Thanksgiving

Rob and I hiked up to Lukwe to meet our buddies Renee and Trason for Thanksgiving.  Steak and wine!!!  Small, intimate, lots of thankful dinner toasts, took some naps.  Just a lovely time.

What I was thankful for on Thanksgiving, after a few glasses of wine:

Loving parents

Health and the ability to climb the mountain we’d climbed to get to steak

Steak

The guy who stopped in his car driving down the mountain and gave us bottles of water, which we’d run out of, and a bag of potato chips

My beautiful site and wonderful life in Malawi

Doug and Kitty

Good friends to share the wine with

Having Rob in my life

And finally, we’ll be going home soon

So thus concludes November’s 30-day challenge.  I ended up really appreciating having to write 3 gratitude’s a day.  It made me really take notice of something in my day when I realized I was grateful for it, because I knew I’d have to write it down later.  And I’d have to take special care in noticing things I was grateful for, because by the end of the month it was definitely hard to write down three things which I’d hadn’t mentioned before.  It was actually really cool!  I think I’ll try to keep doing it.  I was forced to skip a few days in my journal writing/gratitude lists because of the crash and unexpected excursion to Lilongwe, days which I had to make up when I returned to my journal.  But here are a few honorable mentions from the latter half of the month:

November 19:

1. Getting phone calls from home

2.  The feeling of being fresh and clean after a shower, especially if then you get into a bed with newly cleaned sheets!

3. Glasses of wine at night

November 21:

1. Exceptional teachers teaching very important things (blog post about teaching a feminine hygiene workshop to come)

2. Open minds and receptive students

3. Beautiful views you’re compelled to just stare at

November 24:

1. Our unbelievable luck in our spill over the ditch, that it wasn’t any more serious

2. Frozen chicken and advil

3. Mr. Tewu and his drivers (the guys who came to the rescue)

November 25:

1. Making it to a final destination. Ahhhhh!

2. Chinese food feasts

3. Air conditioning

4. Ice cream (I was feeling especially thankful this day)

November 29:

1. Fans at night, I like the white noise

2. I guess I’m actually thankful for the UN vote to allow Palestine in as an observer member.  That Israel-Palestinian war is just ridiculous.  It’s about time someone did something productive about it, even if it is just a symbolic move.  It’s still pretty major.

3.  Getting into bed after a long day.  Sometimes, that’s why I wake up in the morning - so that I can get back in bed at night!  Such a great feeling!