bird safari in the garden!!!

Hello everyone

This past week has been mostly in the office catching up on a lot of paperwork and planning for the next few months! But........its also been a week of visitors. I had Jim and Ruth Campbell from PCI staying overnight and unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of them!

Then it was great to see some more friends from Ireland, Maureen and Aileen who were visitors of Samuel and Barenice who some of you will know, and their lovely daughter Samantha.

and of course Austin joined us one of the evenings.......what great smiles....

Yesterday I was watering the plants in my garden when I saw lots of lovely birds. A pawpaw (papaya) had fallen from the tree and was broken and these little birds were merrily eating the seeds. It was quite a performance and they didn't seem to mind me being there.

Then I noticed in my orange tree, another frequent visitor - a wee sunbird - beautiful...

But that was not all - I think I could have taken people on guided tours yesterday - on a branch of the pawpaw were a couple of Bulbuls but one flew away before I could snap them...

The birds love the wires on which creepers have grown - look at these amazing creatures........ the one with the long tail which is difficult to see is a Mouse bird - its the colour of a mouse and even its body resembles a mouse.........

a couple of mousebirds (or should I say micebirds) hanging almost like bats from the greenery

I have to say they are quite beautiful and frequent visitors to my garden....

and then there is the other one which is also a frequent visitor but a pest -the lovely pied crow - they are enormous and many stay around the garden landing on the tin roof and making such a din.

A couple of nights I had a lovely surprise as I heard my gate open and saw some people who I have not seen in years. Mitch was a lecturer at Chancellor college in Zomba when I was there and then he moved to teach in Zimbabwe and then Tanzania, and Luke was a student at Chancellor college and we reckon its 15 years since we last met. So a lot of reminiscing went on that evening. Again I forgot to take a photo.

This coming week I am having a workshop for the teachers at our CCAP International Pre-school which will re-open on 5th September, so we have to get prepared. It will be a tiring week but hopefully a worthwhile experience. I would value your prayers.

Please continue to pray for the nation of Malawi as there is much instability in the country. This week for the first time possibly since my return in April, I was able to go to a petrol station and fill the car up without having to queue for hours or even days. How long that will last we do not know! Prices have risen very high due to the fuel shortage and forex shortage and the general economy. We just take a day at a time.

So it was a lovely week enjoying the nature in the garden and all the visitors. I hope your week was just as good.

Wishing you a blessed week ahead,

Diane

fun at the workshop....

Hello everyone,

Its been a hectic week as we finished off our workshop on Saturday. This week we were blessed to have another District Social Worker as a facilitator - as you can see on the right he is quite tall - Enala and myself were feeling rather small this week!!

Saturday was the finale when the participants presented what they had learnt during the workshop and we had an official closing with Mr Gadaga as our guest of honour.

During the workshop we had a lot of fun - Anderson was a real 'character' - very vocal and very entertaining.

Suzzy is demonstrating how children make a maize mill (where the maize is ground into flour called ufa) as they play outside.

Some of the learning materials the participants made from locally available materials (i.e. what we would term rubbish).

Fun with outdoor games......

and finally, all the participants with their certificates - I am not there - I was taking the photo!!

So, its been a good workshop - we had a lot of fun and the caregivers have gained a lot of knowledge in Early Childhood Development.

This coming week on 17th another demonstration has been organised countrywide. This is because the President has not responded to any of the requests made at the last mass demonstration on 20 July where many people lost their lives. A 48 hour vigil is being organised in each city - it is to be peaceful and prayerful. Please pray that this will be the case. Check out Nyasatimes on the web if you want updates. There is tension in Mzuzu - shops which were looted at the last demonstrations have been replacing windows with sheets of tin, or building them up with bricks. It does not help the look of the city much!

Please continue to pray for our country - God can still work miracles!!

Blessings

Diane

Life............

Hello everyone

Its been a couple of weeks since the last blog - life is certainly never dull! I am still doing interviews for Trainers of Trainers (ToT's) in Early Childhood in Presbyteries - last week I managed to get about half of what I wanted to do done - why??? .......no fuel of course! I went to Lilongwe and visited 3 Presbyteries on the way - then had to wait in Lilongwe for 3 days before getting fuel to come back home, missing another two appointments!

This is how life is these days and we just have to accept it.

This last week has been busy as I have been coordinating a workshop for training caregivers. They are all from Nkhata Bay district but have come to Mzuzu for 2 weeks. So far, its going well. I have my good faithful bunch of facilitators who some of you know. Here we have Enala.......

Kamoza...........

Lickson, who is one of the District Social Welfare Officers from Nkhata Bay district...

Nicolas..........

and no, I am not doing an amazing dance, but I am facilitating a workshop!!!

We have 20 participants who are all very active, like to ask lots of questions and are eager to learn and I look forward to visiting them in their CBCC's (Community Based Childcare Centres) in the near future to see how they are getting on!

The workshop is both theory and practical - here is the process of making glue from cassava (a root vegetable).

The finished product....

and paint from leaves of different types....

Using the paint with a feather to make a beautiful picture!!

On Friday we were privileged to have some visitors to see what we were doing. The National Co-ordinator for Early Childhood Development came with some visitors from UNICEF.

A very serious discussion with Roy from UNICEF!! (probably talking about lunch!)

and just to finish off the week - yes, I have had my hair all shaved off - much easier to look after but now I see how much grey hair I really do have! Don't you like the chief's chair I am sitting on??

Please continue to pray for our country Malawi. Demonstrations are again being planned for 17th August. There is tension in the air and we really are not sure what will happen. Fuel has become a real problem - in fact last night we queued for fuel up to 12.30am - bearing in mind that it is not really safe to be out after dark, these are desperate times. My car was off the road for about 4 days due to the tank being empty. Buses are not running on time, prices are going up every time you go to the shops. Planning cannot be done because we never know if there is going to be fuel available. We value your prayers.

Enough about my life.............have a good week whatever you do,

Blessings,

Diane