never a dull moment....

Hello everyone.........what a week!

All was going well on Monday when we had a visit at school from the District Social Welfare Officer to tell us that we were having an official visit from the Ministry of Gender on Tuesday - no other information was given.

The following day a car arrived and two ladies got out - I welcomed the first one and the second lady just stayed back which I thought was strange, so I went out to welcome her and she just looked at me! Then she took her glasses off, and I realised it was a friend from the Ministry! What a lovely surprise. Here she is in my office - I was interviewed regarding the Pre-school curriculum in Malawi and how it can be improved! We had a lovely meeting.

On Wednesday, I was supposed to have a study day but it didn't quite work out. I had a visit from a teacher who used to work with us, to show me her new baby called Jolly - only a week old!! Isn't he lovely.
On Thursday morning one of our trainers from Ekwendeni Presbytery came with two caregivers from a school in Ekwendeni to see how we do things and to learn from us. They had a good visit, here you can see them with Teacher Banda who is showing them some of the equipment we have.

Teacher Violet on the right is explaining something from the Toddlers class.

Thursday was another day of interviews - I had a call from a friend at the University of Malawi in Zomba to ask if I would be willing to be interviewed about the training course that is currently available in Malawi for Early Childhood Development, and to discuss how we could move forward in ECD. It was great to see both of them and I invited them for dinner that evening. Here you can see Foster on the left, myself, the driver, and Khama.

Friday, I had to go to Lilongwe with Nicolas and on the way there were many obstacles on the road - goats, bicycles, cattle, and even a small child of about a year old who ran out in front of us, and thankfully we missed her. Here you can see a lorry being loaded with Tobacco to go to the auctions - this is a common site this time of the year.

Coming up from Lilongwe we pass over the Viphya which used to have one of the largest forest plantations in Africa. As you can see the road is beautiful, but deforestation is happening at an amazing rate.

Common sites along the roadside are like this picture of wood waiting to be transported to somewhere...

Minibus transport is common - someone has obviously bought a new bicycle to take home!

Matola is also common - no road safely issues here!!

Colourful roadside markets on the way from Lilongwe.

Once again this week, we have had some excitement with livestock. On Friday we found these bees in the tree just outside my office window at school. We phoned the Wildlife people to see how to deal with them especially since we had 70 kids inside. However, it was really interesting - they just moved off before the men came!

Friday in Mzuzu there was a lot of excitement - we got news that an elephant had killed a man - in Mzuzu!! Yes, apparantly a bull elephant was on the loose from Vwaza which is quite a distance from Mzuzu. It killed a man, and then was shot by some of the wildlife folk within Mzuzu. Not something I would like to meet walking up the street!! There is some talk of elephant steak available this weekend in the city!!

Weather has been lovely this week. Just a few sunsets to finish off with...

No study done this week - not a minute to myself - I am really hoping for elastic time this coming week!

Hope you have a great week, wherever you are!

Blessings

Diane

fun at work...and lifestock in the garden

Hello and greetings from a beautiful sunny day in Mzuzu. Its been a great week at the workshop. We had 16 participants representing 14 Presbyteries and they were all giving presentations about the work happening in the field.

On the first morning we had the Education Secretary to open the workshop (unfortunately I didn't take a photo), but on the second morning we had the Acting Deputy Education Secretary Mrs Miriam Gausi who led our devotion.

The workshop was very practical and participatory - the participants were making materials and discussing problems in the field. Here you can see our trainer in Mzalangwe Presbytery with Matthew her 11 month old son who gave us great amusement all through the workshop.
In our school in Mzuzu, we are privileged to have a teacher with a gift for reading and telling stories, so I asked her to come along and share with the trainers how to tell a story - I think she was named appropriately, as her first name is Gift!

You can see Fiona in among the trainers - she is learning what Early Childhood Development in Malawi is all about - I think she enjoyed the workshop and learned much about our work.

Kamoza gave us some examples from Bandawe Presbytery where he is the trainer.

and Forster, who has the big responsibilty of looking after 2 Presbyteries - Misuku and Chitipa in the very northern part of the country, shares his experiences with the rest of the group.



Enala, who you have seen many times and is based here in Mzuzu Prebytery, was sharing some thoughts with the others.

One afternoon we were doing practical activies that are useful in nursery school and so we went to the church ground and did some games (one of which is on the top picture). Here, you can see the audience - the kids were wondering why these adults were playing children's games!!

And of course, the Early Childhood Co-ordinator had lots to talk about...........

The workshop ended on Wednesday afternoon and as you can see everyone was very happy, taking lots of materials and thoughts back to the Presbyteries. All of these trainers are volunteers and they do such an amazing job only because they love children and want to see things improve in the lives of those children. I wonder how many of us would do the same for our children??

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we had a workshop for directors in Mzuzu who know nothing about ECD. One of those present came and asked if we could help her and her caregivers to learn something more about ECD. So, on Saturday morning, I went with Nicolas and Enala to our school and we had some lessons which proved really interesting and informative for all. Here you can see Enala discussing child centred approach with the caregivers.

and Nicolas explaining what Early Childhood Development is.

On another note completely, the last few weeks in the garden I have noticed these lovely orb spiders building amazing webs (they are so strong that many insects are often caught in them). On the roof just outside my door is this lovely specimen.

The garden is full of lovely trees like this one.

If you look closely you can see an enormous web (not really visible here)

and if you look more closely this is what you see!! Apparently they have poisonous venom but its not too harmful to humans. I am not going to go too close to find out.

Wishing you a good week.

Blessings

Diane x

training and stuff....

Hello everyone, hope you are having a good day!

Its been a good week - no elephants in sight, got my assignment finished and sent (mind you by the end of it I was so fed up reading it that it may not make any sense, but its been sent!). Have to start the next one now!

Today we had the usual Sunday without the most precious commodity on earth - water! Almost every Sunday we have no water all day - why? I don't know!! Its fine when you remember to keep some spare!

and.....when the water is off, so is the electricity.....
...it always makes me thankful to have water and light when they come back on in the evening!

Our school project will hopefully begin the next stage in a couple of weeks - we now have enough money for the roofing part, and its exciting to watch it grow, even if it is slowly. Here you can see the progress so far.

outside front (the washing line must belong to the watchman!)

....inside

and from the other side

Guess who standing in what will be the entrance

This coming week, we have a workshop for 3 days with the trainers who are working in the Presbyteries helping the caregivers in the Early Childhood Centres. The trainers all arrived today and are really happy to see each other - its been two years since they were all together! I reckon there will not be much sleep tonight.

During the week, I have been trying to plan the programme, making sure everything is in place. Fiona helped with a lot of cutting out and stapling together which was great. Part of the workshop will be making materials and my house will have a lot more room in it after the workshop I hope! Thanks to all who sent training boxes in the container. Here you can see some of the piles of stuff in my house...

As the trainers arrived this afternoon I was on hand to greet them - it was a lot of fun!!

Here are four of the 5 men we have ..

and the ladies...........

I hope it will be a successful week - we have a full programme beginning at 8am and maybe finishing late in the evening. I am looking forward to hearing all about what is happening in the field, and we will be introducing Fiona to everyone and hopefully giving her insight into the work she is becoming involved in!

I hope you have light and water wherever you are today. Wishing you a great week.

Blessings

Diane

PS Comments are appreciated, its shows someone reads this!!

Easter with the elephants!!

Hello and a very Happy Easter season to you all! Today we had our Easter morning service in church from 7am - it only lasted 3 hours as we celebrated the risen Christ! All week there have been services in our church and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday there are 3 different services one after the other. The church this morning was packed!

This week has been quite hectic as usual. On Tuesday I took Fiona to Lilongwe, we stayed overnight and did some essential shopping on Wednesday before returning to Mzuzu. The traffic and driving in Lilongwe is horrendous when used to the quiet roads of the north so it was a pleasure to see Mzuzu again!

On my return I found this little friend on the doorstep - I think he lives somewhere around - no idea what he is but he seems harmless so I just let him be!

Sandra, our German volunteer had our last day with us on Thursday and the teachers and some parents organised some gifts for her as she has been so good with the children. The children and the staff will really miss her - she taught them some new songs and games and really enjoyed interacting with our children.




As part of Fiona's orientation and also Sandra's farewell, we arranged to go to Vwaza marsh on Easter Saturday. This is about an hour and a half's drive north of Mzuzu. The reserve has a lot of buffalo, elephant, hippo and various antelepe such as roan, kudu and impala, and of course crocdiles in the river! We went with no expectations as it is still raining, grass is high, the water level is high which means that animals do not have to come to the water to drink.



On arrival around 7am we made some breakfast and then set out on a walk - it was a beautiful day. Not long after we started out we spotted a herd of elephant and watched them from a distance. They looked so beautiful and peaceful as they wandered to the water to drink and to bathe.


What a privilege to see such majestic animals enjoying their natural surroundings.


As we walked on we saw warthog, a few antelope, and many birds and butterflies for which malawi is known. It was a fabulous day. On our return walk by the river we met a group of elephant so our guide suggested moving up to the road to continue back to the camp. However as the grass was long and we moved through the bush, we heard the warning sound of an elephant and hastily retreated. We had to walk a long way back before being able to get onto the road. Just after we retreated from the bush, we saw another herd of elephant move down to the water.

Arriving back at camp hot and needing some water, it was almost lunchtime. We set up camp and got the gas stove on to cook our sausages. We laid out our food and dishes when Sandra spotted some elephant and baboon a few yards from us. Seeing they were coming in our direction, I suggested that we move further into the camp where there are small huts made of grass. We packed quickly and moved to a hut. Again, we set up lunch and sat down to enjoy our food. Sandra froze, and said there is an elephant - and sure enough coming quickly toward us was not one elephant but a herd of elephant only a few yards away. We left everything (including the whistling kettle which we had just put on the stove) and moved swiftly into the grass hut. Our prayer life suddenly became very active!!!

The elephants came all around us - sniffed at the food and sniffed at the tent. The girls were sort of laughing nervously and I told them to keep quiet - we prayed that the whistling kettle would not boil! The elephants continued to sniff and then moved on......we thought!!

I went outside and there was the rumble of the warning noise from an elephant obviously in the bush in front of our hut. I quickly retreated - meanwhile the kettle was getting near boiling point. I made a decision to go out and grab the kettle and switch off the gas. As I did it, again the growling sound from the bushes..........

We stayed quietly inside and suddenly there was crashing of water (as if there was a herd of elephants in the water!!), and yes, there was a herd of elephants who were splashing around and then crossed the river. Still, the noise was coming from the bush - one elephant was still near us.

We watched through the straw of our hut as many elephant crossed the river. Suddenly from the bush came a lone elephant who just walked majestically in front of us and followed his friends. We were glad to see them go.....

As I explained to Sandra and Fiona, wild animals are so unpredictable - I am glad I am here to tell the tale - it could have been a very different ending. We thank God for the opportunity to witness such incredible sites in nature.

Sandra leaves on Wednesday and she will have some wonderful stories and pictures to share with friends in Germany.

Study has gone by the way this week but I am hoping to have more time during this in coming week.

I hope by now everyone in N Ireland who had no power has been connected again - I am sure it was not easy for people who are not used to such inconveniences. It may encourage you to think about people in parts of the work for whom power is a luxury!

With that thought, I wish you a wonderful elephant free week!

Blessings and love from Diane