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
Monday, 1 February 2010
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
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
January Blues
It's been a while - I've been suffering from the Jan Blues and I didn't want to commit to anything publicly that I might regret. There is a strong gloom hanging over Malawi at the moment: January Blues, it turns out, are not just caused by the cold weather.
Here's what's going on:
- The rains have not arrived properly so everyone is worried about the crop. Increasing risk of famine. This is known as the 'hungry season', I knew it was coming, but I'm still not tough enough to be unaffected by being so close. A woman came down to the hut begging for food. I don't think she will be the last. Constant Guilt.
- It is really really hot. 3 showers a day, very sleepy. Even A is wishing for a break in the weather, a good bit of rain or cloud cover.
- A LOT of people have malaria.
- I itch like hell from the mozzie bites, stood on a centipede in the shower (they 'pop' BTW) and a geko got squished in the door. Blurgh.
- Work has been extraordinarily tough since we got back too.
On the plus side, petrol situation has improved, I'm enjoying French again and we now have a family of mongooses in the garden (am ignoring the fact this means we have enough snakes to support a family of mongooses).
We'll shake this off, re-group and give it a final blast. But first we're going to retreat into the hut, watch DVDs and munch the last of the mangoes.
F x
Here's what's going on:
- The rains have not arrived properly so everyone is worried about the crop. Increasing risk of famine. This is known as the 'hungry season', I knew it was coming, but I'm still not tough enough to be unaffected by being so close. A woman came down to the hut begging for food. I don't think she will be the last. Constant Guilt.
- It is really really hot. 3 showers a day, very sleepy. Even A is wishing for a break in the weather, a good bit of rain or cloud cover.
- A LOT of people have malaria.
- I itch like hell from the mozzie bites, stood on a centipede in the shower (they 'pop' BTW) and a geko got squished in the door. Blurgh.
- Work has been extraordinarily tough since we got back too.
On the plus side, petrol situation has improved, I'm enjoying French again and we now have a family of mongooses in the garden (am ignoring the fact this means we have enough snakes to support a family of mongooses).
We'll shake this off, re-group and give it a final blast. But first we're going to retreat into the hut, watch DVDs and munch the last of the mangoes.
F x
Friday, 15 January 2010
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Wednesday, 13 January 2010
"1,2,3 Viva Malawi!"
Malawi have beaten Algeria 3-0 in their opening match in the Africa Cup of Nations. Everyone is well chuffed. Malawi is the lowest ranked team in the tournament. The match finished about rush hour on Monday and the roads went mental. People were driving around tooting their horns and holding two fingers out their window, then 3, then everyone had a massive party!
Workmen stopped filling in the potholes and did a little dance in the street, kids were rolling around in the dust and I even saw one guy eating a mango and dancing in his pants on the big roundabout near Limbe!
Go on the flames!
Good to have the mood picked up for a day or two. Rains haven't arrived properly and people are worried. Some are starting to pull up the corn in the hope the rains will come and they will be able to start again. Big trouble coming, or, as Phiri would say, 'mavuto quambiri'.
I heard that China fired some chemicals into the sky and made it snow - could we get that for rain here?
F x
Workmen stopped filling in the potholes and did a little dance in the street, kids were rolling around in the dust and I even saw one guy eating a mango and dancing in his pants on the big roundabout near Limbe!
Go on the flames!
Good to have the mood picked up for a day or two. Rains haven't arrived properly and people are worried. Some are starting to pull up the corn in the hope the rains will come and they will be able to start again. Big trouble coming, or, as Phiri would say, 'mavuto quambiri'.
I heard that China fired some chemicals into the sky and made it snow - could we get that for rain here?
F x
Thursday, 7 January 2010
"You are back from America - Why?"
OK so we probably need to get an atlas and show Phiri where Scotland is, but the point remains - as a Malawian he wonders why we westerners would come to Malawi.
Good question. As is why we are planning to return to the UK - a country so categorically failing to achieve its potential our friends have the "where in the world should we live and work?" conversation almost as often as the "is Tiger Woods wholly to blame?" "isn't is cute that our parents believe in pensions and insurance?" and, for the Londoners at least, "how can we afford private schooling?" ones.
Yup, we and our friends are oh so middle class and, since we've been away, seem to have made the shift from 20 somethings to 30 somethings (slightly prematurely in my case I would add!). You all probably know my views on the location location debate, but the first 24 hours back in Malawi give me some pretty clear answers to Phiri's enquiry:
- It is better to be a few degrees too hot than many degrees too cold (a slightly sticky 27 at the moment but nothing a fan doesn't fix);
- there is a sort of calm that comes from not having a TV, limited access to the internet and a choice between DVD or Kutche Kutche at local for evening's entertainment; and
- waking up to air that smells like a scout hut set inside Glasgow's Botantical Gardens (or that butterfly farm in Aviemore) and sounds of gorbling birds and rippeting frogs really does remove any fear that life may be passing you by!
Of course those all have to be balanced against the many downsides which I've often moaned about and still abound. But, happy to be back and even more delighted that, unlike Phiri, we can choose to return.
F x
Ps - In a nod to remaining 5 months of 20 somethingness I spent a lot of time listening to Radio 1 at home and would say: "'mon the Rage!". Excellent, I may never listen to my 2 copies again but reckon a bit of fire in the belly is exactly what we need right now!
Good question. As is why we are planning to return to the UK - a country so categorically failing to achieve its potential our friends have the "where in the world should we live and work?" conversation almost as often as the "is Tiger Woods wholly to blame?" "isn't is cute that our parents believe in pensions and insurance?" and, for the Londoners at least, "how can we afford private schooling?" ones.
Yup, we and our friends are oh so middle class and, since we've been away, seem to have made the shift from 20 somethings to 30 somethings (slightly prematurely in my case I would add!). You all probably know my views on the location location debate, but the first 24 hours back in Malawi give me some pretty clear answers to Phiri's enquiry:
- It is better to be a few degrees too hot than many degrees too cold (a slightly sticky 27 at the moment but nothing a fan doesn't fix);
- there is a sort of calm that comes from not having a TV, limited access to the internet and a choice between DVD or Kutche Kutche at local for evening's entertainment; and
- waking up to air that smells like a scout hut set inside Glasgow's Botantical Gardens (or that butterfly farm in Aviemore) and sounds of gorbling birds and rippeting frogs really does remove any fear that life may be passing you by!
Of course those all have to be balanced against the many downsides which I've often moaned about and still abound. But, happy to be back and even more delighted that, unlike Phiri, we can choose to return.
F x
Ps - In a nod to remaining 5 months of 20 somethingness I spent a lot of time listening to Radio 1 at home and would say: "'mon the Rage!". Excellent, I may never listen to my 2 copies again but reckon a bit of fire in the belly is exactly what we need right now!
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