joys and sorrows...

Hello again, and I hope you all had a very happy Christmas!  I had a lovely Christmas day, we had a church service which lasted almost 3 hours (better than some in the city that lasted 5 hours!). It was a good celebration of Jesus birth with the children doing a nativity drama which was great!

Christmas in Malawi is not the commercial hype that we find in the UK, however the shops in Mzuzu in the couple of days before Christmas were packed out with people buying foodstuffs!!  The Santa thing and giving presents doesn't really happen here which is great!!!  People usually eat rice if they can afford it on Christmas day and they have chicken with it or goat, so there were many goats and chickens being slaughtered all around!

After church the fun began - I had invited some friends to have a BBQ in the garden as it was a really hot sunny day.  Unfortunately there was no wind so we had to create our own draught!!  It didn't take too long to get it going and we had so much food.....no turkey  but chicken, sausages, burgers and lots of salads, followed by a pineapple tart, lemon meringue pie and fruit salad.......

The children had fun blowing up  balloons and playing games........not only the children I might add!!

doesn't Bongiwe look cute cute with her green halo!

and this is Asimenye the baby I helped to deliver about 6 months ago

 We played some good old fashioned games like hide and seek, pass the parcel and the one which caused most hilarity - pin the tail on the donkey!!

This was almost the whole group.....the joys of Christmas time!!

Then came the sorrows.  For those of you who have not known me since I came to Malawi, I was once engaged to a lovely guy called Fred.  Even though our relationship broke up we continued to be good friends, and I would say Fred was my closest friend. He was there for me in times of joy and sorrow, we shared love and laughter, and he was an amazing musician.  For those of you who have known me for a long time you may have met Fred - in fact he visited Ireland about 11 years ago.

On 27th December, I received a message that he had died.....well my heart almost stopped too.  Even today I am struggling to believe it.  He had not been feeling well and he was rushed to the hospital but he died.  His funeral was on 28th December but I did not manage to go because of distance (its about a 10 hour drive to his home).  Spare a thought for his family, his two brothers and sister who are left  behind and their families.  Please also pray for me that I will find peace in my heart to deal with this shock.  I do hope to go and visit the family and see the grave sometime soon.

Taken about 8 years ago

I know that Christmas and New Year are not easy for everyone, but I do hope that the year 2012 will be a good one for you where ever you are.  I wish you God's blessings, love, joy, peace and hope for the coming months.


With love
Diane

Christmas is coming..........

Hello everyone

Well, holidays were well and truly over and it was back to work.......I got a phone call on the last day of my holidays to tell me I was expected to be in Mchinji (which is in the central region at the Zambian Border) for a workshop to refine the Early Childhood Syllabus on Monday morning.........but........there was no fuel in Mzuzu!  So, I decided to go on the bus on Sunday morning at 6am to Lilongwe and then get another bus to Mchinji.  But then on Sunday night around 8pm I heard there was fuel in Mzuzu, so a driver kindly got into the queue and at 12 midnight he arrived back with fuel, so I was able to drive (its about a 5 hour journey).  I left after church on Sunday and went through some amazing thunderstorms - or maybe I should say lightning storms which were quite terrifying!  I was glad to reach my destination safely.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent inside a room refining the syllabus - there were 8 of us and we had a trying time as the power kept going off and on the whole time.  We didn't get finished so have some homework to do.  I left on Thursday morning at 5am and the following pictures are of the lovely clouds, the fields as people begin to plant ,and the wonderful sunrise.

lovely cloud patterns after the rains

Everything turning green again

fields ready for planting - all hoed by hand - no tractors and ploughs here!

beautiful colours as the sun came up

Back in Mzuzu and school has already closed for Christmas.  The weather is not kind to me as my asthma has started playing up and this last week has been horrible - I think tomorrow I will go to the doctor and see if I can get some more medication.  The hot weather combined with the dampness does not agree with me!!

However, work goes on, and there is a training in Mzuzu which I am supervising and on Friday I went to see what was happening.  I was disappointed with the level of training and so on Saturday decided to assist - however due to my asthma I had to call Nicolas at the last minute to help out!

making glue from Cassava

It was extremely hot on Saturday, and at the place the training is taking place, there is not much shade so I did feel sorry for the participants as they were making glue and paint in the full afternoon sun!

This afternoon I went out to the garden to get some rhubarb, and was surprised to find lots of mushrooms growing - mind you its so damp and a bit humid so I should not be surprised - I don't think they are edible though so I will just leave them as they are!

Its good to see the avocado tree with lots of fruit  - lets hope they ripen nicely....

and the lemons are also doing well.  I have an orange tree too but didn't take any photos of the oranges.

So having gone out to get rhubarb, I came in with an avocado, some granadilla's (passion fruit) and a lot of parsley!!  Everything is growing so quickly these days with the heat and rains.  I also had a butternut squash but its not in the photo.

I also found this little fellow - a millipede or Bongololo as we call them here.  They are much larger than those you find in UK!  

In my house I have many gecko's - these two were making a lot of noise today but the flash from the camera scared them off!!

And so Christmas is almost upon us, and yet it doesn't feel like it here.  Its been quite hot and sticky and there is no Christmas hype or rush.......yet!  I decided to hang up some decorations that people have sent me over the years - I don't have a Christmas tree!  But my African nativity is the top picture of the blog this week!  And the Christmas Carols were blasting out today both from the piano and the CD's!

and I have many Christmas cards from all over the globe - thank you so much for your thoughtfulness if you are one of the people who sent me a card.  I have not sent any....... I usually make my own cards but this year I just have had no time and suddenly Christmas is here.  I will try to make up for it in the new year though!  Thanks also to some people who went to the trouble to send me a gift - very special and much appreciated!

When on my holidays I managed to finish this cushion cover which had been on hold for some time.  I am really quite pleased with the result!!

Things in the country are still not stable.  As I said above, fuel is the biggest challenge we face these days.  However, we are seeing knock on effects as many businesses are going bankrupt which is not easy for anyone.  Prices have increased dramatically since I came back from South Africa.  Today the price quoted is much lower than the price quoted tomorrow, so budgeting is a challenge for everyone. Some foodstuffs have literally doubled in price.  Please pray for our nation, for peace and stability, as people are now becoming angry with what is going on.  The kwacha (currency) may be devalued in the next week as well.  So all in all, not a good picture.

However, we have hope in knowing that Jesus is with us and I wish you all peace, joy and love during this Christmas and many blessings for the New Year, 2012.


Diane

a wee walk on the coast!

Hello everyone after a long silence,

I am just back from my well needed holiday - I went for a wee hike on the wild coast in South Africa and then spent some time with friends near Johannesburg.  I really needed a rest (and I needed another one after our hike) but it was really relaxing and just nice to get away from everything.  I thought I would share some of my photos - its a beautiful coastline north of East London.  I went with two German hikers who were great fun and we spent 5 days walking. We had Xhosa guides along the way who shared interesting stories with us. 

The coastline is rugged, and wild hence the name the 'wild coast'.  It is well known for shipwrecks over the years and the coastline is rocky, although at the right time of year a good place for whale watching.  We didn't see any whales but we did see a large shark which had been washed up on the rocks and didn't survive - when I saw its teeth, I was quite relieved!!  As you can see from these photos, the coast could be the north coastline of Ireland - it was stunningly beautiful, but the weather changes quite dramatically.  The first two days we got soaked and then we had lovely weather, which helped us to get sunburnt!

The terrain was varied - sometimes walking on cliff tops, sometimes on hard sand, soft sand (really difficult with a back pack on) and sometimes over slippery rocks!!

The coastline has many rivers to cross, where we used different modes of transport all described as 'ferries'!!  The first one which I don't have a photo of was a small rowing boat with more holes than boat and we all piled in with our backpacks - the water was literally touching the top of the boat.  The strong currents meant that we went round and round - maybe not so good if we think of health and safety but we just laughed!!

This is the second 'ferry' where we crossed the river one by one - as you can see we had to have the canoe emptied after every trip - there were quite a few holes in it!!

A lot of the rivers we took off our boots and socks and waded across (which was pleasantly cool on our hot feet)!  This is the final 'ferry' which was a car ferry and we travelled with a car for one rand!  Quite good value I thought!

One ship which didn't reach its destination in 1971 was the Jacaranda which ran aground on the rocks and some of the shipwreck is still there - quite an impressive sight!

On the coastline, you can only walk on the beaches and rocks at low tide and we came across this bridge which is used at high tide - not quite as impressive as Carrick-a-rede!!

The birdlife was wonderful and I was sorry I didn't take my 'good' camera but when travelling with all your luggage, its best to travel light!!  Here you can see some white breasted cormorants watching us as we cross a river and probably having a good chuckle at our antics!!

There were many spectacled weaver birds building nests along the way and making a right racket.  I took many pictures of different birds but too many to put on here!

 Other animals we spotted along the way were this rhino beetle,

this lovely crab who sat up nicely for his photograph!

and something I had never seen before - a Tarantula Hawk or a Spider Wasp - quite a large wasp with bright orange legs and very vicious as it dragged its drugged prey - a large baboon spider, into its hole!  Apparently it injects something like anaesthetic into the spider and then drags it along - it was a fascinating sight to watch!

Along the whole coastline we came across cattle who apparently come to the water when the tide is low to keep flies off them and then later in the day go off to graze on higher ground.  All the cattle had large horns but seemed very docile.

And as I have come to expect in Southern Africa, lots of colour in the plant life........

The sky was amazing......

sunrise over the ocean

Another sunrise and although it appears to be black and white this is the original colour photo

So a wonderful opportunity to see some more of Africa - to learn more of the Xhosa people, to eat amazing seafood (no idea what some of it was but it tasted good), to meet many interesting people, and to learn more of God's creation.

Back to Malawi, where the fuel situation remains critical, and on the way back to Mzuzu we saw this lorry which fortunately left enough room for cars to pass.....

and then later on we came across a worse accident where two lorries had collided and again they left us enough room to pass by.

Rains have well and truly begun and it was nice as I flew into Lilongwe to see the fields much greener than when I left.  Its hot and humid though which is great growing weather for mushrooms, and so we stopped to buy some on the way home!!

I don't have much of an idea of which mushrooms are edible but my trusty driver knew the good ones to buy!

I am back to work next Monday but I do feel refreshed and ready to start - and then I will have a few days off for Christmas which will be nice.  Our school closes this Friday for a month and I know teachers and children will also be glad of the break.

In Johannesburg there was much Christmas hype and I am sure its the same where you are.  Here it is hot and humid and no sign of Christmas yet, except the Christmas carols playing in the bank!!

Wish you all a wonderful week as we celebrate the advent season,

Blessings, 

Diane