Tile ma...what? Woodcarvers, and Friendly People

Greetings from Malawi!
In the few days since our last post, it seems like a lot has happened. We have now been here officially one week, which seems like forever. However, at the same time, we know that the rest of the month is going to fly by just as fast as this week has, which is a little scary and sad to me. I don't know if we've talked about how beautiful this country is or how kind the people are, because we're so surrounded by it. The people are amazingly hospitable, and seem very willing to share their culture with us.
Where we are located right now, in the North of Malawi, it is very mountainous and green, especially right now in the rainy season, but one of the night guards was telling me this morning that it's green like this even in the winter dry season. The hills are covered with little plots of vegetables, mostly maize, which is a staple food (primarily in the form of nsima).
Today Dr. Tan drove us to Lake Malawi, which allowed us to see a lot more of the countryside. We stopped along the way at a stretch of road where lots of woodcarvers had set up stands with their work for sale. Malawi is well known for its beautiful woodcarving, which we saw firsthand today in the form of tables and bowls and all kinds of items, all of which are handcarved and unique. The woodcarvers know Dr. Tan and the other Rafiki Overseas Staff, and they were very friendly, asking about other staff people here and telling us that they would give us better prices because we're with Rafiki. Between the three of us, we bought quite a bit, but we tried to spread out our business among all of the carvers, especially since this is a slow season for tourists and people to buy their things.
As we were leaving, we had to pass through a police gate, which is always interesting; I think the police are there to make sure your insurance and all your paperwork is up to date, but whenever they stop us, they have a conversation with us about where we're from and where we're going, and often they acknowledge everyone in the car, not just the driver. I noticed today that people outside the village often refer to Emily and myself as "sister" and Dr. Tan as "mama". For example, one of the policemen who stopped us looked at Emily and me and said, "How are you, sister?" which seems to me a little like a very friendly familiarity.

At the Rafiki Village on Thursday and Friday, we finished helping Dr. Tan do physicals on the rest of the children here, all of whom have grown tremendously in the past year--one boy has grown 22 cm in a year. A lot of our job at the clinic has been keeping the kids entertained and under control while they wait their turn. On Thursday, we had a group of five older boys to contend with (around 5 or 6 years old). They almost ran us ragged, trying to keep them out of places they shouldn't be and off of things they shouldn't climb on. (Later, we were informed that we had experienced the "fearsome five." Often, their mama will send them out of the cottage to pull weeds or sweep the porch, to keep them from bringing the house down) And yesterday, we had a group that was mainly girls, who, after getting sufficiently bored, decided they wanted to "fix our hair." This was fine because it kept them entertained, but slightly painful to us. All the kids seem to be really thriving in the village, with the attention, nutrition and education they are receiving. School starts for them on the 14 of January, and they are excited.
Tonight, we welcomed one new member to the Americans staying in the Rafiki Village: Susan arrived today in Lilongwe, and one of the couples here went down to pick her up and bring her. We had a big staff welcome dinner of tacos, and had a lot of fun tonight.
The children as well as the national staff have begun helping us learn Tumbuka. So far, we have gotten as far as "Muli Uli?" (How are you?) and "Tile makola kwa limwe" (I'm fine, how are you?), much to the entertainment of all the Tumbuka-speakers around us. It reminds me a bit of the episode of Friends where Joey learns to speak french. Example: small girl, slowly, with me repeating each syllable "Ti...le...ma...ko...la......kwa...lim...we" and then I say "Tile mahola kahime?" after which, the girl laughs and corrects me.
That's all for now, we'll be blogging again soon!