The blog has been silent all the time I have been in the UK. It is over two weeks and it has passed in a flash! It has been a joy to see friends and family and I do seem to have fitted in a lot of people and pleasant social occasions. My flight home was my first flight alone apart from one little hop from Norwich to Amsterdam a few years ago. I was dreading my six hours in Addis Ababa, but all went well and I had a couple of interesting exchanges, one with a Daughter of Charity who told me if I was ever in Addis again to look her up, but omitted to tell me her name, and another with an Anglican working for an NGO whose work occasionally brings him to Blantyre.
Other volunteers have told me that they have been very struck by the differences between Chilomoni and their homes in the UK. One said that every time he went out in the car he noticed that the road was tarmacked, another said that the advertising hit them the minute they stepped out of the plane at Heathrow, others have remarked on the different palettes of colours, the different noise levels, the proportions of black and white faces, the affluence, the greenness of the countryside. All these things are true of course, but I was not really struck by anything. It all just felt familiar and a part of being home. Even the temperature was pretty similar, moving as I did from the beginning of winter in Blantyre to the warmth of late May in England.
I spent a few comforting days with family in London, seeing all of my lovely children, my brother and sister and my auntie. My brother and his wife made a real effort to get everyone together and provided a warm welcome and lots of lovely food! We walked in Banstead woods and enjoyed the meadow flowers although we didn't manage to spot any orchids! The elderflowers were out and we picked some for Jack and Becky to make wine. We had a barbeque at my sister Annie's and the family distributed themselves between the two households for a very nice couple of days. It was good to visit Karl's Mum and Dad.
Then it was off to Norwich to see what remains of normal life! Actually it was amazing how much there was! I was pretty disciplined about going to UEA every weekday to sort out what I am going to do about my MA dissertation and do some research in the library. Rather reluctantly I have been persuaded to defer submission of my dissertation for a while in order to give myself time to give it proper attention. It would be good to get it out of the way, but it needs more time than I can easily find while teaching and writing an NVQ-style assessment programme suitable for Malawi, and I do want to do it justice, so....
It was good to spend time with Sue who is taking care of my house. She is doing a great job. I thought it might be weird to come home and share with her the place I have lived in for so long, but it was not weird at all, it was comfortable and companionable. I hope she thought so too! Mind you. I was out a lot. I only cooked two meals at home the whole week I was there! It was good to catch up with what is going on with EYPS at UEA. These are of course difficult times and there are still many uncertainties about how the work of the department will be structured in the medium term, but it was comforting to hear of future plans and realise that we have not yet reached a situation where there is no hope of some work for me when I return. I managed to visit folk from almost all the compartments of my life in Norwich while I was at home, the book group, local friends from Thorpe Hamlet, colleagues from the Hamlet Centre, NANSA and UEA, fellow students from when I did EYPS, family and old friends. Highlights included an excellent home-cooked meal with the book club (when we discussed 'The boy who harnessed the wind' by William Kamkwanda and somebody else whose name temporarily escapes me! Incidentally this book gives a great idea of what life in Malawi is really like. Much, much better than anything I could write.) Also a trip to Bergh Apton Sculpture trail in excellent company; several pints of Wherry in the Rushcutters, ditto; supper with John and Joe; an unexpected haircut after a lovely dinner; and re acquaintance with Margaret's kitchen table on several evenings. We are definitely agreed that the metaphorical kitchen table that wings its way regularly over the email is just not the same! Then it was back to London via Peterborough for a meeting with George from Krizevac, for a last couple of days with the family, this time staying with Annie, while my cousin Toni and her delicious children stayed with Dave and we were able to spend the days together. I was so pleased to see the children again. The difference between three weeks and ten months meant that I would have been unable to recognise Tia if I had no one to tell me who she was, but Arwen was her own strong-minded and delightful self with an increase in articulateness (if that is a word!), that is astonishing in so short a time!
Ah! My flight is being called. The journey home begins!
Articulation?
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