3 Months left to go.

Been quite while since I last updated my blog in January.

Mainly because there has not been much new to say.

Work has been busy as we have our database at a level where we have made it Live. So that if anybody updates it that will remain there.

Still a lot of work to do on it mainly getting the Hospital to update and correct data.

We have held two educations session having two HR officers coming in from each of the 32 Hospitals

One of the biggest problems is that many of the Hospital don't have Internet access. Even in the Ministry building where we work, it's intermittent.

Either they have not paid their bill so is cut off or the provider has problems.

We now plan to visit the hospitals individually to make sure there updating the system.

New housemate and old housemate with Diana

Herman's Box - Give away time

Diana with the Baobab Kids - Cape Maclear

A Rock pool in Mulanje with Dom

Dominique has just been over again in April for two weeks and had another very intense schedule.

We camped for two nights in Liwonde Park on the river Shire, did a game drive and saw hundred elephants in herds of 20, great sights.

Then a trip on the river with loads of hippos and many birds.

Then we went South to Phaolmbe for the night and stayed with Beth/Beck/Jo for the night on the way to Mulanje ( a mountain range unto 3000m) and met up with one of the other VSO girls Katherine who had two friends visiting. So the five of had 3 days trekking and staying in mountain huts for the nights. Long days walking up steep terrain but then stopping at pools to have a swim and cool down.

After this we went North to Nkhata Bay for a few nights to relax on the Lake side.

Liwonde with Dom

Back in April I entered a Sprint Triathlon with 50+ other soles. It consists of a 750m swim( (30 lengths) , 20km cycle ride and finally a 5km run.

I came 3rd in the over 40 group and 9th overall which I thought was good for my first attempt specially, as I was riding an old mountain bike and the people who had better times than me were mostly on road bikes.

Having such a bad bike it forced me into buying a new bike.

Coffee and Sugar (Yes correct names) in the Living Room Cafe

So a few weeks ago I came back to England and brought a new one which I have brought back to Malawi, so nice to have a bike that changes gears and working brakes. Had a great ride last Sunday 47km of back tracks with 5 others.

Coming to buy the bike was not the main reason in coming back to the UK.

The tenant renting our cottage gave notice and moved out on the 19th May so we decided to have another go at selling the cottage.

So I spent a week tiding up the garden after the winter with everything growing mad and to paint many of the rooms in the cottage to give them a fresh look.

As such no offers.

Now have 3 months left before I finish and come back to the UK in late October.

Not looking forward to the cold damp weather.

Regards

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New year everybody hope you all had a good time and  have exciting plans for 2014.

Since my last blog not really travelled Malawi at all, mostly life has been around Lilongwe.

Most notable…

Goat Races…No horse racing here in Malawi, in fact very rare to see a house!

However some enterprising people organise a day of Goat Racing. Well a dozen goats in colours enticed to move around an enclosed track.

Lots on high level betting for this fast action sport ( or not).  Drinking was much faster. 

But you still had to chose an in-form Goat, studying the race papers for their form.

Well they kept changing the colours (number) on each goat for each race, goats look the same so trying to be clever you had no chance.

Great day, we were all asked to dress up smart, so some good photos.

US Thanksgiving Day.. There are quite a few US organisation out here and like all US citizens had to celebrate this day and take it off.

One of the US Peace Corp guys invited us to his place where a team of Americans contributed the full works...food of course traditional thanksgiving fair.

We were all well stuffed and educated in their cuisine for this day.

Volunteers Day… Once a year around the world there is a day when volunteer organisation get together and work on a project in their area.

For us in Malawi around 100 volunteers  from a mixture of multi nation organisations went to a remote village about one hour from Lilongwe.

We set about multiple tasks. Opticians set about testing eyes of anybody who wanted it and gave out glasses (These are the unwanted ones collected in Western Countries).

These people never see opticians and is a revelation when they put on glasses and can see.  Doctors treated people who need it, its quite ofter a long way to get to a health centre where they can only see a Health Technician ( a position between a Doctor and Nurse) so to see well qualified Western Doctor or Consultant who can give correct treatment on the spot or give them referral  to go to the correct treatment centre.

The rest of us set about painting the school rooms or planting 100s of trees. Trees are very important as in most places they have all been cut down for firewood.

This leaves the land bare , open to all the  elements and lacking the photosynthesis, so land becomes very poor.

The trees/bushes are fast growing and not that suitable for fire wood so hopefully will not get cut down when a suitable size.

When we were planting there was no water available so the little 20cm plants went into dry soil. The rainy season was just about to start but it hadn't and did not rain that day.

The next day it did rain so hopefully the wicked high summer sun had not killed them off before it came.

Recital at the US Ambassadors Residence.

One of my friends Kristien who I met running and has lived in Malawi for 18 years had been asked by the US Ambassador to jointly organise and play in a Musicale evening.

Though her I was invited with 200 other guesses to an evening of recitals by around 6 local/visiting amateur performers.

So it was loverly to visit the US Ambassador house , meet and talk with her, very lovely lady.

The recital were all very interesting.

Being in the house and gardens it was all decorated for Christmas, so felt for once like Christmas.

Elsewhere in Lilongwe difficult to believe it was December with it days away.

We did have a few Christmas parties with different customs where we had games, regarding presents… Namely  Dutch style and American.

For Christmas/New Year the Ministry of Health closed down for 3 weeks. So I took off to Cape Town.

Had 4 days in the Backpacker streets of Kloof and Long Street where there are loads of Cafes/Bars, shops with there colourful iron balconies.

For thous who have not been to Cape Town, besides Table Top mountain, the centre and surrounding bays and beaches are immaculate. The roads, pavements, buildings are all well kept, new and old with designer houses everywhere.

Then you have the Waterfront with it's Boats, smart bars,  restaurants and large shopping centre.

Might sound strange for a man to say this but I was in need of some retail therapy. After 14 months of virtually no shopping in Malawi I was in need of buying some clothes.

So having shopped, Climbed Table Top and eat some good food I joined a group of 9 for 12 days, to cycle around the wine region and then down to the garden route along the coast and back to Cape town.

This is a stunning part of the world. The mountains mixed with the colourful wine fields, tasted loads of local wines. We stayed in 3* B&B's these were like the rest of the area stunningly well kept and furnished.

Down to the coast beautiful white sands with 2m waves crashing down in the bays between the mountains cascading along the coastline.

Some super towns on the coast like Hermanus, competes with places on the French Riviera.

Our biggest problem cycling was the strong wind, bad for the first few days when were had it in our face but rest of the time it was behind us. In all we covered around 600k.

With several tough switchback climbs over the mountains. 

We got back to Cape Town on new years eve and enjoyed celebrations than evening there.

Arrived back in Lilongwe on the 2nd to the pot holes, women carrying children on their backs, bikes everywhere…."Welcome back to Malawi".

Work begins again on Monday…Should start a new phase in February where we will be visiting all 32 Hospitals in Malawi, training them on the Database we have developed.

This will last 3-4 months, so will be on the road non stop, this will be exhausting.  It will be interesting getting out to all the remote areas but I expect to miss my weekly social life within Lilongwe.

Dominique plans to come out in April for 2 weeks again, so really looking forward to her arrival.

All the best to everybody for this new year.

Robin

 ps… missing a good bottle of French/Spanish/Italian wine.

Trip to Ethiopia Nov 2013

Blog Update 17 th November

Sorry my blogs may sound a bit same-me as most activities are very much the same as I have already covered in previous blogs.

Work as mentioned in last blog has now picked up and fully occupied each day. 

I normally start at about 7.45,  hardly anybody in the Ministry,  by 9 it has filled up.

Lunch now days is a sandwich as there was a canteen for all the ministries but this closed down without notice 3 months ago.

Some days we will go out,  but on our total allowance of about £4 a day and with the cheapest meals costing about £2 we cannot afford to eat out much.

So we try to go the the outside canteen area and sit there to eat what we have brought in. We take about 30 mins.

Then we normally leave around 16:00 with most of the other workers.

So the working day compared to what were used in the UK is quite short.

We have now started working in 3 Pilots sites so two mornings a week I  work at Lilongwe Hospital so it's nice to be out at a different location.

The people are far more friendly there, but their work ethic and accountability is totally bewilderingly bad.

Biggest problem for us is that there HR department had only one working computer when we got there , now two. but only one mouse.

However they have no internet in there building so we have had to provide a dongle as the database in Internet based. Speed on the dongle is snail pace.

So  big challenges.

I just had a 2 week holiday and went to Ethiopia trekking. I joined up with the UK Adventure/Trekking firm 'Explore' in Addis.

From Addis we flew north to Gondor where we saw a few ruins before driving 2 hours further north to the foothills of the Simian Mountain Range.

This is a huge Mountain range that covers most of  North Ethiopia we started at about 2000m high raising to 4500m.

After being dropped off we had 11 days trekking trough the valleys and on to the top of many escarpments where you had over 1500m shear drops spectacular views, very difficult to capture the size of this landscape but hopefully you will get an idea from the pictures. Half way though we trekked and scrambled the last part to the top of the highest peak at 4500m a 12 hour long hard day.

What surprised me was that at over 3500m there was a lot of Cereal crops Wheat/Barley and two other plus loads of cows, sheep and a few goats eating the meadow grass.

Most countries over 3000m its just glacial rocks.

There were a few villages about or really hamlets of people there were no shops.

Construction of their houses were spliced wood on a frame with mixture of mud and straw to fill the gaps. However surprisingly for there roofing they had corrugated tin.

Inside they would live with their animals and have stilts with straw bedding for them to sleep on. Very dirty smelly and dark.

We did get invited into a couple, one for coffee.

Coffee is a main export and a local pride.

She washed the beans and then roasted them on a metal plate over a wood fire. The beans were then bashed up in a pastel to give powder.

This was put in a pot with water and then poured, extra water can be added twice more so that you get three cups.

The first was very strong and not nice. by the third just about drinkable.

She was very proud of entertaining us so had to act that it was very nice.

Unfortunately for the adults and kids it is a very poor part of the country and most of the clothes they wore were literally rags and very dirty, in-fact if they washed them I would expect they may have fallen apart. This is very different to Malawi where the clothes are well worn but always clean. Women are always washing everywhere. I did not see a single Ethiopian woman washing!

The kids were very thin and always asked for food or a tee shirt. A bit surprising that they were hungry as you could see so much food about but obviously don't have enough to go around for the full year.

The trekking was tough, long walks each day 8 hours or more covering at least 1000m ascents and same decants each day, in the full sun and most of the time above 3000m. So with the decrease in the level of oxygen in the air you had to walk slower.

We were camping but had a mule train of about 9 mules to carry our packs, tents and cooking equipement. Also had a Cook and two assistants who would do the cooking and set up camp. We were always amazed by the meals we got each day, we had not been expecting much. But his meals were better than the ones we got in the hotels we had stayed in.

We had a spare mule that followed us for anybody who was tired or ill.  This was well used, always somebody would go down with a problem. Heat stoke/Altitude Sickness/Stomach complaint  being in the middle of the mountains there were no roads no mobile signal or any other communications so the only way forward was on a mule.

Because the terrain was very steep I could see it was no fun on the mule when doing the tricky parts. Fortunately I did not experience this.

During the day we just had the sun blaring down on us so the temperature would be in the low 20's. But as soon as the sun went it would drop to zero.

So we would eat about 18:30 with as many cloths on as possible. Then we would al be in bed by 20:00, snuggled up in our sleeping bags to get warm.

Loads of big birds about Eagles/Hawks also loads of gaboons sometimes these can be intimidating but these ones were very friendly as in that they ignored you and let you walk within a metre and not be bothered. The babies were always playing and rolling about. One was a showman kept climbing onto a rock about a metre high and do multiple backward summersaults, always crash landing.

Had a good time and as always with Explore a good crowd of people.

Now back to work and hopefully we can start rolling the database out to all the other Hospital soon.

I doubt if I will write another blog before Christmas so wishing you a good time.

Trekking Mulanje

Blog Update 26th Aug

For us it's still winter but warming up a bit at night only down to around 11c, remembering most houses have no heating so we all go around with fleeces on.

It's still mostly sunny during the day so temperature raises to around a pleasant 23c.

Work at last is beginning to happen. We arranged a day offsite meeting basically called 'make or bust'  with the Dept Director as we were getting very little traction with the Ministry. This has spurred them into interaction but for how long! But a least we now nearly have a database set up ready to get the HR analysts to work on and get there reactions so we can tune it.

Over the last few months have been able to get out on quite a few treks.

Within 1-2 hours drive of Lilongwe there are many good spots. Some are national parks some are just mounds of rock which just raise about 1000m from the floor level.

The biggest is Mount Mulanje this range just lifts itself from the floor of the valley at 800m with very steep side unto a plateau at around 2000m then you get several peaks upto 3000m which normally have hats  of cloud on them.

A small group of us went up at the beginning of March but being the rainy season ( very hot)  it was very dangerous be very slippery on the steep side plus streams in full flow and difficult to cross. This time we only got unto the plateau.

I went again in July which is dry season but cold. This time we made it to the top with the peak just above the cloud.

It was a tough 3 day trek and freezing at night.

Unless you know the range well you hire a guide as the tracks in place don't exist. Plus your scrambling up steep rock slabs, over and under big boulders.

At night you stay in the mountain huts these have fire places and can get a good fire going to cook your food on. I became a Mountain club member which gives me a key so have access to mattresses,  cooking utenciles and blankets which save you having to carry them in your backpack and makes life up there just a bit easier. Food you have to carry so have to carefully select what you want to eat. When your up for three days that's quite a lot of food you need to keep going. Water is easy your drink straight from the streams.

The climb is interesting as you start in a forest area, when wet is very tropical but as you get higher all the vegetation disappears but on route there are many plants and flowers. Lots of birds, there is other wildlife about as you see the tracks and poo's everywhere but never see them.

The one nice thing is loads of rock pools so when you need to cool off easy to find somewhere to have a very cold swim.

Unfortunately from the top we could not get the views across Mozambique to the Indian Ocean

At the top 3000m and just above the cloud level.

A bit hot walk though a mountain fire.

Our group at a hut we stayed in.

Just had a weekend down in Linwonde which is a wetlands park. Stayed on a boat for the night loads of Hippo's floating about. Herds of Elephants enjoying the water. Plus loads of birds big and small. And of course the croc's.

Life in Lilongwe is still very lively or I should say as lively as you want to make it.

Just started to play Ultimate Frisbee which is a team game running the length of a football pitch so very energetic on a Thursday and Sunday

Also had a few games of squash. Volleyball season starts again this month on Wednesday, everybody is missing this as it's very socialable and HASH running on Mondays.

The Living Room Cafe keeps us entertained, with film nights on Monday, Acoustic guitar Tuesdays, quiz's every few weeks on Thursdays and disco's later on in the evening late in the week. Lots of live music at Cameleons inside or sitting in the gardens. Plus several evening a week exchanging food at friends houses.

Time to post as it's time to eat.

End of the Rainy Season

Wed 22nd May

Well since my last Blog the rainy season finished around the end of April.

Not much has been said but I think the rainy season was long enough for most areas to have a reasonably successful Maize harvest.

The Maize is now drying out and being harvested with the land changing rapidly from a lush green to a dried out brown.

Amazing how rapidly it changes and cannot remember having any rain for at least 2 weeks now.

Maize is so important out here. It's the staple diet of everybody.

Everybody grows it,  not an inch of land is left untouched from growing it.

Within March and April many people had run out of their own stock and you could see there was hunger outside of the city.

The Government did give out maize handouts but the people will always complain it was not enough and too late. But now everybody is eating fresh maize.

The hunger was not the same as the stories you hear of sometimes in drought ridden countries like Sudan.

However some years when the rain fails in Malawi, then the Maize crops will fail,  then there is severe hunger as most people don't have money to buy food.

Within Lilongwe the handful of Supermarkets are always stocked up with food,  most comes up from South Africa and carries a premium price.

Outside of Lilongwe most villages don't have a store as we would expect but just a small brick hut selling very very few items.

Volunteers living in these villages have to rely on weekly/monthly shopping to bigger towns but not many of these about and can be a 3 hour journey.

When they do they cannot buy fresh meat to take back as it's too hot for their joined time, so they have to buy tinned meat/fish.

I think they have all learnt an art in how to survive with food shopping.

Of course in most villages you can buy live chickens and goats, just need to kill and prepare it or find somebody to do it.

At work on the 22nd April we had a Consultant over for two weeks from Tanzania to commission our database , make specific changes and to educate us.

However my daughter came over to start her two week holiday with me on the 27th so I had to miss the Consultants second week.

But we should be getting close to have a working system soon and so after a slow start to work in Malawi we have all been fully occupied for the last 2 months.

So my excitement was having Dominique over. Not to bore you with all the details we went to Zambia and the South Luangwa Park, 7 hours drive and had 3 nights and 2 days on Safari.

On her first full day we went for a day trip to the Lake at Senga Bay

Although out of season as the raining season was just ending all the grasses and plants were all green and at full hight. The watering holes away from the main fast flowing Luangwa River were still full so many Animals did not have to travel to the River yet for water..

Our breakfast table overlooking the river, if you look closely you can see hippo's and croc's.

This meant it was difficult to see many animals however there was excitement as when travelling around animal would suddenly appear out of the bush like Leopards and Lions.

In the end we saw many animals to many to list but all the big ones.

We stayed at a camp site on the banks of the Luangwa River 3-4m above the water where we could always see Hippo's and crocs.

When it became dark we were warned to watch out for Hippo's and Elephants as they frequently roam though the site.

On the first night about 5am I could hear very load munching noises I looked outside and could see the head of a Hippo 3 feet away happily eating the grass.

Dominique sleeped though it.

We returned to Lilongwe for a night and them went to Lake Malawi and Cape MaClear, its a beautiful spot with Hills surrounding the bay and a few islands.

We took a guide and climbed one of the hills set in there national park from the top had good views over the Cape. Then when we climbed down we ended on some large boulders in crystal clear water with loads of fish. We only had time for 2 nights.

Cape MaClear

Our next trip was to Tanzania so we headed back to Lilongwe and caught the evening coach to Dar es Salam. This is scheduled for 28hrs. 1500km.

The Coach was full and people standing, after 4 hours the bus stopped and picked up more passangers it was crammed. It was only 23:00 and they had to stand until the boarder arriving at 05:00. Not very nice. We eventually got to Dar at 02:00. 32hrs after getting on the coach. We had a few incidents getting ripped off exchanging money, taxi driver demanding money and the hotel releasing our room. But at 08:00 we were off again to catch the ferry to Zanzibar.

We had one night in Stone Town and two at the beach at the very northern point and had a wonderful time there. Fish was great.

Stone Town Zanzibar

Sadly time to go home. I had decided not to catch the bus back,  so I caught the same flight as Dom to Nairobi, where I would fly back to Lilongwe and Dom to London.

Took a Sail on a Dow to do some snorkelling by a coral reef..Zanzibar

So that ended both our holidays with Dom now thinking she might come back again next year.

Meanwhile back to work for me.

Most Volunteers get placements for 12 months so as time moves on people leave and arrive. I am now finding it a bit sad as after 7 months here I have made many friends but many have come to to the end of their placements and leaving back to there own Countries to find new jobs. It's all very sad but new people arrive and life goes on.

 I have been running with the local Hash Harriers ( a social running group) each Monday but recently joined a small group on Saturday mornings and doing 21k's i.e. 1/2 marathon.

This is really interesting as we get to run out of the city, down tracks and right into the countryside. Alway going though many brick/mud villages with lots of screaming kids.

There is a half marathon run at Lake Victoria which looks fantastic, so 3 of us are thinking of doing it. but it's a 2 day drive there and same back and our holidays are running short. So we will see. Aslo now found a group that goes walking/trekking at the weekends who appear to know the routes up the many mountain areas. Which is needed as there are no maps or signs, and GPS is no good as the signal always dies.

 Thats all for now if there is anything you would like me to write about let me know.

Robin

Music Scene

This month I though I would take you though the Music scene and one of the treks I did.

The Malawians love music, there is alway an african beat around.

Before the rainy season started, every Fri/Sat/Sun evening you can always hear a beat going on until at least 3 in the morning.

And sometimes it's so loud it sounds as if in your back garden.

The music is of a reggae origin and everybody knows Bob Marley which is played frequently.

There are many Malawan bands but the most famous are from Zambia or South Africa.

To get you in the swing try this youtube from Mampi…  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2udJCKv5X5A

In Lilongwe most weekends there will be an open air gig on with several bands playing. at a cost of £5-£10

Local to where I live we have a very nice bar with an open lawn and they have bands/singers on most weekend but only £2-£3.

It's run by a Scottish who also runs with me on Mondays with the Hash. He is also the leads singer of his own band and funnily enough he has just employed our own VSO Country Director as his rhythm guitarist.

The band is very good.

The Bars/Disc's in Lilongwe tend just to play local music all the time but the beat is good and you begin to feel it and you cannot help flow with it.

Down on the Lake where you think all the fun would be, it tends to be very quite. Plenty of people staying in each lodge but no one lodge get the action going. However once you do get a few in one bar people come off the beach and then things can happen.

Also at the lake each year except for last year they have a festival at the lake in September. This is supposed to be the biggest music event in Africa with loads of African bands, you cannot beat the settings for this. We await to go this September.

Down on the Lake where you think all the fun would be, it tends to be very quite. Plenty of people staying in each lodge but no one lodge get the action going. However once you do get a few in one bar people come off the beach and then things can happen.

Also at the lake each year except for last year they have a festival at the lake in September. This is supposed to be the biggest music event in Africa with loads of African bands, you cannot beat the settings for this. We await to go this September.

I have managed to find a group who go walking/trekking regularly.

It's very difficult normally as there are no maps or guides, but loads of Mountains to trek up.

So for the last bank holiday I joined up with 5 others and went to Mount Mulanje

As you can see from the picture it's a big lump of rock, however what you see is just a ridge. It goes up again a similar hight.

The Tea plantations are at 800m. The ridge you see is at 2200m, then the highest peak goes to 3006m all in the cloud.

The first day trek/scramble for 5 hours up one of those steep gullies ascending 1400m to get to the ridge. From there you view one of the massive plateau's. The lost valleys!

You then descend sharply by 300m to get onto it and trek for another hour before reaching our log hut. there are about 10 spread around the mountain range.

Fortunately 2 of the group belong to the Mountain Club so have a key to the room with mattruesses and cooking equipment.

There is no running water or electricity so a fire is lit in the fireplace so cooking cane be done. 

For sleeping most would take their mat outside.

Second day was going to be going to the top but every ware was covered in thick mist and pouring with rain so was declared far to dangerous to attempt due to the steepness of the track and the full flowing rivers.

So we just went for a 5 hour walk across the plateau. With a dip in one of the many pools.

Third day was desend day. Again it was wet from the day before and being very steep very careful treading.

Careful does it.

We finally got to the bottom but still had to cross the very swelled river.

Simple ...we were very hot and sweaty so we swan across.

Then our 5 hour drive back to Lilongwe.

So a very enjoyable long weekend even though we did not get to the top but I will be back in the season.

Yes the next day I was quite stiff.

On the work front, it's now all go.

So were now flat out, Judy and Cenk just joined the team.

So it's go go go go.

And now time for bed.

The Social Scene

The Social Scene.

Malawian Rift Valley, nice and green from all the rain, from half way up Chongoni.

6th Feb 2013

So what do we get up to in a normal week in our social time.

Well lets rule one thing out straight away if we could afford a TV, which we can't there is not much to watch except Football.

Besides nothing to watch if there was the chance of having a power cut in the evening is great.

It seems that most volunteers came out with a pack of DVD's and TV serials on there external hard drives so there is a lot of swopping.

Plus there are some cleaver guys who know how to download latest movies. The latest James Bond movie must be the top of the charts for coping this week. There is no Cinemas in Lilongwe and only one in Blantyre so we rely on DVD's and downloads.

The Social scene has a big variance depending on where you live City, Town or Village.

For those in towns there may be other volunteers and those in villages the chances are small so they have to live a very different life to me in the City. Then the facilities in the towns and villages will be very basic with very limited food available. This is their volunteer experience.

For the people in Lilongwe in comparison there is loads to do.

However there are no pubs… There are a handful of Bars mostly used by volunteers/Expats and locals who earn enough to afford to buy a drink.

Restaurants during the day there are loads but most are closed by 19:00, but only a few stay open to 21:00.

Most people finish work by 17:00 and the buses stop around 18:30 when it's dark.

The volunteers , expats and some local do create their own social events with the help of some bars which are normally run by expats.

So to give you an idea this is what I did last week…

Monday…  HASH, this is a running group we cover about 9 kilometres, some run shorter and some walk. It's very sociable with drinks afterwards.. also on Mondays a Bar called the Living Room has a film night. Not been yet.

Tuesday…  We cooked dinner for 8 people, some other vso volunteers were in town for a meeting so had them around… The Living Room has an acoustics night but didn't go this night. Previous weeks been very good, they have lots of sofa's to relax in and can order mexican wraps as there speciality for Tuesdays.

Wednesday.. Beach Volleyball match day… Good social event 4 matches played on each of the two courts lots of mingling and drinking.

Thursday.. Had Zoe and Hil around for a meal before going to a Bar called Diplomats to join in a Salsa lesson taught by their Canadian house mate Ashley. Then went onto another bar called Cameleons… They were having a Karaoke evening, everybody who sang was very good, fished at 1.

Friday… 8 of us went to an Ethiopian meal, very strange. The restaurant is in a house, in a fashionable area next to the US Ambassador's residence.

Seemed like we were in the staff part of the house. But had a good interesting meal but only one other couple in there. £6 for a large shared meal and couple of beers.

Saturday.. Early mooring there was a Live goat tied up outside Regie and Dens ( VSO's living next door).

Went wine tasting, well it's wine made out of various fruits. Mostly tasted like a Sherry.

Early afternoon arriving back the Whole Goat was on a big bamboo skewer being BBQ'd. They were having all their Phillipino friends over for a party later. The Goat had had it's neck cut and taken off by Michael one of the vso volunteers.

Myself, Herman and David (over for the weekend) went around early evening and had some very nice goat.

We had been invited to a Pool party by Swiv ( Norwegian) and Irene ( Danish) volleyball players.  Hannah who works for another org in the vso office also joined us.

We had been expecting a large party ( fairly normal on Sat night) but there was just them and us in a massive house.

We had a good drink, nibbles and conversation very interesting getting a Nordic view on life and interests in Malawi.

The pool was nice but went didn't go in, a few mosses about.

Sunday… Went to Hannah's house to try and fix some bikes so we could go for a ride, but not fixable. However with Annabel (housemate) we drove to a Dam about 40minutes drive away to check out a Sailing club. No action there, but was a lodge to hire and several old dingies and a couple of Toppers so might plan a group visit there and stay the night as the lodge sleeps 8. Nothing else there except the lake formed by the dam.

Loads of birds and strange noises, but were told no croc's

Looking back this seems a lot  but most volunteers live in small sparsely funished houses so nice to be out.

Otherwise both Cameleons and the living room have speciality nights with live music. Cameleons has a large garden with live bands on outside and inside. They also have a large projector and show sports events live. So all the football and last weekend the start of the Rugby.

Otherwise since my last blog, work is still at a standstill but we have a returned VSO program manager who is now about to put pressure on the minister to get him to action what he is supposed to do.

In Mid Jan we picked up a free offer of a days walk/climb up Chongoni Mountain about an hours drive away,. this was about a 600m trek up with some wonderful views down the rift valley. The company normally charges $70 for this trip so was a good freebie.

Lunch break at the top of Chongoni with Annabel,Zoe and Hilary

Last weekend there was 12 of us went to the Lake for the night and stayed in a lodge by a pottery close to Nkhotakhota.

The lodge had it's own very clean beach about 500m and then adjoined other beaches, very remote nothing else about.

The rain stayed away and we spent most of the time swimming, but no fish to see except the one the fishermen had caught.

The Pottery had a nice terrace restaurant serving a good mix of menus, but most of us had the fish. You cannot go to the lake and not have very fresh fish.

It is still the rainy season so most days we do have torrent rain outbreaks. Yes I know in the pics the sun seems to be out.  My skills with adobe  paint brush of course..

Well that's my update for the month.

Robin