(( ))
14 August 08 - 13:03
Wednesday 6th august
I finished my meetings on Wednesday morning and had the rest of the day to myself, met with nelson and timo briefly then went round coconut and happy Georges house. Afterwards I went shopping round the market and local shops. I also managed to have a great meal and a few drinks at a restaurant which was brilliant first real food I’ve had in weeks.
Thursday 7th august
Return back to work
Returned back to Makwawa this morning. The amazing thing was a managed to get on the right bus well the bus heading in the right direction whether it was the right one is yet to be decided. We were crammed in like sardines again, and 1 hour into the journey the bus broke down a couple of kicks from the bus conductor and some fiddling and it was working again, so to those who tell me off when my computer breaks and I kick it to make it work if it works on bus it’ll work on a computer. This continued every few hours which meant I could get out and stretch my legs often enough but was putting hours onto the journey one Malawian assured me that this was normal and buses do this all the time, right I thought cheers for that. Just after Liwonde in the middle of no where the bus finally gave up the ghost and no amount of kicking fiddling or swearing was going to fix it, so we waited for a smaller minibus to arrive and packed everyone including luggage into a bus half the size of the original and we were packed tight originally now this was ridiculous I had me nose up some sweaty mans arm pit and was sort of straddling some poor women while someone else was sort of sitting on my arse, would have made a fantastic picture though. Finally made it back to songani and walked the long trek back to Makwawa.
Saturday 9th august
Crazy drivers and nails in funny places
Today we headed into zomba to try and find a pickup but there were none available for hire, so we had to get one of the taxi pickups which cost considerably more. We loaded it up with all the roofing materials for the house and lots of backs of cement and bottled water we then drove back to Makwawa. The pick up was a two seater there was five of us, shy got the front seat because he’s older and the rest of traveled in the back with nails up our arse and insect flying in our eyes of course Malawians are used to this kind of travel but im not I thought I was gonna fly out the back the way the driver was driving as if he was on drugs. Interesting experience though.
Sunday 10th august
Brick balancing
Today we continued to finish clearing the site for the house and the scouts helped bring some bricks down for the house, it’s the same brick pile we used last years its great all the building work was at the bottom of the hill so where’s the brick pile? At the top of the hill of course. So again the same as last year we have to cart all the brick down by hand the Malawians carry 25 bricks on the heads I cant carry 25 in the arms let alone of my head its completely insane, I did of course have a go at carrying bricks on my head, much to the amusement of the other scouts and yes before you ask the all fell off no I lie I had 2 remaining when I reached the bottom. Shys younger children have been really wary of this Whiteman that has intruded on their home but are slowly warming to me.
There’s Towanda 2, prince 4, Andres, 5. and the find it hilarious when I start dancing around to bob Marley and doing funny walks and songs with chrispin. But the biggest break through was when Towanda was having one of his extreme loud, pointless and irritating tantrums, these happen quite frequently, I think Andres had been given the wrong plate at lunchtime and had towandas not andres’s fault at all but to Towanda threw his tantrum and I had a headache at the time and no one was stopping him so I just picked him up and dumped him on top of the biggest pile of bricks and walked off Towanda suddenly stopped crying and looked round and found this to be highly amusing. This has no resulted in being called the Sam technique and also resulted in an endless tiresome game where all 3 kids like to be swung round and put on the brick pile and they still haven’t got bored of this game but doesn’t work when Crispin does it has to be me.
Monday 11th august
I laid the first brick on my house, tomorrow I might lay the second
We did a good full days work on the house although we didn’t start actually building until lunchtime because finishing off the last of the clearing and setting up string lines and measuring things that needed measuring, but we’ve started and that’s the main thing, people are quite impressed im doing it myself and have offered to help me for free, Crispin’s helping me, Aubrey’s and chiqwonde, and a builder from the village is offering his services for free its amazing everyone’s pitching together to help me build. Wow actually I cant believe im building myself a house haha this is awesome bet it falls down on me. Though its not easy the bricks are all different shapes and sizes and break up in your hands and things live in the sand and crawl out the mortar leaving holes in your wall.
Tuesday 12th august
Where’s B&Q? cant find it
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM
Cant believe I remembered this is a serious break through don’t you think adam?
Though couldn’t remember his age il work on it, was actually sitting in my house when I phoned him, well I call it a house its only got corners a few courses high at the moment so everyone working on the house sang happy birthday down the phone their idea not mine. But serious now quick message to Adam.
PRACTICE THAT BLOODY GUITAR THAT’S WHY I BROUGHT IT FOR YOU.
You gotta practice it dude seriously because im not having my brother musically illiterate. And not enjoying music, im not there to nag you, but I am giving the task to anyone he reads this blog, actually does any read this thing? Anyway giving the job to everyone to get Adam to learn the basics on his bass guitar because as soon as you pass the hard initial learning process you will find you will really enjoy playing it. But the first bits going to be really hard. Okay parental role nagging session over back to malawi. For those who don’t know that’s where I am. Work came to an abrupt end today as we ran out of sand, in malawi when you run out of something you cant just jump in your car and get it in 10 minutes. One we don’t have a car to jump into. And 2 there’s no bloody B&Q around here. When I said this to shy he didn’t understand it as a joke and when I told him what B&Q was he just looked at me weird. So we had to walk to find some sand and seeing as there’s no B&Q, sand is retrieved from the river and then dried in the sun, so we had to find someone that had been working a section of the river, 3 hours of walking later we found someone who had sand for sale. 3 hours of walking it was nakering especially after working the other half of the day since 6. now all we need is a pickup to get the sand to Makwawa. Like I said sand doesn’t come in little bags from B&Q
Wednesday 13th august
Kazoos and front flips
Today we had a day off because of lack of sand and we lazed around singing and chatting, I gave the children a present each which I think has resulted their mum hating me, this is because I gave them each a kazoo, and since then they haven’t put them down when there’s silence or during a conversation with someone else infact they play these kazoos nice and loud and will not stop. Crispin also decided to try and teach me how to do front flips which resulted in a lot of cuts and bruises.
lol, will get Joshua to keep on at Adam about learning guitar, also I know how them mothers feel when u give gifts out to thier children! Oh um going back to the kicking of the bus to get it started, at least they don’t throw computers out windows to see what happens to them lol
Take care sweetie
hugs x x
Debbie - 14 08 08 - 15:59
send pictures of your house when finished we all miss you from cubs
cubs tonight wat shall i do ?
lyn () - 26 08 08 - 21:36
