our house

Or hoose as the Scots call it. Our house is enormous. There are 5 bathrooms so it’s good that I don’t have to clean them all. We have lots of space and fortunately most of the rooms have big cupboards for storage. There is a large khondi which is covered but open and leads from sitting room into the garden. The girls are enjoying the space to crawl and run where they like and the floors get cleaned regularly so they are slightly less grubby. The decor is interesting. Typically the skirting boards and doors are painted very dark and the floor is an amazing mix of blue and white and brown and white tiles and often they don’t match. The bathrooms are quite wacky too and there is a chandelier in the sitting room.

and the garden

Just so I can send another pic, of the garden this time. The garden is large with long thin terraces but they’re not too high. There are loads of fruit trees – guava, avocado and loads of mango. The gardener says that we will not be able to eat all the mangos! That sounds like a challenge. We still need to identify a suitable tree for the swing but the girls love having a dog-free garden.

miracles in Malawi

What an amazing week! Last Wed we got a phone call to say that our container had arrived in Blantyre. We didn’t get too excited as everyone is full of horror stories about how long it can take to get things through customs. But that afternoon paperwork complete we set the date for delivery as the following Mon. We couldn’t move sooner as we needed to sort staff and security for the house. Since then we have employed a housekeeper, a cook, a gardener and two security guys, they all turned up punctually this morning.

 

This morning I organised a tailor (who speaks no English) to measure up the windows, buy fabric and by the end of today he had made three lots of curtains. Our container was delivered this morning and everything unpacked. There is a lot still in boxes but tonight we will sleep in our own beds. I am very excited. For those of you not familiar with the African way this efficiency was a big surprise and we are just pleased that everything has gone so smoothly.

 

The girls are delighted to be reunited with their toys and every box we open has things that we had forgotten that we brought. Things got a bit exciting when I got back to the house with the children at 5.55pm and the power went off at 6pm. We were just about to string up the mosquito nets before the children’s bedtime at 6.30! we found a torch and some candles and managed to get things sorted. The power cut was only an hour but they do like to time them for that last hour of the kid’s day.

its arrived

I have been meaning to write a blog called waiting patiently. Because we have been waiting (not very patiently) for our container to arrive and had decided to move into our house before our stuff was due. But yesterday, we got a phone call to say that our container was in Blantyre. We didn’t get too excited as it can take weeks to go through customs but a few hours later it’s all sorted! We are very excited and hope to move into our house next week with all our things. This is perfect timing as our hosts arrive back next week and my sister comes to stay in just over two weeks. Thanks to all those who have been praying for our stuff to arrive, it really is amazing!

the grubby gang

I was warned about the dirt. But the children get so dirty here. There is a thin layer of dust everywhere and the floors are tiled so knees and socks get very grubby. Children who fall over come up black. And our youngest has decided (at last) to crawl so she is permanently grubby. (incidentally she has also decided to walk too when there is someone to hold her hands). Then there are the sandpits. Our favourite cafe known as the park cafe has a play area (there are no parks here) with a sand pit and you can see that it’s dirt rather than yellow sand. At least someone else is doing the laundry and ironing. Everything has to be ironed because there are beasties that lay eggs on the washing, then these hatch while you are wearing the clothes and they burrow under your skin (nice) so all clothes are ironed or tumble dried so that the heat can kill the insects.

posh hotel

We had a trip out today, to Zomba. This is just over an hours drive away and looks like Scotland. We could have been back home, there is a lake surrounded by pine trees and apparently the lake is full of trout! The road winds up the mountain and at the top there is an amazing hotel, where we had coffee. The hotel is luxurious and the gardens beautiful. It was tranquil and a huge contrast to the villages that we passed through on our way there.

road trip pt 2

The journey to Zomba was lovely, we had time to look at the countryside and the villages that we passed through. I love the roadside stalls, different areas specialise in different goods and they are all beautifully presented. But it is the piles of tomatoes that I like best. The tomatoes taste as good as they look. We did stop to buy some strawberries at the roadside – our first foray into roadside shopping. We knew that we were being fleeced but when you’re only talking about a couple of pounds it doesn’t seem worthwhile haggling and the poverty here is so real.