long evenings

I didn't expect to notice the cold this much. It is so cold, the rain is ok but the cold is surprising. 

It's been a few years since we were in the UK for winter. I enjoyed the long summer evenings and felt like I could do lots of things, I played sport and caught up with friends, we snuck in evening strolls with the kids before bedtime and sat outside. Now it's dark when the girls finish school and I get up in the dark. We find that we don't get much done during the winter evenings and although we don't have a television we spend time watching things online. 

harvest

This morning we celebrated Harvest Thanksgiving service at church. It was a lovely proper autumn day, crisp and cold. I do notice the seasons and found life in Africa didn't have the rhythm of the seasons that I am familiar with. The hot season and the rains came but they were very unpredictable, which wreaked havoc with the maize crop because the planting of the crop had to be timed so that the plants would be big enough to withstand the rain and grow. So often people planted and the rains came too late. 

africa and the doctor

So the doc is back in Africa, while the rest of us are at home. 

He has gone to Ghana for almost 3 weeks on a teaching programme. He will be teaching and working with other haematologists and doctors. He is also meeting people and talking abut future research projects. 

It feels like he is such a long way away and I know that culturally his week will be so different to ours. Me and the girls are carrying on normal life while he is seeing new things and being in a different way of life. Of course I would love to be with him, experiencing a new country but part of me is glad not to be doing all that with the whole family and the worry that goes with it. 

I do not enjoy solo parenting. There is a novelty to having the house to myself and getting on in the evening but it is a novelty that is short-lived and does not compensate for having all the responsibility. 

not left

We might have left Africa but it has not left me. I always thought that I might leave a part of me behind or maybe I've brought a part of it with me. 

I take every opportunity to talk about it, I hear about it in the news and I would jump at the opportunity to visit. Friends we left behind continue without us while life here carries on at full tilt, making it difficult to savour the experiences of life. 

When I left I said that I would be sad if I never returned. 

In Malawi I struggled to find a purpose and definition for my life but knew that I was supporting the doc who was doing his thing. He had a purpose and we could see the difference that he was making, to his individual patients and through his research to others who would follow. How do we make a decision about where to be, it's not about what's easier or better, because they are subjective. Is it about our contribution? 

not working

Life here is more complicated. In Malawi we managed without lots of things but there was nothing we could do about it. The list of things that I can't work is getting longer, my new mobile, the landline phone, my laptop,  the cooker (induction hob) much of the equipment at work. And then there's things that seem so over the top, too much choice. 

new job

The first few weeks of being back felt like a holiday and we were able to enjoy catching up with friends and family and the nice things about life here. Now that we're back to school and both of us working real life is beginning to start. 

I began work for a small museum design and consultancy company based just outside Chester. I am working three days a week which is enough to feel like I can achieve something while still have time to hang out with our youngest (whose not at school yet). We certainly appreciate the more leisurely start to the day the two mornings that I'm not working. The link below shows the news page for my new job & shows me at work! (my mum's comment on this photo will prob be "shoulders back"). 

http://www.headlanddesign.co.uk/pages/news 

Living in our wee cottage again is lovely and it feels ok size wise, except that we have limited space for visitors, we hope to squeeze a futon in somewhere! I'm enjoying having the run of the house, without staff to organise or worry about. The girls love having bunk beds and all their toys in their room. In fact most of their toys have only just arrived, our boxes got delayed coming from Malawi. The boxes left Blantyre before we did but apparently sat at the airport in London for a few weeks while we were chasing around trying to find someone who knew where they were. There wasn't much left of some of the boxes, they had been so badly bashed they were held together with plastic wrapping! 

same but different

Life back in our house is the same but different. The nursery where the girls went when they were babies is just as lovely with lots of the same staff who remember them. The house is full of different furniture but the kitchen is the same and I have even put things back in the cupboards they were in before.  I understand that wear and tear is to be expected when our house was rented out for 3 years but it doesn't stop me bemoaning the damage to the following – wood burning stove, vacuum cleaner, fridge and boiler. The floods, which happened during our first winter away, mean that there was quite a bit of re-decoration and some bubbly plaster! 

New school for our biggest girl, she started today and enjoyed being the main topic of conversation in the Reception class. New job for me, which will start the week after next, I have worked for the company before as a freelancer so it won't be too different but it might be a strange being based in an office. 

I have lovely (old) friends and it's fun making coffee dates to catch up. There are new shops which has made the essential purchases easier to get and moving stairs, deliveries that arrive and well stocked shelves have not lost their novelty (yet). We're also excited about the well supplied petrol stations! 

beginning of the end

With only 5 days until we leave Malawi this is the end of the African adventure.

There are lots of mixed feelings, when we speak to friends in the UK it's exciting and when I imagine a life where everything works and journeys can be made recklessly without consideration of fuel I smile to myself. But we are leaving friends who have become part of our family and people we're only just getting to know I feel sad.

We have responsibilities here, some of our staff have jobs, some don't and they are all struggling with the economic climate. It's a tough time of year, malaria season is in full swing and the rains, while welcome and cooling wreak havoc with houses and roads.

We had one last weekend at the lake with friends and I had a curry night with girl friends and this evening we have a final ceilidh for Burn's night.

packing

Back home now and I am working through my blog retrospectively, please dear reader bear with me and I will cover the whole journey.  We had an amazing trip (6,400 km), which was relaxing although tiring. It was great to be away and a privilege to see so much of that part of Africa. 

Back home and we now have three and a half weeks to pack up the house and move the family back to the UK. In some ways we are ready to move back, this was always the plan and life here in Malawi has got more difficult and frustrating. Despite this we will miss friends and I will be sad to 'come home'. Our time here feels a bit like a giant holiday and now it's time to go back to the real world, but like the children in Narnia it's hard to know which one's real. 

up the coast

We drove from Swakopmund up the coast to Cape Cross. This is a desolate place, with little there apart from seals and fishermen. We saw lots of people going off fishing, mostly driving big 4x4 with three or four very long fishing rods on the front of the car. The lodge was (fortunately) a good distance away from the seal colony which was very smelly. We drove to the colony and watched the seals both in and out of the water, there were lots of young pups, many of them dead having been trampled by other seals. The kids seemed unconcerned by the dead pups and the smell, it was also incredibly noisy! Back at the hotel we had a lovely afternoon playing on the beach. 

By the sea

We arrived in Swakopmund late afternoon and after a quick pizza everyone got an early night. The next day we set off to explore the town. What better place to start than the museum? There were great displays on the culture and history of Namibia as well as an amazing natural history collection, we particularly liked the 'dead' ostrich with babies. The town felt like a European seaside resort, this was reinforced by the chilly temperature! Our hotel was right on the beach so we enjoyed digging in the sand. We had an amazing dinner overlooking the sea, everyone had seafood (obviously!).

Climbing Dunes

The next morning the alarm went off at 5am so that we could reach the gates of the Namib Desert by sunrise (when they open). The drive to the gates gave us a great view of some of the dunes and as the light changed so did the view. Once inside the park we drove along 60km of tar road and for many visitors this is as far as they go. We had been advised to drive over the sand and to climb a dune called ‘Big Mama’. Driving on sand is fine so long as you don’t stop. The track was quite busy and when the car in front of us stopped we had to stop too and we couldn’t get going again. The doc and I got out and had a look. One wheel was well and truly stuck. Our friends (driving just in front) hadn’t noticed that we were stuck and drove on. We tried digging the sand away from the wheel, without much success. A kind driver of a tour vehicle stopped to see if we needed some help. He offered to tow us out. We eventually located the tow rope and clips and he quickly got us out and we were off, we didn’t stop again!

Climbing Big Mama was great fun, our eldest managed the climb easily, the youngest had a helping hand. At the top we stopped for photographs and water and then took our shoes off and raced down the dune. The sand felt lovely between my toes and we all enjoyed the journey down.

Next stop Swakopmond at the coast.

Into the Desert

We had a hearty breakfast and made an early start, leaving Windhoek before ‘rush-hour’ began. The drive into the city had been through mountains but on leaving we were fairly quickly onto gravel roads and a very different landscape. The gravel roads are hard driving and can be very dangerous (some insurance companies have disclaimers relating to the gravel roads). The navigation was interesting, one of the ‘d roads’ wasn’t there, we could see where he turning might have been but there was no sign of the road. One of the towns marked on the map was not recognised by the sat nav, when we passed through it we could see why, it was just a collection of buildings and a bottle store.

Driving through the desert was amazing. The children were frustrated playing eye spy as there was only sky and sand and road! We arrived at Hoodia Lodge, a beautiful building surrounded by mountains in the middle of the desert. It was very hot. Our friends went to watch the sunset from a secluded spot, we got the children to bed early and watched the sunset while cleaning out the fridge (the eggs had smashed!).

Not Camping

The next day we drove to Windhoek this was our first night not under canvas, we thought that we’d do it in style and stayed at the Hilton. The rooftop pool was a wonderful relief after the drive. The staff didn’t bat an eyelid when we turned up in very dirty vehicles with piles of dirty laundry! We had planned two nights in Windhoek but the itinerary changed when we decided to squeeze in a trip to see the red dunes. This meant that we saw little of the city but the next day would prove to be worth the adjustment.

Time for a tour of the ‘van’. The double cab is cosy with very limited legroom for the passenger (me) and only just enough space in the back for legs of those sitting in car seats. Above the cab is a roof top tent, we saw lots of these on our journey; they’re very simple and unfold into a comfortable tent with a double mattress. It’s well ventilated and we preferred sleeping in this part. Behind the cab is the ‘camper’. The roof of this opens up and the sides expand outwards and two beds fold down, one is single the other almost double sized, these beds sit atop cupboards. Tent flaps fold down at the back and front to keep rain and mosquitoes out. This is not completely waterproof so there is an awning that goes over the top, we risked some nights without the awning but out it up most nights. The two tents connect to each other because our roof top tent was on sideways with a ladder over the bonnet of the car and a door opposite the door into the camper.

And there are cupboards in the sides, for food, bedding and stuff. The kitchen area pulls out with storage for pans, crockery and the gas cylinders.