A Change in the Weather

 Its now quite warm during the day, but not as hot or sticky as it was when we first arrived in January. At night the temperature is a constant 75 degrees, so we put a sheet and one or two blankets on the bed.

Sometimes, in the morning, there is a mist which lifts by 7.00 am or so. In a few weeks time the mist will become quite thick and may last for days. Its brought by the Chiperoni, a wind that blows from the Perone mountains on the border with Mozambique (if I've got that right)! So that'll be the time for wood fires in the lounge at night.

With the hot, rainy season over, we're now growing the vegetables which prefer the cooler weather. The carrots are coming along nicely; between planting and harvesting is only a few weeks; and the lettuce are enormous with one keeping us going for a few days. Janet has boiled our first beetroot and all but one are sitting in the deep freeze until we need them.

Some of our full-cream milk from the Satemwa Tea Estate near Thyolo (pronounced Chola) went off last week, so Janet read up how to convert it into cream cheese. Well, it tastes like a cross between brie and gorgonzola! A very powerful cross indeed. I'm the only person who will eat it in this household!

Because it is Easter and the boys are on holiday, we borrowed a couple of videos from the British Council library in Blantyre, one of them containing "Hancock's Half Hour" as put out by BBC television many years ago. We were surprised how much the boys enjoyed the three half-hour programs. I thought they would not understand the humour. If they didn't, they laughed all the way through anyway.

This morning I went back with Alan Turnbull to the church at Goliati we had visited the previous week, to take bibles and Christian books that Alan had promised to them. We didn't stay for the meeting which was in Chichewa but came straight home again.

We really enjoyed our visit last Friday to Likabula pools on Mulanje. The 10,000 foot mountain rises straight out of a plain lying at about 3,000 feet and is very impressive. The pools themselves are basins a little way up the mountainside that have been scooped out of the rock, one cascading into the next, fed by a cold stream that comes down from the mountain. We took a picnic and some iced drinks and were there for a few hours. The boys enjoyed it immensely. It was like bathing in one of the Dartmoor rivers on a warm summer's day.

Visiting the Customs, and Easter

Yesterday I returned to Customs House in Blantyre to pursue my long-running application to import our Nissan Bluebird at the concessionary rate of 15% normally allowed to church groups, instead of the normal rate of nearer 100%.

It had all been agreed with Customs during my visit a few days ago, but via a phone call to me that afternoon they reversed their decision on pressure from higher up.

Well today, they arranged for me to see the highest official in Blantyre, the Controller of Customs who has a large office in Plantation House in central Blantyre.

He was very courteous, as high-ranking officers are, and after very few words agreed to pass my letter to the Minister for Finance in Capital City, Lilongwe for his decision. In essence, if I associated closely with a denomination here, which would mean that I would have to give my time 100% to their churches, I could pay the lower rate of duty. But working inter-denominationally I do not appear to qualify, although doing the same things, but to my mind in a potentially more productive way.

We were not able to go ahead with plans to go to Nsanje in the far south of the country for the Easter Convention of the Independent Assemblies of God because of the state of the roads after the rains. I also declined an invitation to go north-west to Mwanza to speak at the Easter convention of the Elim Pentecostal Church, because I feel it is still early days for me in Malawi.

But on Good Friday and Easter Saturday I went with Alan Turnbull to Chingazi Evangelical Brethren Church, where there is also a health centre, some distance to the south where Mr Monjeza, the pastor, was holding meetings over the weekend.

The platform at the front had a 4'6" wooden rail all the way round with five lecterns spaced around it, and a baptismal pool at one end so I felt very cut off from the people.

We were welcomed very warmly by all, but the singing was a bit laboured as though it was all a bit of a struggle.

On Easter Sunday we attended the opening of a new church building at Goliati (the Malawian form of Goliath), not far from Chingazi and Alan spoke very clearly and well at the meeting that followed. They had people present from many places in Malawi, from the far north down to Mozambique, and the singing was very lively.

Nedson Milanzi, the leader hopes that his facilities will develop into a teaching centre for the area. I was invited to speak at the afternoon meeting and found it very hard going. But about 10 people came forward for salvation so perhaps God was able to apply what was said. I've started to film some of the proceedings, and hope eventually to produce a video for information.

The boys are on holiday from school, enjoying having free time and riding round the garden on Tim's bike - we still have not found the pump connector to pump up Ben's tyres!

Our dawg, Cara, has almost given up savaging the staff, saving her fiercest attentions for unsuspecting visitors.

We're intending to go to Mount Mulanje (10,000 ft) tomorrow to visit Likabula pools, where we can swim (if we dare) in the ice-cold streams coming down from the mountain.

Miles and Liz Thomas have taken their family to Lake Malawi for a few days break, but it’s generally a bit hot there and we're still acclimatising.

A dawg, a visit and St Andrews

We now have a dawg! I never thought the day would come that a dawg would cross the portals of my house!

Well, the truth is that it’s warm enough for the hound to live outside. And that's what she is doing. She is a beauty; a cross between a ridge-back and a who knows what, a very common breed around here.

We collected her from Mrs Fry's kennels at Ginnery Corner in Blantyre. Mrs Fry is an institution around these parts; what she doesn't know about dawgs isn't worth knowing. The dawg's name is Cara, the name she had before she came to us. She is very affectionate to Janet, myself and the boys.

But the chaps who work around the bungalow have to have a good turn of speed until she gets used to them. I have never seen Alfred move so fast as he did this morning when he tried to come in through the back door. She growled, and he disappeared round the corner of the house as though his life depended on it. I think we have a good watch-dog.

At present she lives on nsima (maize porridge) with chunks of meat and the odd avocado. We keep her chained up for some of the day, but let her off when we can watch her. Apart from the risk of her attacking people we don't want her to run out onto the road we front onto.

On Sunday I went the sixty or so miles up to Balaka with Binson Musongole, a Malawian pastor, and his wife, to be present at a large meeting he had arranged by letter with churches in the area.

When we arrived no-one met us and the venue for the meeting was deserted. We discovered that the letters had not arrived - a common problem in Africa. But the visit was not wasted. We visited two small meetings, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and there was opportunity to speak at both.

We were received very warmly, and I feel that the Lord provided the subjects on which to speak.

On the way back Binson collected two sacks of charcoal from sellers by the side of the road; it's cheaper there than in Blantyre; and a few giant melons.

Janet went along to St Andrews Secondary School where Tim will start in September. The school is British system with all-British teachers! and the headmaster describes it as Christian. Facilities are very good with excellent sports grounds and a near-Olympic swimming pool. It used to be the colonial school, and much resource has gone into it. The government have recognised its excellence, left it alone, and many Malawians benefit from going to it. Tim will enjoy it.

Grasshoppers, funerals and neighbours

We visited Phoenix school last evening to see Ben in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. Ben was cast as a boiled sweet! It was very well done with excellent music, and we enjoyed it along with another 200 ex-pats and Malawians who were also there to see it that night.

We were told that the previous night shooting had been heard in Blantyre. Apparently many people had come into Blantyre after dark to gather the big grasshoppers that were swarming through, coating buildings in the town centre with moving green carpets. They fry them; they're fatter and tastier than the big ants they also eat.

The police were scared that there might be a riot because of the numbers, so they fired into the air to disperse the crowds. No one was hurt. Of course, you will not read about it in the newspaper.

One of our Malawian friends has gone today to a funeral. Funerals are very common; sometimes people will be going to one every two weeks. He told me what had happened: his little niece was very ill and he mentioned to the parents that they should take her to see the doctor. I think they did on one occasion. But they also called in the traditional healer, a nice name for the local witch doctor. He will have mixed up potions from this and that with a bit of dirt thrown in, and leaped about muttering prayers and charging a fair bit for his services.

When the little girl refused all food or water, even when pushed between her teeth our friend, who is a Christian, insisted that they should see the doctor again, but they resented his 'interference'. They despise 'this English medicine'; "Our medicine is better!" they say. So after 4 days of no food or water, the little girl died. It is quite normal to put off seeking medical help until the time has passed that anything can be done. These people that live in great darkness are in great need.

Today we have met Ella Kamwana, the wife of the deceased Malawi Chief of Police. When we arrived home yesterday for lunch, her gardeners had just begun to cut down the ornamental trees that go around the edge of our garden adjacent to her boundary. They had panga'd about 30 feet of trees along our drive when I told them to stop! I think they were a bit surprised.

Anyway, I went to see her this morning after taking the boys to school and spent a pleasant hour walking around our garden with her and introducing Janet to her. She had not seen the boundary from our side and agreed not to cut any more trees down. For our part, we need to trim them so she gets more light.

She'd been told that the trees harboured snakes which then come into her house, but we feel that snakes come here because they like the climate in Bvumbwe, which, at 3,500 feet above sea level is comparatively wet.