banking

After almost 3 years I have worked out the secret of a pleasant banking experience here in Malawi. Never try and do banking errands in a hurry, approach relaxed with plenty of time. Greet everyone on the way in, complete the forms (with duplicate paper) standing at the desk (not in the queue while holding bags etc, it always leads to errors); join the queue and enjoy the air conditioning and BBC news on the TV. This is also a good time to catch up on text messages. Greet the teller before handing over the slips. Keep smiling as you leave.

And the total in my cheque book agrees with what the bank says, a balanced book is very satisfying!

lonely

Our youngest and I are adapting to life with only half the family. We had a busy weekend with some challenging behaviour and drawn out bedtime as well as sleeping badly. Tonight bedtime went better thanks to the arrival of a new friend. We got a parcel from a fairy godmother, which included a new doll who has done everything with us, from lunch to watching swimming and brushing teeth and is now snuggled up in bed. The parcel was posted in March, apparently it arrived in June but we never had a receipt so it wasn’t collected, but the arrival today was perfect!

nov

This month has proved to be a bit too busy. Usually Oct is the month for bugs but this year the season is still catching up so it’s now! Colds and runny tummies abound.

 

I have just packed my daughter’s bags for a journey I’m not going on. She’s going to the UK with the doc for a hernia op. Our youngest had the same op last year here in Malawi, but the surgeon who did that one is not around. They will be gone 10 days which is going to be tough.

 

We have started selling our possessions, here in Blantyre we have a lady who has a large mailing list and will advertise any goods for sale (for a fee) so I have spent the last 48 hours fielding calls about stuff for sale. It’s amazing which items generate lots of interest and which will be slower to sell.

nellie the elephant

.. if only it was that easy – to pack my trunk and leave! We have begun the tedious job of packing and sorting again. I have pasted one of my very early blogs (April 2009) below because it is so true for this move as well as the last.

 

“Life is a rather peculiar mix of spending as much time with friends, seeing friends for the last time and packing up the house. If you know anyone who would like to rent a delightful 3 bed cottage next door to the village pub please let us know! We would all prefer to be with our friends but there is still an awful lot to do at the house.”

 

We have 3 months before we return but one month will be spent travelling over Christmas so it’s really only 2 months to do all of the above. Only this time I am looking for someone who wants to rent a lovely 6 bed house and employ an awful lot of lovely staff, a gorgeous dog and 10 chickens. I am also selling an obscene amount of toys, furniture and two cars. I am not enjoying any part of the sorting selling experience. We are selling things that we had intended to bring back and it’s difficult to set a fair price and be available for people to come and look at and discuss the sales! And it’s far too hot to do anything apart from find a swimming pool and jump in!

hot

The hot season is a bit late, but it’s arrived. It took us by surprise and the kids have colds which seems all wrong when it’s so hot!

 

The fuel situation is getting worse, there is almost no petrol or diesel and any fuel that arrives causes queues and chaos. It’s beginning to affect businesses and fairly soon we expect that food prices will rise.

 

We have some petrol left in our small car but we are trying to decide which journeys we should make and which trips or events to miss. There are rumours upon rumours about what is causing the problem and it’s difficult to tell what is the real reason.

bit chilly

October should be one of the hottest months of the year. Usually we spend afternoons at this time of year in the swimming pool but it’s hard to persuade us into the water, because it’s so chilly. It’s wonderful - we’re sleeping soundly (under our duvet) and the kids have energy and are playing outside without the paraphernalia of sun hats and sun cream.

 

The downside is we keep getting caught out. The photo shows mermaid and fish outfits that I made, assuming that the party would be a hot afternoon spent on a water slide! The girls were fine and very pleased with the sparklie-ness of their costumes!

quiet weekend

So a quiet weekend in the middle of a normal week. We were out to dinner on Fri night. Looking after a friend’s daughter on Sat while they moved house, I went along to another friend’s for goodbye drinks and a dance performance at the Blantyre Arts Festival. Today was church followed by scones with friends and a 2 hours queue for fuel. The fuel was amazing as my phone was in the car on silent and I remembered it just before a friend called to say there was diesel at a petrol station on the other side of town. The queue wasn’t big and our friends were still there.

 

Watching friends pack up and leave makes us realise just how much we have to do before we leave Malawi in Feb. But by starting I would be admitting that we’re really going and I’d rather ignore that. I can understand now why others have said no to goodbye parties/events it’s much easier just to slip away quietly.