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