another week flies by

Greetings from Mzuzu!
It's hard to believe that another week has passed by and that it's Sunday again. It's been busy and great fun as I spent some more time in school with the children this week, helping out as another teacher has needed some time off. The day in the pre-school is from 7.30am to 4pm, which is quite a lot longer than my usual nursery day in Northern Ireland. I have been able to try out some new activities with the children and teachers which we all enjoyed...
Children are the same the world over - water, sand and mud always go down a treat! Well, at least with the children. Maybe the mums were not so pleased with the colour of the clothes that were sent home... One of the slogans of the washing powders available here is 'DIRT IS GOOD!' so I hope it works well. Watch this space......

This is one of my most useful kitchen items - the water filter. I was very glad it was well filled on Friday morning as the water and electricity went off early and it stayed off until yesterday afternoon. We can completely take for granted the water that comes out of the taps until it is not there. I have learned that my buckets should always be filled with spare water just in case, a wee job that I musn't forget to keep up to date.
The lack of electricity meant that the night sky was clearly visible and the stars were just beautiful. This was one of the upsides of this short chapter!

This week I also had the opportunity to sample fresh sugar cane. I have had some growing in my garden but it was harvested by the family that lived here before me. It is quite a funny thing to eat as you strip the outer hard layer off with your teeth and chew chunks of the inner layers. It is very sweet as you can imagine and then after chewing the inner layers the leftover fibres in your mouth are put into the bin. It would easily satisfy the sweetest tooth. (if it didn't, there would be a problem!)

Freshly harvested sugar cane.

Some happy children enjoying outdoor play time.

This week I will be back in the office adding more new information to the database and reading through and organising the data from the monitoring forms that the trainers have been sending back from their visits to the nurseries in their presbyteries. Already it is not difficult to see the next chapter of work taking shape even before this first chapter is completed. As you can see life is getting busier...!

Enjoy your week.

Blessings

Fiona

so many new things...

Hello everyone! I have been reflecting over the past week that every day I continue to have so many new experiences so thought I might share some of them with you.

I mentioned last time that the weather here was moving into the cold season. I thought the other day as I looked out of the kitchen window that this sort of misty morning is much the same as a September morning in the UK. It is noticeably cooler here now and I have been making use of the jumpers and coats I packed into my luggage earlier this year. Early morning and in the evening when the sun sets I really feel the difference. June and July are cold here and the temperature can drop to single figures - take note for any summer visits that may be planned in the future that jumpers and jackets will be needed!

I have been a little under the weather recently and I enjoyed a visit from one of the teachers from the pre-school who called in to see how I was and to bring me some popcorn to cheer me up. I will have to learn how to do this in a different way than usual as the kernels are still on the cob!

Here is some of the local fabric I have bought in Mzuzu. I have a new item of clothing, made from fabric just like this, which is turning out to one of the most useful things I own. It is a 2 metre length of material called a chitenje. It is basically a wrap around skirt that is worn over an ordinary skirt. As there are not buttons or fasteners I have had to be taught how to wrap and tuck the ends in well in order to save me having a very red face if it was to fall off..!

The ladies in the top picture are wearing chitenje, have a flick back up and you will see.

This past fortnight the CCAP ECD trainers in Mzuzu have been training about 40 local caregivers. I have popped in and out of the training and have been really encouraged by the enthusiasm of these folks as they have been learning how to provide child centred learning for the children in their care. Many of the centres they come from have virtually no resources for the children so the caregivers are taught how to make resources from locally available materials. Here are some of the dollies that they were in the process of making. I went back later on and the clothes they made for them were fabulous.

My garden also is a source of new things to learn. I know how to cut grass and care for tubs but what do you do with a garden full of maize that needs harvested? Well, thankfully I didn't have to worry about that too much as it belonged to the family who lived here before me. They came and harvested it.

Busy, who helps me in the garden, has started to get the ground ready for my vegetable and here are the results....

I am getting ready to plant some vegetables of my own. Will keep you updated on the progress.

Some of you may remember the series of earthquakes that struck the northern region of Malawi just before Christmas last year. This week I had the opportunity to visit Kasoba village near Karonga which was very badly affected by the quakes. This is the first time I have ever visited anywhere that has been damaged in this way and I was really shocked to see the damage and destruction first hand.

This is one of the damaged homes and in the background is the tent that is still being used for accomodation as the building is, not surprisingly, unsafe...

Here is a primary school or rather what is left of it. They have a large number of children who are having to be taught in temporary accomodation but that too is not very great and one of the local teachers told me that teaching and learning has been affected.

Here is one of the temporary classrooms that unfortunately was damaged by some high winds just recently.

Life is still very tough for the people in Kasoba village even 6 months after the big quakes and they continue to have tremors quite regularly - a problem when many buildings are still unsafe. I saw many temporary homes in the gardens of the damaged buildings where families have to live because their homes are not fit to live in. I was really struck by the faith of the local Christians. Please do pray for the Malawian people who are having to make life work in very hard circumstances.

To end on a slightly more positive note and to show you a little of the beauty of this lovely country... some of the other new things that I am enjoying

Lake fishermen at work near the northern lakeshore. Yes it is really just like this!

The evening skies are sometimes just breathtaking.

I hope you have a great week wherever it will take you.

Blessings

Fiona