Hi again. Since I’m so behind on the blog, and there are interesting things happening, I’m going to post both older entries and newer entries in parallel, at the same time. At the moment it’s like reading a very old newspaper, and although this is always interesting for my dad, it does detract somewhat from the sense of what’s going on NOW. The topmost post on the blog (this one for the next few days) will point to any older posts which are newly published. So, in this case, there’s a new post for 7 October. I hope this doesn’t become as confusing as watching reruns of Friends.
May I also recommend the “tag cloud” in the right-hand column? It is a clever and simple idea. Each post is tagged by me with a few words which it relates to. If you then want to find all the posts related to a theme, you can click on the word in the cloud. Themes with more entries have bigger words.
Current news is that I have bought a motorbike today! The transport situation for the hospital is unreliable, to put it mildy, so I have been working on getting independent transport. VSO kindly allowed me to attend their motorbike training for volunteers who absolutely needed to ride a motorbike, and I am now the proud holder of a Malawian motorbike driving licence (also valid in South Africa). The motorbike is a slightly battered 2002 Honda 125cc off-road bike, but it goes well. I’m very pleased. And I’ll be very careful.
Also, I will be moving out of my current house and into a house with an Australian volunteer, Noel. Three people plonked together in a new and stressful environment, and having to work, live and socialise together, was never going to be easy, and I have opted to give myself and my colleagues some space. Fortunately though, we will still work and socialise together.
Also, I had been thinking of extending my placement here by a few months, as I am starting to find my way and understand what I can usefully do, after almost three months. I have been feeling more realistically positive about the rest of my time here, and really enjoying many aspects of being here. The University of Cape Town, however, have emailed me back today saying that I cannot delay my start date at all for next year. Although I was expecting this answer, I’m more disappointed about it than I thought I would be. Malawi is growing on me, evidently. But alas, I will be here only until the end of February ’09, as originally planned.
