Happy New Year

Hello Everyone, and happy new year! For us 2006 slid in softly rather than with loud celebration but nevertheless we are filled with anticipation of another year full of adventure, things to celebrate and things to wonder about.

There is good news to report from Malawi:

1. The rains have started. Leading up to about the middle of December the weather became increasingly hot and sticky, as it does in the tropics before the rains. Then the storms began and the rains came and it has been raining with enough consistency to keep the maize growers happy ever since. We have had some storm casualties, including our printer, which took the hit on the phone line and sacrificed itself to protect the phone line, the modem and the telephone. The guy at the IT Centre gravely informed us that the printer was “flied” (Malawians interchange Ls and Rs without warning) and so we have upgraded. The microwave is also displaying no signs of life, which is perplexing, as none of the other white goods have been affected at all. As you can imagine, we have since equipped ourselves with surge protectors for everything we possibly can and we now sleep better at night knowing the computer, especially, should survive any storm that hits. We also had an 8 hour power cut following one particularly nasty storm, but it was a Sunday so we didn’t need to work and we spent the time talking to each other and reading. In the meantime, the good news aspect of this story is the rain for the crops and the cooler weather.

2. We have done a bit of traveling around the countryside in the past few weeks and there are fields and fields of maize at various stages of growth. Some fields have had problems with armyworm killing the crops but in the rest of the country the growth seems to be progressing well. We will keep praying for an abundant crop this season.

3. It has been all quiet on the domestic front (ref previous newsletters).

4. There have been many strong messages aimed at the President from various donors that this year provides him with a good opportunity to focus on working together with opposition parties to achieve some big goals, rather than focusing on differences. This is good news for our project as it will need the co-operation of Parliament in order to go ahead. We are hoping to have reached agreement with the government on all important aspects in time to present the agreement to Parliament for the June sitting. The political situation has been very quiet over the Christmas/New Year break so there’s not a lot more to report on that at the moment.

5. We have acquired some more office furniture and I now have my own desk and laptop to use. This is fantastic because previously I had to wait till Martin was out before I could use the computer. I am hoping to have some time for some creative writing this year and having a computer for my use will help.

6. We had a really lovely Christmas down at a Tea Estate in the south-east of the country. Martin and I have never been that far south before and it’s very different countryside to the rest of what we’ve seen of Malawi. There are rolling hills covered, as far as the eye can see, with tea bushes. Unpicked tea leaves are bright green and very attractive. The tea estate was beautiful, peaceful and very interesting. We had 2 Aussie friends who’d come to see us and spend Christmas and together we relaxed, did a tour of the estate and the tea factory and did some driving around. We saw Mount Mulanje, Malawi’s highest peak, which is magnificent. Due to the prevailing conditions it was surrounded by cloud, which made the view even more spectacular and evocative. At one stage we bogged the car trying to get a closer look but the fact that there are people everywhere in Malawi (which at other times can be frustrating) was to our advantage. We’d been stuck barely 2 minutes before a group of lads ran with undisguised enthusiasm in our direction. They had the car out of the muck in no time and were delighted to have earned some unexpected cash (not for the post-Christmas sales, I can tell you, but no doubt they would have had no difficulty spending it.)

7. Actually, the fact that there are no post-Christmas sales is also good news because post-Christmas the roads and shops are “normal”. If we had sales here, the roads would chock up and the traffic would be gridlocked for hours. Traffic here is crazy anyway. You have to have your wits about you and basically expect every car on the road to cut straight in front of you whether they do or not so you’re ready for it when they do (which is far too often). Martin and I often talk about volunteering for the Police Force for a day or 2 here and there so we can book people. However, I was driving recently and watched while a police van overtook me and the car in front of me up a hill into a blind crest and then into the face of a massive truck which he only managed to avoid because the truck slowed down. If the police drive like that, things are not going to change in a hurry.

8. There’s a road that starts at the edge of our suburb which cuts Lilongwe in half for us and is therefore very convenient. Until about a week ago there were massive road works on this road and the other end of it was blocked. The blockage has shrunk over the months so that we have been able to drive further and further along it but we couldn’t go the full length, which meant driving the long way round to just about everywhere. This is not a big deal, really, because Lilongwe is quite small but Chilambula Road is now completely open and we can drive the whole length. It’s great.

9. A whole lot of new chitenje (African cloth) designs are coming through and Christmas has provided me with a good opportunity to buy lots of it for various purposes. The chitenje sellers love me and sometimes when Martin is in their vicinity without me they ask him, “Where is your wife?” I’ve found a particular stall up near the markets where the range is perhaps not as good but the guy applies no pressure to buy. He simply lets me look and choose and then asks such a reasonable price that I don’t even bother to barter. I guess he knows I’ll come back which, much to Martin’s chagrin, I do! The other chitenje sellers that I patronise are set up across the road from one of the major supermarkets, outside another supermarket and across the road from a series of banks and the post office. I guess they figure they can get better prices as there are more azungu (foreigners) who go to that area. Consequently they start off with hugely inflated prices and there is some intense bartering before we agree a sale. They are also so keen to sell that they bombard you with cloth so that making any kind of reasonable decision is compromised. But it’s an interesting experience and I’m glad to be able to support local industry. (Martin says the same about drinking Malawi gin and the locally brewed beers, all of which are actually very good.)

10. We had a snake inside the house in mid-December. No, that’s NOT good news, but the good news is that it was very small and was discovered by someone other than me. The even better news is that there has been no recurrence of this unwelcome event and certain of us (me) are praying that there will not be for the duration of our time here. Apparently cobras are a local snake but we haven’t seen any, except a couple on the road when we’ve been driving in the country. That’ll do for my study on the habits of reptiles in Malawi.

11. Australia won the cricket!!!!!!!!

12. We’ll be in Australia to celebrate the cricket victory, woops sorry, to visit family and friends, from 15 Jan to 4 Feb. We’ll spend the first 10 days or so with my parents down near Albany and will then be in Perth for the rest of the time. There is a communal picnic/BBQ/whatever at South Beach, Fremantle, on Sunday 29th Jan from around 1-ish. We’ll position ourselves within sight of the café so you can find us. Those of you in Perth would be most welcome to join us. In fact, those of you not in Perth would also be most welcome to join us but I can appreciate that the logistics may not be favourable.

I’ll finish with a quaint cultural practice observed by Martin recently. Malawi seems to have been keen to adopt the Western white wedding model and so it’s not unusual to see cars with wedding streamers attached. This particular day, Martin saw a wedding car with bride only. Following that was another wedding car with the groom. The bridesmaids (in matching pink dresses) and rest of the wedding party were wedged in a public minibus following behind. I hope they made it to the church!

With that I’ll say farewell till my next installment but will hopefully see many of you in person before then.