black tie in the tropics

We celebrated St Andrews day here in Blantyre with a ceilidh held by the Caledonian Society. Unfortunately the doc left his kilt in England, although the sporran seems to be here in Malawi! We had a great dinner, which included haggis lots of wine and a bottle of whiskey per table! The ceilidh itself was great fun although I think some were a little surprised by the doc’s fast dancing! He managed not to injure anyone and I don’t think he stepped on my toes. Going out in formal dress felt strange, we spend most of the time here dressed very casually, wearing as little as convention allows. Our housekeeper, Dorcas babysat for us and was excited to see us dressed up, I did feel like the ugly sisters, leaving Cinderella - our tickets cost almost as much as her monthly salary. In our defence the money raised from the evening will go to the paediatric wards of the hospital. There were almost 200 people there many of whom we knew and it really shows the range of jobs which bring people to Blantyre – local NGOs, sugar, tobacco, tea, haulage and medics as well as charities. There was quite a bit of discussion about the political situation here, the lack of diesel is not making a big impact yet but the shortage has been going on for a month now and it is symptomatic of bigger issues.