First Rain

So Lake of Stars was pretty intense and after we got home to Nsanje it all felt a bit slow. It was also ridiculously hot but we have now been teaching for a little while and are having an incredible time. All the kids are really lovely and quite well behaved which is nice! They're all really curious about us and love to chat. We have refused to tell them our ages though because my students vary in age from 14 to 21 and I don't really want to tell them that I am younger than some of my students!

We have also started up a couple of drama groups with some of the youth in the surrounding villages which is really exciting although very few of them speak english and some of the activities have been very difficult to explain! We are getting there gradually though, and our first drama session at the school went significantly better because most of them speak pretty good english.
We're hoping to put on a play at some point which should be really exciting and I will definitely let you all know how that goes!

The first rain arrived on Wednesday which was incredible. Lots of thunder and lightning and rain pounding on our tin roof. Luckily our bedroom is pretty waterproof but the room where Geoffrey sleeps is a little bit leaky! It hasn't been a big problem so far though - it was even cloudy this morning and pretty cool although at the moment the sun is blazing and it's pretty warm.

We have been meeting loads of people over the past week or so - especially the other foreigners which is often rather nice because they have quite luxurious houses complete with sofas, fridges and TVs! Sofas have been sorely missed so the occasional comfy seat is definitely a welcome break from sitting on our veranda. Visiting other people also makes our diet a bit more varied with a bit more exotic things like pasta! (spaghetti is available here but is so much more expensive than rice!) We have also discovered all the different biscuits Nsanje has to offer, as well as 'Puffs' which taste like Tesco Value Cheese ouff crisp things but even cheaper. They come in mammoth bags and we haven't even made it through one packet yet, but it is nice to have some food that doesn't go mouldy.

Everything's going pretty well at the moment, we're just hoping that we don't have any rain-related disasters in the near future. I haven't managed to fall over properly yet but I am sure it's only a matter of time. I am ridiculously clumsy (I'm not really sure if I have always been this accident prone, or whether it's just in Malawi) and Nancy is just waiting for the first spectacular mud fall! Apparently everything will start to grow soon so we'll have some proper grass which will be very nice.

I'm sure you're all getting some rain back in the UK although I can't imagine it's on the same scale as Malawian rain!

Lots of love to everyone, it's so nice to read all your comments - do keep them coming!
Chloe xxxxxx