Preparing to go

Tomorrow is my last day at work, and therefore my last chance to post before heading back to the U.S. I thought I'd just update you on the preparations to go.

But first, some sad news. The man who has been making his living by jumping off the M1 bridge into the Lilongwe river has reportedly died. The water levels have dropped a lot in the last couple of weeks, after some beautiful sunny weather, but our friend the daredevil was keeping up his act - one dive for 100 Kwacha (about 75 cents). He'd ditched the ladies one-piece in favor of a pair of shorts tied around his waist with rope, but you could still catch him on most days, surrounded by a crowd of people in excitement and disbelief at his daring. Anyway, he took one dive too many, I guess. Cracked his head on a rock and drowned in the river. I was surprised at how sad this news made me. Just another case of how messed up things are in Malawi sometimes.

We are not really ready to go, of course. I have done well in wrapping up at work, although even tomorrow I will still be out on the move, heading to Salima, about an hour away, for a national nutrition meeting. We have found a buyer for our car and will be handing it over on Saturday. We are slowly getting packed up, and eating up the food in the fridge.

Today was my last doctor's prenatal appointment in Malawi. Everything still looks good and normal, so I'm all set to fly on Sunday. We got a good look at the baby's face today, and he looks like a monkey. So he takes after his father.