Thanksgiving, Eastons birthday and more....

There has been so much happening it is hard to know where to begin.  We have celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving and Eastons birthday, our cargo has arrived and so has our friend Sarah, Easton was in his first school assembly and he met Santa.  Gracie has learned to crawl and Easton has learned the joy of going to the bathroom outside.  I will include some of our favorite pictures throughout. 

Looking at all the candy.

I know that many of you have seen our facebook posts, so you have seen photos and heard some of these stories, but I thought I would add them again.  Halloween was fun.  Nobody in Africa really celebrates Halloween, and there aren't really pumpkin patches so instead we had the kids pick out a bunch of bananas from the yard.  We then dressed them in their costco costumes that we brought with us and took them around the school where all the teachers lived.  His treats were very African style.  He got a coconut, a couple bananas, a mango, a few pieces of candy and a Cadbury top deck chocolate bar.  They were adorable and Easton loved it.

It was so hot, we felt bad keeping her in the costume.
Easton refused to take his off.

Dad calls her "June Bug" now.

For Thanksgiving this year we had about 15 of our good friends over for a dinner. There were Americans, Scots, Dutch, and Zimbabweans, but it was a very American Thanksgiving.  We were able to have dinner outside and even had pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

Easton celebrated his 3^rd birthday with his friends and a bouncy castle with a slide into a pool.  The bouncy castle was great, but it was very near a disaster.  In the morning we had no power to run the fan and we had no water for them to slide into the pool.  I had to drive to the school and fill large buckets of water and drive them down or bumpy driveway to fill the pool.  Most of the water was spilt in the back of our car, and now our car smells horrible. But Easton and his friends had a blast.  Then after his nap, I took him to his favorite ice cream place called Gelato Carnival.  They also have a train and a little ferris wheel that kids can ride.  Needless to say he had a great birthday.

The bouncy castle was a hit.  He is jumping with his
friends, Jen and Mustafa
He loved his cupcakes.

He had to hand them out before he could eat one.

Easton is continuing to love school.  He has a number of good friends and everyday when I pick him up he runs and gives me a huge hug, which is awesome.  Especially because if he sees me around at school, he acts like he is to cool for school, even as his friends frantically wave at me and point me out to him. Each class in the school puts on an assembly in front of the school and their families and Easton was in his first assembly, but the Nursery class only performs there assembly in front of the parents.   He has been learning to sing Christmas songs which is awesome because now he walks around the house singing about Father Christmas.  Father Christmas is what the British call Santa Claus for all my American friends.  He was able to meet Father Christmas this year as well.  Last year he was terrified of Santa and would cry when you tried to take him near him, so it was a big step getting a picture with him this year.

 He was the star for the top of the Christmas tree.

If you look closely you can see the Movember Moustache.

Today is the last day of school before we take our Christmas Vacation.  Yes, that is correct we get 4 weeks of school off.  We are excited to finish turning our house into more of a home and doing some fun trips with the kids.  We will go do another safari with Easton and we will spend New Years at the lake.  Christmas is going to be at home with our little family, which is going to be hard to be away from extended families, but it will be good watching Eastons first Christmas where he really understands whats happening.

Sorry that it has been so long for those of you who are reading this.  We have been busy these past few weeks trying to get all settled in.

It looks like Wood Inc. is all sorted as they say here.  We are now running a small business just to take care of our family.  Everson is our new gardener.  His mother is Annie who used to be Eastons nanny.  He is a very nice man and he has been busy cleaning up our yard, a key job he has is running down into the village to buy me cokes I am out.  He does that because we still don’t have a car, which is a whole nother story.  Our cook is a man named John.  He was a cook for 20 years at the university here in Malawi.  He thinks we are crazy about half the time for the way that we want him to cook.  But Easton loves his cooking.  He has started to eat so much food since our return to Malawi.  We now realize that Easton just didn’t like the ethnic American food we were trying to feed him.  Dorothy is Gracie’s nanny.  She is a very sweet lady, she was a nanny for another teacher for like 16 years.  But their kids were all grown so she was looking for another job as a nanny.  Easton was a little hesitant at first but now he loves seeing her after school.  We also have a guard at our house, but he technically works for a security company and we are often getting new guards.

(Easton and Gracie playing with Dorothy)

We are starting now feel more settled into life back in Malawi.  We are learning to live with frequent water shortages and frequent power cuts.  Easton is quickly learning about these things.  The first few times the power went out he would get scared in the sudden darkness.  But now he just announces that there is no power and says that he needs a candle.  We are still looking for the right car to buy.  There isn’t used car lots or craigslist, so you need to look in the newspaper or look for signs on cars.  Not having a car is difficult here.  We have to rely on people to give us rides to go shopping, this isn’t a quick trip because you often have to go to four different grocery stores to get the best prices and to get everything you need.  So it becomes an all afternoon event.  We have to walk back and forth to school, on most days we get rides, but when we don’t it is a long .63 mile walk. 

Easton has been begging us to take him to Africa to see the animals.  When you try to tell him that he lives in Africa he says “no I live in Malawi.”  So this weekend we took him to a game park called Majete.  It was a great day trip with friends.  We got to see at least 20 elephants, a number of Sable, Impala, Kudu, Warthogs, Baboons, and Hippos.  That night Easton fell asleep at 5:15 on my lap and slept for 12 hours so I think he enjoyed it.  There is so much more to talk about, I will try to update soon I promise.

Easton and Dad looking at Elephants from a hide in the trees.  Gracie in her Giraffe print top.  You can see the elephants in the background.

First First Day of School

It has been a hectic first few weeks here in Malawi, we had no car, no phones, no bank account, no water during the day, and no electricity for a few full days.  So it was a challenging first few weeks.  Luckily we have some great friends who have driven us around and cooked us meals and taken us shopping.  But things are getting better, we have a bank account (so we can buy groceries), we have a satellite dish (so Easton gets to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and I get to watch ESPN), we have a cell phone  (so feel free to give us a call) and we are starting to remember how to live with no water or power.

The most exciting thing that has happened is that Easton had his first ever first day of school.  He was so excited to start school.  He is in the pre-nursery class at our school.  We went to the school during the week before and he was excited because of all the cool things that the school has.  There is a little farm with two horses, two donkeys, chickens, geese, a turkey, rabbits, guinea pigs, and a camel.  There are also monkeys that run around the school and there is a large play castle.  Easton loves school.  His teacher said his favorite friend is a little Malawian girl, which is no surprise to us, because he loves girls!  Starting school also means no more diapers…which means Lindsay had to go pick him up a couple pairs of the tiniest boxer briefs you’ve ever seen. So far, after one day, no accidents! (It helps that they take the kids to the toilet every half hour!) He has to wake up at 5:30 to get ready for school, so he has been going to bed at 6:30.  But he loves school, which is great.

 (Easton at School)

Lindsay and I finished our first week of school. This means only 5 weeks left until we get our week-long holiday.  Lindsay is really enjoying her class and working with a teaching partner has been great.  We are enjoying the new school, and it has been great to have so many familiar faces and we have felt very welcomed.  Each morning Easton hangs out in Lindsay’s class until school starts at 7 and then after school, I run down to his class and pick him up at noon.  I am busy learning the roughly 400 names of kids who I will teach in PE.  This is made even more difficult with names like Abijit, Tayyibah, Poojitha, Gerismos, and Wezi. And that’s just in Lindsay’s class.  The biggest challenge so far has been leaving Gracie at home.  She has become a mommas girl.  We think that we have a good nanny now, but it is hard for anyone to be as good as Annie(Eastons nanny the first time around).

(Easton pointing out the bananas in the tree)

It has been fun coming back to so many familiar things about Malawi.  Some things have changed though. Here are a few of my favorites.  You can now get Reese’s at one store, you can buy real ice cream at another, and the speed of the internet has improved.  But my favorite is that I am in the First Club at FMB bank.  Before when we were in Malawi, going to the bank meant standing in lines for long periods of time. We are talking 30-40 minutes minimum.  But now I get to go into a side room with A/C, leather seats, a flat screen, and there is a fridge with waters and Cokes.

It has been a busy week, so I haven’t had time to type as much as I would like to.  There is so much more to talk about.  But I wanted to get these pictures of Easton at school out to everybody.  I hope you are doing well. We’d love to hear from you, too!

The adventure begins

This is how we had to get around town the first few days.  Easton loved it.  Lindsay hated it.  Don't tell my Dad.

Our new Malawi adventure has begun.  It has been exhausting and challenging at times, but Lindsay and I have both agreed that we definitely feel at home here in Malawi.  It has been fun to see “Malawi” friends, which has helped us with missing our American friends. We have only been here a few days but it seems like we have been away from home for much longer.  Maybe that’s because of all the flights and jet lag and the fact that Easton and Gracie have both been popping up wide awake at 4:30. 

The journey here was exhausting.  We arrived at the airport 2and a half hours early.  We managed to unload all 8 of  our 50 pound bags, 3 carry ons, 2 diaper bags, 2 car seats, a stroller, and a purse and get them to the check in counter.  Thankfully we had the help of the Voorhees (they are an amazing couple in so many ways).  We knew we were in for a long trip when we spent the next hour and a half checking in.  It is a long story, but instead of being able to relax and have dinner, we were in a rush to get to our gate on time.  Which isn’t easy when you have two kids and a car seat strapped to one of your carry ons and eight dollars in quarters in your pocket. Why did I have eight dollars in quarters in my pocket?  But we got on the plane and thought how great it was going to be to fly the red eye flight because both the kids would sleep the 5 hours to New York and we would get there nice and rested. Nope. Easton was excited to have a TV in front of him, so he only ended up sleeping the last hour or so and it turns out Gracie doesn’t really enjoy sleeping on planes. 

Easton was excited to ride the moving sidewalk in the airport. The first couple times he wanted to hold our hands when he got on. He was finally brave enough to step onto it by himself, but his courage was only enough for one step. He put that first foot on but got nervous. The problem was that first foot was now speeding away from him and he was quickly doing the splits and almost went down, until Lindsay grabbed his hand and helped him out.  After eating a lovely breakfast at McDonalds, which doesn’t settle real well at 4AM we started heading to our gate.  Lindsay rushed ahead to try and see if we could change our seats because once we looked at our tickets we realized we weren’t sitting together.  As Easton and I approached another moving sidewalk, he said he wanted to do it by himself again.  I want to be an encouraging parent, you know get back on that horse.  So I tell him “go for it.” But let me set the scene.  I have a 30 pound pack on my back, I have a 30 pound diaper bag slung across my chest, I am pulling a 30 pound carryon bag with a 30 pound car seat strapped awkwardly to the handle and I am pushing a 30 pound stroller. Easton is trying to work up the courage to jump on this fast moving sidewalk as a crowd of grumpy New York travellers pack in behind us.  He finally jumps on, but gets nervous and reaches back for me.  I lean out and grab his hand but his feet are speeding away, I try and get on but the stroller wheel gets stuck and so I let go of Easton.  He tries to grab the glass wall, which is stationery and so is feet leave him again and he loses his balance and his face bounces off the sidewalk.  He starts crying as he zips away from me.  I am frantically trying to push this stroller on to the sidewalk while trying to pull the carry on behind, this all difficult to do while people are giving you judgemental looks.  It probably didn’t help that I was laughing. 

But we got on the plane.  Lindsay sat one row in front of me and across the aisle.  Easton loved watching movies and slept occasionally.  Gracie loved neither of these things. I was just glad that I was the one watching Easton and Lindsay had Gracie.  By the end of the flight Lindsay and Gracie were exhausted and I was tired of watching movies.  When breakfast came, I put both Easton and I’s meals on my little tray table and the two orange juices. I was impressed I got them all on my tray.  I decided to be a good husband and hold Gracie so that Lindsay could enjoy her delicious airline food while it was still warm.  I entertained Gracie in the 8 inches of space between my face and the seat in front of me, that lasted for all of 10 minutes, before she was tired of that.  Gracie starts flailing around and shouting angrily for her mother and then gives Eastons orange juice a nice karate kick directly into my lap.  This is at the exact same time as the stewardess shows up with her little cart to take away all the trash, so I can’t pass Gracie back to Lindsay as the orange juice empties itself into my lap, the guy across the aisle sees my problems and takes Gracie and passes her over the seat to Lindsay.  An hour later we landed in Johannesburg.

We rushed through the Johannesburg airport and made it just in time for final boarding onto our flight to Malawi.  I would tell you about that flight, but Easton and I fell asleep the minute we sat down and woke up when the plane landed.  Lindsay was once again by herself with Gracie.  We landed in Malawi and collected all 8 of our bags, we were excited that they had all made it, we were also excited to see our friends Dan and Merin who helped carry all of our luggage outside.  The headmaster of our new school was waiting there for us, we tossed our luggage in back and jumped in his truck. We put Gracie on our lap because that’s how they do it in Africa and our new adventure in Malawi has begun.  I will post a new entry soon to let you know how we are settling in. Take care and keep sending us messages.  We love hearing from you.

Departure Date August 23rd

The Wood family is moving back to Malawi.  This will be the best place to follow our little family and hear all the adventures we have over the next few years.  We will try to keep it entertaining and at least a little funny.