7 quick takes...

23 November

7 quick takes...

Good morning! Did I already say that it’s hot? Probably not, at least not in the blog today. But this will definitely not be the last time that I said it because it’s so hot that it’s hard to think about anything else. I feel like writing seven times ‘it’s hot’ and call it a blog would do perfect justice to describe everything that happened last week.
Well, there was one other thing that stood out. Besides being hot, the week was dominated by lake flies. Lake flies are tiny creatures (small enough to fly through the mazes of a mosquito net) that live in and on the lake. They are moved around by the wind in enormous fly-clouds that look impressive from a distance and like your worst nightmare when they you are in the middle of one. Last week the wind was so friendly to blow loads of these clouds to our shore. In the day it’s not so bad, but in the evening, all those flies come to the light. It makes it impossible to do anything that requires light unless you like flies in your mouth, in your eyes and crawling all over your skin. At least we got lots of sleep as the flies forced us to go to bed early. The morning after is another nightmare as most flies die during the night. It means that every surface is covered in dead flies. At least the ducks and chicken enjoyed the scoops full of flies that they got for breakfast. And it was hot. (more on this flies in this clip Planet Earth -Lake Malawi)
There is a shoe on the fridge. It is not an accident as we did it on purpose. The girls don’t know that though, they think it’s done by the helpers of Sinterklaas. Earlier this morning, there was even a present in that shoe. Sinterklaas is in the Netherlands, and therefore somehow, miraculously, also in Malawi. The girls are enjoying the stories and traditions. They faithfully follow the ‘sinterklaas news’ that is broadcasted every evening and Sophie prays every day that one of the mysteries in the show gets solved. Every year, lots goes wrong, and this year there is a lot of confusion with the shoes that kids put out so that Sinterklaas can fill it with presents. That’s why the shoe ended up on top of the fridge and the girls love it. I love it too, it’s probably the Dutch-est thing we do in our house, and I am glad that the girls will have these memories. The only difference is that in my Sinterklaas memories, it’s cold and dark. Here it is hot.
In two weeks Sinterklaas will be gone, but he is not the only one. The girls and I will also have packed our bags, and we will be in Lilongwe. I will probably be anxiously waiting for our Covid-19 test results to come out because without the test, we cannot fly. Two weeks and this year will be as good as over. Never before has a year been so slow and so fast at the same time. I have started to work on our year review and it is great to look back and just feel grateful. This year was nothing like we expected it to be but it was good in its own way. Oh, and it is hot.
I have been working on the movie but it’s a little harder than I anticipated. Before we started filming, we had agreed on a script for everyone who was going to say something. But now that I am editing, I am realising that nobody stuck to his script. Everybody said a lot more which means that I need to do a lot of cutting. Not easy when you have to use a translator all the time because everybody speaks a language you don’t understand. Oh well, it will work out and I hope to be able to send the first version in the next few days. (Did I say that it is hot?)
Another reason to work hard now is that I am going away for a shoot for ‘Red een Kind’ on Thursday and Friday. I have done quite a lot of work for them in the past months and it will be nice to meet some people that I worked with before. I am excited about this opportunity and being able to develop myself in this field has definitely been one of the highlights of this year.
Ok, got to go. Not physically, but I am moving from one programme in the laptop to the next. From writing to editing. Stay cool (or warm), be kind to yourself and the people around you and have a great week!