experiences............

Hello again from a wet and thundery day in Mzuzu!

Its been quite hectic since I last wrote.  I came back from Liwonde and did office work for a few days before heading off again for the final week of the training.  The day before I left I had some visitors - the children who live around usually come to play in the garden.  It was really interesting to watch and listen as I am doing my dissertation for my MA on play.  As I watched, the children took the three chairs from my khonde and as you can see they put them at the bottom of the tree.  This was the house.  We had a mum, dad and baby, and there is a fourth child but you can't see her - she was the youngest but interestingly she was the boss at the office of the daddy.  They played for a long time (I wonder which family they were acting out!!).  The most interesting thing for me was that although these children are all Chitumbuka speakers, the whole drama was conducted in English!!

Last weekend I headed down the lakeshore road again towards Liwonde, stopping off at Nkhotakota where I met these fine friends..........the vervet monkey's who make a lot noise and generally enjoy themselves.

this one looks really sad as if he is meditating

The reflection of the moon on the lake was stunning.... I always ask myself how many times do I need to take photos like these - I have so many already, but it is so beautiful that its difficult to resist.

One of the few remaining wooden bridges left on the lakeshore road.

and the flame trees which were beginning to appear the week before have certainly blossomed...

I love the majestic Baobab trees found along the lakeshore

The lakeshore area is predominately Muslim, probably due to the slave trade which happened in the past across the lake.  There are many pretty Mosques - this one seemed quite new or else its just been painted.

I arrived in Liwonde hot and sticky after the long journey, and it didn't get any better there - the temperatures were probably late 30's and it was humid.  I was attending the final week of the Early Childhood Development workshop where we were assessing the regional trainers.  We all received t-shirts with this slogan on the back!!

30 caregivers from the local community were invited so that the trainers could teach them and we would assess the process.  I was interested with this young lad (the child of one of the caregivers).  He had a water bottle and played with it for about an hour - he was so good in the midst of all the noise that was going on.

Later on, he got his Mother's chitenje and put it over his head and played peek a boo - it was such a joy to watch.

Here you can see another baby of one of the participants with Mr Sikelo my colleague!

One of the trainers in action with his class........

Myself and three of my colleagues just before we finished!  I think its great the way everyone is wearing the hat differently!!

When I was in Liwonde, I was staying beside the river Shire where many hippo and crocodile are resident.  One evening I was walking outside my room when I heard and noise and there was a rather large hippo eating grass beside me............I moved swiftly on!!

One day in the late afternoon the first rains of the year began - it was a horrendous thunderstorm with great strikes of lightning which I am not so fond of.  I drove my colleagues and myself back to base and went into my room.  The rain was pelting down and the car alarm kept going off which meant I had to go out to put it off.  There was no electricity either because of the thunderstorm.  I got really fed up with the car alarm and decided to brave the weather and see if there was a problem.  Well, as it turned out there was - one of the back windows was completely down and I had a flood inside the car!!  I just closed the window and went to bed!  The upside of the rain however was the the temperature was about 5 degrees cooler the next day which was great!

I arrived back on Saturday after another long journey and was tired on Sunday.  However, it was lovely to be invited with some friends for dinner.  Here you can see me with Sylvia who visits regularly from the US and is so involved in Early Childhood - she has been a great encouragement to me over the years.  She left today for home again!

The most amazing thing happened last weekend.  I had come home from work around 4.45pm and decided to sit in the garden for a few minutes to relax.  I pulled a chair over to the grass and the noise startled something in the tree above.  I got the shock of my life when I saw this beautiful bird taking off - in fact this is not my photograph because I didn't have my camera at the time.  Its a Ross's Turaco and quite rare so it was a real joy to see.   As it flew off the underwings were stunning - bright red!

Amazing colours

So its been a busy few weeks as usual but such fun and really its a privilege to be part of the training programme.  The frustrating things in our country are still going on - the fuel shortage is worse than ever - as I was coming back from Liwonde, just outside the capital city, I got stuck in the worse traffic jam I have ever been anywhere - the tanker had just arrived at a petrol station and the main road was blocked with cars, lorries, buses - you name it and I got stuck in the middle of it all! Every petrol station I passed had a queue of at least a mile long.

Prices are going up daily still but I think the most noticeable thing now is the lack of basic commodities in the shops - it is becoming quite worrying.  Please pray for our country that things might get better.  Its the poorest people who are being hit the most by this crisis - its the worst I have seen in all my years here!  

However, as most people say when asked about the current situation ' we just have to trust in God that He will bring us through this'.

Wishing you a blessed week,

Diane