Of work and leisure!

Time is passing quickly. We are working long days but they are whizzing past! For the first time I am conscious that it won't be long before my stint here will be finished and I shall hand over to Kirren and go home. We are making progress with getting the students through the practical part of their Diplomas. Some are working faster than others, but generally it is all going well. David and I have been trying to meet for a couple of weeks now, to offer each other some kind of co-supervision, and to compare notes about how the assessing is going to make sure we are working in as similar a way as possible, but we are like the proverbial ships passing in the night, only more like speed boats really! I have spent some time helping Kirren to get to know the CC and how it works this week, some time trying to sort out difficulties with the cleaning, some time planning for a new staff structure when the probationary 3-month contracts come to an end at the end of March, and at least half the working week assessing and mentoring students. I have also had to deal with another incident of theft by a student, which I have found extremely difficult. I am excited because we have been asked if we would take a child with quite complex special needs and I am to meet the family on Monday morning. They were referred by a Government peripatetic special needs teacher. I met her once as she just dropped in to the office at the end of last year to see what the CC was all about, and she remembered us when asked to recommend a pre-school for this child. Tony Smith is back with us in Chilomoni on a 10-day visit and will be visiting the CC on Monday afternoon. The children have been practicing songs and rhymes in his honour.

This morning I went on a Society of Malawi trip to the Greek Orthodox Church in Blantyre which I found fascinating. I don't think I have ever been in an Orthodox Church before. There were many beautiful icons. The priest was very friendly and went to a great deal of trouble to explain the faith and show us his church. Afterwards we were treated to a selection of cakes and cups of tea etc in the church hall and an informal chat with some of the Greek community which is currently about 200 strong. One cake was more like muesli really. It was a special cake for All Souls day, which apparently was today. It is made from wheat berries which symbolize life after death because they are dry and appear dead, and then grow into new plants. It contained the wheat, sugar, dried fruit, fresh pomegranate and cinnamon and cumin and was delicious. The first Greeks came to Malawi in about 1936 apparently and they have mostly been involved in farming, largely tobacco, and fishing. Malawi has been through all sorts of political changes in that time and our hosts were full of interesting anecdotes, including tales of lions on the verandah of a farm over towards the Mozambique border. Next month's trip will be to the Buddhist temple in Limbe, which apparently is pretty new. Last Tuesday was the Wildlife Society of Malawi's monthly talk which this time was about rhinos. The man who spoke illustrated his talk with photos and he was a wonderful photographer and must have had some terrific lenses, his bird pictures were beautiful. Wednesday night saw me at a Zumba class. It's just as well that Zoe and I were late; otherwise the effort would probably have killed me. I know I am no expert, but it was probably the most energetic exercise class I have ever seen and despite sitting out a couple of numbers I was shattered at the end of the hour and had certainly worked up a sweat! I went back to Zoe's for the evening. We showered and then sat about in our pyjamas, cooked up a vegetable curry and had a generally relaxing evening, Oh! And there was a drop or two of duty free whisky in there somewhere too!