What a day! It started with Charlotte “wearing” baby James on her back. She wanted to know how that worked and felt. James seemed go along with it but had a look of confusion on his face during the whole thing that made us laugh.

Around 8:30 we left Olipa’s house and drove her oldest daughter, Doreen, to school. The other two school age kids had left earlier with their dad and baby James stayed home with his nanny. Doreen’s school is so sweet with lovely grounds and bright cheerful classrooms. We were charmed by the fence that looks like a row of colored pencils. We met her teachers and some of the other students before heading out to the craft market in Lilongwe.

The craft market is a U-shaped arrangement with small vendors side by side selling their wares. We started at one end and slowly made our way around to the other end. I was exhausted by the vendors insisting we “come in and just look” but whenever we did and showed any interest in anything the piece was practically bagged before we had a chance to say yes or no thank you. I’m just not good at this. I like to linger and consider a little bit and I get anxious when I’m pushed too much and too fast. However, I think we managed to choose some nice things that will be fun and useful “Moon Mall” items.

Exhausted by our “shop ’til you drop” adventure I suggested we find a nice quiet place to have lunch and relax for a while until it was time to go see our old pal Mary. Olipa took us to a pretty, outside restaurant with flowers everywhere and water features too. We sat and had lunch followed by cappuccino and ice cream. We decided we were on vacation for the afternoon and just sat talking and enjoying ourselves.

Next stop was a visit to Mary – our first MoonCatcher Coordinator in Malawi and a relative of Olipa.  We made our way to her house and found Mary out in the street waiting for us with her first child, Arnold, who is now four years old. What a delight to see her and meet both Arnold and her new baby girl, Cecilia, who is now seven months old. Mary is the same warm wonderful woman who came into our lives all those years ago. We sat and caught up talking about everything from children to jobs to the state of the world. She told us that during covid when she couldn’t get out and finances were tighter than usual, she relied on her MoonCatcher pads during her menses. I loved that.

Olipa made dinner there then drove us home again. After warm baths we collapsed into bed to write this.  Soon we will be on our way home.