7 quick takes...
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| I am the luckiest. |
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| Rock climbing in our garden. |
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| ❤️ |
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| The majestic sable antelope |
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| Scanning our surroundings for animals |
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| Do you see what they see? |
- It’s a Sunday afternoon; Hartmut is taking a nap. The girls are pretending to take one too but they aren’t very successful in their pretending. I hear whispers, giggles and shuffling of little feet upstairs. It’s ok, they don’t need a nap every day, but I do want them to ‘rest’ every afternoon for an hour so that we all get to have a break and reset a little. I use this break to write a quick blog to catch up with all of you (and myself). I feel like I have not much to write though… We are settling into our new normal with more routine and less extremes. It is good for us, but maybe slightly less good for interesting blogs ;-)
- I am feeling so full! I had way too much to eat for lunch because it was that good. You probably know that Sophie had a bike accident about four weeks ago. We have been doing daily dressing changes and wound care and she has been a very strong girl through it all. Now the wound is almost closed and I told her that she could pick a meal that I would cook the day that it was closed. She smiled. ‘That’s easy mam, I know what I want to eat!’. I thought she would want me to make pizza, or burgers or something like that but instead she choose ‘Basmati rice, red lentil curry, potato bread and eggplant chips’. Great! That’s one of my favourite meals too and I am glad that we are raising a child with such great taste in food ;-)
- It was one of those moments we will never forget. We had already seen many zebra’s, antelopes, monkeys, special birds and a stunning sunset over a lagoon and now were sitting in the restaurant, waiting for our food, when something moved in the clearing on the other side of the road. When it came a little closer we could recognise the Sable Antelope, one of my favourite antelopes with his beautifully big curved horns. The girls and I walked as quietly as we could towards the antelope (read: not very quietly). I am pretty sure that he had seen us but deemed us harmless (he was right) as he continued grazing and the girls and I could admire the beautiful animal from up close. After a while he finally made a move an walked gracefully across the path towards the other side of the road. So very cool! And the best part is that this happened a 30 minute drive from our home. Last year, when we did not have a car, I did not miss it because it would not have helped us much without any access to roads. But now, with many cool places to visit, it feels like such a luxury to be able to get out and explore in the comfort of our own car.
- We loved seeing the Sable antelope up close but one animal that we are very happy to not see so close anymore is the naughty monkey that was caught this week. He is brought to the centre and they are telling us that he is doing very well there. We still see many monkeys around but they are appropriately afraid and stay away from our house as long as we don’t leave food in clear sight.
- There were whispers, I was send away, told to look away and things got quickly covered up as soon as I entered a room. My favourite part was the morning itself when I was told to stay in bed while the girls prepared a treasure hunt for me. Having kids makes a birthday so much more fun! Sophie and Doris made arrows, cryptic drawing and maps that should help me to find the presents that they had hidden all over the house and in the garden. I did not need it though; in their enthousiasm, they would run ahead of me and point out where the next present, wrapped in homemade wrapping paper and way too much washi tape, was hidden. I came home with a basket full of presents that they, with an eager impatience, helped to unwrap. I got an old necklace, some toys (‘we did not want them anymore anyway’), lots of drawings and crafts. My favourite was the recipe that Sophie had printed out for me with the help of Hartmut. The search request was that it would be a recipe for a big multiple layered cake with strawberries. I got the recipe and the ingredients and made a big multi layered meringue this week that did not work out as we had hoped because who knows why but it was delicious nonetheless. With these two girls I want it to be my birthday every week! (Maybe not, I do not want to be 56 by the end of this year.)
- In the meantime, Malawi is slowly cascading into a more permanent state of unrest. There are weekly protests, some more violent than others, against the president and the electoral committee but the president hasn’t really shown that he has even noticed it. Instead his wife went along and threw a party for her son’s graduation that must have costed at least 80000 pounds, kindly sponsored by the government. This gave the protesters even more reason to want this newly re-elected president out. It’s quiet in our little fishermen village but this week we went to Salima, our closest bigger town, to do some shopping when we were caught in a protest that we did not know about. It’s hard to stay on top of what’s happening in a country where news isn’t very reliable. The atmosphere was tense and around us traders were running away from the protesters with all their merchandise on their backs, scared that the protesters would loot and break it if they left it behind. We escaped via a backroad but as we tried to get back to the main road the protesters came back to where we were. There was rubble burning on the road, all the shops were closed and all around us were people running to who knows where. Doris missed the whole ordeal, as she was lost in her own world of imagination but Sophie, who is always very aware of everything around her, became increasingly worried and nervous about it. Fortunately we were able to find another sandy backroad that eventually brought us back to the main road but past the point where the protesters were and we could drive home . Without all the things we had planned to buy but at least we were safe and that’s much more important! It’s hard to see this happen in Malawi, and although the violence is not good, it’s good that are people are finding their voice. Now pray with me that that voice will be heard soon, before the situation escalates further.
- Hartmut has woken up, the girls have come down too. Nap time is over and duck cuddle time has started. Now we will go to the beach to enjoy the last rays of sunshine and the last bits of weekend before the week starts again. We don’t know yet how many days he will be gone this week so we will see and savour the time we have together. Happy new week!
