Health check!

Wow, you are getting 2 entries in one week!! Again a short one but here goes!

Since we are in Lilongwe for a few extra days we decided to get odd jobs done. I needed 3 boosters and I had a slight sore tooth occasionally when eating. So booked appointments with the dentist and the doctor.

Firstly one of the jabs that I needed wasn't stocked by the doctor that VSO uses but I had arranged to collect it from the Brittish High Commission. I arrived there and they had also ran out of the vacine and had given my one away to someone else! Great. So we went on a wild goose chase to get the jab from another private clinc in the capital. Thankfully he had some and I got the jab at his clinic.

Next day it was the dentis just to see if a filling was maybe loose. I tried to explain that I wans't in pain etc ect and I just wanted it checked. After banging about for a while in my mouth the dentist declared that I needed root canal treatment on my tooth and she would do it now but I'd need to come back in 2 weeks for a follow up! I literally took off the bid, grabbed my bag and ran saying that I was too busy at the moment. She offered me mediation for the pain - what pain!!!

Back to the doctors (it is in the same building as the dentists!) an hour later but they had ran out of the rabies jag. I managed to get the other one but am still waiting for the rabise one. Hopefully I can get it back in Rumphi as there are several wild dogs running a riot in the area!!!!

So in actual fact I think we did quite well in terms of Malawi - but no way and I getting root canal treatment at this time!!!!

Hope you are all well and healthy!!

Caz xx

Just a quick one!!

Hello all, this is just a quick entry as I am in Lilongwe and can't use my pen drive due to picking up virus's on it!

Here is my instructions for buying a bike in Malawi!!

1 Get the money ready
2 Go to the street seller who is selling bikes
3 Select a bike
4 Pay for the bike
5 Take your beautiful new bike to the shop next door to get it fixed!!!!
6 They will take it appart and fix it an put it all back together again
7 Pay them
8 Cycle your bike away and hope for the best!!!!

This is how things work in Malawi!! I had to do this when I bought my night watchman a new bike.

Hope all is well, thanks for all the letters that are coming though now. I am trying to reply.....

Caz xx

Things to report

Nothing much exciting has happened these few weeks so this will be a short entry! We have been busy with several activities to keep us amused.

Things to report are:

• I am still waiting for my furniture to be made by the local carpenter – he assures me he has the material and is starting tomorrow! ‘Tomorrow’ is a very common phrase in Malawi!

• I think I now also have mice to add to the wildlife living in my garden. I bought rat poison to put down and it bizarrely comes in wedges like cheese – only bright pink. Perhaps they think that because mice like to eat cheese they will be tempted with this look a like cheese. Maybe mice are colour blind and will really think it is cheese! Let’s hope it works!

• On the wildlife note – I also think I have bedbugs in my mattress. Everyday I wake up with more bites so I am constantly spraying the bed. Apparently they will die if I put the mattress outside for a few days in the sun. Lets hope the tumba flies don’t decide to lay their eggs on the mattress!!!

• I am heading down to Lilongwe soon for an educational workshop with all the other Education volunteers. Looking forward to catching up with everyone again. Having to get money sent from home in preparation for the shopping in Lilongwe!

• That really is all I can think of writing at the moment. Hopefully I will have a few more tales to tell soon.

• In Malawi there is no really difference with using masculine and feminine in speech so my night watch man is constantly calling me ‘sir’. It’s also very funny when a Malawian is talking about a woman doing something and suddenly they change in to a ‘he’ then back into a ‘she’ again!!

Hope all is well.

Caro (as I am called in Africa!!!!)

Moving into my house!

Well I have been in Malawi for over 3 months and I have finally moved into my new house. It is a nice abode with two-tone paint – blue on the bottom half and cream on the top – I am officially living in a fish tank (I even bought material with fishes all over it for my curtains!!). My house is very hot during the day as I have a tin roof – like most houses in Malawi but I don’t have a ceiling as the roof it to low. The first thing I bought was a fan!

I also bought some plain material to drape across the roof to sort of act as a ceilingish! My DIY skills were very impressive with a hammer and a few nails and balancing on a chest of drawers. Don’t worry I had a chair to stand on when climbing down. Safety first of course. Unfortunately, I forgot that the chair was made in Malawi and on my way down I put my foot on the chair and it went straight though!! I went flying onto the bed, floor and my new fan which cracked – fortunately it was also made in Malawi and so poorly made that it survived the fall and still works – just at a slightly odd angle!! A week later and I still have yellow bruises all down my leg and ankle!

Wildlife

I also had a plague of ants roaming about the house! There are so many sprays on the market that I had great fun ‘dooming’ them all!! Thankfully most are just little but still pretty annoying. My house also had few other nests. Malawi has these weird black bee/dragonfly type creatures that hover about. The make little nests out of dirt. Of course I had one inside the house and their main nest (like wasps) outside on the roof! I of course got stung by one on the arm – my god it was painful, quite like having an injection permanently for half an hour. Thankfully some kids must have seem me get attacked and when I came back from work they had knocked it down with maize stalks. My night watch man also removed the inside nest with a broom. It was full of huge maggots!

I have also had a few cockroaches lying about – they are really awful, pointless creatures who wake me up in the night with their scuffling!

I also have a lack of furniture. I was supposed to get furniture from the previous education volunteer as we are funded by DFID so they provide furniture. He left last September and another non-funded volunteer moved into his house with the agreement that I would get the furniture when I arrived. Of course no one actually made note of what was DFID furniture so all I got was a bed, a few chairs (yes the ones that you can’t actually sit on for fear of falling through them), a table and one bit of a sofa set, oh not forgetting the chest of drawers. Thankfully Sue has lent me some of her garden furniture until I get some made! Cardboard boxes also make great tables when turned upside down and covered with material.

I had fun decorating my house with photos from home, cards that people have sent me and stuff from Malawi – yes I am still spending like there is no tomorrow and I will never survive on the volunteer wage alone!!! I suppose I did splash out on an oven with was a weeks allowance worth!! Totally worth it to bake, then burn cakes!!! Apart from cakes I am actually making a few good things, like fajhitas totally from scratch, lots of pasta and of course every dish has to have tomatoes in it – they are really cheap and then most available thing along with onions!! I manage to stock up on essentials like cheese and chocolate when we go to Mzuzu – but prezzies through the post are most welcome. They seem to arrive ok, especially if they are sent recorded or have ‘Jesus is love’ etc all over them!!

Anyway – busy week this week – with computer training and exchange visits I am finally doing some good work!!

Caz xx