7 quick takes...

Don't worry, I don't write about the ducks again. But the girls do nothing without the ducks so they could not escape the pictures.

Good morning! We are ready for week two of ‘Hartmut at work’. This sounds a lot more dramatic than it is because week one was more like a gentle dip-your-toes-into-the-water experience than a dive into the deep end. There is not that much work yet because the project got delayed and because it got delayed, there is no office on site yet and Hartmut gets to do the little work he has to do from home. I know it won’t stay like this and he will get super busy in a few weeks but for now we are all happy with this gentle re-introduction into the world of working professionals.
‘Ping, ping, ping’ the bicycle taxi driver forces every other bicycle, goat, pedestrian and cow to the side of the road with the rushed ringing of his bicycle bell, he even screams when necessary to warn people about the speed he is approaching them with. I am his passenger and my heart is racing in my throat. Partly because I feel vulnerable with the high speed on the flimsy bike but also because there is a reason why this taxi is acting like an ambulance. A few minutes earlier I sat on the back of another bicycle taxi with Sophie on my lap. We were going to DAPP, the second hand store, to see if they had some clothes for Hartmut. We thought that the bicycle taxi had stopped and got ready to get off when he jerked a little forward. While he did that, Sophie’s foot got stuck between the spokes and her heart piercing cry made everybody around us stop what they were doing to see what had happened. She had a bad abrasion, much bigger and deeper than the small plaster that I usually carry with me could handle, but not so big that she needed to go to a clinic. If we would have been in another place, not Malawi, I would have maybe (probably) taken her to a doctor or a nurse but I knew that the queues in the clinic would be long for anything that isn’t life threatening so instead I raced on the back of my taxi-turned-ambulance to the closest pharmacy to get everything I needed for a dressing. We are very grateful that our friend Philippa, who is a pediatric nurse, came to stay with us that evening so she convinced Sophie about the importance of cleaning and daily dressing changes. It’s now a week later. The wound is still deep and painful but not as deep and painful as it was a week ago and for that we are grateful. Sophie is now very good about reminding me to change her wound dressing and Doris insists that she checks the wound every day too because she wants to be a nurse when she is big.
We went to Lilongwe on Wednesday to do a lot of shopping for our school at home, to meet Hartmut’s team and to get our permits sorted but we should have known that that was a rather optimistic to-do list. Even in the best of circumstances it would have been a lot to get done and Malawi hardly ever gives you the best of circumstances. I wrote about the protests a couple of weeks ago and this week the protests were turning ugly and violent again. Don’t get me wrong; I think there should be protesting. It’s good that people find their voice and make themselves heard but it’s sad when some opportunistic criminals make use of the chaos and start looting and destroying, making the entire cause of the protest seem bad. Most shops and offices closed, making it hard to get anything done. The good thing is that our paperwork for our permits got an ok and that we got a car. The bad news (although the girls think that it’ great news) is that we will need to go back to Lilongwe tomorrow to finally buy everything for school.
Not having the school supplies that I needed doesn’t mean that no learning is happening. After seeing to protests from close ( accidentally a bit too close to for my liking) Sophie requested a lesson about protests and Doris wanted to know how and why exactly people burn tires during a protest. It was good to be able to talk with the girls about freedom of speech, our right to demonstrate and be heard but also to brainstorm about helpful and less helpful ways to make people listen to you. When we then looked at our own lives, we found out that for both big and small people getting angry and wanting to break things is often the first response when you feel like nobody is listening and so this lesson about current affairs hit home and helped us to understand every side of the story. After our discussions Sophie wanted to make a protest sign because she wanted to protests against the heavy use of plastic bags that end up on the road side all over Malawi. What a great day of learning! (ps: I want to remember the things Sophie and Doris said during the protests so I just write them here so you can enjoy it too. Sophie was happy that the protesters looted Spar Supermarket and not Chipiku (another supermarket) because Spar doesn’t sell her favourite biscuits so at least she could be sure that they were not stolen. Doris wondered of the mothers of the bad people would call them to send them to bed after it got dark because if it gets dark you get tired and grumpy and according to Doris it’s a bad thing to feel grumpy on top of being as angry as the protesters were. She was worried that they would start doing really stupid things if they did not go to bed on time. )
Sometimes you’re not looking for an opportunity but it finds you. That’s what happened while we were on holiday in Mozambique and I was wondering how I would fill my time while Hartmut is at work because, let’s be honest, being a stay at home mom is not that much work when you have a full time house help. In my head I was dreaming about different things that I could do when Martina, who manages Nkwichi, asked me if I wasn’t interested in managing their social media accounts. That tickled my interest. The job would be great, I have done it before and enjoy it. Helping to market the lodge is something I am passionate about too. I have seen what an important impact sustainable tourism can have on an area, both by providing jobs (Nkwichi is the biggest employer in that region) and by helping with nature conservation because Nkwichi is not only a lodge but also a big nature conservation area. I can do the job from home, it’s only a few hours per week and I get to work together with people who are already my friends. Pretty perfect isn’t it?
We came back from Lilongwe with a car and we used that little bit of extra freedom to explore a part of the bay that we always see from the beach but that we had not actually been to. We live on the more populated part of the bay, where the main fishing hub and the market is. The other side of the bay is dominated by big houses and lodges. Before we settled on our current house we also got offered to rent a chalet on one of the lodges that side and it was good to see that too. The girls enjoyed the beach and we enjoyed a beautiful sun downer. It was nice to see and we will definitely be back but I am also happy that we live where we do. It’s nice to be a bit closer to the action, to be able to walk to the market and to public transport, to see the fishermen go out as the sun sets and come back when it gets light. I think that living where we live will help us to understand Malawi better.
Today is a National Holiday because it was Independence Day on Saturday but is the weekend so everybody has free today too. We don’t have many plans. Right now the girls are eating breakfast, I am cooking supper (mung bean curry with sweet potato) and Hartmut is still sleeping because he woke up with a headache. For the rest of the day, I’ll do school with the girls, make a shopping list for Lilongwe and prepare for my new job. Hartmut will work so that he has less to do tomorrow and we will see what the day will bring. Happy new week!