From Presbytery meetings to visitors.......

Hello everyone

Seems like so long since I have updated the blog........the days are just flying past!!

This is the time of year when all the Presbytery meetings are on - we have 24 Presbyteries and every weekend three neighbouring Presbyteries meet until the middle of July.  As Head of Department, I am meant to travel to each Presbytery and present a report on Early Childhood Development.  However, apart from it being really tiring (its every weekend), the distances are great and I end up being exhausted!  I went to Loudon, Luwerezi and Champhira a couple of weekends ago and we left really early in the morning and returned past midnight.  Travelling on really bumpy roads and being really cold is not a good combination.  I was so tired the next day.  However it was a fruitful experience as we had a lot of good feedback about our programmes.  Here you can see the three guys I travelled with and I am sure those of you in Ireland will recognise the head of Health Department, Sangster Nkhandwe!  We had great fun on our travels!

Arriving back in Mzuzu after midnight we found it had been raining all day and as we went to drop one of our passengers, we couldn't get through - the road was a complete quire and there were about 10 cars stuck in the mud.  The people on the right were pushing vehicles out!

Some of you have met Annex who works in my garden.  His four month old son who is called Preacher, had hot tea accidentally spilled on his hand and it was quite a severe burn.  He was taken to the hospital and they just covered the raw hand with a bandage - here you can see his distress!

We then took him to a private clinic where he was well treated and the hand is now healing nicely - it is such a relief to see him not crying!  Here you can see him with his parents!

We have been busy making guidebooks and manuals for Church leaders and also for our trainers in the Presbyteries.  To do this we have had various meetings with Trainers who are doing the translation work and adapting our manuals.  Here you can see Mercy and Madalitso busy working on translation! (with a chicken looking on in the background!!)

I have been involved in a workshop in Blantyre where we are trying to develop plans for Early Childhood in Malawi.  On the way I had a 30 minute stop over at  the lake.  It looks lovely in the photo but earlier that day there had been a terrible storm on the lake and 24 fishermen were drowned!

This is the team who were in Blantyre - spot the mzungu....me!!!

As I left Blantyre in the afternoon it was not possible to drive to Mzuzu in one day so I had a stop over at Nkhotakota - a beautiful spot on the lake side!

Moonlight

Sunrise

A couple who I am quite friendly with are adopting a Malawian child who was abandoned - she is like a little doll!  Here you can see another child sucking her toe - it was just so cute I could not resist taking a picture!

Our Presbyteries are split into 4 zones and we had a zonal meeting with our Trainers from the Loudon zone in Mzimba for two days.  In the room I was staying, this notice was on the wall.......

and the wonderful poinsettia bush outside!  A little different from the small pot plant people have in their homes at Christmas time in UK!

Our meeting was concerned with quality of Early Childhood Centres and so we visited two during the second morning.

Hlezipe, Emily, Mary and Angella

Khwima and Nicolas

The first centre was not great for children............

The second one was much better..........

Last week three volunteers who go to Stranmillis college came to visit - they are in Malawi for 4 weeks and are with me for just over two.  They have been volunteering in a few of our Early Childhood Centres in Mzuzu.  However, we are conducting training of committee members and caregivers with one of the local Community Based Organisation outside Mzuzu, so yesterday they came with me to monitor the progress of the training.  On the way we found these two ladies pounding and they let the girls have a go too!

Some of the participants

Here  you can see the girls being introduced to the participants!  People were commenting that they were dressed well - in other words they had their legs covered!!

Today another team are busy working on another manual for Presbytery Early Childhood Committees.  They will finish in the morning and then in the afternoon I will head out to the training again for the closing ceremony!  Its all go.......

Wishing you a good week,  

Blessings,

Diane

What a fiasco!

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your get well wishes, I am feeling much better thank you!!

As I write, there is total chaos in the country after our tri-partite elections which were held last Tuesday.  It seems there has been some vote rigging and there was chaos at the poling stations due to not enough materials, and some people were still voting two days later!  Then when it came to counting votes, in some areas there were more votes than people registered!  The President declared the election null and void and was over ruled. 

Yesterday she declared that there would be a new election within 90 days which again was over ruled and it was decided that there would be a recount of votes.  Today the DPP party has gained an injunction to stop the recount - they were in the lead at the first count.  So its just chaos and people are anxiously waiting and watching to see what is going to happen.  Please pray for a peaceful transition whatever the outcome!

Since I last wrote, I was off for a few days to get myself back to health again.  I have been in the office quite a lot - only out and about a few days so not many photos.  However I do have some of the wildlife in the garden which is really good at present!

Yesterday I went to Milala Presbytery meeting and got lost on the way so it took a long time to get there!  I was with someone who said she knew the way!!  Anyway we arrived later which meant coming home late in the evening.  Was very thankful to get home safely as there were so many lorries broken down on the road with no lights and no warnings!!

Am not writing much this time but will just post some photos!  Some of these were taken yesterday and some are taken in Mzuzu city itself!  

Hope you are all fine - thanks for the comments - keep them coming!

Blessings, Diane

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