28 July 08 - 10:00scaring the kids

The past week has been brilliant I have been preparing the site for my house which is going to be built on the foundations of an old house that collapsed years ago so everything’s set to start the building work.

Wednesday I went to Blantyre to get my visa renewed and met the editor for lifestyle magazine which is one for the top magazines in Malawi. He wants me to design there website for them and he will pay me and this also means that I get to spend a week or more in Blantyre for free and also get free unlimited internet to do the website for Makwawa and also we get lots of free advertising. He is from Australia and a supporter of scouting in Malawi and that of Makwawa and is really impressed at how things are improving at Makwawa now. The scouts are organizing a fund raising disco for next Tuesday to raise money for the group so that should be interesting. I have had a few Chichewa lessons now and they are going well though I am not fluent yet it seems to be sticking in my head and im now ... (more)

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28 July 08 - 09:57new arrivals

New arrivals

We have some new arrivals at Makwawa Crispin’s chicken has hatched 8 little baby chicks and they are well cute.

 Well the past few days have been very very busy, when shy told me that there was going to be a leader training program at Makwawa run by the scout association of Malawi he said that I might be needed to help on one of the sessions. On Friday we had to go into zomba and buy food for the night and carry it back up the 40 min walk from songani to Makwawa. Then had to return to songani to buy petrol for the generator this took about 2 hours as it is a 1hr and 30 mins round walk. Then had to go back and meet the organizer at 10 o clock in songani so as you can imagine I was pretty shattered. Then the organizers one was the secretary for the scout association of Malawi and the other was the commissioner for the southern region of Malawi needed help with the computer so I said I would and before you know they are asking me to run some of the sessions it was a ... (more)

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11 July 08 - 11:47bloody monkeys

hung my washing up on the line the other day now most people get confused when you put a pair of socks in the wash then when you come to put them away theres only one odd sock nobody knows where it goes. well i know where my odd sock went bloody monkeys ran off with it didnt they.

settling in ok and starting to adjust to the malawian way of life we have been doing maintenance work on the guest house and pricing up th costs of things that we need for differen projects. i have been teacvhing shay and the rest of hius family how to use the computer and have been working on the advertising for the campsite.

today we have people arriving on site for the basic scout leader training which is happening over the weekend and i will be involved with that which should be quite interesting. i have been teaching chrispin lots of new card games and he keeps challenging me to arm wrestling matches which i continously beat him at haha he will learn. ... (more)

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08 July 08 - 09:29return to makwawa

i have returned to makwawa

its all still there nothing has fallen down and the new shop that has been built looks fantastic.

i am currently staying in the double bedroom of the guest house but this of course wont be permanent as me and shy have located a perfect site to build a house but need to arrange some sort of funds for it. we have sat down and discussed a basic action plan for some of the projects that are required at makwawa.

yesterday i repaired the chainsaw as no one had actually told shay how to use it or how to repair it so i replaced the chain and rewound the starter motor. i am giving shay some basic chain saw maintenance lessons and as soon as i found the right tools will show him how to sharpen the chainsaw.

i am still getting used to walking down the road and children running after shouting the chichewan equvelant of the white man has come. shay has informed the chief of the village that i am here so that no one will be alarmed when a white man starts ... (more)

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04 July 08 - 16:02lilongwue

i am still here in lilongwue

steve said we were going to leave today but the truck was not fixed so we leave tommorrow and we have borrowed the girl guides truck

today i went with banda to the market and had a look around we had to pay 10 kwacha to cross the bridge across the lilongwue river which was the most rickety unsafe bridge ever and was quite high up and every year during the rainy season it gets washed away and every year they rebuild it. it connects one part of the market to the other side. i bought a picture for my wall and some necglaces and top up for my phone and me and banda had a drink.

then we returned and went to lunch at summer park again afrterwards me and nelson discussed various political issues in malawi and holidays i will takie up to lilongwue with him and rocky sadly i have not seen rocky yet as he is still away. still at the budget lodge every day i think i am going and carry my bags round to the office and everyday it is post poned and i carry them back ... (more)

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03 July 08 - 16:00still alive

i have survived a few more days

cathy met me at the hotel on wedesday then we waited for steve to pick up my luggage we then transfered it to the budget lodge as i will be staying in lilongwue a few more days. me and nelson wandered around lilongwue and i bought a sim card for my phone and i could either get my phone unlocked so it would work for 6,000 kwacha or buy a new phone of less quality for 2,400 kwacha so i bought i new phone as i dont think i will be requiring bluetooth and the like out in makwawa i meant to bring the number for my phone with me to the internet cafe but of course i forgot but i havent done to badly so far i havent lost anything severe forgot to but my shoes on now and then but apart from that nothing serious

and i would like to mention that my inflamed tonsil have cleared up and my suggested remedy is not salt water as many tried to make me do such as debbie (angry face) but two bottles of kuche kuche which is the local beer this is what cured my tonsils so ... (more)

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01 July 08 - 14:46Arrival

well amazingly i have arrived in the correct destination wonderfull singapore ( sorry personal joke with some guy with a beard i usually call him dad)

not only did i arrive at the correct place but so did all my luggage although i have to say it was a really mission impossible trying to get close enough to the conveyor belt to get it i sort of had to take a running dive at the wall of people malawi airport is the most chaotic airport ever when several flights arrive at once.

i was met at the airport by nelson and steve and we then went to a container storage yard to check something for steve and then ran some other errands then i went to the lilongwue hotel to see whether mum had managed to book a room under my name and she had which was cool. so steve said he'd see me at 5 and by this point it was already 3:30 so i had a shower cup of tea and rested and at 5 went down to wait for steve at 6 i got bored of waiting and decided to head back up to the room steve knocks on the door at 6:45. ... (more)

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