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.