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!