Where in the world is Malawi?

When Claire was at VBS last week her teacher reported several very interesting and funny things that she told them. The first was "My Daddy is a doctor. He's helping people in Honduras" and the second was "Aunt Chrissie is in Malawi this week". Her teacher was a little surprised that a two year old knew anything about such places. It turns out that is just the tip of the iceberg. We have quite a little geography whiz on our hands.

Let me start by saying this started as a joke. We saw a 2 year old little girl on a talk show that could recite the capitols of just about every country. I was pretty impressed but Rhett wasn't really. He was like "Well, sure it's just memorization. Their brains are wired for memorization at this age. It's just a matter of what they are memorizing. Claire can do that". I wasn't so sure but I happen to have a map of the world place mat so I put it out for her to eat on and just for the heck of it started teaching her countries. At last count she knows 24 countries on the map - she can name it when it is pointed to and/or point to it when named. It is amazing how her brain works to make little tricks to remember them like "Italy - it's a boot!" or "Japan - that's where Ama lived" or "Russia - it's big" or "New Zealand - it's broken". You might be thinking those are pretty easy countries to remember. Well we thought so too so we started upping the ante a little bit. Now she knows the likes of Mongolia, Kenya, Algeria, Kazahkstan, Sri Lanka, Bolivia and yes Malawi. It is true that Aunt Chrissie is in Malawi this week so it was just another occasion to learn a new country!

Rhett and I both have a love of geography and maps and I guess she got this gene. It's become quite a fun hobby teaching her new countries and she absolutely loves it! I wish is was so easy and fun for me to memorize and learn new things. My old brain is just too hardened and set in it's ways. So the question is - where is Malawi - anyone? (hint it's in Africa and on the map above but it's still pretty difficult to find!)