It was a quiet week. I'm glad it was a quiet week. My gut was not very pleased with me, so I ventured out a couple of times, but tried lying low for the most part. There were two highlights, first, immigration! And I say this with no sarcasm or irony. I love going to immigration; which is good, since we have to go every 30-60 days. Why do I love immigration? Because everyone is so nice and helpful. You walk in and they greet you with a smile and offer you a seat. They ask what you need, they listen to you, and smile while they do. There are set rules and costs for everything and you don't ever feel like you're being ripped off or taken advantage of; I love it! We had to renew our visitor's permit, and we were able to get a 60 day extension, so we don't have to go back until September (we have to leave the country in August).

The next big thing to take our attention this week is a vehicle search. Since we arrived here in Lilongwe we have been driving a Mazda Bongo. It's the same vehicle all of the mini-buses use. It "has" 15 seats… as long as you're really flexible with the definition of "has." There are three bench seats in the back, with a fold down rumble seat on the first two benches. The first bench was installed so closely to the engine block that it's nearly impossible to sit there (though we have squeezed people in before - their knees are generally in their chest). Despite its shortcomings it has served us well these past months, but its best days are far behind it, as evidenced by the last row of bench seats that came completely out of the floor, and the remaining two benches are secured to two metal rails in the floor, unfortunately the two metal rails are no longer secured to the van itself. It makes riding in the back an adventure, for sure (poor Michala and Brennan!). Given the state of the Bongo we've been searching for a replacement vehicle for the local church to buy, preferably something sturdy enough to go riding through the bush, which we do fairly regularly when we pick up and drop off church members, but affordable, inexpensive to service, and the more seats the better.

Shopping for a car in Malawi is much like shopping for anything else in Malawi… kind of complicated, but generally entertaining. We checked out ads on Facebook and in the newspaper. Some of these ads are funnily detailed (great running car… it even comes with a steering wheel); some are puzzling (no contact information); and some were pretty unbelievable (the Toyota Landcruiser that was 65,000,000mk -- $89,400USD for a USED vehicle). Malawians are extraordinarily helpful, but sometimes in the most unhelpful ways. For example, a young man was advertising a car that he said had seven seats... it had five, which isn't nearly enough. He proceeded to contact us two more times, had us drive all over Lilongwe to look at different cars... none of which were what we were looking for. It was nice that he wanted to help; unfortunate that he didn't actually listen to what we needed. Oh well; we think we've narrowed it to two different vehicles (none of the ones listed in the ads above). We'll see what the next week brings.