lazy sun afternoon

After church (hot and lively) we enjoyed full Sunday roast lunch on the veranda for 8 with Yorkshire puds followed by ice cream and millionaire’s shortbread. Our youngest was demonstrating her independence by going to the toilet alone, as she can (at last) with the aid of a step reach the taps, and we didn’t realise that she had left a tap running so came inside to find floods from one bathroom all the way down to our bedroom (shows just how much the floor slopes!). At weekends our staff are all off so we had to get the mops out as well as clearing up the lunch. This was followed by another ant infestation! The doc is becoming a little bit obsessed by the war on ants and spends time tracing the entry points and exterminating them with copious amounts of chemicals.

at school

All back to school after a couple of days of nasty colds. It was lovely dropping the kids off, a bit late as they had a good long sleep last night, the school was very peaceful place this morning. I heard today that one of the reception teachers had died this week, not sure what from, but it reminds us that this is a country where mortality is high even amongst the younger population.

 

My work is very cyclical at the moment, some weeks are quite busy and others are quieter. The exhibition project is ticking along and we are about to produce some prototype hands on activities which will be trialled in the community it will be interesting to see what people make of the proposed giant mosquito! I have some more editing work which easily fits around the kids, the reports themselves are quite interesting although they make my punctuation & grammar look amazing! My students all seem to be settling down but I think even after a month and a half aspects of life here take them by surprise. They are living in quite basic accommodation with 10,000 MK (about £40) per month for everything except their accommodation, although they were shocked when we realised that the ladies who work on the tills at Shoprite earn about 5 – 7,000 MK (£20-28) and they will be paying rent and some school fees from that. Costs are all going up and there’s still problems over fuel which means that they may go up more.

camping with elephants

Just had very relaxing weekend camping at one of the national parks. This particular campsite is well known for the elephants that wander through, so I was a little nervous. However it’s green season so all wildlife was well away from the camp and the roads that we drove along. In fact we only saw 1 elephant the whole weekend.

 

We went with two other families with kids similar ages so it was very relaxing. We had sundowners watching the hippos and admired the stars and full moon on the way back. The kids were too excited to get much sleep and the light woke them very early! Our eldest is off school this morning, with a combination of heavy cold and exhaustion!

home

Generally life in Malawi muddles along much like life anywhere else. We have started planning our visit back to the UK and I am now feeling homesick and very much missing friends and family. It was ok until we started to think about when to come back and for how long and looking at events that we might be around for, I’m also bracing myself for my first solo spot out here, when the doc returns to the UK for 2 weeks at the end of March.

Here are the three girls (I have been 1 of 3 girls for a long time)

breaking news

Malawi has made international news for something other than farting & gay rights. There were demonstrations planned in Lilongwe today but they have been broken up by police, who arrested protesters and have fired shots. Please pray.

http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/malawi-demo-to-go-ahead-despite-police-refusal.html

I’m sure that my mum is relieved that we’re not in Lilongwe but it’s a tricky one, if we were would I be there? I believe that we should support the people who live here but by doing so we could jeopardise the reason that we’re here. I always thought that if I had lived in the early 1900s I would have been campaigning with the suffragettes for the right to vote. Here the issue is about the use of forex (foreign currency) and transparency.

drifting

We often feel like we’re drifting, not really sure where home is. For the kids life is here in Malawi and the doc’s work is here but for me I couldn’t say. We’re discussing our annual visit back to the UK due July & Aug but which could include all of June too (for me and the kids). It feels like I have to choose, but on what basis? What’s best for me or the kids or the family or financially? Too many choices and like most decisions we’ll muddle through.

 

I am particularly tired this week after a busy time working with a colleague from the UK on a small exhibition project, which is very exciting and been great fun but I will be looking forward to a quiet week where I can do some editing and lots of household stuff and cutting/sticking with the kids.