The Gills in Malawi

When we returned for our furlough, we were blessed with some money to purchase pigs.  we were given enough to get 3 pigs but because of a good exchange rate at the time and a good deal we were able to get 5.

Last week one of the female pigs gave birth to her first litter.  She had 11 in total, two died, the rest are doing well.  She had trouble giving birth to the last piglet and after prayer and finding a man who would know what to do, he managed to save the piglet and the mother.

This week the second pregnant pig gave birth to 11 piglets.  One died and one is quite weak but we give thanks to God for all the new life that we have on site!!!

One of the sheep we have gave birth to a little lamb at 4am on Saturday morning!  We were woken to the dogs barking so went to see what was going on.  We found the guards trying to take the lamb and mother out so that it didn't get trampled on by the others in the pen and die.

Unfortunately the mother has rejected the baby and is not interested in feeding it at all.  So they have been bottle feeding her.  She is so cute and when you go into the pen she runs up to greet you and see if you have anything for her.  We are praying for her survival and so far she is doing well.

We also have a great dog called Milo.  We love him a lot and he is so gentle with all the other animals, even the cat!  Unfortunately he has got into a very bad habit!  When we go away he tries to get into the house to find us.  This has happened on several occasions.  When we were away on furlough, he was really good and didn't try to get into the house but since we have returned he seems more concerned when we are away than he was before. 

We spent the night away at a friends house and when we returned the following day we found all of our mosquito mesh ripped, all of it!  He had gone around the whole house and made a mess of every window.   We were not impressed at all, not only is it very expensive to replace all the mesh, but the inconvenience and the bugs that get in while we are waiting is not good!  We have now had to put chicken wire over the top of the mesh to try and keep him out!  Time will tell if it works!  We sure hope that this is the answer!

The pictures show the damage he made!

We have a new pet once again!  Our house is more like a mini zoo at times!  Some local people came to our gate with a baby monkey.  They wanted to sell it to us for a silly amount of money which we refused.  Joel and Chloe were looking at us with big eyes, pleading for us to take him in.  His mother had been chased away by a village dog and the baby had been left behind.  Eventually after long talks we agreed to look after him until he is big enough to go to the local game reserve.

He is very very cute!  He squeels when he see's a mango in excitment, he runs and grabs hold of your leg if he thinks you are leaving the room without him and he jumps on your shoulder and hugs your neck.  It will be a hard day when we have to give him up but we will enjoy him while he is with us!

This is our dog Jake.  He looked very neglected when we arrived back in Malawi and in desperate need of a hair cut and a wash!!!!  This pics above are before and after

Joel is a real animal lover and the abundance of wildlife here has been such a blessing to him and helped him to really see this place as home. 

He has had the chance to look after a baby monkey, an injured bird, tortoises of various sizes, a chameleon, dogs and many cats.

He has held snakes and seen many different and deadly poisonous ones, held a kingfisher bird in his hands, seen many monitor lizards including the one that ventured into our kitchen, watched owls and eagles fly around Hope Village, stroked a baby crocodile, chased pigs, seen newly born baby goats, helped to get bats out of the house, been chased by an elephant, stood next to a wild giraffe.

He has been offerered roasted mice and birds on a stick by the locals, eaten hippo, seen a tarantula and many other hideous types of spiders, had to step over frogs and dodge a billion insects while trying to get to an outside toilet, had a room full of flying ants that people then collected and fried with oil for a tasty snack, cleaned up various remains of mice that the cats have left around, been bitten, stung, wee'd on and the list goes on......

This week though it is something new and Joel now has a pet pygmy hedgehog and it is adorable. He has yet to name it so if you have any ideas, let us know. As I type he is off hunting for various insects to feed the hedgehog having just boiled it an egg for it to eat - it's amazing what you can find out on google!

Chloe was so upset last time her guinea pig had a baby as it only lasted 5 days then died.  It looked like the father had stood on it.

We found out later that you need to separate the father for a while and that your shouldn't touch the babies until they are 3 weeks old as the mother will stop feeding them.

Chloe was very excited when we saw that her guinea pig was again pregnant and was getting up early each morning to check if there were any new babies.  The other day we heard a scream of delight.  The mother had given birth to 2 babies in the night.  We have removed the father and the babies are doing really well.  Chloe is delighted!!!!

As I said earlier.....we had some piglets living in our orchard.  There were 6 of them and we tried to find out who owned them in the villages that surrounded us but we couldn't find an owner for them.

They had caused some damage to the plumbing and the guys were asking what we were going to do with them.  Paul encouraged the guys to pray and ask God for a solution.  One of the guys had a dream that the pigs found their way to garden and ate all the plants.  Paul left the guys discussing what they should do and told them to get back to him with a plan.

They decided that it would be a good idea to catch the piglets so made a temporary pen for them.  We went to the local Chief to report the piglets and to ask him if anyone had reported any missing, he had not heard of any piglets.

Now piglets are not easy to catch!!!!  We had to get all the day care kids to help us.  It was such fun, the guys chased them through the orchard and the kids from day care also helped. When 2 of them ran towards the girls they screamed and moved aside letting them get away, but thankfuly we caught 3 and another 1 in a trap Evance had set, which he was very proud of.

Initially they were very scared but now they oink as you get near to them in the hope that you give them some food, which they finish in record time and with a lot of mess, they really are pigs!

Joel, Chloe and Benj found a bird with a broken wing so they decided to try and help it.  They brought it into the house, made it a little home, fed it and gave it water.

They kept it in Joel's room with the door closed to keep it safe from the animals.  Chloe, grew especially attached to it but all the kids loved having it.

Unfortunately it came to a sad ending when the kids took it outside for some fresh air and a photo shoot.  The kitten crept up and before they knew what was happening the cat had it in its mouth and was shaking it around.  Needless to say, it didn't survive and Chloe was most upset.