7 quick takes
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| A happy girl in her favourite playground. |
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| Zie ginds komt de stoomboot.... |
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| Our street in spring... so much red! |
- Good morning! I finally made some time to write the blog. Somehow school started at seven today. That happens when one of the girls asks questions that need answers and one thing leads to the other and before we know it we are in full on learning mode. it's 10:30 now and the girls brains are saturated so they are playing. Great; it means that I get to write a blog and finish my work for Nkwichi.
- The house is filled with excitement because Sinterklaas has arrived! The past few years I might have tried to spice up the excitement a little as I so badly wanted the girls to embrace my favourite Dutch tradition. This year I did not need to do much as they love it as much as any other Dutch kid. Saturday we watched his arrival on tv (the laptop) while we eat traditional Dutch food, the girls put out their shoes that got filled overnight and every evening we turn to the screen to watch the 'Sint news'. The girls are intrigued with the story and somehow they know how to turn any conversation we have into one about Sinterklaas. Both girls have asked if we can be in the Netherlands when he comes next year. I am tempted but also believe that there is some beauty in how we get to celebrate it and hype it up as much (or rather little) as we choose. In our house he is big but outside of our garden nobody knows who he is, a visit to the shops doesn't remind the girls about his existence and no other kids come to compare what they did or did not get. It makes it nice and manageable and although I love the party, I also wish the Dutch parents good luck for the next few weeks.
- It wasn't only Sinterklaas that made the past week a festive one. We celebrated the birth of two new cousins for the girls. One in the Netherlands and one in Namibia. Al is well with both of them for which we are grateful However, the girls aren't all that happy because both of them were boys and in their eyes, boys are just not as nice as girls. Sophie complained: 'There are two girls and like 100 boys in our family.' I told her that that's not true because we have two nieces and four nephews. '4 or hundred, when it comes to boys it's equally bad.' Sophie said. Oh well, I am sure she will turn around once she has met them because they are the cutest and we love them already.
- When I sit outside I always watch the monkeys and find them very entertaining. I wanted to share that experience with you. It didn't take me long to get the footage together, and I did not need to walk more than ten meters from our house... because there are so many! Scroll down to the end of this blog or follow this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8JAPsU5gpw
- What I love most about life here is that every day something happens that makes my jaw drop and leaves me wondering if that really just happened. Like on Tuesday. We went to Lilongwe for groceries and traffic was slow moving. That's normal but that day it was extra slow because there were road works. Some taxies tried to be clever by overtaking the queue illegally and cutting back in at the last moment. Hartmut decided that that wasn't going to happen so he made sure he did not leave an inch between us and the car in front of us so the taxi driver had no choice but to wait next to us in front of the queue. It would not have been a big problem if there would have been a traffic light but that day the traffic was regulated by a policeman who wasn't very impressed with the taxi driver. He walked towards his car, stuck his hand inside the open window, grabbed the car keys and walked away with them. The taxi driver was furious and I just could not stop laughing. So funny!
- The agenda for this week is pretty empty, which is good because I like our normal. If all goes well, it's only a few more weeks of that before the December craziness starts.However, I am a bit worried about that. We have booked our flights to Namibia on SAA as that's the only real option to get from Malawi to Namibia but SAA is in deep trouble. It has actually always been in financial trouble but since it's the pride of the nation the government has always bailed them out. They have said that they won't do that again and in order to cut the budget SAA wanted to fire over 900 employees and the salary raises that they were willing to give were not as high as the employees wanted. This made people angry (understandably) and the unions have started a crippling strike which has grounded most planes and might mean the end of South African Airways. In itself that might not be the worst thing but if it has to happen, I selfishly hope that the collapse happens after we have been to Namibia... Anyway, I try not to worry about it too much and see how it goes.
- The girls ask me to come paint with them, which I love so that's what I will do. There are not many things that make me happier than when we sit together around the table with our paint, each of us learning to make the brush and the paint do justice to the image we have in our head. Sometimes it's frustrating, sometimes its satisfying, most days it's both.... But we learn and that's the most important thing! Have a great week!
