Blessings..........

Hello everyone

(I wrote the first part of this after Easter but didn't manage to finish it so its a long blog..........hope you don't get bored!!)

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend!  In Mzuzu it rained continually day and night and my garden was like a river......on Easter Sunday I was wading through the water to get to church.  Easter celebrations begin on Friday in church and last until Easter Sunday. Unfortunately I had bronchitis so I was only able to go out to church on Sunday and I missed the Good Friday procession of the cross.  In all the Anglican churches here on Good Friday there is a procession of the cross where Christians from all denominations attend - it is a wonderful time of reflection.  I did not take this photograph but this is the Bishop of Northern Malawi carrying the cross on Likoma Island on Good Friday.

After Easter and its straight back to work.  Its holidays for the schools but not for us as during holiday time is when we can train the caregivers.  So Nicolas and myself headed off to Karonga on Tuesday for three days training in Kasowa.  

The journey was not as we planned.  It takes about 3 1/2 hours to get to Kasowa and when we were about half way there I was stopped at a checkpoint (we have quite a few of them on the way).  However this one was immigration (???) and they would not let me past without showing them a passport.  Of course I was not carrying my passport and I have never been asked for my passport ever before in the last 19 years!  The guy was not very pleasant though and made me turn back to Mzuzu to get my passport.  So I drove back to Mzuzu and then set off once again for Karonga - this meant we did not arrive until 8.30pm and I was tired!  

The training went well though and it was great to see old friends again! We did the training in the Early Childhood Centre which the team from Hillsborough built - its still in good condition and being well used in the village!

One of the participants children

Group work

the cooks

as usual the mzungu (white person) is something to look at!

Grey

Nation

Molly

Nicolas in action.......

the team - Nicolas, Lucy and Grace

the participants singing with Gladys playing a visekese (traditional percussion instrument)

School holidays so the animals graze in the playground!

Some of you will know Rev Binnie Mwakasungula - sadly, his mother passed away over Easter weekend.  While in Karonga I was able to go and give my sympathies to the family.

On my return from Karonga, I looked out my door to find the man who works in my garden running with a big stick - turns out we had a green mamba snake coming down the tree to try and eat one of the chicks running around below it!  These are really dangerous snakes and this was quite a large on - almost a metre long - I hope it was the mummy and not the baby!!

Because we have had such heavy rains there is a lot of wildlife in the garden - everything is green and beautiful and there are many butterflies and birds and flowers around!  Here are a selection.......

for those of you who don't know this is a mongoose - I have three in the garden at present - they like snakes so thats fine with me!!

and some strange animals that I can't identify with orange tongues!!

I was not feeling so good in Karonga - its very hot there and I was wheezing a lot because of asthma so when I came back I went to the doctor (the second time now) and got more medication hoping that this would clear it up!

Last week we were holding a training session in Rumphi - I intended to go but was so busy with visitors and office work that I only managed to go for one day!  As you can see the scenery is beautiful!

The Rumphi training was three committee groups and the facilitators were Eliza, George and Nicolas.

Eliza

George

the group in Rumphi

After coming back from Rumphi I was not feeling well again and the following day was May 1st and a holiday so I headed off to the doctor where I was put on a nebuliser and then got a steroid injection.  My breathing was really quite bad.  I was also given a large dose of tablets to take and so this weekend I have not done a lot.  The wheezing is not so bad but its still there - I will finish the medication and see if it improves.

Yesterday a friend came and we went for a walk at Mzuzu dam - or at least I tried to go for a walk but had to turn back because I was so breathless!! Please pray for my recovery! Its been almost a month now and its bronchitis and asthma combined!!

selling fish at the dam!

the beautiful forest round the dam

the overflow which is great to see....

On Friday Nicolas went to Enukweni (I stayed home).....to talk with caregivers about the impact of our training. He said it was very encouraging but the church need to be more proactive in helping the ECD centres together with the communities!!

the caregivers

Frank, who was one of our Trainers of trainers was there - he is now in his mid 80's and an incredible man, with such a wealth of knowledge!

I always have a garden full of kids over the weekend as they play football or various other games and this weekend was no exception!

Today I went to church to meet some of my past students from Zomba.  We had a delegation of ministers wives from Blantyre Synod meeting with Ministers wives from Livingstonia Synod.  It was great to see them after such a long time - unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me! 

I have been back three months and its been a tough time - its been really busy catching up with what went on while I was gone, and the new programmes that have been happening too!  Added to this my asthma/bronchitis issue over the last month has been tough.  I have cancelled a programme for this coming week to see if I can get over this infection, so please pray for my health!  I am almost finished writing up the dissertation for my MA degree so please pray that I get that done too!

The evening sun from my backdoor today!  A blessing!  I thank God for all the blessings even with all the frustrations that we face daily!  

Wishing you a wonderful week.

Diane