FW: someone elses house

 

Some very kind friends have lent us their house (and cook and gardener) for the whole of August, while they are in the UK. They have also lent us a car. I am in the lovely position of having nothing to do. Cooking, cleaning and laundry are all done for us. All I have to do is look after children. We have managed to borrow some extra toys from another doctor family.

 

It is strange living in someone else’s house and we are getting used to having staff in the house. I am looking forward to our things arriving, and having our stuff and internet access at home. The container is due to arrive in Mozambique next week and will take another two to four weeks after that. We have found a house (with many rooms) which is in a good location although the decor is interesting! We had hoped that the re-painting was going to be in our choice of white but that would cost more and we would have to foot the bill!

 

The photo shows the lovely house we are staying in and the girls enjoying the trampoline

another pic

Due to technical difficulty (and enormous frustration) of not having internet at home the last post only had one of the promised photos, so here’s the other one. I need our container to arrive soon so that we can start living with our own stuff, move into our house and get internet!

marmite again

They do have marmite! For all those who were worried marmite and many other familiar things are easily available. At a price. Obviously anything imported is expensive, we paid £16 for a pack of nappies although I am hoping not to use too many as I have borrowed some washable ones until ours arrive. However we do have lots of eggs, courtesy of the 21 chickens at the bottom of the garden! I am not sure that we are going to be able to eat enough eggs to keep up with them. Chickens is on our list of things to get once we have our house.

 

 

road trip

We decided that rather than get on another plane we would drive to Blantyre, apparently a 3 hour journey. It took all day to organise car hire and then we ended up with a driver and paying almost double the agreed amount for fuel! Anyway, we were collected at 9 o’clock prompt and set off. After about half an hour the driver took a call on his mobile and announced that he had set off without one of the tax disks he needed. There were 5 disks stuck to the windscreen but apparently we needed another one. We turned around and then got stopped by the police in Lilongwe. There was a lot of discussion but we set off again in another direction and ended up on the Blantyre road. A few minutes later we pulled into a petrol station and got the disk. We set off again. About 12 o’clock we passed through Dedza a place I remembered from the book as being just outside Lilongwe. I asked the driver how much further it was. Another two and a half hours he replied! About an hour later we were stopped by the police for speeding. Our driver got out to negotiate the fine and we stretched our legs and made small talk with the locals who came over to chat. Our driver returned pleased that he had only paid 2/3 of the original fine and we settled down for a long drive.

life in brown paper

24^th June 2009: Our possessions are all wrapped in brown paper. The packers arrived at 8.10 this morning and look like they may have finished by lunchtime. All we do is tell them what needs to go and make endless cups of tea and coffee! After weeks of worrying and sorting and a few late nights we now have nothing to do.

 

Anyway, it’s starting to feel like an adventure. Last week was stressful but now it feels like the morning of your wedding, when you can’t do anything about what’s not done you just have to go for it. The container arrives tomorrow and that should be on its way by lunchtime (if the driver turns up on time). It will take 6 to 8 weeks to get to Malawi, the tricky bit is getting it through customs and to our house.

under the stairs

Now that we are finally here I have had time to catch my breath to think about what this move means, something that maybe I have avoided until now. A bit like the cupboard under the stairs, you don’t want to open it because you’re not sure what might fall out. Anyway, we are here for three years and it will probably fly by. There is so much to worry about here, is the water OK to drink or brush our teeth with? What about salad? Will we get bitten by mosis if we go out in the evening? Life has a different pace here. Nothing happens quickly. It can take all day to organise car hire. And just going on a 5 minute journey can turn into an adventure that takes all morning!

Lilongwe

We had a long drive from the airport, but as we were in separate cars we couldn't comment to each other about what we saw! We passed the big tobacco factory and other industrial sites. Most of the buildings are single storey. After a quick shower and a snooze we walked along the road towards the shops. We were obviously of interest to passersby, I'm not sure if it was because we were visitors or walking with a pushchair. The only other pushchairs that we saw were in the hotel. Children tend to be carried strapped to their mothers. There are very few pavements, pedestrians walk along the side of the road and it's rough going with regular drainage ditches.