I love the phrase "You've been approved!!"

That's right!  Approved!  My first project, extending the water pipeline from my village to Maliera has been approved!  I was a little worried.  The cut-off for funding is US$500 and I was at $492... But all is good!  I was getting a little nervous because the village chief had said they'd already started digging for the pipes they already had despite my adamant "I'm not promising this is getting funded... but I'm trying" statements over and over... But now the work can begin in earnest!!!!  WAHOO!  In addition to this being my first "real" project I've planned here, its super important that the people living in Namwera have access to clean water asap.  Most women go to the river for drinking water now b/c the borehole is too far away... and they're at risk for a lot of waterborne illnesses here... like cholera... not a fun time I've heard.  Anyways... if anyone is looking for a cause to donate to during the holiday season, please check out my project at:  http://appropriateprojects.com/node/466

On other news... don't think I've mentioned that actually did get a cat.  Her name is Toco... which is the informal version of grateful or thankful... Its a commonish name here and my counterpart's wife (and good friend here) Lucy picked it so its extra special.  She really pretty... orangish... born in august.  Really like her, but she's much more high maintenance than anticipated.  She's really whiny... like all the time.  Which is good bc the mice hear her and flee in terror (Yippie!), but really annoying, at say 3am.  Its gotten a little better since she started sleeping on the bed with me... Except her favorite place to sleep is on my chest...

Sort of annoying for me is that for whatever reason... maybe the honeymoon is over at site... but I've had a ton of people, mostly women I work with in the mushroom group, ask me to give them or their kids food (or occasionally money) when I'm walking around and wanting to just chat with people.  Which puts me into a pickle: if I want to continue working with them, I can't be too bitchy, but I really just want to flip out on them. One or two is not a huge deal... I usually calmly explain to them a few times that I'm a volunteer... I don't have enough food/money to give them, or if I did I'd have everyone in the village coming up to me for the same thing (word travels fast here... gossip is spread like fire), plus I came to Malawi to help with development and environmental projects, not to hand out shit.  But 4-5 people in a matter of 2 days, especially when I just got back from travelling and was looking forward to just hanging out with my friends in the village and working on projects is frustrating.  What's also frustrating with the mushroom group is that I've also already given them ~$30 to get them started on their mushroom growing (which is going well fyi!), plus every suggestion I give them to increase business they say "oh ok..." then don't do it.  So, Wednesday's meeting is going to be interesting...

Anyways... looking forward to getting the water project started... and for christmas.  Going to the lake to camp with a bunch of friends... Should be fun and relaxing!