filling forms

We are heading off to Zambia next week on a crazy road trip adventure, crazy because of the enormous distances we plan to drive, with 2 kids. Anyway we need an awful lot of paperwork to cross the border, including yellow fever certificates, car insurance (for Zambia as well as Malawi) and an export licence. I went to acquire the latter this morning.

 

The directions to the correct office were to go through Limbe, go round the roundabout at the end and ask for directions at the Petroda petrol station! It worked perfectly and I found the right office where we had a conversation about who owned the car (it’s in the doc’s name) and who would be driving it, the implication being that the doc was the owner and driver so should have gone to do the paperwork! The policeman wasn’t too sexist and eventually agreed to do it in the doc’s name as I had his passport number, if I wanted the paperwork in my name I would need a letter of authorisation from my husband! We then went to check the engine no. on the car and then I went (as is usual to another office) to pay the bill and then back to the original office to collect my paperwork.

 

I am certainly not missing the bustle of the shops and the busy-ness of organising food that I usually find myself embroiled in at this time of year. There’s things to organise ready for leaving the house with lodgers, sorting out staff and heading off on a road trip but it’s very different to Christmas at home. I do miss the opportunities at this time of year for catching up socially, reading newsletters and cards and seeing all the family in one mammoth journey.

getting ready for Christmas

Christmas here is quite low key, there’s less hype and less preparation. It will be our first Christmas in Africa and we intend to do it in style.

There’s quite a lot of our traditions that just don’t translate. Most Malawians know of Father Christmas/Santa but not the whole presents in the sock thing on Christmas eve and most house don’t have chimneys! The personalised video message from Santa to the kids (set up by sister in law via a website) was just baffling! I tried to explain what mincemeat is and the fact that we only eat at Christmas, we’re going to make some this weekend. Our pile of presents feels excessive here, but is much smaller than in previous years, we’ve only had 3 Christmas cards and I sent a handful back to the UK.

Today I introduced a load of ex-pats to the very Anglican Christingle, with somewhat limited supplies – birthday cake candles as the only other option was really big practical ones; apples instead of oranges (none to be found in Blantyre this week, although a few days ago there were loads); paper red stripe because the lady in Shoprite refused to sell me the nice ribbon as they couldn’t find the price and some odd sweets and chopped up marshmallows. Our group of mums and kids enjoyed making the Christingle and hearing about the symbolism which encourages us to look forward to seeing the story completed with Christ’s death and resurrection.

flying

After cockroaches and really enormous hairy spiders my least favourite insects are flying termites. They only appear this time of year, during the rain,s and they launch themselves at the lights, their wings make the most disgusting flappering noise then they drop their wings and crawl off to be termites – yuk! It really is bad time of year for insects although the geckos love it! We’ve not seen many chongolongos yet; they’re cool and curl up when the kids poke them!

africa for beginners

I thought that I might begin my novel about life in Malawi thus ...

 

They say that living in Malawi is “Africa for Beginners” because life here, for a white person, is easier than it is elsewhere in Africa. As my first experience of Africa I am not so sure that life here is easy but it is where my experience of Africa began so maybe it is for beginners.

 

it's raining

The rainy season is amazing. We saw it all last year but you forget just what it’s like. It’s almost worth going through the hot season just to have the rains (please note I said almost).

 

Last Wed we drove to one of the tea estates and just as we pulled onto the tarmac road it began to rain. More timid drivers might have pulled over but we plunged on. There was so much water in such a short space of time; cars were stuck in the middle of the road, overwhelmed by the water and this was on the main road. We held our breath every time we came to a dip in the road as we forged through the floods. The wipers were going full time, my passenger was valiantly wiping the inside of the windscreen with a spare pair of pants (belonging to one of the kids not hers). Getting out of the car you resign yourself to getting wet as umbrellas are pointless when the rain is that heavy. There are amazing electric storms going on at the same time, with thunder and spectacular lightening. The noise is so loud we can’t hold a phone conversation or watch DVDs as it’s too loud. The kids are quite happy sleeping through it (we can’t hear them crying anyway!) and we do sleep but I often wake as the storm quietens down.

 

After the rain the temperature drops, everything looks green and clean and within a few hours the puddles have dried up as if the rains hadn’t come.

visitors

We have been enjoying having more visitors, with a compulsory relaxing trip to the lake and then on safari.

 

Having visitors always makes me look at what seems normal differently. Our visitors have to get used to have people working in the house and things like the poverty that we maybe don’t always see anymore because it’s so much part of life here. I do enjoy showing the beautiful scenery and the amazing wildlife, only an hours drive from Blantyre we saw elephants, hippo, impala, nyala, warthogs and loads of birds. Including these vultures – they look very menacing and hang out in big groups, the hoodies of the bird world maybe?