7 quick takes...

1. We got up early, had some quick porridge and hiked up the hill to enjoy the cool morning weather and faster internet. Now we are frantically working in our phones while the girls play, the birds sing and the monkeys jump in the trees above us. The rest of the blog I already wrote. Enjoy your weekend!

2. The lake is moody and grey today. Dark clouds hang over her and rain is imminent. It will be a slow day. Another slow day, because rain brings this already slow world to a near stand still. Rain means that roads are slippery so nobody will come, no work can be done and the waves in the lake will make that the boat comes late. Clouds mean that the solar panel won't make enough electricity to start up the laptop and even typing on the phone won't last long as both my battery and powerbank are almost empty. It's ok. There are no guests and work can wait. A slow day means more cuddles, more books, more puzzles and more crafts. Getting used to a slower pace of life is not always easy but today I am loving it.

3. The grass moves as I put my feet down on the narrow path. Giving way to tiny creatures who do not wish to see their lives end under my soles. Brightly coloured tails disappear in the green. They belong to small lizards that soak up the hot sun from rocks, hunt for insects in the grass and always cause excitement when the girls see them. Every now and then the noise is louder, and the grass has to bend more for bigger species. When we are lucky we see them. Monitor lizards, swiftly moving away from us into the water or under the rocks. At night we hear the geckos, they sit on our roof and our walls, squeaking to each other, pooing on our mosquito nets and chairs. Every now and then one falls from the roof right there where we sit or play. We love them and the entertainment they bring.

4. Talking about reptiles; this week seems to be the week of the snake. First Hartmut saw a green one close to our house. The camera was close by and he took a picture. The locals were convinced that it was a green mamba. (Any green or yellow snake is absolutely 100% of the time a green mamba, every brown or black snake is a black mamba. Always. At least according to them.) However, someone who knows about snakes identified our green friend as a harmless water snake. A few days later the staff killed what looked like a cobra and the day after that we found a snake skin hanging from our roof. The owner was nowhere to be found but the fact that he left his now too small clothes at our roof means that he feels comfortable living so close for us (I hope it belonged to that green water snake.) The girls and I did an impromptu lesson about snakes and I hoped that that was that. Little did I know that the next day's breakfast would be disturbed by another snake. One of the staff members asked if we would like to see a python. A dead one. We left our porridge for what it was and strolled to the neighbour where we saw a python that was killed with a spear and an axe. Our neighbour's daughter is clearly brave and loves her goats a lot, because she was the killer of this over 2 meter long reptile. Now I have had enough snake stories for the next while. Let's move on the something harmless. Butterflies anyone?

5. The loud noise of heavy rocks falling on the soil, hitting other rocks. Singing, laughing and every now and then a moan from someone who is carrying rocks to heavy for their strength. The local women's group is in action and I am enjoying the noises. Many of our guests work or volunteer for Phunzira, a local ngo that does a lot of work in the community and Phillipa, one of the directors is here always for half the year. She is fabulous, a great aunt to the girls and a good friend to us. She is building her own house in the lodge's terrain and since diggers and dump trucks don't exist here all the work needs to be done manually. Everybody knows  that the most powerful workforces are the women and philippa has hired the local group to bring all the needed sand and rocks. This group is amazing. Strong women, driven to help themselves and their families out of poverty by working hard to earn the cash that will take their kids through better education. They have their own microloan scheme amongst each other where they can borrow money to start new business. Interest is steep but determined by themselves and it helps all of them to earn some extra cash by the end of the year. They take on other jobs, like carrying rocks when someone builds a house, to generate extra income. It's time for a break. I did not carry rocks but am invited to share in their meal of steamed sweet potato anyway. Doris sits on my lap, their children sit on their laps. We all chat and laugh, talk about the ages of the kids, the weather and news from the village. We share from one pot, plates and cutlery are an unnecessary luxury. We wait till our hot tea cools down and feed our children before we feed ourselves. I feel included but also filled with respect for these strong mothers and women.

6. It has been a month of lake baths and carrying up water to flush the toilet. A month since we had running water. It is not just us but also the village that is affected. There is a water committee whose job it is to keep water running but they have not been in a rush to get it fixed. The committee is a group of men, and they are not very affected by the lack of running water because it's a women's job to carry the water from communal taps to the houses. The men don't have to walk the extra distance with buckets of water on their head, now that water needs to be fetched from the lake instead of from the taps. We cannot have our guests to not have showers and the kitchen needs water too so our staff has been carrying bucketloads up which is a lot of work. After a month of asking, complaining and begging the water committee to just do their job, they were still not very keen to fix it but then the magical solution came. Money! We offered them some money and that made that they arrived this morning, promptly on time, ready to fix the waterpipes together wity Hartmut and some of our guys, because they all agreed it had been too long. Interesting that money brought the insight that watching women work even harder did not. The pipes are high up the mountain and I expect them to be away all day long. It is worth it though, I am already looking forward to my hot shower. (Update, it took two full days of work but yesterday evening the water was fixed. Hurray!)

7. One of the best perks of our job are the marketing trips that we need to make to different other lodges in the region. Monday (I don't know when I get to post this blog, maybe only on Monday) we will leave Ruarwe with the ferry for a nice trip to the North. We plan to have first a few days in Mzuzu for some essential shopping and a visit to the immigration office. After that we will travel to Livingstonia, an old missionairy settlement on the top of the mountains (they build it there because there are fewer mosquitoes. All the missionaries died of malaria at the two lower posts that they first build.)   We will stay there for a couple of days to explore the mountains, the village and Manchewe waterfal and after that we plan to hike back to our own lodge. We think that it will take us 3 or 4 days to walk back. 'They say' that the terrain is not too challenging and that the views are beautiful. Samson, an amazingly helpful man from the village, will come with us to show us the way, to carry our luggage and to help us to find friendly people where we can spend the nights. I am going to write a brochure about the hike so that more people can do it and we can market it as one of the ways to get to us. We are so much looking forward to this 'working holiday'.