October 5 - 12
This past week we have had a number of helpers in our school who were here on a short mission trips. A Canadian group had three ladies who enjoyed being with our children in the classrooms. A man from Canada was here seeing about work to be funded by his Foundation. His wife spent the week in the first grade with our new teacher, Gift. He really benefited from having her in the classroom. We had a group of 12 doctors and nurses here from the US. One of the spouses was not a doctor so she spent the week with us. It is always good to have volunteers in the school. All the children can benefit from their one on one attention, A minister from the Detroit area was here checking up with all the different church activities that his church supports. Barbara invited him to lunch with us last weekend. When I announced I was going to school to paint the repaired cubbies he volunteered to come along to help paint. We finished the job so quickly. We did have a lot of blue oil paint left on our hands, and the best I could offer to remedy the situation was to use the fingernail polish remover that Imre had left with me after my manicure last week. It worked pretty good!

Last Sunday was a fund raising day for the our CCAP Church. The service I started at 7.00am and continued for over 3 hours. Barbara was aware of how fund raising services went and planned to go into Lilongwe to church. I was glad when she asked if I would like to go to church with her and Happy, her 5 year old daughter. The Baptist church service lasted over 2 hours. They stood and sang praise songs for about 45 minutes and then had a lengthy Bible lesson. Barbara attends that church often and got to see several missionaries that she knew.
The most dramatic thing that has happened to me this past week is that I started on my very last can of hair spray. That’s disaster for thin, and fine hair and I am blessed with both. I was thrilled to find one can in the grocery store that had the words hair spray on it. I grabbed it eagerly and was even glad to pay the 795 kawachas ($5.31, I’m use to the $1.00 store brand) for it. The next morning I sprayed my hair and went to school. It looked OK but felt a bit damp. By the time I got home I looked a sight! Bits of greasy strips of hair going in all directions. It was a windy day, and I was glad for it was hot, but I looked a mess. When all else fails READ DIRECTIONS. I did, and it said that the spray was wonderful for styling with curling irons which I don’t have. So last night I sprayed my hair heavily with the spray and then started to put in curlers. Then the LIGHT DAWNED - that spray was really wonderful for the thick, curly hair of the natives. I had to use lots of shampoo two times to get the gunk out of my thin and fine hair. I used no hair spry today and I don’t look much better, but I am not greasy!sss