Burglars and Break-downs

If you haven't noticed, I'm back from South Africa. It was a very uneventful trip back. I had one last great cup of coffee in the airport and the Lord got me through check-in as my bag was 2 kgs over, but I wasn't charged anything.

There was a quite handsome British boy on my flight who I met at the customs line, who also happens to be from Malawi, so that was a nice little encounter. :)

I did discover though when I returned to Lilongwe that I am not going to be allowed into Spain next month, if I don't renew my passport. As as it takes 2 weeks to for it to get it done, and I'm about 3 1/2 week from leaving, I need to get this down NOW.

Unfortunately, the embassy is only open to the public on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. So, Friday night, I made an appointment at the embassy for Tuesday planning to do the 5 hour drive back to Lilongwe and then turn around and do it again that afternoon back to Mzuzu. 10 hours driving? People have done longer.

After some new passport photos on Saturday morning, I drove back to Mzuzu and made it just in time for our Tea Ladies Christmas Party. We had food, sang Christmas carols, and the kids even put on a nativity. It was such a fun night. I left the Laffoons at 10 completely unaware of what was about to go down just 1 hour later.

The next morning, Eric called me just checking to see if my night went okay. Of course, I replied.
Well...we had thieves visit us at 11 and then again at 2.

I couldn't believe it! They poisoned the dogs around 11 so they wouldn't be able to bark. The nightguard saw them and thought that we had scared them off for good...until around 2 when they came back because the dogs were so sick they couldn't attack them anymore. They hit our nightguard on the arm pretty back, but he got one of them on the head with a brick. Eric and the guard chased them off, and they got away with nothing.  Everyone was unhurt except for the nightguard. Just shaken up and tired the next morning. The dogs did survive the night and they are fine now.

Well, needless to say, we have heightened our security. I lock myself in my room at night, no presents or valuables are out, and I have 2 guards at night now...at least until Christmas is over.

Well, now fast forward to Tuesday morning. Anna Marie and Megan decided that they would do the 10 hour drive down with me, so we got up at 5am and were on the road by 6:30. About an hour down the road, my car died. Something to do with smoke, leaking water, and a radiator? Something horrible...Finally, 5 hours later, we were towed back to Mzuzu. Hmm...no embassy visit for me...and how am I going to get my passport updated so I can go to Spain??

Just my luck! Mzuzu Airport just slashed their runway and started having small flights a couple of times a week down to Lilongwe. AND, they are flying down on Thursday morning! So, I'm getting in a tiny little airplane at 7am tomorrow morning and taking the 45 min flight down to Lilongwe. The best part? Its cheaper than a tank of diesel. Crazy, I know. I'll get one of our extra vehicles in Lilongwe and drive that back.
Whew...I can't believe it all worked out!

So today, I got to spend the day making Christmas cookies and watching movies with my friends. We had such a wonderful time!