cof

A COF is a Certificate of Fitness. All cars need one each year and the correct disc in the windscreen is a legal requirement and failure to have the right one results in an on the spot fine.

 

Having been ill for the first 10 days back in Malawi I missed that the cof was overdue on our big car (known as the beast) this means that we can’t drive it until we get the paperwork sorted. The cof can take a few days to sort out and this is made more complicated by a new law which requires new number plates on all vehicles, the price of these has already gone up and so we are without the beast.

 

This is particularly frustrating as this weekend I had 13 gap year students arrive in Malawi and usually ferrying them around is easy with 2 cars, but more difficult with just one small one!

real africa

I feel like a real African adventurer as I have now experienced malaria.

 

The doc and his cohorts are all finding it an interesting case as I was on prophylaxis and we had been in the UK for eight weeks before I showed any symptoms. I suffered for 2 weeks, we tried two malaria tests in that time and they both showed negative. A friendly doctor friend suggested trying antibiotics so we tried two different sorts. The doc did some blood tests, I think the results were quite impressive as he was much more sympathetic after that! He did a second lot of bloods and after a lot of time at the microscope spotted 1 malaria parsite! The local treatment had amazing results and I feel so much better. I expect that I am probably still anaemic and I am not quite ready to play tennis again but I can get through the day without going to bed and have had no fevers since starting treatment.

 

I have never felt so ill, or for such a long time. Continuous fevers are really quite de-habilitating. The knock on effects are being behind on work and the household is pretty chaotic.

home cooking

I had forgotten just how much convenience food we eat in the UK. I would claim to be someone who cooks quite a lot and do cook from scratch but here in Malawi it really is cooking from scratch and the unreliability of power means that we don’t keep much in the freezer. There’s also a lack of snacky things, the biscuits are either grim or expensive and there’s no bought cake. Getting over nasty virus I crave nice food that requires little preparation and our cupboards have nothing suitable. It’s tomato soup and nice yogurts and tasty things to tempt me to eat that I am missing. Oh and I forgot to bring back any jelly babies, we do have chocolate but it’s not that sort of illness!

back home

Our flight home was ok, this was the first time we had flown back to Malawi via Johannesburg which is an 11 hour night flight and definitely better than lots of shorter flights when we have flown the cheaper route (via Nairobi or Addis). We managed to spread the sleeping children over 3 seats and I found a spare seat so we all got a bit of sleep. The stop at Jo’burg airport was nice and there were quite a few friends also returning to Blantyre all enjoying a last latte or cappuccino!

 

The contrasts between here and home are much more noticeable when you first arrive back. We were amused by the “customer service” at Jo’burg airport when the lady checking our passports carried on a conversation with her friend the whole time she was serving us! The chaos of Blantyre airport felt worse than usual, there weren’t enough trollies and most of us had more luggage than we could carry and the space is not big enough and it’s a hot building. Once you get your trolley loaded you have to steer it around the guys who are all wanting to help and who pretend not to understand “no”.

 

The first few days back are always spent organising things, there’s often things that can’t be done until others have been completed. So the car battery was flat but we couldn’t charge it until we had more electricity, we couldn’t get more electric until we got cash organised and then there was a delay as the electric co. had problems with their computers!

home James

After more than 8 weeks away it’s time to head home. I miss normal life, with some time when kids are at school/nursery and time to do exercise and time alone. It’s been lovely to see friends and family and I’d much prefer to stay here and settle down but as we’re homeless I am ready to head back for the last leg of our adventure.

a good guest

We are coming to the end of our UK trip and will be returning ‘home’ soon. We’ve had a great time and it’s so lovely to see lots of family and friends. We have stayed in over 12 different places so far and have another two to go. We’ve tried to be good guests, not creating too much havoc and doing some of the shopping, cooking and washing up and remembering how it is from the other side – we’ve had lots of visitors in our house in Malawi and try to do the things we appreciated.

 

We have hired 5 different cars, in ever decreasing size as we reduce the amount of luggage we are lugging around the country and try to stick to our budget!

 

 

 

narnia

We have enjoyed the latest film from the Narnia series on DVD and I think I know how Lucy felt, our life back in Malawi feels a bit like Narnia, such a long way away and slightly dream-like and not quite real. We have been back in the UK for almost 6 weeks with 3 to go. We have stayed in five different places already and about to do another three next week, and then repeat the venues that we’ve already done. It’s not as complicated as it sounds but the kids take a few nights to settle into each place.