Been here a week!

Tiphedzane (the organization Nancy and I are working with) are currently using our house as their office as our living room, which stands at around 3x6m is so much bigger than their existing one. This means that we have the laptop here almost all the time, without internet of course but it means that we can draft up blog posts here and take our time before taking them to the internet café and hopefully just copy and pasting them! I think the other reason they’re keeping the laptop here is because we have a guard who sits outside all night. It’s quite weird but we definitely feel safer for it. I reckon even I could break down our door without much difficulty!
So anyway, to the blog!
I can’t believe we’ve been here a week. On one hand that has gone so fast but on the other everything here seems like normality already. Our sleep patterns are shifting – we get up around 6am when the cockerels start calling and everyone else gets up to draw water and go to school (which starts ay 6.30!) because it’s so much cooler then.
On Wednesday we went to the market to buy a few bits and pieces, some more storage, some sheets to go over us at night – it gets surprisingly chilly in the early hours of the morning, nothing to warrant a blanket but you need something to put over you. We finished shopping around 11am so the midday heat was practically upon us so we travelled home by what Mike referred to as ‘local transport’. These were push bikes with cushions on the back which you sat on, holding on under the seat of the rider. It was surprisingly stable and was much cooler and quicker than walking!
We did our first load of hand-washing our clothes which was surprisingly fun. It definitely takes a lot of time but is quite therapeutic and we gradually got the technique from Rose after much apparent hilarity as we did it all wrong. That afternoon we went to meet the chiefs which was a very surreal experience. The respect everyone shows them is something we definitely don’t have in the UK. When a chief stands up to talk everyone claps with their hands cupped as a sign of respect whereas normal people are clapped with flat hands. Lingstone translated and they were all incredibly welcoming, constantly referring to how grateful they were to have us and how much they had been praying for our journey. People’s faith here is so much a part of their lives and every meeting opens in prayer. It was an amazing experience to meet the chiefs, if a little strange in how they seemed to see us as somehow we would be of value because of where we were from and the fact that we’re ‘Mzungu’. We had the meeting under a huge tree which must be a hundred years old, it’s branches stretching far over towards the banks of the Shire river which suddenly changes the ground from brown to green, it’s truly beautiful. I will try and post a photo!
Thursday morning was dedicated to writing a proposal for Tiphedzane which went well but took so long. Everything takes longer here but so is the African way of life! We have a task every morning and every afternoon which is supposed to keep us frightfully busy but I’m fine with that! It allows us to spend time with the kids in the village and to chat to more of the locals who are always saying hi as they pass by our little house. Thursday afternoon was spent under the big tree again, this time meeting far more people to be introduced and then for Mike and Tiphedzane to do an activity tackling HIV/AIDS stigma. I thought it was really good, but strange as they used the kind of approach I would imagine to be relevant in a school rather than with a group of adults whose ages ranged from young to old. It seemed to be effective though and I think Tiphedzane are really achieving something in this community.
Friday was a very very exciting day. After two or three nights of Morris scurrying around in our bedroom we were starting to get paranoid before we even turned the light off. On Friday evening Mike arrived carrying a big sack, he said he had a present for us and the bag started squeaking as he handed it to us. Nancy and I are now the proud owners of a little ginger kitten called Geoffrey. I am trying to attach a picture so I hope it works! We thought it was a hilariously English name but today we were introduced to someone called Geoffrey…oh well.
We let Geoffrey out of the house for the first time today but he is rather pathetic and is currently sitting under my chair as I type, the front door is wide open but apparently it’s not the right time! Yesterday afternoon we went to watch a league football match between Nsanje and Zomba. Unfortunately we lost but it was definitely an experience. I personally can’t understand how anyone can exercise that much in the 3 o’clock heat of Nsanje but they played quite well and practically the whole town was crowded around the sidelines to watch. I think it was quite an official game but the pitch isn’t full size and people from the crowd kept running onto the pitch. Football is pretty huge in Malawi but Mike (our host) doesn’t really know much about it – we plan to teach him the offside rule at some point!
Yesterday was also our first experience of Malawian church. It was all very surreal as we were asked to sit up on the stage at the front of the church for the whole service which meant we had to pay full attention, despite not understanding a word of the sermon, other than the Bible verses mentioned – coincidentally those verses were that day’s reading for BIOY which was rather exciting . The service lasted pretty much 2 and a half hours but the majority of that time was worship, all a capella which sounded incredible. I don’t know how they manage the harmonies they do! Then three ‘choirs’ sand a few songs each. It was all gospel music but the ‘Hosea’ choir looked to Nancy and I like some kind of boyband, all between 18 and 25ish they were brilliant! Something I would imagine Simon Cowell would approve of should they wander into an X Factor audition.
Everything is so great here, we now have a bathroom, essentially a cubicle with a drainage hole but it makes washing a lot easier! Missing you all a bit but not much!
Lots of love to you all,
Chloe xxxxxxxxxxxxx