Moving Again

We like to keep life interesting, so we moved house just a few days before leaving on vacation.  It was just from one guest house at the SIL compound to another guest house about 500 feet away, so it was just a matter of carrying the items from one place to the other, and with the help of two friends, our house helper, and about six little boys (who all received a coke as a reward), it was accomplished within just a couple of hours.  Of course, Kevin and I spent the whole day before, day of, and days after packing and unpacking various boxes and finding spots for things, and were astonished at how much stuff we crammed into that little house.  This doesn’t even include the furniture!  We moved because the other house we lived in was right in the middle of the compound, and we were ready to be out of the “fishbowl” and on the edge of the compound.  This new house also has a hot water heater, so we can enjoy continuous hot showers, as well as a nicer stove, nicer furniture, and a nice mattress for the grownups.  All in one day, we moved house, cleaned up the old one, put up the Christmas tree, and decorated for Christmas.  Two days later, we packed for Malawi and then left.  Coming “home”, it is like we’ve lived here forever.  Which is good, and bad.  🙂  We are still waiting for the building permit for the renovations on the AIM cottage, and have hope that we can move in there by end of March.  It will be nice to unpack out things from the container on the AIM property after putting them in there in May of 2010.  I have books, dishes and photo albums that have practically disappeared from my memory.  Recently, we went through that container to get out the rest of the kids’ toys before they are too old to play with them, and found a horrifying sight:  a Ken doll with his face chewed off by a rat.  Knowing how much that would have upset me as a little girl, I told Kevin we should throw it out.  However, he thought the kids would love it, and indeed “Ratface” is now a popular toy among the little boys.  That event could bring on a whole post about little boys, but we’ll leave it for later.  – C