7 quick takes
 |
| I haven't taken many pictures this week. At least there is this... it's about time I get a new camera ;-) |
- Good morning! I hope you are ready for a new day. I am still a bit undecided about that, so I just get going and hope that the energy will follow. It just feels like the weekend was too short, or at least shorter than we are used to. Hartmut has had a busy time a work and had to work all Saturday so it was only yesterday that we got to relax and hang out. We better get used to it though; once construction on his site really picks up after the lock downs, he will probably have to work every Saturday and the girls and I will have to get used to Saturdays without him.
- ‘Just stop, please just stop. Or at least go slower!’ While I am writing this I see the girls running circles around the house while begging the chicks to go slower. The chicks clearly don’t love their cuddle sessions with the girls as much as they do. Well, they are in luck it’s the last day for most of them. They will be leaving us to go back to their mom’s house. The girls each got to pick one that they want to keep and that wasn’t easy because they have given almost all of them names and a character. They will be going to Tryson, the help, who brought the hen that laid the eggs after he saw how big our rooster was. He wanted to have chicks from that big rooster. Clever thinking because now he has ten strong and healthy chicks that are well on their way to adulthood. It benefited all of us though, because we loved the cute little chicks. However, now they are big and the little army is destroying the garden so it’s time they move away. But the hen will stay here because Tryson, and the girls, hope for more little chicks.
- Tryson isn’t the only one who has seen how big our rooster is. A few weeks ago we noticed that our rooster would disappear early in the morning, only to come back just before sunset. Some nights he would not come home at all. We went out to search, and send out word too, to find out where our rooster was hanging out. We found him with about six or seven lovely hens from the neighbourhood. There used to be a white rooster that was always walking with them. Sometimes our rooster would get into a little fight with him but that was it. Now we learned that the owner of those hens, after seeing our rooster, had decided to take away his, so that our rooster would come and mate with his hens. Well, he was successful as our rooster only comes home to eat and sleep, but hangs out all day with his new girlfriends.
- That’s it for the animals, because many more exciting things are happening in Malawi. Last week I wrote about the upcoming elections and now I am happy to say that it looks as if all went well. The electoral committee took a few days to count all the votes but before the count was final, it already became clear that the opposition won. People in our area started celebrating and when the final results came out on Saturday evening, we got reports of happy parties in many parts of the country. People are ready for change, and they hope that’s what the new president can bring. Yesterday, less than a day after the final results, the president got sworn in. Everybody was clearly in a rush to get things started. I am looking forward to seeing what will happen and pray for wisdom and courage for the new government.
- This week I have been blown away by people’s generosity. When we were in Ruarwe a few weeks ago we heard that the ambulance boat was in desperate need of maintenance. The community was trying to raise the necessary funds but in an area where most people live of subsistence farming and fishing because there are very few ways to have a paid job, 600 euros is a huge amount. When we saw the boat, we realised how bad it was and that, the longer it would take to do the maintenance, the higher the cost would be. I posted a go-fund-me type page online and within an hour, the money for the boat was available. But people didn’t stop giving. I said that any extra money would go towards a house for the doctor, so that he can live next to the hospital. In the end, more than 1600 Euro was raised and Ruarwe will have a house for the doctor and a well maintained ambulance boat. Amazing!
- Do you have that feeling too? Time used to be neatly divided into days, weeks and months. There were things to look forward to and things you could look back on and you were in the middle of that, moving through time. But now, with COVID-19, and all the consequences of it, time has turned into this big undefined pool that you need to cross but you cannot see the other side coming closer. There are things I am looking forward to but without the certainty that it will actually happen as so many things have already been cancelled or postponed. There are things that I look back on but it feels like the past three months or so, have passed in a bit of a blur. It also makes it harder to write the blog. It feels like not much happens although I am grateful that we are not in an actual lockdown but more of a self-imposed version. Anyway, all this to say that I am sorry if the blog is boring.
- I have written a long to-do list for today, so I’ll quickly post this blog and move on to the next point on the list. But not before I have comforted Doris. She is not in a great space and little things throw her off balance and into a lake of sobs and tears. I don’t know what’s triggering her but hope that I have the wisdom and patience to help her deal with it. Have a great week!
