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.