The Mirror

How frequently do you glance at a mirror? Maybe even stop for some admiring? What's on the other side? Probably a wall. Unless you have some vendetta against your roommate, plowing through the wall just sounds like a bad idea. How many times a day do you stop in front of a glass door and look at the reflection? How many of those times do you think, "If only I could see what is right behind me"? You may say that the easiest way is to simply turn around. But that's a different perspective and a different focal distance than looking in the reflection. Here, mirrors are rare. Even seeing a reflection in the window happens less often because screens, bars, and dirt tend to impede the view. But a walking through a door is easier than a wall. Besides, it's progress in some direction. That has been this week. Progress.

Over the last couple weeks, I have worked mostly on one project, and it helps to show the fluidity (pun definitely intended but you probably don't understand yet) of life. The Malamulo Water Board (water utility) is in charge of watering the whole Malamulo compound and essentially all the housing around it. Water gets pumped all over the place and people complain when it doesn't arrive. However, nobody complains that the water board has no money. The system in place operates something like this.

1) Water meters are read to determine usage

2) Institutions are informed how much each employee owes for water

3) Institutions deduct water bill from employees' paychecks

4.a) Institutions pay water board for employees usage as well as institutional usage

4.b) Institutions pocket money as additional income instead of paying the utility

Step 4 is split because both 4.a and 4.b occur. Because of this problem, the Water Board is implementing a new billing system that bills the person directly. Another problem is that people here move far more frequently. If you aren't in the loop (which I am not), then you can never keep up with who moved to where, when, and how much water they used before they moved. This makes accounting a nightmare. I have spent the majority of the week working on this system. The software was written for American utilities, where the delinquency rate is much lower, as are many other things. This week, work has been more of a puzzle than anything. The good news is that the software is up and running!

Potluck last Sabbath! We officially welcomed the Browns, Elisa's brother Randy and his family Nicole, Nathan, Ryan, and Trevor, with a Mexican theme. Could I have been more thrilled? I believe no. Attendance was over 40 and dessert was outstanding.

And now back to my glass door discussion. Progress. Progress this week was frustratingly slow, the weather grossly humid, the internet's speed made work time-consuming and mostly unproductive (which is why this update is about a week late). Yet in spite of all these things, the week could hardly have been better. It may have felt 15 days long, but those 15 days were all quite meaningful days. I got to do some good reviewing, refreshing, and recalibrating of life. What did I learn? Not very much actually. But I did get to somewhat relive the last few weeks in the course of just a few days. Here is a slideshow that covers about the first month here. The first picture is in Central Malawi, the next 5 are at Mwami Adventist Hospital in Southeast Zambia, and the rest are from here in Southern Malawi.

Just some notes on the pictures. The two kids hugging in one picture are Kaiza and Benson, who are both 3. The other two children present in the slideshow are Andrew, who is 2, and Hudson, who turned 1 just this week. Kaiza and Andrew are Wes and Chrislyn's kids. Benson and Hudson are Ryan and Sharlene's kids. Ryan and Sharlene are the blond couple. Chrislyn has dark hair and I don't believe Wes made an appearance in the show.