New life at Christmas......

Hello everyone,

Hope you have all had a good week, no doubt full of shopping and frantic searching for Christmas gifts.  Yesterday, I found we have sparkling lights at our small roundabout here in Mzuzu - I think that is the total of the Christmas decorations here in Mzuzu!!

I had a busy week as usual but now am on holidays for two whole weeks!!    Nicolas and I travelled to Dwangwa this week to have a meeting with the Presbytery leaders (ministers and session clerks) about Early Childhood Development and how we can assist each other to support our ECD centres especially in the rural areas.  It was a terrible day weatherwise as it poured down all the way to Dwangwa (about a 3 hour drive) and we dodged the lightning or at least it seemed that way!  However, we arrived safely and had a good meeting.

After having heavy rains, there is much new life developing as everything grows at double the speed in the heat and damp.  Here you can see just a few pictures of the fruits from my garden!

lemons

avocados

guavas

pawpaw or papaya

oranges

and the flowers in the garden.........

and of course the rains bring out the bugs and the animals too.  This morning this friendly creature decided to come into the house...........there are so many snails around at the moment and they are enormous.  There is nothing worse than waking up in the morning, opening the curtain and finding this enormous snail sticking to your window!  Maybe something to think about for Christmas dinner instead of turkey!

On Friday, we had the last day at work and so a Christmas get together was organised with a women's netball match and a men's football match!  I was the photographer, never having played netball in my life!!  (I was a hockey player!)

Mrs Gausi the Deputy Education Secretary 

the ladies in action!

the men being very patriotic singing the National Anthem before they begin!

Of course, these big people playing football attracted a lot of children and they began to copy and have a game on their own!!

and we also had an acrobat show........

for those of you who know Nicolas, that's him on the left...

After the sports we had a party all together which was also great fun.  We had a

competition to see who could drink a bottle of soda the fastest.  On the left here is one of my teachers, Judy.  She did not win but another teacher Gift won!  

the eyes of victory!!

and so that you know I was actually there, here I am with Mirriam my good friend and mentor here in Malawi!!

I hope that wherever you are in the world you also have a time to celebrate as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I will  be getting together with some friends, going to church and having some food and fellowship together afterwards.

Wishing you a Christmas full of joy, love, peace and hope.

Blessings,

Diane x