PMT

This is a different sort of PMT, it happens every Thursday and I look forward to it, I am not sure how I will manage without it when we go abroad. I may start a Malawi franchise. PMT stands for Prayers, Mums and Toddlers and it's made up of a great group of girls, who are all mums, have toddlers and need to pray. We also study a book together, one chapter a week.

Being a mum is hard but it would be so much more difficult without the girls. We make each other meals when babies are born, we played netball (for fun), there's always someone who has time for a coffee, between us we can loan any piece of baby or child equipment or clothes. There's always spare wipes or nappies or pants in case you forget to bring spares and there's someone who cares about your children and how many hours sleep you had. We try to pray for each other during the week and it makes the week easier.

nothing new

We have actually begun packing. The crystal glasses and some of the nice crockery have been boxed and taken up to Scotland, these are things we can manage without (so why are we keeping them?). It must have been different when my great-grandmother set off for India. She travelled (by boat) to meet her fiance who was not allowed to marry until he had passed his local language exams. They married in India and lived there until she and 2 children came back to the UK just before the outbreak of World War I. I wonder how much luggage she took? and her journey would have taken a lot longer. It makes our 3 flights look paltry!

In fact I have plenty of ancestors who worked abroad, from missionaries to scientists and clergy. Jim Field pictured above left worked for the meteorological office in India; Thomas Pearne (above right) was a well known Methodist preacher in the USA. Communication for them would have been slower, no text or e-mail. News would have been old by the time it reached the family back in the UK. I wonder if the sort of news coming back will be different.

Do they sell marmite?

I have been reading about moving families abroad and discovered that our children will become "Third Culture Kids" (TCK). They will grow up in a culture that is not ours. They will actually be exposed to 3 different cultures ours (British), Malawi and a 3rd culture that is the community (from all over the world) living alongside us.

My only experience of TCK are the Americans who used to come to our school and they had a special shop where they could buy oreos and other essential American delicacies. Will we be able to buy marmite in Malawi? For our toddler, the world is divided into those who like it and those who don't! She assures me that her little sister likes it.

Nancy Blackett

Ever since my dad first read us Swallows and Amazons my hero has been Nancy Blackett. Her real name is Ruth and she is fearless, an enterprising leader and a good sailor. I am neither fearless or a good sailor - my sailing instructor on Lake Windemere told me that I had a "wiggly wake". And I am beginning to realise that I am not as adventurous as I think I am. Going off to Africa with 2 kids sounded easy enough, until I started writing a big list of everything we need to do before we go!

However, I was recently reminded by a wise woman that I should not be concentrating on all the worries and fears about travelling to and living in Africa, but we should remember that this is an amazing opportunity for an awesome adventure. An adventure which Nancy would have faced with no fear!

Pincushions

We have been making some progress in getting ready to move abroad. One job we can now tick off the list is our consultation at the travel clinic. This took about an hour and we now know that there are about 17 injections between us! That's only 8 inoculations but some have 3 doses, I think we may feel like pincushions at the end of it. The nurse spent a lot of time explaining that none of the vaccines would prevent these nasty disease so we need to keep an eye out for the symptoms.

We will have to make a start with the injections soon as some need to be given 3 months before we go and it looks like we could be on the move within 4 months. We have been quietly pottering along, talking about our move and suddenly there is a lot to do, this thing is gaining momentum.

All Our Stuff

It sounds easy. Organise to ship what we might need for 3 years to Malawi and persuade family and friends to store the rest of our belongings. But there is a lot of stuff that is neither useful or beautiful; things that reflect our life, places we have visited, lived, people we have known and lived alongside. Maybe we have just accumulated more than other people. I am envious of friends who have unclutered homes, which must be easier to tidy. They would find moving abroad easier too.

Really, we don't need very much and I am longing to live with less and to be able to say that I can live without all my stuff, to turn my back on consumerism. Apparently a 40 ft container should be big enough to send the necessities to Blantyre. Our life condensed into 683 cubic feet.

there will be no more colds

There are some things that I will not miss about life in the UK and colds is one of them. Apparently we get less colds in hot climates because the viruses don't function so well in the heat. Our youngest has the delightful habit of being sick when she gets a cold; of course there are plenty of other things that can make her throw up and I am sure we will experience many of them.

I imagine that life will be simpler in Africa. We will have less stuff, the decision about what to wear will be easier as there will be less options. Explaining this to a two year old who has strong views on her outfits may not be simple. The shopping will be done daily or every few days as food won't keep as long. I am not sure how reliable the power is so we may have to do some laundry by hand, something I have hereto only done with my delicate underwear (and even that was a long time ago). In some way it may be more like life in the UK was in the 1950s, only hotter.