busy as usual..........

Hello everyone,

Its been another busy week - the beginning of the week was extremely hot even for me and I love the hot weather.  Then in the middle of the week we had a thunderstorm and some heavy rains - it rained in Mzuzu for a couple of days and this has cleared the air - the temperature has come down a few degrees!!  Its lovely to see the dust washed off the vegetation and everything looks new again!

During the week Nicolas and myself went to Enukweni to meet our trainers, Frank and Freeman.  Before we went to the meeting we took the opportunity of visiting the nursery school there.  We found one caregiver with 40 children. She had no resources as there had been a Presbytery rally in the church and some people had been staying in the vestry where the nursery school meet, and they had stolen all the resources!!  Her fellow caregiver was also sick.  What a job!  

On a positive note however, the caregiver was really enthusiastic and the kids obviously loved her.  Here you can see her singing a song with the children outside (due to lack of space inside).  It was really hot that day and the children were outside for about an hour with us and yet there was no water for them to drink.........

Nicolas enjoyed the time and he played some games with the children too!!

The inside of the building where the children were!!  Health and safety is not an issue here.

Beside the church where these children meet, a new church about twice the size is being built.  One of the children ran off and was in the middle of the building site and the poor caregiver was horrified when the workmen shouted at her!  Looking after 40 children is not joke!

On Saturday the PTA at our own school in Mzuzu decided to do more fundraising towards our new school building.  I am struggling to find finances to finish this building, and also struggling to find time to deal with it.  The function was well attended and I await to see on Monday how much money they raised.  By the look of things everyone was having a good time.  These three girls were so busy dancing and showing each other new moves!  It was really quite funny!

Due to the rains and the hot sun, the PTA hired a tent from the army.........

The Head teacher was the Master of Ceremony and she did a brilliant job!!

 Kids on the bouncy castle having fun!!

Apart from that we were busy preparing for workshops that are coming up in the next couple of weeks.  I also spent a couple of hours in the bank on day waiting for a cheque to be cleared.

We have received a new minister at our church, Rev. A M Phiri who was in Chitipa.  This is good for our congregation as we always have the moderator as our minister and because of duties, he was never there!  So we are hopeful that the spiritual life of the congregation will grow with our new minister!

Wishing you a wonderful week of blessings,

Diane

Cape town to Mzuzu...

Hello everyone from a very hot and sunny Mzuzu,

I intended to write last week but lots of things were happening and the blog did not become a priority!  So here we are.  A couple of weeks ago, I was in Capetown for a break with my sister.  

The journey there was quite eventful (as my niece says, always a drama with Auntie Di!!). The car broke down on the way to the airport and so we had to come back to Mzuzu for another vehicle (bear in mind its a 4 1/2 hour journey to the airport).  We got there, now with me having raised BP, and I checked in.  Then we had to wait, and wait....there were no aeroplanes at all in the airport.  At last the plane landed and with the turnaround time I knew that my connection in Johannesburg was going to be tight.  Eventually we took off and I was still hopeful as we approached to land in Johannesburg, when just as we were about to touch down, the plane took off again.........and began circling around, by which stage I knew I had no hope of catching the flight.  After another 15 minutes we touched down, I ran to the desk and explained that I had missed my flight.  The lady checked her computer and said she was very sorry but all flights to Capetown that night were fully booked!!  Then she phoned through to the gate only to find that the flight I was supposed to be on was still there.  So she advised me to run through the airport.  I ran to security and if you have ever flown through Johannesburg, you will understand the queue for security is about a mile long.  I shoved through the people apologizing on the way, and yes.........I made it to the flight. I was the only passenger they were waiting for and I was hot and sweaty after running through the airport.  It was cool in Johannesburg and all the other passengers were wearing sweaters and coats......... but I didn't care, I made it!!  Meanwhile my sister has no idea where I am as the flight should have been earlier and I had no way or no time to get a message to her!!

After this drama, we had a great time although it was quite a lot cooler than Mzuzu. Here are some of the photos...........  table mountain of course.......

a visit to the winelands.....here you can see the vines

the spectacular coastline.......

Camps bay...

music at the waterfront ........I am a Jazz fan, and as usual there was a lot of live Jazz which I really enjoyed!

and just as in Malawi, the craft markets.........

a treat - a cappuccino with a lovely heart design on top!

Not often you see an Ostrich by the sea....

I just love the penguins........

and a lovely picture of some baby owls (owlets??)

while walking in the bush I almost stepped on this rather large beetle!

a seal enjoying the evening sunshine...

and something I would rather not see but it came to meet us as we walked on a path round the back of table mountain - the Cape Cobra!!  This is not the actual one - I asked my sister why she had not taken a picture.....you can imagine the answer!!!

Of course Capetown is well known for its variety of flowers and fynbos and below there are a few pictures of fabulous floral scenery.....

For those of you who know me well, you know my love for art and sculpture and this was an amazing sculpture of a mother and child.......

Inside St Georges Cathedral in Capetown, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu still conducts a service once a month.

the beautifully painted houses of the Cape Malay part of the city.......

and the fabulous bead work.....

The view over the city at night - quite spectacular.......

Then it was back to Malawi, and straight back into work again.  We had the final week of training for some of the Nkhatabay training and here you can see the closing ceremony where the certificates were being handed out.  The Guest of honour is on my right hand side.

This was one of the participants children with his toy, a very special child!

The whole group with their certificates...

This past week has been really busy with meetings of one kind or another - I did not take my camera to any of them.  However, yesterday we had the second day of training with the caregivers from the private schools in Mzuzu - a great day but it was so hot that in the afternoon concentration was not so good!!

As I said its really hot and dry these days - there is a lot of dust and many bush fires around so the air is not as good as usual.  It always amazes me at this time of year when everything is brown and dry that we still have a lot of colour from the trees and flowers.  Here is one of the roses in my garden......gives me something to smile about when there are so many other stressful issues to address in the day!!

Wishing you all a week full of blessings,

Diane x