Hippos and Elephants and Safaris, oh my!

 THIS IS WHERE A PICTURE OF VASCO STANDING IN FRONT OF A SIGN THAT SAYS “BEWARE OF THE HIPPOS” WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. ALAS, THE INTERNET IN BLANTYRE IN NOT COOPERATING. HOPE TO BE ABLE TO POST IT AND SOME VIDEOS FROM THE LAST WEEK TONITE.

Hi Folks,

We had a wonderful weekend, getting out of Dodge (i.e. Blantyre) for the weekend, Maury, Vasco, Rob, Francisco, our totally lovely driver James and me, heading first about 90 minutes from here to the Zomba Plateau for a quiet, lovely, fireside evening at its Forest Lodge (no electricity – i washed my hair with juice-glasses full of hot water from the sink in the bedroom).

On Sunday, we headed to Mvuu Camp inside one of the most beautiful game preserves in Malawi. We had a driving safari on Sunday night and a glorious water safari – by boat down the Shire (“shee-ray”) River on Monday morning, where we saw two dozen elephants close enough to smell their breath (and other things), dozens of hippos bathing and bellowing and snorting and a number of other exotic creatures — before heading back to Zomba to have a late lunch with Kim, Charlotte and Dick Day. They made Mexican. We were so grateful for their company and hospitality. It was almost like a beautiful spring afternoon in Laguna, except for the monkeys and the back yard.

We are heading to court again today in Blantyre at 2 p.m. local time to hear the judge’s verdict in our adoption petition for our darling Vasco. Please pray for favor for us in all areas, particularly with this judge, and for grace, mercy, joy and a hedge of protection, especially for sweet Vasco.

Here below are a few of our photos (we have something like 1,000) from Mvuu camp and Zomba:

AGAIN, CAN’T UPLOAD THE PHOTOS, BUT IMAGINE MANY MANY ELEPHANTS AND HIPPOS AND A MONITOR LIZARD AND CORMORANTS AND OTHER EXOTIC CREATURES AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNSET I’VE EVER SEEN (SORRY, LAGUNA). WILL POST TONITE, WHEN THE INTERNET IS MORE COOPERATIVE.