any little things you think we may miss would be much appreciated!

We miss you all, but are glad we are here to not see the Packers end this way!

I look forward to Badger basketball updates. You should be able to text Kris or I now. Our parents have our phone numbers so please try to reach them! We would love to chat!

I am not sure when i will have internet again, so please keep writing!! and remember.. if you send anything, it gets here fastest by writing airmail, par avion and some religious quotes!

MISS YOU ALL!