- Still very hot and very wet. Slugs abound. A says our cooling, stand-alone fan is "the best thing that every happened to him...except me...because I bought the fan."
- The low ride has been in the wars. Davina reversed into it, separately we had to get the clutch replaced and for the first time ever it wouldn't start whilst we were in LLW. A abandoned me for some big important meeting but, to my universal credit, I fiddled about with the engine until it started! (Me and a random Malawian dude who had wandered over to see what was going on).
- I'm getting very tired of living in a hut. So tired, I took one look at the place A had booked for us Fri night and walked out again. "I'm simply not staying there, I don't care if we drive through the night" says I. So, we got the credit card out and checked into a 007 style hotel of neat paths and gardens with a whitewashed private chalet over-looking the lake. We loved it - hunkered down in thunder storm with proper crisp sheets, bath, TV & room service - B.L.I.S.S.
- We've given up booze for lent. Seriously, we have.
F x
Sunday 21 February 2010
"You don't need to pay, this is a Government bus!"
Perfect little cameo of how things seem strange and broken but often turn out alright: I finished my meetings on Capital Hill (home of various government ministries that overlooks shiny, shiny, new, Chinese built and funded, parliament building) early. It would be a while before A could collect me, I needed to get a taxi back into town.
Asking the security guards for a taxi number initiated a universe of fussing about. Five men standing outside gesticulating and debating various options. Regretting causing such a furore, I tried to excuse myself, said it was no problem, if there were no taxis I would happily wait for my husband.
20 mins later, slightly out of breath man comes up and says "the transport is ready, come with me". Gulp. 'I don't want to offend someone who has gone out of their way to get a mate to help me, but I also don't want to get into a random car with a stranger...what to do???' I thought, as I struggled to keep up over potholes and puddles, uncomfortable in my now unfamiliar suit and heals.
To my relief he proudly pointed to a smart looking coach. "Get on, they will take you, this is a government bus, it goes far far but will drop you at city. No pay, this is a government bus". He beamed.
And sure enough, another 20 mins of being stared at by the everyday bus goers, listening to universally recognisable post work banter and wondering whether I too should buy some cassava, and we were off.
Another 15 mins after that and I was sitting sipping a cool lemonade in a proper swanky hotel. All's well that ends in a comfy chair.
Fx
Ps - Think I might have made the wrong snap decision in not standing for the Justice Minister as he walked past me in reception....what would you have done?
Asking the security guards for a taxi number initiated a universe of fussing about. Five men standing outside gesticulating and debating various options. Regretting causing such a furore, I tried to excuse myself, said it was no problem, if there were no taxis I would happily wait for my husband.
20 mins later, slightly out of breath man comes up and says "the transport is ready, come with me". Gulp. 'I don't want to offend someone who has gone out of their way to get a mate to help me, but I also don't want to get into a random car with a stranger...what to do???' I thought, as I struggled to keep up over potholes and puddles, uncomfortable in my now unfamiliar suit and heals.
To my relief he proudly pointed to a smart looking coach. "Get on, they will take you, this is a government bus, it goes far far but will drop you at city. No pay, this is a government bus". He beamed.
And sure enough, another 20 mins of being stared at by the everyday bus goers, listening to universally recognisable post work banter and wondering whether I too should buy some cassava, and we were off.
Another 15 mins after that and I was sitting sipping a cool lemonade in a proper swanky hotel. All's well that ends in a comfy chair.
Fx
Ps - Think I might have made the wrong snap decision in not standing for the Justice Minister as he walked past me in reception....what would you have done?
Going to see the Chesi Nuns
Is, according to A, a bit like going to see the elves. True enough, we were in LLW last week for work a spot of hob-nobbing at the British High-Commission (check us out!) and took the chance to visit these small, powerful, women.
Out east of LLW, towards Salima on the lakeshore, they run an orphanage. What an orphange. There are five fully fledged nuns, a trainee one, 120 children and a scattering of local mothers and teachers. Their set up is incredible. Almost entirely food-sufficient, the classrooms and bedrooms are warm and clean and painted in the loveliest colours. The children get 4 meals a day and you can tell - actual naughtiness on display, the place is full of life and laughter.
It is such a contrast to the other schools that we have visited. All of which are much better than they would be but for MM, but which are government funded, overcrowded, bare and ramshackle.
The Chesi nuns are, in fact, so good at what they do it raises all sorts of problems. Problems with the mothers who often try to pass their children off as orphans to get them in and for the children when they are grown up, trying to readjust to life on the outside.
We were made to feel extraordinarily welcome but I couldn't help feeling a bit disconcerted by the contrasts and my mounting questions about what the best way to help is. In the end I'm glad that place is there - it is a cracking example of what is possible, albeit with extraordinarily levels of money, effort and sacrifice. It is also probably as near as you will get on earth to meeting magical elves.
Fx
Ps - they need soap. Expensive here. Sussing out best way to post to them....
Out east of LLW, towards Salima on the lakeshore, they run an orphanage. What an orphange. There are five fully fledged nuns, a trainee one, 120 children and a scattering of local mothers and teachers. Their set up is incredible. Almost entirely food-sufficient, the classrooms and bedrooms are warm and clean and painted in the loveliest colours. The children get 4 meals a day and you can tell - actual naughtiness on display, the place is full of life and laughter.
It is such a contrast to the other schools that we have visited. All of which are much better than they would be but for MM, but which are government funded, overcrowded, bare and ramshackle.
The Chesi nuns are, in fact, so good at what they do it raises all sorts of problems. Problems with the mothers who often try to pass their children off as orphans to get them in and for the children when they are grown up, trying to readjust to life on the outside.
We were made to feel extraordinarily welcome but I couldn't help feeling a bit disconcerted by the contrasts and my mounting questions about what the best way to help is. In the end I'm glad that place is there - it is a cracking example of what is possible, albeit with extraordinarily levels of money, effort and sacrifice. It is also probably as near as you will get on earth to meeting magical elves.
Fx
Ps - they need soap. Expensive here. Sussing out best way to post to them....
Monday 8 February 2010
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Andrew the Chief?
Our mate Florian & his brother, a Priest, took us out to visit their home village yesterday. Grand Day Out - high blue skies, good natured banter, pizza & beer - what more could you want?
They have a lovely home & we met his ancient mother sitting under a mango tree. Learnt about his sister's tobacco growing / trading enterprise and got A to climb the guava tree so that we could take some yummy yummy fruit home.
Florian & his brother each support projects in neighbouring villages to feed the very little ones / provide some relief to the mothers. They are clearly the 'bwanas' round here, every time I turned around some new relative was tapping them for cash.
This is how it seems to work - one of the boys of the village does good, gets a job and is then responsible for nearly everybody else. Florian is the eldest of the Chieftain family and should have been a Chief himself. But he and his lovely wife Mary wanted their children to grow up in the city, so he declined it and passed it over to his uncle.
A has offered to take up the Chieftainship when F's uncle dies :-) Love it, bwana Andrew & donna Fiona, can you imagine?!
F x
PS - shelter in photo was paid for by Enrico's fundraising back home - the spirit of the Swiss specials drinker lives on!
They have a lovely home & we met his ancient mother sitting under a mango tree. Learnt about his sister's tobacco growing / trading enterprise and got A to climb the guava tree so that we could take some yummy yummy fruit home.
Florian & his brother each support projects in neighbouring villages to feed the very little ones / provide some relief to the mothers. They are clearly the 'bwanas' round here, every time I turned around some new relative was tapping them for cash.
This is how it seems to work - one of the boys of the village does good, gets a job and is then responsible for nearly everybody else. Florian is the eldest of the Chieftain family and should have been a Chief himself. But he and his lovely wife Mary wanted their children to grow up in the city, so he declined it and passed it over to his uncle.
A has offered to take up the Chieftainship when F's uncle dies :-) Love it, bwana Andrew & donna Fiona, can you imagine?!
F x
PS - shelter in photo was paid for by Enrico's fundraising back home - the spirit of the Swiss specials drinker lives on!
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Wednesday 3 February 2010
The Pineapples are Here
I've been waiting for this since the day I arrived - pineapple season has started! Hurray! They are sweet and delicious but sadly they are hoaching with teeny tiny flies like the ones you get off Christmas trees.
Still don't care. Love them and the fact that they overlap with the end of the mango season and the coincide with the start of the passion fruit. Awesome fruit salads!
This is taking me back to the beginning. Pineapples had just ended and passion fruit were in full swing when I first arrived. It's been brilliant fun enjoying the utterly delicious fruit and veg and wondering what comes next.
I should have kept a note, but from memory, the rough order (Jan-Dec) goes something like:
Pineapples, passion fruit, avocados, sugarcane, oranges, aubergine, paw paw, green beans, peas, cauliflower, mushrooms, pumpkin, mangoes.
Tomatoes, onions, spinach, bananas, green peppers, carrots, sweet potato & courgette seem to have been constant.
Yum yum yum.
F x
Still don't care. Love them and the fact that they overlap with the end of the mango season and the coincide with the start of the passion fruit. Awesome fruit salads!
This is taking me back to the beginning. Pineapples had just ended and passion fruit were in full swing when I first arrived. It's been brilliant fun enjoying the utterly delicious fruit and veg and wondering what comes next.
I should have kept a note, but from memory, the rough order (Jan-Dec) goes something like:
Pineapples, passion fruit, avocados, sugarcane, oranges, aubergine, paw paw, green beans, peas, cauliflower, mushrooms, pumpkin, mangoes.
Tomatoes, onions, spinach, bananas, green peppers, carrots, sweet potato & courgette seem to have been constant.
Yum yum yum.
F x
Monday 1 February 2010
The Weather Has Broken
Finally, it really is like the release of pressure you imagine. Breaking the dam, lancing the boil, whatever, we can all breath again.
It started Thursday last week about home time when deep dark silver grey clouds gathered over the city and the wind got very strong. Imagine palm trees bending sideways and the brooding atmosphere of those American tornado movies. (We were even trying to work out whether we'd be safer in the car or on the street....answers on a postcard...)
The following day there was actually a calm and then on Saturday, wow, a proper tropical storm. Thunder, lightening, dark at noon, more rain than I have ever seen, ever. Impressively the veg lady still made it up the hill & seemed pleased to hide out in the car port for a while.
Now the temperature is a very pleasant 25 degrees. The tap water is cloudy, the power keeps cutting out and most of the food in the kitchen is being attacked by various weevils, maggots and beetles. But I don't care, I'm happy and by the sound of the drums from the other side of the wall, so is Malawi.
F x
It started Thursday last week about home time when deep dark silver grey clouds gathered over the city and the wind got very strong. Imagine palm trees bending sideways and the brooding atmosphere of those American tornado movies. (We were even trying to work out whether we'd be safer in the car or on the street....answers on a postcard...)
The following day there was actually a calm and then on Saturday, wow, a proper tropical storm. Thunder, lightening, dark at noon, more rain than I have ever seen, ever. Impressively the veg lady still made it up the hill & seemed pleased to hide out in the car port for a while.
Now the temperature is a very pleasant 25 degrees. The tap water is cloudy, the power keeps cutting out and most of the food in the kitchen is being attacked by various weevils, maggots and beetles. But I don't care, I'm happy and by the sound of the drums from the other side of the wall, so is Malawi.
F x
The Best Laid Schemes
Friday night was the Caledonian Society's annual Burns Night and we had a ball. A was asked to read a poem; he chose 'To a Moose'. As he said, this was for two reasons: 1) because it is one of the best poems ever written and beautiful example of Rab's humanity and 2) because it is amusing to think that if Rabbie had been Malawian it would have been very different. Probably something along the lines of "Get it, get it, get it! There's good eating on that!"
Fitting for us too at the moment. For reasons totally beyond our control, our grand plan may need to be revisited. Nothing too serious, all will be well, but we're living the frustration of uselessness. Me because I feel that there is very little I can actually, practically, do in (& for) Malawi. A because he's been working on a great idea for a new project and, well, sometimes people just say no.
So, we got our glad rags on, joined up with some new medic friends who have almost identical frustrations and had a party. I don't know if there was tequila in 18th century Scotland but I'm sure that if there was, Rabbie would have been well into it.
Last time I was at a Cale Soc function I accidentally bit a guy in the face during a particularly aggressive strip the willow (!). No such mishaps this time, just a lot of steam released and a dapper Malawian chef hamming up the presentation of the haggis like you wouldn't believe.
Hurray for Burns, pals, drinking, dancing and here's to learning to just letting it be.
F x
Fitting for us too at the moment. For reasons totally beyond our control, our grand plan may need to be revisited. Nothing too serious, all will be well, but we're living the frustration of uselessness. Me because I feel that there is very little I can actually, practically, do in (& for) Malawi. A because he's been working on a great idea for a new project and, well, sometimes people just say no.
So, we got our glad rags on, joined up with some new medic friends who have almost identical frustrations and had a party. I don't know if there was tequila in 18th century Scotland but I'm sure that if there was, Rabbie would have been well into it.
Last time I was at a Cale Soc function I accidentally bit a guy in the face during a particularly aggressive strip the willow (!). No such mishaps this time, just a lot of steam released and a dapper Malawian chef hamming up the presentation of the haggis like you wouldn't believe.
Hurray for Burns, pals, drinking, dancing and here's to learning to just letting it be.
F x
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