7 quick takes....

27 January

7 quick takes....

My picture this week on @wildflowersandthunderstorms

It’s not even 8 and food for tonight is on the stove, I have done my exercise and work for the lodge is done. You could say that I’m on a roll, but I know that I won’t be rolling very fast today. Both girls have picked up flu and between sniffing their noses, uttering frustrations with nasal voices and not giving each other much space because they are both feeling too bad to care about the feelings of other people, they don’t give me much time to get things done. It’s ok, we will read books, sip lemon-tea, cuddle and that’s some kind of rolling. Just the slow version.
I am looking at the calendar, comparing days and dates with ferry schedules and the days that Hartmut doesn’t need to work. The result is four options, four different ways to see Malawi . Some options are calmer than others, some have more attractions than others. Sometimes people seem to see us as a free travel agent that will create an itinerary for their Africa trip. It’s often people I don’t know, referred to me by their sister's, neighbour's friend whom they met at a birthday party. When we lived in Cape Town I got so many questions that I created a pdf with all my tips, highlights and tricks, that I actually still send to someone at least once a month. But the itineraries that I made this weekend were different. Because this time they are for my sister and her family who will visit us in April. We cannot wait and would love to show them all the places we love. That’s why they got one super-unrealistic itinerary (please don’t choose that one, because we will need a holiday after that holiday). In the end, it doesn’t really matter what they choose. We will be together, Sophie and Doris will finally get to play with their cousins (we only saw Elin when she was a few weeks old, and we never met Kris.) and they can get to know and share in the life we love here.
I skipped a week with the blog because last week there was simply no time to write. On Sunday we went to Lilongwe to go to church and so that the girls could have a playdate with their new Dutch friend whom they met at the Sinterklaas party. We stayed in Lilongwe for the night so that we could do more groceries than I have ever done before on Monday morning. The reason for this was that Hartmut had accidentally become a conference-organiser. He is part of an international workgroup that creates standards for engineering practises and he had jokingly suggested that they should meet once in Malawi so that he could attend. To his surprise, they agreed and suddenly we had to look for a conference venue and organise all the logistics. We found the most perfect venue in an old Italian villa, not too far from our house. The beauty is that you could just bring your own food and the very capable chefs turned that into nice meals. The girls and I stayed at the venue too so that I could help with all the logistics and make sure that things were happening when they were supposed to happen. It was a lot of fun and we are already planning another stay at the villa because it was that nice.
On instagram is a beautiful account, @wildflowersandthunderstorms, that I have always admired. It’s a collective of Dutch mom-photographers who take beautiful pictures of childhood as seen through their lenses. To my great surprise they asked me if I wanted to join them in the new year. The question made me a little nervous; could I live up to the quality? But also proud as it felt like I got some recognition for something I am very passionate about. Every week they create a blog with a collection of pictures so from now on, you can head every Thursday evening to wildflowersandthunderstorms.com to see my work, together with the photographs of some very talented photographers
For almost two hours she did not move, she did not blink with her eyes and it seemed as if she did not breathe. And when it was all over, she did not stop talking about it. Now almost a month later, she still hasn’t stopped talking about it. When we were in Namibia we took the girls to the cinema for the first time. Swakopmund has a small and rather quaint cinema where you still get a handwritten ticket and where popcorn is cheap. Anyone with little girls can guess which movie we went to see, as there is only one movie that really matters when you are 4 or 5. The girls loved it (and secretly we loved it too) and in our house the scenes and songs are carefully replayed and discussed on a daily base.
While we were in Namibia and Hartmut was already back in Malawi, he bought some car tires and made a type of balance beam in our backyard. Have I said before that I love partnering in parenting with him?
While I write this, Malawi is holding her breath. Last year in May, we had elections and you may remember that I wrote about protests that turned pretty violent because the opposition doesn’t believe that the elections were free and fair. There was much evidence that suggested irregularities, and the protest leaders said they would not stop protesting until it was investigated, that the jurisdiction had to take it serious. This week the court will speak and all political leaders are urging the people to remain calm, whatever the court ruling will be. It seems as if, whatever the verdict will be, protests must be expected. Either from the anti-president lobby (that’s mostly in our region) or the pro president lobby (in the south of the country). Everybody is forwarding whatsapp messages, preparing us for the worst. We are encouraged to buy food for a month, make sure the cars are always filled up and be ready in case the country goes in complete shutdown. We stocked up on tinned food and pasta, because judging by what I have seen, I know that the protesters are capable of achieving this. But my hope and prayer is that Malawi will accept the court ruling in peace.