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