First impressions

It is difficult to know where to begin! So much has happened in the last few days that I feel as though the world has turned completely upside down. I travelled with Zoe who works for Krizevac in the UK and has been to Malawi before. I was very pleased to have her company particularly as David, the other Child Care Trainer has acquired some horrible virus and won’t be able to travel for another couple of weeks. Dave and Fiona, my brother and his wife, took me to Heathrow and saying goodbye to them was probably the hardest because it was so final. In an hour or two I would be on the plane winging my way to Addis Ababa and utterly unable to change my mind! I am not used to long-haul flights and although everything went quite smoothly I slept very little and was utterly exhausted by the time we got here. Highlights of the journey include raising the blind somewhere over Ethiopia, expecting complete darkness, to be greeted by a streak of burnt orange just above the horizon. As I watched, the light gradually developed so that colours blended into one another across the sky, the orange brightening before fading to apricot and then overlapping bands of eau de nil, turquoise, azure and then deepening midnight blue until almost overhead it was still completely dark. I noticed that the horizon made a perfect arc, a smooth curve; black below, and orange above. As the light increased the ‘ground’, as it were, acquired texture, as an unbroken blanket of puffy clouds was gradually revealed. Clouds formed a bit of theme to my observations of the second flight from Addis Ababa to Lilongwe also. Sometimes it was hard to know which dark patches on the ground were geographical features and which shadows of clouds, but after a while I got better at working it out. Tiny puffs of white against an otherwise unblemished vista of blue were subtly tinged with gold from the sun as we descended to land at Lilongwe. We were met at Lilongwe airport by Jan who is the volunteer manager at Beehive IT Centre and who has been in Malawi for a fortnight. Already he seems quite at home and fairly well able to find his way around, although he did say he had got lost a couple of times the day before. We were soon speeding our way towards Blantyre on quite a good tarmacked road which was generally very straight and with very few junctions. Not many signposts either. We passed through many villages and small towns and very few of these seemed to have signs saying the name of the place. We had to work it out from the shop signs. In fact I think that there must be a sort of ribbon development along the main roads as there seemed to be small groups of houses all along the way. There is not a lot in the way of grass, and an awful lot of red dust. Many trees and plants were unfamiliar. I have fallen in love with the jacaranda trees which are currently in flower. No leaves at the moment, just flowers, so they look like they’ve come out in ‘the wrong’ colour, ethereal purple against the blue sky! So just remember all you Early Years people when your children paint things in unexpected colours they may just know a bit more than you do yourself! We passed through a few places that I had heard of previously. I was able to leave a parcel at the BP garage by the road block at Dedza as requested and I recognized Ntcheu as the place where my friend’s daughter spent a year. We travelled pretty quickly though in an attempt to get to our destination before dark. Our arrival was a bit of a blur really. The other volunteers were very welcoming but we ate, dumped luggage in our rooms and were asleep by about 8.00pm. The cock woke me in the morning before 5.00am with some hearty crowing and there were sounds of life outside, so I got up and surveyed our domain! My little house is Jacaranda 2 and is part of a terrace on a slope overlooking an incline the other side of the river where there is a brick kiln. There always seem to be a few people about across the other side, I suppose looking after the firing of the bricks. There are two similar terraces, one above the other and a third at right angles to them. These are where the volunteers live. There is a big house where we all eat together. This also has a big shared sitting room and a covered terrace with a huge table overlooking the garden. There are lots of trees, so plenty of shade. I haven’t identified them all yet, but there are mangoes and jacarandas, something that looks like eucalyptus, a huge tree with ash-type leaves that reminds me of a tree of heaven and something that could be a magnolia. Obviously I have a lot to learn! There are chickens, ducks and turkeys pottering about the garden and guinea pigs in the shed. The door is apparently left open but they make no attempt to escape. How unexpected is that? On Saturday morning a sparrowhawk took one of the chicks. I missed it, but apparently the chick made q lot of noise and fuss but was carried off nevertheless. I have a large room with a built in desk and a kitchen area with worktops, a kettle and a toaster. I understand that I will get a hot plate but at the moment all cooking has to be done in the main house. The walls are painted cream, the floor is concrete and the curtains are black and white with pictures of African animals. There are net curtains with pictures in the weave of Malawian round, thatched huts, local trees, and antelopes. Everything is very muted and I love a bit of colour, so I was glad I brought my festival blanket which is red and green and brown and brightens the place up a bit. It needs more though! I think I should treat myself to a nice bright rug and some pictures. There are two nails banged in to the wall and on one of them hangs Karl’s Panama hat. I bet he would have been astonished to think that it would have ended up in Africa! I have brought all the good wishes cards I received before I left home and they are displayed on the work surface, but they keep blowing over when I put the fan on so I shall have to find another way to display them. I wonder if I shall be able to find Blutak in Malawi? My bedroom is smaller but there is plenty of room for the bed with its blue mosquito net, a chest of drawers, a clothes rack and a tiny bedside table. I think children from the UK would imagine that the mosquito net makes the bed into a princess bed! If it was pink or white with a bit of glitter it would definitely fit the bill. I am having a little difficulty negotiating it when I get up in the night to the toilet. Tucking it in again in the dark after switching the light off is definitely an art that takes a bit of practice to acquire. I have a little bathroom with a toilet and a shower. No hot water in the shower at the moment, but actually that isn’t a problem at all as I am too hot all the time and a cold shower is a great relief.