It's March now.

10/3/13

(I was busy concentrating on my university accommodation when I typed this up, so apologies for lack of interesting material or emotion.)

It’s week… 28? Something like that.

I’m starting to get used to going to Nama Simba every day – to look forward to it, even. The children are challenging, but what’s life without a little challenge? It also means we are more likely to get Nama Simba nsima – as long as there’s no fish. The children love our company, asking for the ‘round and round the garden’ rhyme so often that I am officially sick of it. I get them to count to ten, spin them around, like in ballroom dancing, I tickle them to make them stop crying: it’s less mentally demanding than TST, but a bit more physically strenuous.

TST has been busy – lots of teaching. This week Juniyo came to me after school with a sheet of paper on which he had drawn out hundreds of dots so that we could play the paper game again. I like to think he hadn’t been doing this while he should have been working in class… There are a couple of new children, which always means we have more to do as they haven’t been placed in school yet.  Brian and Ben are 6 and 8 respectively – and absolute cuties. On Thursday, we went with William to buy some mosquito nets with the money my Dad raised from his sponsored run. A gift all the more poignant as Dad has been told he has knackered his joints and can’t run anymore! Well, the kids really appreciate your pain, Dad – Malaria is a serious problem in Malawi and the nets will make such a big difference.

We also got our first mail for over a month this week! Due to strikes, the mail had been delayed – we still haven’t received our monthly Project Trust newsletter for January. I always look forward to letters from my Granny, and I was able to show the kids the pictures she sent me of us on a camel over Christmas. They love seeing photos of my home or family and they’d never seen a camel before.

This time next week I will be North of Lilongwe with my parents as they are coming to visit on Friday. I can’t wait; it’s going to be great to see my family again and to see more of Malawi.

No pictures this week, coz I be borin'.

TTFN

Anecdotes

We were getting a taxi through town, (we don’t often do this, but we were out later than usual) when the taxi ran out of fuel. This is not that unusual, so the driver took a jerrycan to the local filling station, but they wouldn’t fill it for him. He then proceeded to reverse and turn around to the way we’d came. We had stopped on the dual carriage way, so we then began to coast down the wrong side of the dual carriageway towards the roundabout, with the hazards on. I truly thought this was the way I was going to die. When we ran out of downhill, the driver and some bystanders began to push us towards another filling station. Eventually we got there, got fuel, got to our final destination and, because they had been so lovely about it, asked them to pick us up 2 hours later. Not one died. This time.