Zomba was beautiful

This was the beautiful lodge at Trout Farm that Natalie Oli and I rented for Easter it was advertised as self catering but when we arrived there was no gas for cooking or hot water! Luckily Oli came prepared with camping stove and ready made supplies so we certainly didn't starve....

But with a view like this from the veranda who could worry about such things.

Having said that having braved the shower on night one (it hurt!) it was baby wipe washes from then on...so here I am on the mountain no make up, hair well.......but so peaceful!

The William's Waterfall was calming and we were the only ones at this point. As we climbed up to the viewing points the mist descended!!!

We were lucky enough to see most of Zomba from Queens view but sadly by the time we got to Emperor's view you could not see your hand in front of your face!

Off to Senga bay again today for 4 day Peer Support meeting. Looking forward to catching up with the colleagues I have not seen since in country training. Last day of internet in house today so will catch up when I can great long Skype with Marali & Mairead yesterday ...Roll on June.

Have had some fun too!

My year of firsts continues and I returned to the lake with Natalie & Oli to experience the Catamaran

This is the little beauty above. We set sail around 10.00 as the wind drops in the afternoon...I was the non sailor aboard. All went well for the first hour or so apart from some minor technical difficulties getting caught on local fishing net lines. But....the wind just dropped and all was still we were far out from shore and going nowhere just merrily bobbing on the surface, no waves, no wind.
This continued for over an hour the result we spent four hours out and was at the mercy of the midday sun!

This rather unattractive picture of me shows the consequence of that. Burnt to a crisp, but this lovely lunch destination with the lake in the background and my first sighting of a wild monkey made it all worthwhile. Interestingly I was not afraid whilst we were stranded but very chilled as I had no control whatsoever. I woke Monday feeling so happy I had escaped sun stroke only to feel very unwell Monday evening.

The days here can be very long if you do not have work to do (there have been a few complications at the Uni)  and we fill our time with some weird projects. Natalie decided to try her hand at quilt making. I cut squares and triangles not all well as I was off my head on Piriton after being eaten by the mozzies. But we are now all the proud owners of our own very bright designer bed covers and pillow cases. Natalie also decided that she should kill her own chicken in order to have the full African experience!

I will spare you the before and after photos and I did not take part in the killing but it was carried out very quickly and cleanly by Frank our help who has killed hundreds of chickens for his family to eat. I did watch the gutting which was fascinating and Frank took all the innards that the whities would not eat as well as the chickens head! We did have a very nice chicken dinner the following day.
We are currently laying a brick patio in the back garden.

Check out the label on this lovely bottle of red shared with Oli...

So highs and lows....  Great parcel yesterday Alta Rica & mini eggs thanks Sharon... super happy Marali and Mairead coming out soon miss you all. Have a great Easter I am off to Zomba for the long weekend. (Not Zumba dancing as dear Mairead thought!!)

So Much In a Month!

So it has been nearly a month since my last update and on reflection so much has happened yet it feels so little!!

My reorientation back to the University started with marking of the third year paediatric exam papers and attending the GAIA (Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance) Scholarship ceremony to welcome new first year students in receipt of this benefit. They are all students who have difficult personal circumstances and part of the scholarship pays for their uniform, vital signs equipment as well as a food allowance. The students performed a thank you song and dance which was beautiful and very moving.....There is much excitement and enthusiasm in this group and having the 150 of them in the lecture theatre can be quite a challenge! They will commence their clinical placements in May.

I also had the privilege of assisting with the University Entrance Exams for Malawi...this was quite an experience.

The picture above was taken early in the morning at a sports stadium where the registration for Lilongwe took place it does not really do justice to the thousands of young people who turned up to register this was the girls side where I worked and registered a few hundred candidates!!

The exam took place on Thursday it was supposed to start at 07.30 I was assigned to a local secondary school where 540 students sat and apparently I got off lightly as this was the smallest site.

Each candidate was individually identified by me and I only had two queries the exam room was packed tightly with only about 12 inches between tables and the exam finally started nearer 10.00

I did not hear one student complain. The exam took place all over Malawi with 20.000 candidates

after 2.000 government funded university placements. This was an experience I will never forget.

There were soldiers in attendance (with guns) should the situation get out of control. I did not like that!!

This is one of my favourite pictures of local produce. Pumpkin or tomatoes???

Have had some fun too and projects to keep myself occupied apart from candy crush...

Next instalment coming soon I hope if internet keeps playing.