I have less than 4 weeks of work left and in typical Sarah-fashion I jam-packed them with events. On the calendar for May is an adults-night out at a local restaurant, a 3 day trip to the lake (which 40 people signed up for!!), a toy/book drive for the refugee camp, the Woman’s...
Sarah Novak
Back in August of 2016 when we moved into our current house it was the height of dry season. The grass was nearly dead and the bushes and plants were in need of major pruning. Having never had a yard before, it seemed like quite a daunting project to turn it around. Thankfully, I was only...
Ever since Nia was introduced to Bollywood dancing at the Holi Festival a month ago she’s been Bollywood obsessed. We now listen to Bollywood music in the car, watch one or two Bollywood music videos a night and practice our dance moves daily. Although I’m getting bollywooded...
One of the things I love most about Malawi is how wholesome and old-fashioned it is. I see so many examples of Nia engaging in the kind of dramatic play I did in my childhood… spending the entire day creating the perfect My Little Pony kingdom, building awesome lego structures and...
While Nick was off shooting these beautiful underwater pics in Lake Malawi, Nia and I were busy frollicking around town (more like village, really). The whole weekend was magnificent, but the event that really rocked our world was the Holi Festival at the Indian High Commissioner’s...
We recently got back from Cape Town, one of our favorite places on earth. This was our third time there, but this trip was markedly different because for 11 straight days we were kidless in wine country! Now before you gasp and say, “How could you leave your daughter for 11 days? I...
Here are the facts: Nia and I only have 5 more months left in Malawi. Nick has closer to 6 months. We have to sell a crap-ton of stuff because we’re moving from a house with a big yard to a teensy apartment/condo. Pack-out will be new and different. The majority of household items...
Novakistan Readers – How are you? Has it really been a month since I last posted?! Whoops. That might need to be a New Year’s Resolution… Well, let’s just jump right in, as I have lots to fill you in on! Christmas seemed to arrive slower than usual this year...
We’re pretty new to this International School thing but I can already tell that one of my favorite days of the year is going to be International Day. We participated in our first one at the end of October and it was the coolest darn thing. The kids all come in dress representative...
I’ve been doing a lot of “adult-ing” lately, which it turns out, is ridiculously fun. So fun, in fact, that I recommend you drop everything right this minute and go try it yourself! What is “adult-ing”, you ask? Well… it’s doing the kind of...
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a little swimmer on our hands! It wasn’t looking so good for awhile there. She had a lot of fear about getting into the water and stomped around for days insisting, “I’m NOT going!” By some miracle we got her in the water and...
Hi everyone – Sorry for the break in posting. We’ve been busy showing my parents the best of Africa. Of course, no trip to Africa would be complete without a safari, so after a few days in Lilongwe, that’s exactly where we took them. We took them to South Luangwa...
I’ve noticed a fascinating new trend lately. My daughter is no longer interested in playing with children her own age, she has become obsessed with befriending “Big Girls”, especially ones who are about 10 years of age or so. This is not super surprising, because...
This past Friday was Reading Day at Nia’s school. Each year on this day, students dress up as their favorite book character and bring a corresponding book. Nia insisted on being “Shine” from the relatively new “Shimmer and Shine” series on Nickelodeon. For...
You should be impressed with me because on Saturday I helped build a house out of literally 2 things – mud and bricks. And in the 8 hours we worked on it, the house went from looking like this…. to this! How cool is that?? This was old-school building, Africa-style. And I...
I’m pretty sure my Dad breathed a sigh of relief as Jenna Miller, the 4th and final Miller gal to get married, walked down the aisle last Saturday. With all 4 of us officially handed off and the ‘no return’ policy in place, I think he’ll finally be able to sit back and relax a bit...
So, if you remember back to one of my earlier posts, we decided to part ways with Davie, our Gardener/Driver. We found a replacement gardener/driver relatively quickly but unfortunately he had crashed our SUV on the 6th day of employment. It wasn’t terrible and is still driveable, so...
Hello everyone – This post was supposed to go out Saturday, September 2nd but never did for some reason. I decided you probably won’t mind that it’s a little late, so I’m still publishing… It’s another glorious day in Lilongwe and I continue to be oh-so-content with life...
Ladies and Gentleman- We officially have a Kindergartner in the family! Â Nia loved going to preschool, so we made the assumption that the transition to Kindy would be easy peasy. Man were we wrong! We started to notice her behavior deteriorating rapidly about 2 weeks ago, as soon as...
I remember when we lived in the Philippines I was impressed by how resourceful people, especially children, could be. One of the memories that sticks with me most was from my visit to Tondo, Manila’s trash dump, where 1.5 million people lived. It was here that I truly realized that...
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That is the sound of a big happy Sarah sigh. I’m just so dang content right now folks. Never mind that we had to part ways with Davie or that the new gardener/driver crashed the car yesterday or that Nia told an adult that they smelled and should go take a bath...
Ahhh, home sweet home. Was great to get away but oh-how-fantastic it feels to be home. And with a sweet welcome from the girls too! Our last two weeks in Denmark and Greece flew by. In Denmark we filled our time with some castle-hopping, and canal cruising. Check out how low the clearance...
Howdy all – I’m finally back with pictures and stories about our cruise through the Norwegian fjords! Thanks for your patience while I got things edited and organized. We started our adventure on Friday, June 2nd. Our flight path was a doozy – Malawi to Nairobi to...
Hello friends! Greetings from Denmark! On Sunday we concluded our week on the Disney Magic sailing through the Norwegian Fjords. I am still working my way through editing photos, but I took the liberty of prioritizing the Princess photos, as I knew those would be of high interest. :) One...
I know you all are dying for a little Nick update, so here goes. The first few days were rough. He only felt comfortable on his belly because that relieved the pressure on his spine. We were fortunate to borrow a massage table from a friend and rigged up this design for him to while away...
Last night Nick and I were on the way to a party for Norway’s National Day. It was 6 PM when we arrived, which in Malawi means that it’s pitch black (streetlights are few and far between here and often, even when installed, they aren’t on). We got directed to park by a parking guard...
I’ve been noticing some very cool shifts happening in me lately which have, quite honestly, taken me by surprise. No huge revelations or changes in my path, just a growing awareness of things I’ve ignored for a long time. It began with the realization that I was very disconnected from...
Ladies & Gents – It’s Derby Day here in Lilongwe! This is no small deal, as I’ve been waiting my whole life to go to a Kentucky Derby Party. So of course we had to go all out. :) Nia and I had matching dresses made out of local fabric (chitenge). Then of course there was the...
This past Saturday, a group of 20 of us from the Embassy had the opportunity to do a volunteer project with a local non-profit. This was the first volunteer project I’d planned, so I was nervous about how it would go, especially since we were going out to work in a local village...
It’s been a week full of Easter-related fun and while it’s brought much delight to the young’uns, it’s brought MUCH exhaustion to Mommy. The week kicked off with our Embassy Egg Hunt & Brunch. This was my first big event and with 100+ signed up I was a wee bit nervous...
Our backyard gained two exciting new additions this week. The first was a slack line that Nick put up in the backyard. We got hooked on slack lines in Lima, which were constantly strung up on the Malecon. They’re reasonably inexpensive (~$75) and provide hours of fun. There have...
 I have a whole bunch of unrelated things that I wanted to update you on, so just know in advance that this post is going to be all over the place. I CAN promise that it will be full of tantalizing updates though! British Influence  What post would be complete without a Nia story...
I took Nia to a Malawian beauty shop for the first time two weeks ago. We started with a basic trim because, although she’d like it short again, we have to grow it out for her ballet recital this spring. The best part was that her stylist surprised us by insisting on a full blow...
I’m not sure if it’s just Nia getting older or her acting out because I’m gone more now, but we’ve seen a dramatic rise in what Nick and I like to refer to as “stinker-ish behaviorâ€. Some recent examples include: 1. Locking her nanny out of the house when she couldn’t have a...
Just back from a week of CLO training in Johannesburg and boy oh boy am I REVVED UP! Not only was the training amazingly comprehensive and well-delivered, but there were movies, food and shopping galore. Learning + Big City Perks = HEAVEN The Family Liaison Office (FLO) at the State...
Happy belated Valentine’s Day, my beloved blog readers. Just think about this – if you’ve been reading the blog since I first started – we’ve been ‘in a relationship’ for nearly a decade now. That is some serious commitment to each other! Hard to believe I’ve churned out...
Hey all – Did you miss me? Sorry about the lack of blog posts. Turns out this work/life balance thing is WAY harder with an office job. Go figure. Speaking of jobs, I’ve been asked for more details on how things are going. Happy to oblige! For starters, I still don’t...
I’ve completed 3 weeks of work now and am slowly but surely starting to find my groove. I can’t emphasize enough how much I’m enjoying the daily interactions and connections with colleagues. The solitude was definitely my biggest complaint about working at home. It was...
We’ve been fortunate in that during our first 6 months here we’ve managed to go on 1 – 2 hour boat safari, 1 – 4 hour walking safari and 9 – 4 hour driving safaris. Not too shabby for 6 months in, aye? The coolest part of it all though is that the awe of...
Hi everyone – We just got back from an amazing 4 day safari in Zambia. I’ll be writing a more in-depth post about our experience tomorrow, but in the meantime, I thought I’d do a little inventory of the animals we saw. Here goes… Vultures Lots and Lots of Lions...
It was a BIG week people. I know I say that a lot, but I really mean it this time. You see, this week was the first time in 8 years that I was back in an office job! Yes, it’s true. After 5 months of waiting, they finally let me start. Of course with 5 months of waiting, I had lots...
Our first Christmas in Malawi has come and gone and was quite delightful, if I do say so myself. The weather cooperated (mid-80’s, no rain) as did our little lady (mostly). I still struggle with the whole tropical Christmas thing. There’s just something about hot chocolate and...
For those who have been following the blog awhile, you may remember back to the staff appreciation party we threw in 2010 for Rudy, Norma and their families. For some reason we didn’t do this in Lima (one year we were traveling in Galapagos during December and the other I think we...
Last Friday we attended an embassy holiday party at the Ambassador’s House. It was a lovely affair and included holiday traditions like cookie decorating, eating copious amounts of food and my personal favorite, singing Christmas Carols. The Ambassador had assembled a random but...
So last week when we “talked” I updated you on the deck project. What I failed to mention was that the deck project was just one of MANY large-scale projects happening on our compound. We found out in November that a portion of the Quarters (HQ, as Nia likes to call it) where...
I can’t remember a time in my life when I was so eagerly anticipating rain. Guess the brown is really getting to me. Happily, rainy season is nearly upon us! The heavy rains that mark the official start have not yet happened, but we’re getting small showers here and there...
So, remember when I mentioned awhile back that we have a strange house? Well, it’s true. The layout is bizarre and the rooms are quite closed off. It’s fine for everyday life, but not so great for entertaining, which we want to do a lot of here. It’d be no big deal if...
We’ve done a lot of poking around on Airbnb in the past but for one reason or another never pulled the trigger. Well, Cape Town changed that. We did Airbnb for the entire week (two different places) and were delighted by our experience. Our first lodging was a condo unit overlooking...
I’m getting used to bizarre animal encounters in Africa now. Here’s a story about one that occurred in our very own backyard yesterday. I was out talking to Davie about the yard when Nia runs up to me and screams “Mommy, come see the pretty birdie.” I tried putting...
Cape Town is an animal lovers dream. Not only can you see all sorts of creatures, but you can have personal interactive “encounters” with many of them as well. Our little animal lover (who wants to be an Animal Rescuer like Diego when she grows up) was totally enchanted. Here...