7 quick takes...

A quick dance class before filming starts.

1. Good morning! Another week, another blog. Hartmut went to work, I decided to write a blog before I do any other work because otherwise I’ll forget. The girls won’t disturb me because they are outside, doing some kind of rain dance. They really want it to rain because they want to dance in the rain. The clouds in the sky have made them hopeful. I don’t think it will happen because it hardly ever rains outside of rain season. But I won’t tell them. I am wiser than that.
2. It is cold! I am wearing a sweater and have covered myself with a fleece blanket. My breakfast of choice was warm porridge and tea; anything to get warm. I don’t know if my tolerance for colder temperatures has declined even more since living here, but I cannot remember our previous ‘winters’ in Malawi to be this cold. The local people complain too, so maybe I’m not becoming a wimp. But on the other hand, if it’s going to be cold, is has to be now; one week from solstice. The lake is wild and stormy, the wind doesn’t stop to blow, and our house, where many windows don’t have glass but mosquito netting doesn’t provide much of a shelter. Realistically speaking, it isn’t even that cold, the weather forecast always tells that it will be around 24 degrees, but the wind that’s constantly blowing from the lake makes it feel much colder. Fortunately it’s only a few short weeks before this winter is over and I can complain again about how hot it is.
3. What’s also only a week from now is Sophie’s 6th birthday. The excitement is real. She has already written an entire book with the programme for the day, she is continuously adding presents to the box of gifts that she is going to give herself and every few hours she comes up with another dish that she wants to have as her birthday dish. The realisation that she, from next week on, will need TWO hands to show her age was magical. 6 is big!
4. I saw him. He sat under the bunny house when we wanted to take Lulu and Nijn out for some cuddles. I chased him away and told the girls not to worry. I saw him again, sitting in the bushes, while the girls and I were playing with the bunnies on the lawn. His bright yellow eyes were scanning for opportunities while his smooth black fur hid most of his body in the shadows. Doris saw him too and told me to chase him. ‘I will, just now, but don’t worry, he won’t do anything because we are here.’ I was wrong. The bunnies hopped, we laughed and let our guards down because why would we keep them up? Then. ‘Where is Nijn?’ When I saw the fear in Doris’ eyes, I understood what she saw without really seeing it. The cat jumped out of the clearing, I started screaming and running but the cat was faster. Within moments out little white bunny was snatched in front of us by a big hungry wild cat. I chased him, still screaming, but the cat was faster. With the bunny in his mouth he crossed the open field to the rocky hill behind our house where I lost him pretty quickly. I dreaded going back to tell the girls what they already knew. Nature is hard. Keeping pets is nice but it also teaches you hard lessons. I am sure that this lesson was good but I could have done without it.
5. ‘Say yes more often’ is popular advice that gurus and self-help influencers like to tell you. This weekend I listened to that, and I am glad I did. Almost every self-respecting church in Malawi has a choir and every choir seems to have one goal; record a music video. This is the reason that every weekend, we will find choirs that have travelled to the lake to record the same dance moves as every other choir to a beat that sounds like every other beat, on the same rocks and sand as every other choir. The beach in front of our house is very popular for these movies because it is kept clean and the backdrop has lots of trees. The choir usually come all dressed in the same outfits, take along all their children, pots, pans and massive bags with other identical clothes and it’s a real event. I don’t mind. It’s entertaining to watch and the music is usually nice, especially when they sing live and don’t let it blast from creaky speakers. Without fail, they ask me and the girls to join, and we always kindly decline because it’s awkward but this week I decided to do it anyway. It was awkward. The dance moves, the camera, the attention, the fact that my shorts were too short and I had to get a chitenge to cover my knees. But it was also fun and a memory that I will treasure. I got the producers number. He said he would send me the final product. I am not sure if I want to see it. Knowing that my face and dance moves will be shown on all the long haul busses in Malawi, because that’s the kind of screen where these movies end up, is cringe worthy enough!
6. If you don’t say it out loud, it isn’t real. If you don’t write about it, it can still change. I wish that’s how it works because I am still in denial. For a long time, my parents have planned a visit to Malawi. We were overjoyed when they booked their tickets to come in July. From the pictures and stories, you can only get a fraction of how life in Malawi feels, and we just couldn’t wait to share the feels, the smells, the joys and the hard things of the place that we call home. I also couldn’t wait to watch the girls with their grandparents. They grow up so fast and it has already been more than a year since they have seen them. When you live so far from family as we do, trips like this to look forward to, are like fuel for your batteries to keep you going. But then COVID-19 came. First my sister’s visit was cancelled. We were really sad but still thought that things would be over soon. But as time continued it became obvious that the world would be in lock down for much longer. In my mind I have known for a long time that it was unlikely that my parents trip would happen but my heart did not want to know it, so I never wrote about it. But I think I can no longer deny it. It’s not happening . We have no idea when we will see each other again. And that’s so hard. Even while I write this I feel nauseous and I just want to cry. It is true that we are the ones who decided to move to Malawi, we knew it was far. But that was in a time that flying was easy. As long as we kept enough money in the bank to buy a ticket, we could travel to family if we needed to be there. Now the borders are closed, even if you want to charter a private plane, you cannot come into or leave the country. And that’s hard, very hard.
7. There is still no rain but the girls are still hoping for it. They are cloud spotting and discussing wind direction, greyness of each cloud and the likelihood that that cloud will be blown over our garden to pour out some rain. Doris is yelling a self-made rap about rain drops that should let go and fall down. Awesome. I think that counts as learning ;-) Otherwise our learning will be on South America today. The girls requested more learning on the continents, so we have decided to do a continent each week although I know we will probably take longer because there is so much to learn. Have a great week!

Doris is picking a present for her sister.

Sophie made a surrogate friend for our lonely bunny.