Visit from Amanda

Last weekend was a pleasure. Amanda came on a visit from Ntcheu, and it was great to have another woman about the place! Since Sharon and Philip went back to the US Lindy and I have been the only women at Mitsidi and lovely as she is, the balance is not quite right! Last Saturday evening however with Amanda visiting me and Jennifer visiting Lindy there were four of us for a little while and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

On Friday after work Malcolm and I went to pick Amanda up from Blantyre and brought her back to Mitsidi for supper. Several of us ended up in the Liquor Garden later in the evening. We were joined by Talimba and several other local friends and acquaintances and ended up dancing, after about the third Green. Charles the Magistrate (the tallest man in Chilomoni!) was pleased to see us and spent a long time chatting. He always asks me how Jack is getting along and this time asked to be remembered to him and bought me yet another Green which I managed to slip into my handbag when he wasn't looking as I really couldn't manage another just then! Why is it that bottles of drink in my handbag seem to figure in the blog when I go out with Amanda? I can't think!

On Saturday we had a pleasant, low key sort of a day beginning with a leisurely breakfast and moving through morning coffee at African Habitat, and a little light shopping, to a trip for me and Amanda to the azungu hairdresser where we enjoyed having our hair washed and heads massaged before having our hair cut by the very efficient Joyce from Zimbabwe. She seems to average about 15 minutes for a cut and blow dry, which is faster than anyone else I know, but she does a good job. We both came out feeling pampered and beautiful!! Then it was back to Mitsidi for a bit of lunch, lots of talking, a swim, dinner and a film. Lovely!

On Sunday we went for an expedition to Mua Mission which had been thoroughly recommended by Sharon. We got up early, planning to be on the road by seven, but were thwarted by the key to the land rover breaking in the ignition! Giacomo was forced to knock on the door of poor Derrick who emerged looking tousled and pulling a T-shirt over his head, but he lived up to his reputation of being able to fix anything and before 8.30 we were on our way. Giacomo drove all the way and we did not break the journey arriving shortly after eleven. It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining from a clear blue sky. The mountains were as beautiful as ever. It has not rained for about three weeks now so I think we can safely say that the rainy season is over. Already the landscape is changing colour. There is still a lot of green about, but it is not as lush as it was and there is just a tinge of red to the landscape already. Even the air seems a bit redder, probably because there is dust rising from the road as you drive along again. It has not taken many dry days for a layer of fine powdered soil about an inch deep to cover the roads. Wheels send it into the air in great clouds and even feet kick it up to knee height. White trousers are definitely not a good idea! The country roads seem to be lined with bushes covered in what look like sunflowers, about three or four inches across. Two weeks ago the bushes were green, then one or two flowers appeared and now there are loads of them adding glowing patches of gold to roadside and mountain. We enjoyed Mua, although Sunday is probably not the best day to go as not everything was open. There are galleries and a shop with art and craft items to view and buy, mostly carvings. The gardens are beautiful and the buildings attractive. There is an amphitheatre with a gorgeous curved iron canopy overlaid with matting that filters the sunlight. Giacomo took loads of photos, I suppose he took a professional interest in its design. We ate our picnic in its shelter where it was peaceful. We could hear a fast running stream behind us and we enjoyed flowers, butterflies and birds in the gardens. We went in search of coffee, but to no avail so we set off on the road over the escarpment and went to Dedza pottery for tea and cheese cake. The road through the mountains was beautiful and we got out a couple of times to admire the views. We all took a turn at the long drive home via Ntcheu where we dropped Amanda off. I hope she comes gain soon. Having her there changed the dynamic of our little group and everyone enjoyed having her with us.

End of the first week of term

It never ceases to amaze me how differently the same class can go with a different group of students! Our Monday and Tuesday group are a relatively mixed bunch, some noisy, some quiet, some enthusiastic, some thoughtful; and in some ways the same can be said of the Thursday and Friday group, but the personalities of the groups themselves are utterly different! The first is relatively easy to teach, they ask questions, but are satisfied with relatively simple and straightforward explanations, they listen attentively most of the time; they take notes; they are polite. I could wish that they would be more discriminating about what they write down, most of them try to transcribe every word on every slide, but at least they are trying to keep a record of whatever it is we are trying to encourage them to learn. However, when it comes to creative ideas they can drive me to drink, or even to despair! On Monday I read them 'Nanda's Surprise' and at the end I asked them what activities they could think of that might use the ideas in the story to teach pre-school children. I was met by such a wall of blank faces that I gave them a couple of ideas and then said I would ask them again before lunch, to give them time to think about it. When we returned to the subject three hours later things were not that much better. David and I managed to drag a few ideas out of them but it was like drawing the proverbial teeth. If someone else says 'We could use it to teach colours', again when presented with such a rich resource, I think I shall have to retire defeated! We repeated the experience with the second group yesterday and as soon as I had asked the question ideas were being offered from all corners of the room: tasting, comparing, cutting, preparing fruits; finding out more about the animals in the story, exploring the feelings of the characters in the story; making up dramas, making baskets, having races over obstacle courses while balancing the baskets on their heads, talking about favourite fruits, looking at the adjectives used in the book to describe the fruits, the suggestions just kept on coming and in the end we finished the session before the class ran out of ideas.

On the other hand, on Tuesday and this morning we had a couple of speakers from Chilomoni Health Centre talking about child health issues. Both groups had asked for more speakers as part of the 'feedback on the course so far' sessions. They are keen to hear from specialists and we are trying to get speakers who work in the local area so that we can begin to build relationships with other professionals working with children who will share the client group of the families who live around the Children's Centre. The North building will not be finished as soon as the South, Day Care building, but we hope that both will be functioning properly by Christmas and some of the local professionals may well end up working in offices within the Children's Centre. The speakers presented in a mixture of English and Chichewa. This was their choice. They said that it was easier to explain some aspects in English, and others in Chichewa. The first group received the lecture fairly attentively and asked a few questions. The second was noisy to the point of being rude and asked questions that occasionally seemed to me to be more designed to catch the speakers out than offered in a spirit of enquiry. I felt quite cross with them.

The first day of a new term

Today term started again after the three-week Easter break. It was good to see the students again. A lot has happened over the break and it feels like a long time since we were last teaching. We began the term by reviewing students opinions about what they had learned in the previous term, asking them what they thought had gone well and so on. We asked them to state three important things they had learned, and what difficulties they had encountered. Then we asked them how they thought we could help with the difficulties and what they thought they could do to help themselves. We told them some difficulties we had had as their teachers, and how we thought they might help us. Then we asked 'What went well?' and told them what we thought had gone well and how proud we are of their achievements. Then we enquired what they wanted more of in the second half of the course, and finished by asking whether there were times when they had used what they have learned on the course in their own lives. David led this session and I sat quietly at the back and noted down everything that they said to help us with the planning of the next few weeks. They came up with ten important things they thought they had learned and I was pleased to note that that after some discussion they were able to agree that the most important three were: Observation, Play and Nutrition. Observation and Play I don't think any child care specialist would argue with anywhere in the world, and I think that here in Malawi most people would recognize how important it is that children should receive good nutrition and that this will have a profound effect upon their ability to learn and develop as well as upon health issues. The other important things listed were: Developmental theories, Developmental Milestones, Children's Rights, the importance of Key Concepts to later learning, Creativity, making story sacks, and Fun. Not a bad selection I feel. David wanted Fun to be one of the most important three, but the consensus reached was Observation, Play and Nutrition. That is good enough for me!

Under difficulties we had a lively exchange about the cultural appropriateness of the approach to early years teaching that we are taking; debated again the difficulty of deciding whether issues and milestones are Moral, Spiritual, Social or Emotional; discussed the difficulties of making good observations and of linking theory to practice, considered whether or not it mattered that some of us are not 'good at drawing'; and discussed the relative merits of using larger print on handouts to make them easier to read or economizing on the amount of paper we use. Handouts are the major expense of this course as there are over 70 students and paper and ink cartridges are expensive in Malawi. However the handouts build up into a useful resource to be used by the students when they become care Givers in the Children's Centre. I could write a lot more about this session but it is late and I am tired, however I do have my record of the session so can go back to it at a later date. It is worth noting however that in answer to the question, 'What is the most important thing you can give to a child?' we received the following answers: Time, Praise, Play, Attention, Love, Care, Freedom balanced with safety, Rights and responsibilities. Not a bad list. We must be getting some things right at least!

 

In the afternoon I led a session looking at Reflective Practice and how it can/should be beneficial both for the learning of the children and the professional development of the Care Givers. A group of students demonstrated a new activity involving using a piece of Lycra material with a couple of rhymes, and then I encouraged each student to write their own entry in a reflective diary about the activity they had seen and how useful it might be to them in their work with children. Then they discussed their entries in small groups. Tomorrow we have a visiting speaker and I have asked them all to write a reflective diary entry about how they can use the information learned when they are working in the Children's Centre. The idea is to encourage the practice of reflection for the benefit of both staff and children.

 

The Blessing of JP11LITA

Yesterday began early. As official (???) photographer for Beehive I wanted to be at the site early to catch some of the preparations, and people as they arrived. It was a beautiful morning with that low, warm, morning light bathing the township in a glow that reminded me of ripe apricots. There was activity everywhere, last minute preparations included: cleaning, sweeping, preparing altars, swathing structures in special commemorative chitenge material, clearing away the stray bits of glass left by the glaziers, towing away a broken down dump truck, setting up a stall to sell rosaries and little clear plastic crosses with flashing lights in them, building fires, preparing a vast vat of soup, peeling potatoes, preparing veg, frying chicken. Everyone was smiling and pleased to see me as I wandered about with the camera poking my nose into corners and looking behind buildings to see what I could see! My favourites were the altar boys, and the catering team, but everyone welcomed me and everyone wanted to be photographed.

The Mass was scheduled for 9.00 am, but members of the congregation were asked to be seated by 8.30 am. Lots happened before 9.00 am. I stayed for some time in the covered area, like a huge marquee without sides, where the Mass was to take place and people-watched for a while. People were dressed up for the occasion in their best. There were many traditional dresses, shirts and zitenge in commemorative materials for a variety of Catholic occasions and institutions including John Paul's visit to Malawi in 1989, the Catholic Women's Organisation, St James' Parish Church and many others, not least the bright green, blue and white material created especially for the day. All the staff of JP11LITA and many supporters and members of St James' had had shirts and dresses made especially for the occasion. An incident occurred when one of the poles supporting the roof fell over into an area at the front of the marquee where the children were sitting, but fortunately there did not appear to be any serious injuries, and the pole was quickly replaced and made secure.

On this day when John Paul 11 was beatified in Rome, the IT training college in Chilomoni which is named after him was blessed by the Archbishop, with at least two other bishops and several priests in attendance, including Father Remy from Rwanda, representing the area in which Krizevac plans to place its second cross on an African mountain. Apparently the plan is to erect 14 such crosses in 14 African countries by 2033, and to improve standards of living for those people resident in the areas surrounding the crosses. I followed the group participating in the ceremony of blessing the building as they moved from room to room. As they left the college building, they paused for a few moments for the Archbishop to unveil a plaque commemorating the occasion, and then returned to the steps of the admin building which was doing service as a robing room.

The green-clad part of the group separated from the bright, white group of clergy and altar boys, and slipped down the back steps to find their seats for the Mass. The Archbishop's group processed down the central aisle of the Marquee, and the Mass began. The service lasted a couple of hours and was followed by speeches. The choir made a lovely joyful sound. The offertory caught my attention as I had not anticipated that a large proportion of it would be offerings in kind. There were bags of rice, all kinds of fruits and vegetables, chickens, trays and trays of eggs, cooking oil, wrapped parcels, even a suitcase. I would be interested to know what happens to all of these things? How are they distributed and to whom? The Mass was mostly in Chichewa and lasted a couple of hours. Speeches in English and Chichewa took up a further hour and a half or so. The time passed amazingly quickly and by the time we rose and began to file out of the covered area it was already nearly one o'clock and as the celebratory meal was scheduled for 12.30pm we moved towards the college building where the huge second floor library had been transformed into a light, airy dining room, decorated with white and gold balloons, white tablecloths and many more yards of the fabric of the day. The catering ladies had done a wonderful job and the meal was well-cooked, well-served and tasty.

Back to work

Last Monday was a national holiday and Malcolm, Giacomo and I set off to have a look at Lake Chilwa, which is supposed to be a world class place for seeing wading birds, and to find the Chipala Pillars, some sandstone formations about which Malcolm had read a magazine article and taken a fancy to go and have a look at. A couple of weeks ago I think I wrote about Malcolm's 'last trip' down the bumpy back, dirt roads of Malawi. Needless to say, that was not the last one, and no more was this one I dare say, as he has extended his stay for a month and there is at least one more weekend to go after this one! We drove the hour and a half or so to Zomba on tarmac roads, although I must say that the rainy season has not improved their condition. Finding the Lake Chilwa road was not difficult because of a huge 'Wetlands of Malawi' sign, but as ever 30Km on a dirt road took over an hour of bumping and bouncing. As driver I was probably in the most comfortable position, and also in control of the speed, which is always a good thing! The road was narrow and at one point passing through a village market I had to drive at a snail's pace to ensure that I did no damage to bicycles and pedestrians. A stall holder tried to sell me bright patterned fabric through the Land Rover window, but I kept making slow but steady progress towards the far end of the market. Eventually we arrived at the end of the road, which narrowed into a path down to the lake shore. We left the Land Rover at the end of the road, just past a village, and proceeded to the fish quay. There was a market of sorts, but the only products on sale were fish, both fresh and dried, and ground nuts. The stench of drying fish was almost overpowering. Mesh racks were spread with drying fish. Many local people were lying in the shade under the loaded racks. There were local boats scattered about and many men in wide-brimmed straw hats were mending nets. I don't think they see many azungu as we excited quite a bit of interest. There were a few birds, egrets and cranes, but so many people that they kept their distance. We looked for paths along the lake side to get away from the crowd, but there did not seem to be any. Eventually we went back to the Land Rover and explored further afield, but all tracks seemed to lead back to the same village. We could not find our way to the shore at any other point. Eventually we gave up and we rumbled back towards Zomba in search of Malcolm's sandstone pillars which he said were 30 minutes out of Zomba, just off the Lake Chilwa road. Ha! In Malawi, things are rarely as simple as they sound. To cut a long story short we eventually found the Chipala Hills, which were off a different Lake Chilwa road, which itself was 30 minutes out of Zomba. We tried to follow the instructions in the magazine article and indeed located all the landmarks it described apart from the last one, an army station close to the path leading to the pillars. However the army station proved elusive and eventually we were forced to give up or risk having to drive the three hours home up dirt tracks in the dark. Thus, locating the weird rock formations remains a task for another day! Nevertheless the Chipala Hills were wooded, tranquil and beautiful and well worth a visit for their own sake. One little cameo of a memory is worth recording. We stopped for a picnic beside a road in the shade of a large tree and a whole family of children came out to watch the azungu as they ate. Gradually the children trickled away to their games all except for a little girl who cannot have been more than three. She sat in the dust of the middle of the road and did not take her eyes off us. Her mother kept an eye on her from the shadow of the hedge around the house. As we left I asked her mum if I could give the child the last of our hot cross buns. She nodded her assent and I bent down and offered the bun to the child. She glanced at her mum and then reached out for it with a huge smile. She sprang to her feet and ran off to show her prize to her big brothers and sisters. Such a small thing to give such pleasure!

I have been back at work for a week, and a short week at that because of the national holiday on Easter Monday. Already I am back into a routine even though term does not start again until next Tuesday following the May Day holiday. I have worked really hard this week. I wanted to have all my lectures at least outlined, up until the time when I go home for a fortnight on May 25 so that I can spend my prep days doing some work on the subjects for after I return, because I definitely won't have time to do any while I am in England. I shall have to prioritise my dissertation then, which has been sadly neglected of late! I have divided my time between preparing discussion sessions and PowerPoint presentations and getting the classroom ready for the new term. Our students seem to like sitting in rows, but the classroom is so crowded with furniture that I cannot get around to look over their shoulders when they are working in groups and there is a lot of shuffling about with chairs and desks, so I have grouped the desks to make six tables and put six chairs at each, in the hope that once they sit down they will stay in the same place for a whole session. I have tried to do this before, but by the time I arrived to begin teaching they had returned all the furniture to rows. This time I have left a message on the board welcoming them back and asking them not to rearrange the furniture! I hope it works. I have also used a lot of bleach to try to change the atmosphere emanating from the toilets. Yes, I know bleach is not the best thing for the environment, but I am tired of having to live with the aroma, and so have made a determined effort to start off the new term on a new footing. I have sorted through all the things the students have made and drawn, stripped off everything that had been haphazardly blutaked to the walls, lined the walls with sugar paper and put together four displays. One on hopes and aspirations of the students, a huge caterpillar made of marble paintings, a selection of curiously shaped blots from blow painting, and the best of the students' designs for the garden area of the Children's Centre. On Friday afternoon I was most gratified when Alfred, the head teacher, came in to the room and said, 'Oh, you have made it look really beautiful in here!' By UK standards it is still a rather dingy and grubby room with old and battered furniture, but it certainly does feel better. I do hope it works better too! By Malawian standards I guess it is beautiful;     there are so few resources here, white flip chart paper and lead pencils and a few biros seem to be the extent of what is readily available, so sugar paper in half a dozen different shades, bright paints and labels printed on the computer must seem beautiful indeed! Alfred had himself been very busy making all the big flip chart tables and records that cover his office walls. This is where he records the marks and grades achieved by his pupils, and keeps track of what is happening in his school. His term started this week and Lindy has been teaching types of Government to Standard 7, a mixed group of ninety 10-17 year-olds. She has kept us entertained at dinner by her tales of how she has tried to show the differences between democracy and autocracy using dramatic techniques rather than just relying upon repetition of facts which she has no way of knowing whether or not they have understood.

David and his Dad returned from their holiday yesterday. I am delighted to have them both here. It was good to see David. Between us we have been away for a month and it is good to know we shall be able to support each other through the next term. During this time each of us will have a fortnight in the UK. I have made a timetable for the new term with colour-coding for each of the people involved. There are sections which are heavily green, for David, while I am away, and later heavily purple, for me, while he returns home. Lindy is going to do a regular music slot this term, turquoise, and other visiting speakers are shown in yellow. Anything which is a bit different or requires special preparation leaps out of the page in bright red!

I am looking forward to seeing the students again. They should each be bringing us a holiday, essay-style assignment on Tuesday morning. I have the unpleasant task of finding out where all the text books from our library have disappeared to. I hope they have simply failed to sign them out properly rather than taken them with a view to hanging on to them more permanently.

Beehive is very busy preparing for the blessing by the Archbishop of the John Paul 11 Leadership and IT Academy of which Jan is Principal, which is to take place tomorrow. Malcolm has been frantically busy attempting to make the building site a safe enough place for Mass for the 2000 people who are apparently expected. A raised platform has been erected for an altar. There is to be a celebratory meal in the library of the new college building after the Mass, to which all the volunteers have been invited. I went up to the site yesterday in my position as official photographer and sussed out a few likely vantage points. Malcolm and I are to get up early tomorrow and go to the site to get a few 'atmosphere shots' before the Mass starts, I think at 7.30am. There are no services at St James' tomorrow and normally there are at least three. I think they are expecting all the regulars to be there plus a lot of other guests. Quite how long the service will be, and what else is expected to happen between 7.30 and lunch at 12.30 I am not quite sure, but it is my job to chronicle it and I await with interest to find out. I wonder whether there will be a similar occasion when the Children's Centre is completed around September.

Good Friday in Chilomoni

The beginnings of Beehive in Chilomoni lie in the building of the Way of the Cross on Michuri mountain. The reasons why I personally am here working for Beehive have absolutely nothing to do with the origins of the project. Indeed when I made my first enquiry, my first question sought reassurance that it would not be a problem to anyone that I am neither Catholic nor a practicing Christian. I wanted to be sure that the services of the Children's Centre particularly, were to be open to all members of the community in Chilomoni, whatever their creed or culture, and I was reassured on these points. However, whether I like it or not, Beehive is certainly perceived as a Catholic Organisation locally, although rather to my surprise Vince told me that on paper it is not. Many local people have been astonished to find that I am not a Catholic because they know I am a Beehive volunteer. If they ask more questions they then go on to be even more astonished, if not shocked, to discover that I do not belong to any church or other religion. It seems that it is almost unknown to be without religion here. There does not seem to be any understanding that one might be able to have a moral code or humanitarian principles based on anything other than a belief in a god of some kind. Several of my students have tried very hard to persuade me into their own way of thinking out of concern for my soul. Anyway in the interests of attempting to understand the culture in which I find myself, I first climbed the Way of the Cross when I had been in Malawi only a couple of weeks. I have returned four or five times since not least because it is a beautiful walk with panoramic views of Chilomoni in the foreground and Greater Blantyre surrounded by mountains stretching away into the, usually slightly blue and misty distance. Also it is a well signposted walk with regular reassurance that you are not lost in the Stations of the Cross, and therefore I did not feel it was too risky to go by myself in that very lonely time over Christmas when Mitsidi was virtually deserted. It is the same with the Way of the Rosary, but here there is the bonus of a whole other set of views to the other side of the mountain away from Blantyre, which are altogether more wild and beautiful. Armed with suntan lotion, a bottle of water and either a camera or binoculars, and preferably a congenial companion, I can happily while away a few hours on either path.

Yesterday was Good Friday. We had heard that on this day upwards of two thousand people walk the Way of the Cross and we were curious to see how so many could be accommodated at the top of the mountain so we decided to go. We discovered that there are two services and our information was that there is one in English at 6.30am and one in Chichewa at 8.00am. Apparently the English one attracts about 200 worshippers and the Chichewa about 2000. My interests being in local culture, and not having to get out of bed too early in the morning, we decided to leave Mitsidi at 6.30 am, quite early enough for me, and be at the top of the mountain for 8.00am. It was a gorgeous morning with the sun still quite low in the sky making long shadows, and the light a warm golden yellow. At the bottom of the mountain, cars were parked along both sides of the narrow road. Despite the 'Vending not allowed' signs there were a few people selling rosaries and orders of service etc. We began the walk up the mountain in the company of a small group of worshippers who stopped to pray at the first station. We continued a slow and steady progress. At each station there were small groups kneeling, singing and praying. We walked quietly, exchanging only smiles and nods with people we passed. There were a number of people about, but I had expected more. We reached the top shortly before 8.00am to find the English service just coming to an end. There were a few people we knew and after the service had ended we chatted a bit, and then gradually the crowd dispersed. There were five priests who went off to sit on pairs of green plastic chairs set at discreet distances from one another in the scrubby woodland, to hear confessions. One or two small groups sat singing together. It was generally quiet and peaceful. After an hour or so there were very few people left and we began to wonder what had happened to the Chichewa service. Obviously our information had not been correct, or was it just that things were operating on Malawi time? Another hour passed. The time sped by. The view becomes more interesting the more I learn about Chilomoni and Blantyre. I can pick out a lot more landmarks now, and recognizing buildings sparks off memories. Eventually we heard singing from far away and were able to pick out a huge procession of people right at the bottom of the mountain. Gradually the group snaked its way up the path, stopping to pray and sing at each station. One by one and then in small groups young boys and girls began to arrive at the top of the mountain. I guess their parents were part of the procession and they had run on ahead as children do and would meet up with their families gain at the top. At one point it seemed as though there were perhaps six adults at the top of the mountain, including me and Malcolm, with perhaps a hundred and fifty children in small chattering groups, some rolling and playing in the grass, some breaking small branches off the trees to make themselves impromptu sunshades. Occasionally an adult would remind them that this was a holy occasion and ask them to be quiet and to move away from the area where the altar was set up under a canvas roof, but as this was the main area of available shade and the sun was by now high in the sky they kept creeping back. Everyone was dressed in their best, there were many shirts and traditional dresses in bright African fabrics including some which commemorated Catholic groups or occasions, but there were even more bridesmaid's dresses from the second hand market and neatly pressed shorts or jeans and buttoned shirts.

The singing got gradually louder and louder. By the time the procession reached the thirteenth station we had been on the mountain nearly six hours, but to me it did not seem nearly that long. From this stage on we could hear what was being said through a rather raucous portable public address system and see the crowd spilling off the track and into the surrounding woodland perching on rocks or kneeling on the rough ground while the prayers were being said. I recognized one or two people from Beehive including Peter Nkata, who came and spoke to us. The only azungus I saw in the vast crowd were a family of four who were very near the head of the procession and Tony Smith whose Panama hat caught my eye as I looked down from my rocky perch at the top of the track towards the fifteenth station. Gradually hundreds of people passed our rock and crammed themselves into the space at the top. There were nuns from several orders, stout matrons in flip flops and zitenge, who had clearly found the steep hot climb as difficult as I did when I first did it in the heat of the day last October; there were respectable men in dark trousers and white shirts, some of whom sang confidently and strongly as they walked. There were groups walking together who were probably choirs. There were many women dressed in the white shirts and purple skirts and headscarves of mourning. There were couples and there were families, and everywhere there were children, tiny ones strapped to their mother's backs, toddlers being carried or encouraged by parents or siblings, crying sometimes and being quietened with snacks, which usually seemed to be little plastic pots of cold chips. Older children were everywhere, smiling, fingering rosaries, climbing rocks and trees, joining the singing, slipping away to play in small groups. When most people had passed us and joined the crowd at the top of the mountain and the first few had turned and begun to go down, Malcolm turned to me and mouthed 'Leg it?' I nodded and we got up and picked our way between the hundreds of people sitting on every available stone or flat(ish) piece of ground to regain the track and work our way back down towards Chilomoni.

Back at the car park there was mass defiance of the 'No vending' instruction. Both sides of the road were lined with local people hoping to make a few kwachas by selling doughnuts, samosas, sweet and Irish potatoes, sweets, soft drinks to the hungry crowd as they returned from the mountain. I hope they did good trade!

Back to work

This morning I was up and scrambling eggs at 5.30am in order to get Rose and Joe to Chileka Airport in time for a transfer flight to Lilongwe to pick up their Air Kenya flights to Nairobi and on to Heathrow. They arrive early tomorrow morning. I should think by the time Joe gets back to Norwich on the train from London he will be utterly exhausted. We had a bit of a panic the night before last as it seemed that diesel was unobtainable in Blantyre and we had planned to hire a car and drive back to Dedza yesterday via a visit to Mua Mission, and thus give ourselves an easy journey from Dedza to Lilongwe to catch the lunchtime plane. We reviewed a few options but eventually decided the simplest, if not the most environmentally friendly, was to book them on the morning flight to Lilongwe and have an extra day in Blantyre. We had done the booking by 9.00am and filled the day with pottering round Blantyre, buying last minute gifts and souvenirs, having lunch in Veg-delight, and sitting around at Mitsidi, talking, swimming and reading. It was a nice relaxing day. As we had been swimming in Lake Malawi we also sorted out the anti-bilharzia medication for R and J to take back to the UK and take six weeks after the swim. It's much cheaper and easier to get it here.

I felt really sad when I got back to Mitsidi. I have had such a lovely time with my children, just as I did when Jack came in January. I was wondering what on earth possessed me to leave them for such a long time, although I know that the answer to this question is complicated! However I also know that it would never happen at home that I would have their undivided attention for a whole fortnight and so much high quality time spent enjoying ourselves together. They all have their own lives in Norwich, with their own friends and social circles, but here they are visiting my world and so I saw so much more of them. Both Rose and Joe have said that they would like to contribute something to this blog, following their visit. I look forward to their contributions and to hearing their thoughts and feelings about their African experiences.

This morning I have been catching up with my emails as a way of thinking my way back in to a working frame of mind. It has been rather too Malawian an introduction in that I have struggled with the internet connection and lost material through losing connections. How frustrating it is, and how daft am I not to have got into the habit of drafting EVERYTHING in Word just in case!

I have a lot of lecture and activity preparation to do in the week or so until term starts again. Also I plan to have a good look at the classroom, give the toilets a good clean, and consider how best to display some of the student's work with a view to encouraging them to display children's work in interesting and stimulating ways. David worked for a week after I had gone away with my children to the Lake so I daresay he is well ahead with his lecture prep. I am looking forward to his return in a week's time and also to meeting his Dad again. Jed is here for at least a couple of months. It is a bit of a time of change at Mitsidi. We have recently welcomed Melvyn, an engineer who will replace Malcolm who is off home in a couple of weeks, and Adam who is a JCB expert, among other talents. Giacomo, an architect, has been here a couple of weeks and is already having a significant effect on the development of the Children's Centre. Tony Smith the founder of Krizevac is here for a month. Philip and Sharon are off back to the States very soon. Jan and Lindy's children and mine have just completed visits and are off home again, so it has definitely been a time of change. I wonder how it will all feel when everything has settled down.

But first there is Easter, and then May 1 will bring the blessing by the Archbishop of the new IT training college.