7 quick takes after a long break

26 April

7 quick takes after a long break

After weeks of stormy weather, the lake is high and wild.

Yes, I am well aware that I have not written a blog in a long time. I don’t really need to write an excuse and apologies since I am writing this blog mostly so that I can remember what happened in our life. But I’ll do it anyway. I blog on Monday mornings, I have done that since forever, so it’s in my system. But I wasn’t at home the last few Mondays. First we were in Lilongwe, then we were on holiday, and last week and the week before, I was on Hartmut’s building site for a film project. (Scroll down for some pictures.) But today is a normal Monday, so I have no excuse. It’s funny though, once you stop, it’s easy to not start again. But it would be a shame to not write, because it means that all the stories get covered with newer, fresher experiences until I can never find them again. So here is a blog with a random collection of stories from the past weeks.
The girls and I were in Lilongwe and had some time to kill between a visit to the dentist and a meeting with other homeschooling families. The only problem is that we didn't have a car so whatever we were going to do needed to be within walking distance. Lilongwe isn’t exactly known to be an exciting city filled with activities, so I had mentally prepared myself for a few boring hours. We looked for a place to have lunch and didn’t expect much. I have a feeling that that’s probably always a good attitude as it gives room for the biggest surprises. And what a surprise we got. It was the playground that drew us in. That playground, a rather big and exciting one, especially for kids who aren’t used to much, belonged to a new restaurant that happened to have an amazing menu. The girls played, I got some work done, and it got even better when the owner came to ask if the girls might be interested in cooking classes. The next morning they were going to have one for kids. The girls love cooking, so they didn’t need to be convinced. We went back the next morning. The girls got their own aprons and made pizza and cookies from scratch and had the best time. And Hartmut and I had some time to buy groceries without the girls which made it feel like we were on a date. Double win!
We spent this weekend in Monkey Bay and slept in our new house. If all goes well, we’ll move in two months and this weekend was to plan some alterations that need to be done. The house is part of a lodge and currently, it consists of two en suite rooms. The wall between the two rooms need to get a door, one of the bathrooms needs to be turned into a kitchen, and we’ll add on a small sort of room for the girls. It’s already a nice place, so I am looking forward to really make it our home.
‘Are we really going to do this? We can still turn around….’ Perhaps we should have done that, when Hartmut said it. When we drove home yesterday, we took a scenic drive up to Dedza, a pretty place in the mountain where we wanted to have lunch. The drive up was beautiful, the road is good and the views are amazing. Lunch was great too and as we got ready to drive back, Hartmut said. ‘You wanna have a little adventure? Google shows that there is another route.’ Taking a route that Google suggests might not be the most daring thing to do but in Malawi it’s quite an adventure. Especially after rain season because you never know what the condition of the road will be, or if there is a road at all. We turned into a road that was pretty bumpy from the start but decided to keep going. We drove through a beautiful landscape, gave people rides as we are going in the direction that they were walking in anyway, missed a few turns but always got back on the track that Google suggested. Until it stopped. Google said there was a road, but in reality we were on a sweet potato field where a man with a panga tried to tell us that there was really no road. We turned around and ditched the phone because that was of little help. Instead, we asked people for directions and although hardly anyone spoke English, we figured out the names of the villages we drove through. Helpful people directed us with loads of words that we did not understand and hand gestures that we hopefully interpreted right. Two hours later we came past a sign that we had seen before and Hartmut and I burst out laughing. We had done a full circle and ended up where we had started. Oh well, it was beautiful, and we learned again that you must not always trust Google.
‘Do you want to buy this?’ Isa, our gardened shows us an old, used wooden oar. It’s beautiful, through time and use that gives ordinary items character. ‘The owner is desperate for food, so he wonders if you want to buy it.’ Isa explains the whole story. The wind has been howling for a few weeks now, and the lake is rough. The girls enjoy the high waves, but we have also noticed that the fishermen have stayed home. ‘The owner is a fisherman and his family is hungry. He hasn’t been able to go out and fish for two weeks now.’ We buy it. Because what else do you need to do. It’s hard. And only a temporary solution. What will he do, when the lake calms down, and he can go out and fish again? In our storage, we have two oars that we bought when we lived in the north. ‘We can use them to decorate our house’ we said. ‘As a memory from Malawi.’ Now we will give the man those oars and keep the old one. We will hang it on our wall and remember our time in Malawi. But not only that. It will also be a reminder of a much bigger lesson.
We spend the Easter weekend in Nyika. It's a beautiful national park on top of a plateau. It had been on my bucket list since I heard about it, and fortunately it was just as good as I hoped. We camped and waking up in the middle of nature with no people around us was just amazing. We hiked, watched birds, made fires, and it was a perfect break from normal. I added some pictures from the weekend to this blog.
Doris wants to play a game with me and I promised pancakes for lunch, so it’s time to wrap up this blog and work on all the other things I need to do. Happy new week!