Fertiliser

I am sure you are all sick of my refrain' "It's sooo hot!!", but God, it's sooo hot!!
I thought October was as hot as it could get but today takes the cake. Melting, solid, thick heat.
It is so hot that I am spurred into taking a daily morning swim to the yellow boat and back every morning for some exercise and to move the flaccid frame after the long night snuggling up to the fan. I sometimes find Ben upside down in his bed because he has tried to move closer to his fan - not that it blows cool air, but at least it moves the stultifying night air around. I have avoided Mumbo hosting duties because there's no electricity out there and thus no fan. Can't be done! The poor guests - though none seem the worse for it.
Eddie has a heat rash around his neck, on his forehead and down his back - he very sensitive to it. Ben is fine - I think because he swims such a lot.
After I wrote that, it rained during the night and has done for the last two nights - a joy and thrill! Eddie got into a bit of a panic about the accompanying thunder and lightning and the roof leaked over his head, so he came to sleep with me and Bush had his bed (he did move it.) I have to say I loved having his little body snuggling up to me all night - I have always been so adamant that children should sleep in their own beds, and mine always have, but it really is a treat to have that tiny little chap snuffling away next to me on occasion. (But did once make the mistake of having them both share my bed on Mumbo one night - and it was pure hell. Didn't sleep a wink as they tossed and flung limbs about and kicked each other and me in the face and did 360 degree spins and fell out of the bed three times each!)
It is still scorching during the day, but I can see a glimmer of hope. I think the rainy season might be a delight. I will keep you informed (though I can't imagine a tropical weather report really fills anyone's heart with excitement - but it helps to share the enthusiasm!)
We have begun preparations for Christmas. The children collected seed pods on Mumbo ages ago and yesterday they began painting them. Then I had what I have to proudly say was a brainwave. Amos, one of the carvers, came to see me about buying some of his things because it is nearly planting season and he needs to buy fertiliser and it is so expensive this year (I will go into that later). He makes mobiles, so I ordered just the wooden flying birds from the mobile, minus the frame, and we have painted them for Christmas decorations. They are delightful, though I say it myself. And Hyco, another carver, made some lovely wooden stars and we bought some painted monkey apples in Lilongwe and the children are painting the rest at school this morning - now all we need to find is some sort of Christmas tree....
There is a fertiliser crisis in Malawi this year. Last year it cost K4000 a bag and this year it costs K10 000. Apparently it has to do with the price of oil. So that means that the average rural farmer cannot afford to buy it. But, as always in Africa, where people become resourceful because they have to, there is a plan. The government gives the poorest people fertiliser coupons to exchange for a bag of the stuff. A lot of these people live in areas where the soil is still rich mainly because there is only one planting season in the year and the land lies fallow for the rest of time, and of course this is because it only rains once a year here for three months. So they then sell their coupons to people from areas with poor soil - like Cape Maclear. We have given all our staff K5000 towards it, and they have had advances on their wages to get more. So now there is a frantic rushing around to find a village selling coupons. Planting will begin as soon as the rains do - soon now. All the fields are prepared - all hoed and cleared by hand and the season of fires is over at last so the hazy air is clearing. I really hope there were enough coupons to go around the whole country, otherwise there will be another famine. Scary - if your one crop fails, there is no hope of another. This is one of the poorest countries in the world and at times like this, you can see disaster looming.
Anyway, that is to worry about next year, I suppose, and perhaps if the oil price comes down, as it now has, next year will be a boom year.
Too hot to write anymore and have made myself anxious now!

tea and verandahs

Hello all
Just back last night from Lujeri tea estate underneath the towering Mulanje mountain. So very gorgeous, just as I had hoped: all those magnificent green slopes and huge trees and red earth roads and old stone walls propping up the plantations - aah! Lujeri also has a huge river running through it which has beautiful rock pools to swim in, so we spent a very happy morning wallowing there. And the house we stayed in was gorgeous too: all old pink walls and a wrap-around wide verandah with old couches on it for lazing on, and ceiling fans (wonky and a bit scary so we never slept with them on as I always think they are going to come spiraling down any minute to decapitate one!), and two lovely men who cooked and made beds and brought trays of tea at opportune moments. I know I sound like a shocking colonial, but golly it is nice to have a cook on holiday!
We bought a lot of lovely fresh fruit and veg at the Tyolo local market (lots of little old ladies under reed roofs with little piles of home-grown produce: strawberries, custard apples, pineapples (so sweet!), cauliflower, broccoli, marrows and now mangoes as far as the eye can see! We ate huge fruit salads after every meal and lots of veg meals. Most of the time we spent lolling about on the verandah reading books while Ben and Eddie were exemplary children playing made-up games with seedpods they found which they made into characters, replete with different voices and even accents! All day they played that game.
And we had such a treat: a thunderstorm of epic winds and lightning and thunder during our first day. Loved it! So then we were guilt-free about not doing anything with the day. The next morning Pam and I did a tour of the tea factory: when I told the manager that I drank about 12 cups a day, he was my biggest fan and addressed the rest of the explanations to me. We even did the tasting and spitting and examining of the hue and I loved every minute. In fact I spotted a place I would like to work in my next incarnation (when?): The Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa, Mimosa Station! Doesn't that sound ideal? It is a little one-story white building with a verandah on all four sides and rickety french doors and a tin roof all set under enormous shady trees with different coloured bougainvilleas cascading out of them. Not sure what I'd do there, but researching tea sounds within my capabilities!
The flame trees are flowering all over Malawi - beautiful spreading trees with not a leaf, just red or orange flower on every stalk. Will attach a pic. So are the baobabs - if you haven't seen a baobab flower, you have missed out. It is like a ballerina in a tutu/rose/frothy frilly soft white confection, a thing of joy!
There are rumblings and clouds forming every evening now, but the rains have not yet come. Can't wait, though I am sure I will not enjoy the dampness for long! But the heat really builds up now, and you can feel the pressure building up, waiting to be released by a nice big explosive thundery storm!
My computer is doing something strange now - deleting everything in front of the cursor if I try to type into a line I've already written - so no editing allowed! Can only go on from here.
So we are back in the saddle again and no more holidays for us! November is still quite quiet, but December is full and we have the whole of Mumbo booked for two days for a wedding. So that might require some extra work too. Think we'll get Cleartone's church choir to sing on Christmas day on Mumbo and our gnomish gardener, Mavuto (which means Trouble!) and his son, Nindi, to drum on New Year's for the edification and entertainment of the guests... Have to think of something nice to eat too. And what to do here and who with???
Being a bad mum again and have bathed and toothcleaned the darlings and popped them under the net to watch Buzz Lightyear again while I sit under mine to email.
Will affix pretty pics and then do some mothering.

malaria and croup

Hello darlings
Well it's been a time of trial out here in the sweltering tropics! It went like this:
Eddie got malaria
Ben got malaria (while Eddie was still not well with his malaria)
Eddie got croup (while Ben was still not well with his malaria)
Ben got croup (while he was still not well with the malaria)
Ben got chest infection
Clive got sore throat
Trace got exhausted...
But it's all over now, except that Ben is still taking antibiotics and they both cough all night.
Ben had never been sick for more than a day before this and kept waking up from his coughing and screaming "I'm dying!" Very dramatic and heart-rending at first and very tiring on the 95th yell!
Thankfully I could take a day off yesterday on his last day in bed (had them alternating days on a mattress in my office, or I worked from our room.) He watched a medley of Gummi Bears (american gunk which they love!) and Eddie went back to school and they both felt fine in the afternoon so I banished them onto the verandah to play lego with Zoda and I retired to my bed with the Sex in the City extended movie (crap) and my beloved white fan and a packet of expired orange puffy cheese chips. Felt foul thereafter naturally - theory always better than practice! Both right as rain now and full of new games and fight moves after watching Kung Fu Panda...
Otherwise have been embroiled in a little local politics. After a large meeting of all parties involved in tourism pursuits here in the village (the National Parks, lodge owners, curio vendors and 'beach boys' (local term for fellows who speak in fake American accents, wear board shorts and t-shirts with the sleeves cut off and have dreads - who mainly take local boat tours around the place and sell weed)) it was reported back to me that the vendors had a problem with our shop on Mumbo. I got almost tearful, because I have been so careful to buy from a whole range of people to spread the cash around a bit. Anyway, I consulted our new managers (4 guys on the Malawian staff who have moved up a level: Edward, Franklin, Sutha and Joseph) to get advice and Joe went off to consult with Mr Chimombo (Eddie's friend who made his model of Nankappa and is vendor representative) and reported back that in fact that was incorrect, thank God!, and they just wanted to show some of their wares here at Base, and to have us encourage visitors to go out into the road to visit their stalls. Fair enough, so we all shook hands amicably and there was no further need for lumps in throat.
Otherwise life rolls on, sweatily. (Have discovered those deodorant crystal sticks though and can vouch for their efficacy, but sadly one cannot apply them over the entire mortal frame and especially not to the old visage, which beams shinily like a moon these days.)
It's odd, having grey hair has made me feel my age (or perhaps even older). I have no desire at all to party on down at the three local bars or to go out at all. Probably not a good thing and certainly a bone of contention with my ever-youthful and happy-to-party husband! I have been told the salt and pepper makes me look distinguished - and let's face it, no babe of twenty, or even, thirty is ever told that. Clearly I look my age too!
But there is no going back to the bottle or the henna goo - the effort and cost is not worth it I think.
I have accepted this stage in my life here as being very insular and simple. Work and kids and the hammock on the verandah - and the many happy interactions with both guests and staff are enough for me this year. And I have a great sense of accomplishment about what we've done so far too.
But I still haven't managed to start a tree-growing project. That is my obsession, as the deforestation of this country is scary. Have just bought 3 bags of tree seeds and now need to find a place to grow them into seedlings and then my plan is give every member of our staff 2 seedlings and a bag of manure (from our dry composter loos on the islands!) and hopefully everyone will have two big trees soon. Maybe we need to do it every year so that when one is chopped for firewood there is another to take its place. I am also not buying any ebony for our shop or for myself as ebony trees take 30 years to mature and there are almost none left. Our carver, James, says that in two years they will all be cut. So he and I have started to use Mtumbu, the 'fence post tree' for carvings and, though it is not as hard, it has a beautiful grain and is good for carvings.
Today in Cape Town in the Noordhoek Country Fair, where, 3 years ago, my stylish friend Belinda and I had our first second-hand clothes stall. I am so sad to be missing it. B is selling my Monkey Bay treasures for me, but I so wish I could be there too - we had such fun doing it and meeting all those women who went off happy with our finds.

The Heat!

Hello dears
I am not sure you realise what I mean when I say it is hot here: it is so hot the air feels as if it is blowing out of a red-hot heater. The sun feels as if it will give you third degree burns and it never cools down, even at night. We have cold showers throughout the day and the kids swim, even though there are biting things (invisible and unidentifiable) that leave them covered in red bites. I am in love with my little white fan - it is my most precious possession. I carry it into my office and blow it straight onto me at the desk, and I carry it back to our room at night and point it right over me, under the net. It has saved my life. But today the water pump has broken and there are no cold showers to be had. Will have to go to the pool at the lodge down the beach for a swim when the last guests have left after 3.
I don't usually go anywhere, because that would mean going out of this shady property into that dusty heat glare out there. But naturally I made an exception for the Monkey Bay market and went, alone, in the heat of the midday sun. I felt faint and when I saw myself after two hours of trawling the piles, in the mirror at the loo at the petrol station, I was a vile shade of puce. It was rather shattering! I splashed water all over me and emerged looking as if I had tried to drown myself under the tap. The Malawian attendants, with their usual impeccable politeness, merely smiled cheerily and said "you are most welcome" when I staggered out and thanked them from the bottom of my boiled heart.
(Unbelievably, I shopped in that heat for winter clothes for the Cape winter next year. I bought fleece pants and jackets and jerseys - I was a hero in my own bizarre tale.)
Not much going on here in the heat... Ed got a fever for 24 hours and we treated him for malaria but I don't think it was - Malawians all just nod sagely when anyone sickens at this time of year and say "it happens now. It is the lake." The mangoes are ripening slowly and we drink may many glasses of water all day.
We are heading off to the tea estate under Mulanje mountain in the beginning of November - it has an enormous plantation house, sleeps 10 and has huge shady trees and a lawn and a swimming pool! There are also all sorts of mountain streams to swim in. Can't wait. Have even booked for the factory tour (being a tea head, I think it is a necessary pilgrimage.) (Google Lujeri Lodge and then go green.)
Both islands are full now, but are empty for the few days we go away. Malawi has been full of young Poms who came for the Lake of Stars music festival - colonisers. They irritated us with their arrogance - sending beach boys to fetch kayaks for them with vague promises to pay when they returned and infesting our jetty and generally behaving as if Malawi never got its independence 50 years ago and this was their own personal playground replete with cheerful slaves - but perhaps that was just the thoughtlessness of youth interpreted by the cynicism of age (made worse by the irritation of intense heat) - drink more iced water, dear...
Everyone who comes through here gets all misty eyed telling me what an ideal environment this is for kids. It is and it isn't. It's hard for them - the lake makes them itch and there's nowhere to go to get out except for two places - Gecko Lounge for and ice cream, and Cap Mac Lodge for a swimming pool. That's it for outings, and they only happen once a week as the grownups are all working the rest of the time. It is quite a limited life compared with life in town, where you see many other kids and play at each others' houses and go out to see things like the harbour and the shops and various play parks and whatnot. Buj and Javi at least have a wider circle of friends because they speak Chichewa and have grown up here, but my chaps are pretty isolated with only Buj and Javi to play with. So it's very safe and there's the lake and it's a great experience, but they really want to go home. They remember everything about it - every place they went to, every toy that is waiting for them. Still,, they'll miss it all when they leave.So the plan is to always come back for a month or two during the Cape Winter - and maybe every second year to do Christmas here too (and if we can persuade family and friends to visit us then that would be heaven!)
Must go now - hear the boat chugging towards us full of guests coming off and others are on their way here. The dads are taking the kids to swim in the pool and I'll join them there later. (Damn the pump!)

Baby Jane and Edward Scissorhands

Think it's been a while since I last wrote and then it was a bit of a whine, I fear.
Have got over that negative patch and am merrily settled down to the daily business of life here in the tropics. It is fiendishly hot these days and we have cold showers before bed and then sleep with fans blowing all night. But the upside is that all the trees are putting out bright green leaves as if in anticipation of the rain coming in December - even though there is not a sniff of it yet. Even the baobab at the back fence is beginning to sprout.
I was very honoured yesterday to name the new baby daughter of Edward (our head guide) and his wife Mable (our laundry lady). I was taken by surprise so I suggested my mum's name, Claire. But Malawians can't say i's so it was Crare and they looked disconcerted at that, so I suggested my granny's name Patricia, which was also difficult to pronounce and the baby nearby had the name already so they waited expectantly for another. So I suggested Jane, a name I have always loved for its simplicity, and because of my dear friend of the same name. They loved it too, so this afternoon at 3pm I am off to their house again to eat a meal in celebration of Jane. She'll be known as Jani though, as everything in Malawi ends in "i". (Remember the shopping list? Ben is a scream - he speaks his version of Chitchewa where he just speaks English and adds "i" onto everything!)
(An aside: there are very interesting names here - you know about Lyoness already, but some of my personal faves are Godafoloy (Godfrey) and Cleartone (known as Creaton).)
The boatmen are picking tamarind pods off our big tree in front of our office - it's interesting to eat - you eat the inner soft part of the pod - very spicy. They make a drink out of it here by mixing it with lots of sugar and water. And the kids are jumping on the trampoline which Franklyn is sitting on having a chat with other staff.
A very sad thing happened - our guide Foster's wife was expecting a baby which just wouldn't arrive. She was in the monkey Bay hospital and they let her get to 10 months, and of course it was then stillborn. Horrible. Would never have happened in the first world. People get so used to tragedy here. Staff leave for funerals every second day. But are back and cheerful within a few days. I suppose you get tough.
I won't bore you with another shopping saga - suffice it to say Pam and I did the Lilongwe big city jaunt last week and have returned with souls refreshed by cappuccino, home-made gelati and tortellini - and of course adorned with 30 more magnificent chitenjes from the Tanzanian ladies. (There was a leper there - a man covered in seeping sores who was yelled at by the ladies until he shuffled off - another third world vision!)
And I finally made it to the Monkey Bay market again yesterday. There is always a treat there. I was running short of bras (here bras are made of scratchy nylon with no underwire (necessary post-babes!) according to a pattern last revamped in 1955 - all pointy and Madonna circa 1984!). And blow me right over, but there was a pile of the most gorgeous la Senza bras, brand new, albeit a bit dusty, in exactly my size, in all the colours of the rainbow. I now own 10 - in every shade from orange, through the pinks, to lime green and turquoise and maroon. The joy! They cost the equivalent of less than $1 each. Also bought many boy's clothes, Gap and Oshkosh and whatnot - Ben and Eddie don;t own a new garment amongst them these days and are the best dressed kids in Cape Town (well, I think so - love a bargain!) Bush also owns many loud patterned shirts which he wears with his own inimitable flair and ubiquitous grey board shorts. I also dress Jurie (checked shirts and t-shirts), Buji (superhero things) and Java (anything pink!) (And shared the bra harvest with Gloria in the laundry who had requested help in that area.)
We just had a momentous occasion! A gal in the village had friends to stay - a gay couple, one of whom was a hairdresser. In exchange for a night on Domwe, he cut my, Bush's, Ben's, Eddie's, Jurie's, Buji's, Javi's, Pam's and Lucy's hair! Oh the thrill! We all look very smart. Poor guy must have been finished after that, but he was Edward Scissorhands and did us all with a smile!
Must go now - doing hostess duty on Mumbo tonight - kids will join me tomorrow - short staffed as everyone is off to music fest (not doing stall - long story...)

the strangeness of life

Life in the tropics is getting strange sometimes. Feel very disconnected from my old life in Kommetjie and yet not a part of this one here in many ways. I love working for Kayak Africa and seeing things change and move forward and being a part of it all - it is a great business and the staff are a pleasure and the islands are magnificent and the guest are always happy. We have just won an award from the Department of Tourism here as the most environmentally friendly camp in the country, so that was nice. I was interviewed on the radio when the journos came (as Bush and Jurie were away watching rugby!) - never heard it though, nor did anyone who knows me (probably a good thing) - perhaps it wasn't ever aired! We are also on the Times (of London)'s list of the top 24 green places in the world to visit in their Green Spaces Awards. The judge is coming to see us on Nov 10. So we are really doing well these days. Working life is good - it is just the lack of personal life - friends and family and like-minded people - that is a problem.
I have very little else to occupy my thoughts apart from my motherly concerns - copious guilt as ever about not being the mother of the margarine ads - in fact, not even bearing the faintest resemblance to that paragon who laughs and tosses her immaculate hair and rushes about playing lovely outdoor games with her gorgeous clean offspring whilst cheerfully holding hands with her admiring hubby - all this in sparkling white jeans...could throttle the woman!
Instead I sit sweatily in my kitchen office, in increasingly bizarre chitenje ensembles, grey locks all out of style and unkempt (no haircutters in this village!), trying to keep up with emails and little odd jobs and staff requests for cash and 3 million requests from four demanding children to draw boats and pour juice and hand out junk food and then to separate them when they have their hair-raising brawls with much screeching and yelling (them not me!). It all get wearying.
And then, much as I love my dear husband, he is not the chattiest of personas and is usually as exhausted as I am by the end of the day and then we need to do the suicide hour of bathing four children, after which we collapse in our respective hammocks and exchange a few ideas (usually about work) and then I skulk off to bed to read or watch a dodgy DVD (old sex in the city mini-series at the moment - a girl takes what she can get out here - and I find I am actually enjoying them!) Thank heavens for Pam on the island and Lucy in the office here who are gals after my own heart - if they weren't about I think I'd never be able to vent.
Tonight is the opening of a new bar - oh whoopee doopee. Have to go otherwise it will be considered a slight. So will trawl along after kids are asleep and do what is known in these parts as a "French exit" - a quiet, un-noticed slope off home... even Bush is already planning it as he and Jurie are setting off to watch the rugby - a double header - and he knows that that will be about all the beer he'll be able to take!
Looking forward to coming home now, but can't allow myself to think like that, must live every day properly here and come home triumphant!
Must go now - think I have been garbled.

Weather woes and Ceremonies

Have just seen two fabulous ladies of 84 off to Mumbo. They have been traveling together for 25 years all over the world. One was the professor of anatomy at Wits for 40 years, and took up skiing at 74, but gave it up at 79 as it was just too difficult to catch the ski lift with all that gear. What darlings - very inspiring.
All is going swimmingly here. Joseph is a winner in the office - very charming and a natural. Also one of those people who is so easy to work with as he is not invasive in any way. And Lucy started too - and she, too, is so nice to have around. An English girl, witty and efficient as anything and a tea drinker (in fact all three of us are, so it is a harmonious office these days).
There is a big building programme around base camp these days - we are putting up a bamboo fence to shield sensitive guests from the view of the chaos the children create next to our office! Jurie is also making himself a bedroom upstairs separate from his children so that's a lot of sawing and whatnot. And out in the village it is also roofing season and brick-making season - now that it's hot and the thatching grass is ready for cutting and the bricks can be sun-baked and houses made ready for the coming rains. It has reached that time when the heat begins to build up to a hellish crescendo by November and the rains come to save us from ourselves. Dreading it! Especially as the kids can't swim in the lake at the moment as there are biting midges in it and after one swim they can be covered in little blistered bites that itch like hell and keep them awake. Have resorted to putting a big laundry bucket in the shower and they wash things and frootle about in it and stay cool and clean.
My chitenje outfits are perfect in the heat. But have to get more from Lilongwe again soon as Pam and I want to sell them at the Lake of Stars music festival in October. Let me rephrase that: Pam will sell them there, I will put up cash and organise Billy to sew things, but I will not set foot near the stall. My idea of hell is a music festival full of backpackers all camping on a crowded beach with 24 hour trance music blaring. AAArrrgh. I am very old.
This weekend was very interesting. Irene, our laundry lady, was inaugurated as head of her family. Hers is the family we rent the land from and Joseph is her brother and her father is Phillip the night watchman who sleeps on the boat every night. She shared the ceremony with three others. The party began when family from all the surrounding villages arrived by boat and Jurie's truck and set up fires behind us next to the big baobab. They cooked and sang and the drummers drummed and the party went on until the next morning. Then the ladies washed up and made pala (porridge) for breakfast (after dancing all night). The men by this time were mostly catatonic from beer and there were many lurchers (but always good-natured ones; the Malawian spirit seems to be kindly even when pissed). There was a brief lull and then the exhausted drummers began again and everyone went one by one throughout the day to pay their respects to Irene and her fellow family heads who sat all day on a mat in a hot house and received salutations absolutely impassively. I went to pay my respects and was a bit disconcerted by the solemnity of the occasion. Then in the afternoon things hotted up again and the dignitaries emerged from the hot house, veiled in chitenjes, spouses too, and led by the ancients of the area, they slowly walked to the enormous fig tree on the beach for the real ceremony. This entailed the elders making speeches about the importance of the family (they are of the Madoti family whose ancestor was the first man to come to Cape Maclear. The only reason they are not chiefs is that when the Mazungus (whites) came, they were too scared to deal with them and a fellow called Chembe was the only man brave enough to go forward and talk to the whites. He was then made chief of the area under the British. There is still a Chief Chembe here today, but negotiations are underway to split the village back into two areas, Madoti and Chembe. This is a long story and of course I have heard the Madoti version. Chief Chembe not a popular fellow - he doesn't even live in the village and is always on the take.)
Anyway, back to the ceremony (I am probably boring you all witless, and only continuing in the footsteps of many millions of travelers who think themselves amateur anthropologists and faithfully record their impressions which all turn out to be completely erroneous as we are mere outsiders in the end, but I have a moment and the music blares in my ear and I have nothing better to do and I found the whole thing interesting, if interminable!) - so then the elders got up one by one and renamed the chosen four. This was done by sipping from a cup of sugar cane liquor and then chanting the new name and giving the appointee a sip and then doing it all over again. We were there to represent Kayak Africa - Franklyn had informed us that we were expected to give a large financial gift and to be there in person to present it. So Jurie and I went with the kids to do the thing (while Bush held the fort as by his own admission, it was not his sort of thing - he is a shocking fidgeter!) Jurie had Zoda fetch him beer and was then happy to sit in the shade til called. Ben said the drums were banging his head and was miserable and Eddie was coming down with what later turned out to be a vomiting bug and clung palely to me all afternoon. Not a success with the kids....
We eventually were called by the master of ceremonies and presented our gifts to great applause and then the floodgates opened and all the candidates were covered in new chitenjes and new clothes and cash and whatnot and we sidled off while that continued for the rest of the day.
Poor Eddie then vomited all night and had a high temperature, but was right as rain the next day,if tired. So was I! He spent the afternoon sleeping on a mattress in my office while Ben and Bush went to the pool and Ben astounded his father by swimming perfect freestyle which he said he'd learned from watching Bush and Tintin!
That is probably enough for you by now - sorry if I went on a bit!

yet another shopping trip - well, it's a BIG thing in our lives!

Well I have the generator roaring in my ear so I might not get too far with this. Hell it's noisy!
Pam and I went to Lilongwe the day before yesterday on another epic shopping trip - it astounds me sometimes what we think is normal here! We left at 8:30 - drove 4 hours on those bad roads. Dropped guests at the airport, then did an enormous food shop at the wholesalers, then another at Shoprite (and only one cup of odd Indian spiced tea at a dodgy cafe for refreshment, where the teenage son kept grabbing his willy in its nylon tracky pants - quite oblivious of our jaws dropping in horror at the sight!) and then got dropped at our accommodation at 6pm. We stayed at the Wilderness Safaris lodge this time (I just could not do a backpacker again!) and what a joy it was. A huge ensuite room each, with its own lounge. And delicious dinner and a big bath and in bed with a book by 8! It's run by a gorgeous Malawian woman who just enfolds you in warmth and treats you like a long lost friend. The lodge was packed with a group of ghastly pommy businessmen on a junket - seeing farms they've invested in in Malawi. Yukky sorts who take off their wedding rings when they travel, I am sure, and then ogle and try for an easy fling. Pam and I were very snooty!
The next morning we were on our way by 8 - doing office photocopying and stationery shopping and then on to the chitenje market where we shopped our pattern-obsessed hearts out (the passion only grows!). By 2pm we still hadn't seen lunch or tea and had yet to do the vege market (an legend in its own lunchtime as one has to haggle and price and employ a squadron of eager young boys to carry bags and bags of papaya and banana and pineapples and brinjals and grenadilla and strawberries and anything and everything except broccoli which I crave. Veges and fruit here are fabulous - all organic and home-grown and everything that's now trendy and "green" in the western world, but is just the norm here. But the accountant tells me that Malawians prefer to buy their produce at Shoprite as they assume it's better - isn't that sad? (But not as sad as the Shoprite produce which looks as if it had reached its sell-by date in South Africa and was then trucked in a not-very-chilled-refrigerated van into the interior!)
Only after that horticultural adventure did we flag and insist on lunch and Davi our driver and co-shopper dropped us off at the Italian restaurant (where we ate the best gnocchi (my favourite thing in all the world, and there it was, top of the menu,) and tortellini and gelati and cappuccino I have ever tasted. I have to say that we were almost as overjoyed with the clean loos where we could scrub up a little - we were less than savoury at that stage.
We eventually only left town at 4pm and I drove us all the way home - down Dedza pass (an epic of the tightest hairpin bends) and along the still-incomplete Golomoti dirt road until the Cape Maclear road - when I flagged and Pam took over (we thought Davi needed a rest as he'd carried on shopping while we did lunch). A civet and two porcupines graced our nighttime journey and we got back here by 8pm and unpacked the minibus which was jammed to the windows with food and whatnot (you can't believe the volume of stuff the island gets through in these busy times.
The children were all angelically asleep, but Bush and Jurie were still ensconced with the accountant who is here doing an audit of last year's books. They looked as if they'd been through a longer haul than we had - all furrowed brows and bags under the eyes and hair on end. (The accountant is STILL here this afternoon looking as fresh as if he'd just begun his endless numerical evaluations - I think he is driving the bwanas mad with frustration, but they are staying admirably calm. I am impressed at their fortitude- this is the third full day of this and they are also paying the man for his obviously valuable time...)
Eddie and Javi have just charged in wearing a pair of very girly pink shoes each. Ed has no idea of his gender yet and I love seeing him so proudly stomping about in pink flowery mary-janes. Ben and Buj are fishing in the lake - they put some old nsima in a bottle and when the fish swims in, quickly upend it and trap their catch in a big blue bucket. Endless source of joy. Oh, wrong - now they are drawing sabre-tooth tigers.
Right - now it's the next day and thank God the power is back on and all is peaceful in the office. I must sort myself out and get back into work mode - just fiddled and flustered yesterday as the diesel fumes and thumping generator worked their way into my head!

whatnot

Hello all
It has been like a train station here with all the comings and goings of guests and staff alike!
Buji and Lyoness went to Lilongwe to see the doctor (all is well) and got back last night and now Jurie and Dominique and Liinu have gone off on a recce of Zambia (just for 3 days) so that Dominique can get her passport stamped for another 3 months and Juire can see whether the gay cyclists would like that route for their next fund-raising adventure and Liinu went just for the ride.
Our islands are both full and have been for ages and it is lovely that so many people have come and gone, all happy and delighted with the experience. I am always rendered speechless when one person out of a hundred has a bit of "constructive advice" for us! (Once it was that we should paint our boat blue and white not green and white! What?) I am not so good at looking thrilled at such nonsense. We had one night on Domwe with the kids and Lyoness and Zoda - which was really lovely and peaceful, even though we had to be back early the next morning.
So all in all, the days are busy with a million small tasks interspersed with endless requests to draw sabre-toothed tigers or speed boats or tintin or nankappa or whatever is obsessing the minds of the six-year-olds and their three-year-old acolytes at the moment. And of course the boat bringing guests from the island and taking them to it and people wafting in with questions and wanting to rent kayaks and whatnot. (A couple came in for a look at what we do - they live in Blantyre - and I said that Mumbo offered a more African experience than many of the lodges on the beach, and they said, "Oh no! That doesn't sound our sort of thing at all!" I was astonished! They have chosen to live in Africa, what sort of thing is their thing???? Pretending they're in England I suppose, though Africa is pretty insistent so I am not sure how they manage to ignore all its horrors and beauties...)
As I write, two huge trucks are starting up outside - overloaded utterly and completely with hundreds of women off to the centenary of the CCAP church in a village quite a way from here. Jurie lends them his truck and driver as a favour to the village. The ladies came to sing for him and Buj and Java last month to thank him (and brought gifts of a huge bowl of freshly picked rice and nsima). They sang beautifully and swayed in time to the song (I am always useless at that sort of thing and get tearful and have to hide!).
In the same vein, we donate money to an informal orphanage in the village, run by a man appropriately called Vision. He runs a vegetable garden on the outskirts and the orphans help him with it and he feeds and clothes 150 of them out of the goodness of his heart. He can't register his orphanage as the chief then siphons off all the money, so he does it all on our donation and one from Liinu every month. He has been wanting me and Pam to see the project for ages and so last week we went. We were a bit late and when we got to the garden a shout and screams of joy went up - we felt like Madonna! There were all the children - aged from around 2 to 9, each with an old pot or bucket they use to water the veges and dressed in these little faded floral frocks (made from a previous donation) or rags and tatters. They sang a song and we looked around the garden (we buy lettuce and tomatoes and brinjals and peppers from them for the islands) and then we went to see where they have supper in Visions back yard - cooked by his wife and her sisters. All so organised - again I got weepy. The children all live with their extended families, but are fed by Vision once a day. Quite amazing. I'll attach a pic.
And we had a filmmaker and her photographer husband come to take pics of Mumbo for Tatler magazine, which, if you aren't a Paperweight bookshop fan like myself you might not know, is a very upper crust British mag. The journos came last month and distinguished themselves by not asking a single question! Not my idea of how a journo should behave, really! Anyway, the photographers were much nicer and loved everything about it and were the sort pf people one would like as friends. Oh and he is taking a series of photos of redheads as he says they are a dying breed. So I offered him Bush, who was very disconcerted. But though he stared long and hard at my dear husband, (Oh they are naked photos too!), he ended up not having enough time and photographed the ancient fig tree instead. I was rather sad - would have loved to see a really beautiful pic of Bush in the nick! I looked the photographer up on the internet and his work is truly beautiful. And his wife has just made a film starring Keira Knightly. Perhaps we will have the rich and famous descending on us soon. Buy the Tatler in December.
Off now to have one square of my beloved black chocolate, which I eak (how do you spell that??) out like the elixir of life itself, and extract Eddie from Lyoness's house (Ben is practicing smiles whilst hanging on my lap!) so I can read them Green Eggs and Ham.
Toodle Pip dears!

another shopping trip to the Tanzanian ladies

Hello all
Sorry so long since the last letter (or is it? You might be well bored with these missives anyway, but they help me to get it all off my chest and also to remember the good things.)
My office is as neat as a pin - Dan stopped work here yesterday and I am on my own here. A bit apprehensive about it, but he was sometimes more of a hindrance anyway as he'd lost his zest for the job. But now Clive and Jurie and I are holding the base camp fort until Joseph the driver can become an extra office person and we can get a new manager in - probably only the end of August. So things are going to be a bit hectic here - glad we had our moment in the tea fields! (Which my dad corrected me about - they are not fields, but plantations, apparently. One must get one's agricultural terms correct!)
We are happily ensconced in our little reed house, which has grown since we stayed last year and is perfectly sized now for our family. Ben and Eddie sleep with their beds together under a huge net and are very happy with that brotherly togetherness. They still watch Tintin every evening and of course now that consumes me with guilt as I think I should be reading to them! So I have now begun an after-lunch reading session to assuage the guilt - I am so determined that they should grow up to be readers. I think Ben will as he had a lot of input in the early years (his first words every morning used to be "Light! Book!"), but Eddie has had such a different time and maybe I need to put more reading time in with him. Mutter, mutter, motherly musings are boring I am sure. Apologies.
I feel very old in Malawi. I am the only mzungu mother and most other mzungus are single and on the party circuit, as one is in one's twenties after all. With my grey locks, demanding offspring and inability to booze, I am a real pooper and outsider. Thank goodness for Pam, our island host, as she is a gal after my own heart - more sensible and not so eager for the mindless drinking binge as others - but she is on the island most of the time.
She and I (and Liinu who is back from Finland) had another great chitenje mission to Lilongwe on Tues and Wed. Those trips are hectic! Four hours in a dusty car and then Shoprite and the wholesale shops for acres of oil and loo roll and other such interesting stuff. Then overnight in a dodgy backpacker joint (thank god for earplugs!) In the morning, it's off to the Tanzanian ladies in the market maze (always struggle to find them in those alleyways jammed with tiny shops selling everything you could need in this country: maize sacks, string, bicycle parts, nail polish, bath sponges, cockroach poison - if one had to make a list of what you can buy there it would be hundreds of pages long!) Then more last minute shopping (the list gets phoned in) and then on to Dedza another two hours drive away to the vegetable market (which turned out to be only an early morning possibility - so no lettuce for the guests' salad!) and to order more plates from the famous pottery there. That is an amazing place - not very creative pottery, but a huge concern and gorgeous old brick buildings and a great restaurant which made us tea and cheesecake - an unheard of luxury here! We got back at 8pm that night - dusty, sticky and absolutely finished! (Have loved my iPod here - just plugged myself in and lay back - had to block my ears to hear anything on the really rutted bits of road, but could still hear the strains..)
Got fabulous chitenjes though - so worth it all, and you won't believe how exciting it is to wander around Shoprite after months of no shops but Monkey Bay (which I haven't managed to get to for a month and am suffering withdrawals from the lack.)
Must trundle off now to feed kids (fish gujons and chips tonight - I never what a gujon was until I got here and still would never be able to cook one myself!)

tea estates, family holidays and birthday parties

Well the diesel arrived and off we set in Jurie's luxury mobile - it was a gorgeous time away. The tea estate was lush and lime green with new shoots and the tea fields stretched up the mountains all around as far as you could see. It was cold and misty and we wore our only pairs of jeans and jackets for three days in a row. Went for long walks on the roads through the tea fields and pockets of indigenous forests and ate like kings (again there were cooks on hand!) and had tea brought through to the sitting room on a trolley as we lounged about in front of a huge fire and read while the kids coloured in (still a favourite pastime) and played lego (essential travel companion - they even played it in the car). It was a real break and felt like another world.
(It is another world - the workers all but salute you as you pass and wear absolute rags and tatters while the owners live in gorgeous mansions and drive about in flash 4x4s and play golf at the country club. They have a glossy printed leaflet in the house telling you they do such a lot for their workers - like provide protective clothing in the factory(!) and a clinic, but really one wants to say "Oh put a sock in it and just pay your workers a bit more! Their houses don't even have doors and it's freezing there! - Felt very socialist, but still loved our time there - amazing how one can suspend one's morals!!)
Then went on a meandering route homeward via the magnificent Mulanje mountain and Polombe to Zomba Forest Lodge where we again ate the most magnificent fillet and veg and had roaring fires and hot water bottles in the bed. You can buy strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, mulberries and grenadillas on the mountain road up Zomba - we got terribly excited. Have frozen them and intend to make delicious smoothies for breakfasts!
Today was Ben's birthday and party. Had all the local kids over and provided biscuits, orange chips and sweeties and a chocolate cake and they ate themselves silly and had a great time. Got James the carver to make Tintin and Captain Haddock and Snowy for Ben and I painted and varnished them yesterday - they look splendid and Ben has played with them all day. Shall affix a pic.
All exhausted now - Bush and Eddie have passed out but Ben and Buj are still jorling about with Tintin...
Toodle pip

biharzia pills and the aquisition of things

Hello all
Not much excitement here in the tropics at the moment - camps are all 100% full which is busy for us and so not much else can go on.
Our most adrenalin-pumping moment came when we had to dose all the children (and ourselves) for Bilharzia. I have no idea why it has never occurred to the pharmaceutical companies that children might need treatment (even more than adults as they spend more time swimming in the shallows) and that a huge, extremely bitter pill is completely impossible to force down their throats - surely a syrup could have been concocted?
Ben was a star and got it down when bribed with a chocolate (he has a rabid sweet tooth and finally even has some fat on him after all the treats and white bread kids get in these parts!), but Eddie was made of sterner stuff and clenched his teeth and screamed fit to explode and reduced me to tears (again - same last year!). Tried crushing it with honey, but he vomited it all over me in disgust.
Eventually I had wait a day, crush the tab and carefully put it into 3 emptied vitamin capsules, which I rolled in condensed milk and we forced him to swallow - better, but still a horror. But his pride when he got them down was palpable - he rushed about telling everyone in his glee.

Oh well it is now three days later and life got very very very busy (guests, guests guests!) - can only be good for the coffers! Every single kayak we own is rented out and on the water today (and yesterday) as it is a long weekend here in Malawi (today is Independence Day! - bye bye brits (though there are many still around!)

Gosh, well that was 5 days ago, so time has flown this week. We had two lovely families from Noordhoek on Domwe, which was fab as we went out there for lunch one day, took them to Monkey Bay market the next and to Mumbo for lunch the day after that. It was splendid to have such good company and so many things to do. Plus we have old family friends staying on Mumbo so have done lunch there twice in a row - feel very sociable!
Also, the truck finally arrived from CT bearing gifts from home - what a joy! I felt like it was my birthday and Christmas twice over. My stocks of dark chocolate are looking like a squirrels hoard as it settles in for the winter months - and my endorphins are now replenished. Feelin' good!

I have attached pics of our "mall" and the wares available for purchase so you will understand my joy at the arrival of the truck from home. But also how nice it is to shop in such a quaint place where the vendors are all friendly and life is simple. Also a pic of our ladies walking group - we go some afternoons at 4ish - hell, do those gals stride! I have to jiggle away behind them most of the time - and compare our walking shoes!!

Then I discovered a horrible old box under the stairs in Jurie's office and when I opened it it was full of gorgeous beauty industry samples: little vials of unguents and potions to rejuvenate the tired old mortal coil - what a thrill! He said they had been there more than a year and no-on knew how or why they had ever ended up with us - so needless to say, I have found them a home. I now have stocks of fab potions (albeit in 2ml tubes!) to last me the year - I shall be glowing when next you set an eye on me!

Now, this weekend we were supposed to go off on our long-awaited family hol, but events conspire against us in these things and so today there is no diesel left in Malawi. #$$*$!!*(&: - if you know what I mean.)
Am just hanging on to my last shred of optimism that it will arrive tonight as we sleep soundly to the strains of the only cd next door. I have actually forked out good money to buy my own copy of the thing so that I can always evoke this year. When we return I shall have a Malawi night at home where you can all come to dinner (I'll have to hire someone to cook in true Malawian colonial fashion - we don't go there) and I shall put the cd on repeat at volume 20 and you can all get a feel of things.

Ok you are probably sick of me by now so cheerio.

this and that on life in the tropics...

On life in Malawi
A dugout painted white with Arsenal written large on it (correct font and all) paddling past in the morning.
HIV+ night watchman coughing outside in the night. (On ARV's so looking good - has 4 small kids and is only about 25...)
The cheeriness of Malawians - Ashun and Mabvuto, our gardeners/cleaners, forgotten by Vincent the boatman on early morning run to Domwe to poop scoop - uproarious laughter from everyone. Such lightness. Returning later that day having scooped poop out of the dry composter loos after 16 people had been on the island for 6 days! "Lots of poopoo!!" and lots of laughter again.
Walking along the dusty, bumpy village road which meanders around baobabs of at least 300 years old.
Electricity outages in the evening - all you hear is children laughing and playing all over the village. Families sit out on their stoeps or in the road, sharing the nsima and relish (lelish). Relish is a stew made from beans or fish or meat (usually goat).
The fabric of village life is still intact here - families are still together and old traditions still bind them. Land is passed down through the female line her, interestingly, so men must move onto their wife's family land. Maybe that's why it all still works so well!
Girls building tepee-like shelters on the beach - sticks covered with green branches and the odd old cloth. They build and then make fires for cooking nsima - hard to get to the bottom of it , but seems to be a rite of passage about becoming a woman (but the girls are all of 8 years old! Got to get working young here.)
Movie houses are reed shelters booming out B grade hollywood schlock (cheap chinese versions with 20 movies on one dvd - usually horrible kung-fu ones). Kids peering through the slats all around the little shack.
Everything is recycled out of necessity here - the best use of recycling I have seen is the way in which car tyres are shaved down into their component strips of rubber and strong nylon string. These are sold in different thicknesses and are used for everything from building (tying the reed and bamboo together) and thatching to necklaces made from the single strands. It is known as linya. Someone here once said that the whole of Malawi is bound together by linya and it is true.
(Saw a duck tethered by its back leg with linya this morning - being led along with its ducklings following it - duck are a popular relish here. Eddie caught Lyoness dealing with the preparations for duck relish once and it was too sad to see his horrified fascination with the poor dead, headless creature upended in a bucket - he couldn't pull himself away but had the dry heaves and was retching at the sight. I had to gently lead him away, much to his relief. He said, "I am not going to eat that duck, mum," in a faint voice and was reassured to find that he could stick to his macaroni instead!)

Eddie's 3rd Birthday

It was Eddie's third birthday on the 14th. Much excitement from the older boys for days beforehand and many instructions from Eddie about what he needed (a fire engine and a truck and a chocolate cake). Luckily he had mentioned the fire engine long enough ago for me to order one from his adoring granny who sent it up with Buji and Java's adoring granny and it was ready and wrapped on time - don't know where I'd have found one in Malawi! (Well, probably in Lilongwe or Blantyre but that's an two days and one night mission and not always possible as the car only goes when there are guests to fetch or it's a terrible waste of fuel and time.)
But the greatest gift I have ever given was the scale model of the beloved boat, Nankappa - Eddie's face was such a picture of awe and delight when he unwrapped it that I wanted to weep! He has not let that boat out of his sight ever since and slept with it on his bed that first night. At last I got the gift right - so often one buys something and by the time the child gets it, he's already moved onto a new obsession - but for Ed, his love of that old boat is steadfast!
Sadly I couldn't spend the day with my dear children as I had to work and there were streams of guests coming and going so I hardly saw the darling and felt terrible about it! But we managed to squeeze in a celebratory boat cruise around Thumbi in the hour between when some guests came off the island and others were due to go on! Hectic - we raced around, but the kids loved it - there were mattresses left on the boat from a huge party of Spaniards who'd just left - so they jumped about on those and scoffed many bright orange chips and lots of sticky sweets - yuk, but it was such a treat for them to have free reign over a feast of junk food, as they usually never see it, let alone are allowed to eat it!
They sang happy birthday and nursery rhymes and barrelled about happily and were very happy with the whole venture - they don't ask a lot, do they? Actually they do, but it's usually for such simple stuff, the darlings.
Anyway, I insisted on the next day off and we had a lovely lazy day drifting about doing nothing in particular - a treat for me, though that's what they do every day. Later on we broke open one of the cheap toys I keep in store for a rainy (not til December really, but you know what I mean) day, a beading set, and we all made ourselves bead necklaces - even Zoda (who is still wearing his) and Vanessa (who works in Liinu's house). It was all very peaceful.
Have to admit, though, I am champing at the bit to get out of the village now. Need to see something else!

Wooden boats, family outings and wobbly hands

I'm bored. There are guests arriving, but only at 6pm and I have to be at the desk all day in case of people wanting to rent kayaks. Bush and Jurie are heads down doing the books and the kids are frootling about under the watchful eye of Zoda, swimming and colouring in (new best thing for Ben) and getting into spats which I have to sort out every hour. Just loaded them all into the rattletrap to do errands in the village - which is bustling as it's Saturday morning. Got us some dvds to watch tonight - very civilised here - and now have a fresh pot of Chombe tea at my elbow and time to spare.
Had another great afternoon at Monkey Bay last week with Jurie's sister Juleta. She found a pile of down ski jackets - got one for myself to brave next winter if we are in CT (haven't been for the last 3 winters so it might be tough!) and two more to sell. Gorgeous stylish puffy things. Mine is green - a lovely limeish/apple.
Previous week the specials were fleece blankets (which we are actually using every now and then.)
(Just spotted Ben and Buj racing naked along the beach - despite strict instructions that there is to be NO naked swimming. Gone feral!)
Now it's almost a week later - things suddenly got busy. Jurie's mum arrived and Dan left on leave, Jurie got Malaria, so we were short staffed (again!) - all a bit hectic. But did a stint on Mumbo as hostess for escape (it's called work, but really isn't!) - with 5 paediatricians. (Malawi bristles with aid workers - especially doctors! Read Paul Theroux on the subject in Dark Star Safari - an account of his trip through Africa. No rose coloured sunnies on that one!)
Was a great night though and all the guests were lovely and insisted on putting their tables together for meals, so had good conversation again- always such a joy for me. I realise here that I am a bit of a social animal - can take isolation (well always with attendant husband and offspring, the darlings) for just so long then need a good chat! Also need to shop - missed Monkey Bay last week and it's now imperative to go on Tuesday. I know I will never be able to shop in a normal shop again - can't bear not to treasure hunt and find bargains.There - I have revealed myself as an empty-headed twit who lives to shop and talk - may as well live in Sandton, except that it would kill me...
What news of life on the lake? Not much. Zoda found a real carpenter ( a lovely beaming, chubby (rare in Malawi) chap) to make a proper boat for Eddie's birthday - this one is about 40cm long, floats, is painted properly and has every feature of Nankappa in exact, proportional detail - amazing. Cost about R250, which is expensive here, but worth it for such a magnificent piece of work. Think we'll do a picnic on the real boat for the party - cruise around Thumbi island with a boat full of sugar-hyped kids! (Don't worry, Mum, they'll have life jackets!)
Now I aim to find half an hour in the day for myself - I paddled my own canoe (an apt idiom, except it was a kayak) for the first time yesterday and it was a breeze. Bush and I had a rare afternoon off together and took the boys paddling down the lake edge on an adventure. We went to Cape Mac Lodge for a swim in the pool - huge treat, then to the Gecko Lounge for tea (and beer and icecreams - king cones so Ben and Ed in heaven!) and to get dvds for the night, and then to Gaia for the most delicious carbonara! Gaia had two missionary families staying - one forgets there are still people trying to convert the dark hordes in Africa - really extraordinary after all these years - isn't everyone who wanted to be converted already?! The 7 year old, Maisie, asked me in a loud piping tone whether I was a Christian. "Gosh, I don't really know anymore, Maisie," I said and she stared at me in astonishment. I changed the subject hastily.
Anyway - that was the first afternoon we have spent together as a nuclear family since we got here so it was a lovely day. Buj and Java are on Mumbo at the moment so Ben and Eddie are having to play together and are doing so amazingly harmoniously. Plus they have no teacher or Zoda or me to look after them, but they are just getting on with it. They are playing a complicated game involving three sticks of bamboo (a mum, dad and a baby) and it's keeping them terribly busy. It also involves climbing every tree in the garden - no physio needed here in the tropics. I wish I could send Ben's colouring-in to Aunty Brenda with a little note telling her that if you just leave children alone a little, and let them grow at their own pace, even the wobbliest little hand learns to stay in the lines eventually - which is, after all, one of life's greatest and most valuable skills! When I remember her showing Bush and a very tearful me, all the class's efforts and then flinging Ben's wild scribbles on the top of the pile with a triumphant " and this is Ben's attempt!", I am filled with uncharitable and violent impulses! Schools can be such life-affectingly horrible places sometimes - so glad we opted for the Waldorf route.
Time for lunch (bangers and chips and salad - very healthy!), naturally not cooked by me - the joy!
PS Belated pics are of Buj's pirate party in May - complete with treasure hunts (x5!) and walking the plank...

Arrival in Aahfricah

SOON AFTER WE ARRIVED IN MARCH

We have arrived in one (well, four really) piece(s) and all is going swimmingly - often literally as the boys spend all afternoon in the lake or next to it. We are living in our revamped reed house next to the water - the lake has risen way up the beach this year and the lake is only about two metres from our verandah. Everything is looking beautiful - Kayak Africa base camp (our home) is like a jungle, and every tree is alive with birds. One forgets how hideously hot is is out there in the village where trees are scarcer. The enormous baobab at our back gate is all leafy and has fruits hanging abundantly from every branch. That's when you know you are in central Africa - who else has a baobab at their gate! (I suppose the large lake in front of us is also a clue.)
I have a new job! I am officially employed by KA as Guest Operations Manager - whoooweee. This means I meet and greet the punters and take their cash and answer their questions and generally shmooze them. And, more worryingly, it means I am in charge of logistical stuff too and the petty cash system and heaven knows what else! Quite a thing for someone who is naturally rather scatterbrained! I am going to have to have serious lists everywhere.
Today we have no guests coming or going so we are revamping reception and our offices. Fun, moving everything about.
The darlings are wildly in love with their teacher, Dominique, who is so good with them and keeps them very busy from 8 until 12 every day. We all meet for lunch and a swim together after that and then Zoda takes over and they play all afternoon. As soon as dusk begins, we spray them with mozzie stuff and dress them in long pants and tops (Ben's Spiderman suit is invaluable as a mozzie proofer) and stick them on the beds under the net to watch Tintin til supper. They are asleep by 7 every night. Bush and I have taken to sitting on our verandah with a beer and a cup of tea to discuss the day. It's been so nice to have that time together again - our lives have been too hectic since Dec, what with Xmas and then packing.
So I think this can be a good year for us all - full of new challenges and a very very different way of life. It's so much more relaxed, even with a job, though it will hot up a lot as things get busy over Easter. Bit anxious about that!
Ok, tootling off now to rearrange furniture and p'raps have a dip...

Tales (wails) from the tropics

THIS WAS IN MARCH!

Time for another tropical tale or two.
Have swung from low to high and back again, as one does when foisted out of the old comfort zone (a place I adored!)
Was low when for the second weekend in a row, I remained at home while Bush frolicked out on the town and came back two hours later than he'd said (and repented when confronted by the flailingly mad mess that had been his usually calmish wife!). Was ready to hit the road and head on home (except it's not ours anymore as it's rented til December.)
In the gorgeous light of day, however (and day comes with such beauty here - the lake has that mother of pearl sheen and is still as a pond) I regained my sense of proportion, I am happy to report, and haven't flagged since (but probably will again on occasion as I really don't have a circle of friends here and I miss you all sorely.)
Since then have been to Mumbo and back and not even the most useless person in the world could be unhappy when that island is where you can go whenever it calls! I shall add a snap and you will see that it is a place of great splendour.
The kids swam from breakfast to supper, or otherwise played with the ubiquitous (and utterly essential Lego) under the big tree on the beach watched by Lyoness and two island men. (The island men were stationed there to watch out for a small crocodile which has been seen on the island - not really so good for tourists! The National Parks rangers have been trying to shoot it, but so far it eludes them. It won't really swim into the bay, I am sure, but you can never take too many precautions, I think, especially with small offspring.) It all sounds idyllic, but on the first day, the number of screaming brawls between the kids was epic - I think they were over-excited and are still working out the pecking order. Today was much better. While they played and battled it out, Bush, Jurie and I did a full island inspection! Notes were taken and horribly copious lists were made of all that needs to be done. I don't know if it's just our fresh eyes that see so much room for improvement, or if things had got a bit run down. Either way, there is a lot to be done. But that's always good as then you can feel useful and that it was important to come.
So I am off to go on an epic chitenje shop soon, to cover almost every cushion on the place as everything is faded or mouldy after the rainy season. LOVE chitenje shopping!
Best I stop rambling now (Bush has gone for sundowners and again I am home alone - think I must just accept the status quo. I am going to 'do lunch' with Liinu tomorrow before she goes to Finland on Sunday.)

Mangochi

THIS WAS IN APRIL - DON'T KNOW HOW TO INSERT IT THERE...

Went to Mangochi with Jurie, Liinu and Dominique after lunch.

Maize fields full and high and planted right up to the edge of the road. People build rickety little double storey structures that they make a fire under to cook meals and then sleep on the top under a sparsely thatched roof – have to keep a constant presence in the field in case of yellow baboon raids.

Road through the National Park is so beautiful after the rains – huge trees all a rich green against the enormous granite boulders. Even the baobabs were full of leaves and fruits.

Was exhilarated to get out of the village after two weeks in base camp… even if only to Mangochi – a one-horse town if ever there was one. Still, it has big trees lining the streets and is not bad. It also has a great market and I shopped enthusiastically for chitenjes to cover all the cushions on Mumbo. Got spirals and fish on turquoise spots and huge orange sixties flowers on brown squiggles and something that looks like cacti and lotus flowers - words cannot describe these visions! Going to mix them up and send Mumbo into a spin of patterns.

(Mabvuto, the little gnomish fellow who looks after the gardens here, has just brought me a jam jar full of incredible flowers for my desk – all sorts, even three waterlilies. He’s excelling at flower arranging these days!)

Took my first bicycle taxi ride. A bicycle taxi is a bike with a small padded vinyl seat stuck above the back wheel and two tiny foot rests. One perches behind the cyclist hanging onto the seat with one hand and one’s bags with the other. The roads are rather rutted and if you haven’t ridden a bike for a while, it takes a moment to adjust to the balance of the thing – especially when you aren’t in control. And your instinct is to hang onto the driver, but that is not good form and rather too intimate! I felt very self-conscious, a little mzungu lady with lurid rosy handbag and skirt hitched up, trying to maintain my dignity while the locals gazed! It was lovely way to travel, though, very peaceful and quite speedy really.

Liinu later arrived on hers and then Dominique on hers and we met up to discuss chitenjes with gusto. Then on to the fruit and veg market where I bought guavas, fresh speckled beans, avos and bananas and pumpkin leaves all for around R10.

Then to the second hand clothes market where I found a groovy pair of jeans in the perfect size (had to guess at a glance) for K400 (R20) and a vintage curtain for the same price. Bargains! It filled my heart with joy to be back at the market.

On the way home we bought school chairs for the kids - beautiful woven banana leaf ones, and I bought a set of circular baskets that fit into each other like Russian dolls - the biggest is the size of a hat box and the smallest about 10cm across. So beautiful and made by the sweetest crippled man on a crutch. I think I should send home a truckload of Malawi treasures and have a huge sale on our stoep - what do you think?

A shopping list

I sit next to the radio, over which the island chef sends his shopping list to Sutha, the storeman.
This is today's:

bekkedy beensy
dlied fluity
awrenjy
flesh miliky
coco powderer
dite coco
onienzy
eyesi
olenji
butternut dippy
eggplanti dippy
biskitty
bled flour
dessert cleam
and my favorite... moopy bloomy (mop!)

on arv's, Tintin and age...

Ten gay chaps and gals have just chugged off to the island on the boat - the expedition is over and they have cycled almost all the way here from Lilongwe. They were raising money for Aids shelters here in Malawi.
All went well except that Jurie got into fisticuffs with some mad chap on the way (a local fellow who had lost his marbles) - the loon tried to bite him and Jurie punched him and now has an infected hand and is on ARV's. Gosh - life in Aahfrica! Moral: stay back! Stay calm! Stay out of it!
Here at base, all is peaceful - kids at school, bwanas in the office, guests departed for isles and a quiet afternoon ahead.
Have to write about Eddie and the boats. My dearest child is in love with a boat called Nankappakappa (means pied kingfisher in Chichewa). It is a chugging green and white boat that does our island run and, because it runs on an old tractor engine dating from the 70's, it can be heard in its coming and goings from miles off. When Ed hears it, he races for the jetty to grab the rope, ready to throw it to the boat man to tie up. He would tie it up himself if he could manage, but is forced to stand by, looking on with a serious frown, with his tongue sticking out just a bit in his earnestness. He is a boy with a serious job!
For a really special treat sometimes, the boatman on duty will take Eddie with him to tie Nankappa up to its mooring for the night, so that it doesn't float away (as Ed will tell you). It is such a sight to behold this little boy in an enormous orange life jacket standing all alone in the boat as it chugs off into the sunset. He then 'helps' the boatman lower the anchor and is then lowered himself into the kayak and paddled back to shore. He leaps out as soon as the kayak touches the sand and tries to pull it up to the shed. He is a picture of officiousness - he takes himself so very seriously in the matter of boats!
I have a terrible drunkard called Bonki (how can one take anyone called Bonki seriously?) carving a copy of Nankappa for Eddie's birthday present. But I am sure I have somehow managed to hire the wrong bloke - have given him a large deposit already and not sure I'll ever see the thing - let alone that it will float and have every detail apparent, as instructed. Bonki wafts in every day to talk about how he needs money to do the job - for wood, for food (and definitely for chibuku beer!), but no sign yet of the physical product. last night he saw us going off in the truck and raced after it. I urged Bush to go faster - couldn't face yet another discussion.
Today I have been approached by another drunken beach boy for cash " for my sick mother" and had to give him key rings to carve, just in case she really was sick - can't stand to think of it.
Then I was approached by the very dear, very poor, mother of a little boy we helped two years ago to have his eyes seen to (they were blood red all the time - turned out to be a serious allergy which he now has drops to cure) - she needed clothes, so I could help there. But it does sometimes feel terrible to have so much amongst so many with so little. You obviously have to become inured to it or you couldn't live here.
Back to the carvers - I have in mind to find someone other than the foul Bonki to carve Tintin for Ben's birthday present. It's amazing what people can do here. Ben is still obsessed with his hero Tintin, and watches an episode a night. I am going to make him a Tintin t-shirt too. He is a chap who lives wholeheartedly for his obsessions of the day - he can quote reams of dialogue from the films and role plays scenes from the films in his games. Perhaps he'll become a great actor one day and keep us in some sort of style in our advanced years...
I have attached a pic of Zoda with Ben and Buj - he makes the kids toys out of bamboo- after school and before he comes to work here at 1:30! He has made them 4 airplanes on sticks, complete with propellers that turn on the wings and pilots in their cockpits. He has made guns and helicopters and boats with outboard engines (also with propellers that turn!) - he is a wonder, that boy!
Otherwise, news-wise there is very little - life goes on much as it does every day....
I wanted to say I had my hair cut yesterday by Kelly (Rob's gal) into a sort of bob to ease the passage of short grey to longer grey - without looking like too much of a schoolmarm/dyke in between - then I thought I'd take a pic of myself to show you - so I tried to take one when Lyonesse and Fegness were behind the half wall washing dishes. But I nearly got the giggles being so surruptitous, and knew they'd think me a complete loon if they caught me at it, but then each pic horrified me with its detailing of every line and sag and wrinkle - I look at least 600 - so I had to keep taking them - this is the first one I took before I lost it completely - the rest had to be deleted!

birthday

Just returned to the coal face after a lovely holiday with my parents on Mumbo and Domwe. It was so nice to see Malawi through their eyes, especially because they loved it. They thought it reminded them of their childhood - a time when one felt safe and was surrounded by friendly people and in an unspoilt (even if slightly rough) environment. I think it settled my mum especially, as she was very worried about us out here in deepest darkest! Now she realises that actually we live in a most amazing place and with a lifestyle which would be very difficult to achieve anywhere else.
What I loved was that everywhere we walked in the village, people came rushing up to be introduced - the carver, the sign maker, the night watchmen, the gardeners - everyone who has anything to do with us just seemed so very pleased to be able to greet my dear parents. The classic Mawaian greeting is' " You are most welcome", I love the old-fashioned englishness of it. So progress was slow but stately!
And then we had days on the islands where we lolled about, went for little hikes through the bush, swam and snorkeled (the first time I have managed as the kids have always prohibited my departure into the deep before - and even in Gogo's arms, every time I lifted my head up I heard Eddie screeching. Not a long snorkel, needless to say, but a start..), chatted endlessly and played with the poor neglected children a lot. It was very good for us to have family time again, I think, as usually I hardly see the darlings during the day, and they are finished by evening.
Mum and Dad left this morning (big weep behind my sunglasses as many were waving them off!) and already I miss them.
It is a gorgeous life here, but it is temporary - I do feel it is just an interlude (a lovely one I wouldn't miss for the world), but I left such a full life behind and must go back to it (though I suspect it will be a big adjustment again - even grocery shopping could be mind-bogglingly difficult! Let alone cooking!)
My birthday today - got a carving from Bush and a cry from Ben because he didn't have a present for me and i only got one (sweet thing!) and lots of hugs from Eddie. Am promised a paddle around Thumbi later for peace and quiet and the chef is baking chocolate cake for tea with the children this afternoon. A lovely day.

Life at the Lake

Aah, life at the lake. Those who pop through on their way to the happy isles of Mumbo and Domwe look enviously on at us, thinking we live a life of sybaritic pleasures here on the lake edge - all balmy waters to swim in and warm breezes lifting the hair from our necks...
They look at our naked offspring frolicking on the beach and say what a idyllic life they lead.
It all looks gorgeous...
I have to say that it does look lovely, but the reality is not all about how it looks!
The thing about living in a village is that one is never, ever alone. And one's every move is noted. Even at night there is a night watchman who snoozes under the verandah and can obviously hear our every word and wee and snuffle and bicker. (See, our lives are all about talking, weeing, snuffling and bickering!) During the day, my office is off the kitchen where a chef, a biscuit baker, Lyoness, and the laundry ladies are at work. Outside (no wall) are all the boatmen, the gardeners, the storemen, the guests passing through, and assorted staff who need money or have issues or whatnot. Then there are all the mzungus - Dan our staff manager who is like a girl with his huffs and puffs and needs of assurances that he is perfectly marvellous in every way (or is he?); his gorgeous girlfriend, Dominique who teaches our children, (they are still in their twenties and do lots of canoodling and mutual protestations of adoration, which irks me on my cynical days (often); Rob our urbane dive instructor who comes by for meals and a bit of admin; his girlfriend Kelly who pops in for a chat now and then and who runs the backpackers down the way; Jurie who is generally cool; Bush who is generally of furrowed brow, but cool; the four feral kids who are HECTIC; and then passers by of various sorts - it is a veritable bloody railway station!
At times this gets me down - I am a gal who likes her space and there really is none to be had here. Our house and offices are right in the middle of the village and also next door to the most well-run local bar in town (sadly I say well-run, as there seems to be no hope of it going under in the way of most other establishments). This bar has both a jukebox (with 10 songs) and, it seems, one cd. I know and abhor every single song on the repertoire which I hear at least ten times a day each. I long for quiet! As I was about to reach the end of my tattered rope, though, I was fortunately saved when I had to do my turn as hostess on Mumbo (both our island managers are away this week!). I was only able to leave base camp at sunset, and to my surprise, the boys waved me off at the jetty with huge grins. I sat on top of the boat with the venerable boat night watchman (who sleeps on it every night, no doubt to get away from his very woman-heavy household over the road!). We watched in beautiful silence as the sun slowly and magnificently set and the fishing boats lit their tilly lamps. He told me about the life of a fisherman and then we sat in companionable silence until we got to Mumbo just as darkness fell. That island really is a little paradise. Had a warm bucket shower and then dinner with the loveliest group of guests - great conversationalists. What a joy it was to talk to other people about interesting things! And then to go to sleep to the lapping of waves rather than the ten songs...
I was greatly revived by the experience. And next week my parents arrive and we'll have another four days on the islands - what a gift!
We have been full for almost two solid months now, so hopefully the tides have turned and we will finally make some money! But costs here are enormous - last week a roll of loo paper cost R10! And you can imagine how many of those one has to buy for the island! Ah well, time will tell.