(( i no longer want 3 dogs ))
08 September 08 - 08:28
After 2 days of struggling to get peter into the office to work on the website on Thursday I finally succeeded. We made a time for meeting of 9-00 knowing full well he probably wouldn’t turn up until 10-00 at 10-30 he finally showed, but now I had peter in the office, I didn’t have the website editor here, ahhhh this makes doing my job so much harder. I was only meant to be here for a week and now its Thursday and we only just got started oh well life goes on.
So the dogs have taken to me very quickly and I have finally decided to my quest to get a third dog in the household back home was probably not one of my wisest missions. Because when I come home from work tiny leaps into my arms so she takes up both hands and then pups comes crashing into my legs and tries to climb up them and scraps is doing slalom around my legs then old timer the big daddy dog comes up for a chart as well so most of the time I end up on the floor with tiny sitting on top of me licking face thoroughly pleased with herself while puppy attempts to remove my shoes.
Saturday john ( he also works at the magazine) said he take me out and show me around Blantyre I presumed this meant look at the shops showing me the tourist attractions, but no he meant showing me the local watering holes, which was fine by me, first we went to Casablanca where I met one of the locals who had been to de Montfort uni woah again small world or what. So anyway we had a few drinks there, then we went to have lunch at doogles lodge and stayed there until about 6, had quite a few more drinks and played some pool, we then went to the blue diamond and had a lot more drinks and it is owned and run by a Chinese family so we attempted to learn Chinese and surprisingly I think I can remember some of it. Ni Hoa – how are you
Wo hen hoa – I am fine
I think
I don’t know its something like that
What I think surprises me most and shocks me the most about Malawi is the extremities between, rich and poor and the close proximity in which they live next to each other, you could be driving down a street with huge houses surrounded by electric fences with satellite dishes and perfectly manicured gardens, huge shiny brand new cars in the drive way and turn down the next street and its just wooden shacks, half collapsed buildings, road gives away to dirt tracks covered in pot holes and strewn with litter, street sellers and beggars line the streets while every so often there is a group of people huddled around a fire cooking there dinner in the street, children with clothes that are either to big or too small ripped and shredded just hanging off them wander the streets looking for food of money. Its that kind of extremities that shock me
Actually I am not even sure its that, that shocks me it’s the readiness that they invite you into there home, if you let them they’d give you there last piece of food, and a lot of the time they don’t want anything in return they are just happy to talk to you, you can usually tell which people talk to you because they want money and which people talk to you because they genuinely want to be your friend.
Take coconut and George my friends in Lilongwe, I met them because they were street sellers trying to sell me some jewellery I said no but I took there phone number and they took mine and we had a quick chat met up with them a few times on my visits to Lilongwe, they invited me to there house and we chatted and as I was leaving they asked me to buy some jewellery from them I didn’t have much money on me but I did to repay the hospitality they walked me back into town and on the way the spent most of the money I had just given them on me they brought me drinks and food I kept telling them not to but they were like no no we insist. Then I went round theirs for dinner the next time I was in Lilongwe and went out for drinks and I tried to pay for things and again they wouldn’t let me they just wanted my company I mean they don’t earn much and im staying at theirs next week instead of booking into a hotel.
