Don’t use an axe to do embroidery.

(Malawian Proverb)

First Blog. Ha, I wonder if anyone will bother to read this. I don’t think blogs will ever catch on. When I set this one up, the hosting site wanted me to buy the premium version. One reason for paying for this is I’ll make more money. Well, don’t send me any money. If you want to support the work we’ll be doing, please support the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

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Nora and I have been getting ready for a year or so. Since mid September, we moved to Toronto – East York – as an interim step on our way to Malawi. In Toronto, we’ve been filling in time, mostly. We’ve walked around the neighbourhood to get some exercise. We’re trying to eat our way through our groceries so we don’t have too much left over to throw away. Our chief concern while in Woodstock was packing the right things to take with us and conversely, the right things to leave behind.

A highlight so far this fall was our trip to London on the Thanksgiving weekend. We visited Nora’s surgeon who pronounced Nora fit to travel. Her brain surgery was a complete success, as far as the surgeon could tell and she can engage in any activity she likes. We also visited with Nora’s sister and we were able to drop our car off in storage in Woodstock. Now we can look out of our window and see the traffic snarled along Eglinton Avenue and practice saying Schadenfreude. (Nora’s pronounciation is pretty good). I dream now about buying cars and having to get a car repaired, but it feels pretty good to wake up.

We are also studying some Chichewa, the most common local language in Malawi. We are following an APP that gives us a bunch of words each day to memorise. We also have an ebook that takes us through some useful phrases. I’m at 575 words, about. We’ll find out if I can come up with these words when needed.

Well, that was entry one. I still don’t think blogs will catch on. But, I thought that a lot of things wouldn’t catch on: SUVs, conservative politics, CB radios, lotteries, on line gambling, selfies, pet rocks, poutine, … Next I should talk about what Nora and I will be doing in Malawi. Or maybe I can write about our holiday in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe in the weeks leading up to the beginning of our assignment.