Posts Tagged house

Weekend in Zomba

December 14, 2008 at 10:54 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , ,

It’s not often that I spend a weekend in Zomba. I’m very pleased that I’ve been away almost every weekend, and feel that I’m seeing a good deal of Malawi in the short time I’m here. That said, it has been good to spend the weekend here for a change.

This was our backyard last week after work one evening. The rains had cleared the air

This was our backyard last week one evening after work. The rains had cleared the air, and the scene was as crisp as a stage set. The warm evening light is fantastic - and I promise that I haven't touched this photo up at all (though it is a panorama). The mangoes on the tree on the right are practically glowing!

Backyard muddy river

Backyard muddy river

The rainy season is well under way. Almost each day there is a truly colossal downpour, preceded usually by gusts of wind and some impressive claps of thunder, as well as the traditional darkening of the sky. I will rely on these warning signs heavily when I’m biking, as it would be really stupid to be caught in such a downpour. Within a few minutes the roads flood, covered in muddy water which conceals all manner of treacherous potholes and cracks.

Saturday morning rains fill the gutters quickly

Saturday morning rains fill the gutters quickly


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Voices at midnight

December 3, 2008 at 9:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

No power last night, which is not unusual, but this time it didn’t come on at all from getting back from work to going to bed. We cooked on my gas and ate in the dark.

Went to bed at my usual too-late hour, woken at 00h30 by knocking on a window somewhere.

I’m disorientated, who’s window? Where’s the noise? Is it the guards telling me that the door is open? But why now so late? Something is different.

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I’m a psychiatrist, get me out of here!

September 30, 2008 at 11:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

Last night as the Zomba VSO crowd arrived for Cinema Matawale, Sarah asked what those black spots were moving around our backyard in the dark. With a naive curiosity I took out my torch and walked closer to have a look, and found that they were cockroaches, of all sizes but mainly very large. These ancient pests are also frequent visitors in the house, and fiendishly difficult to kill. Some are brown with garish yellow stripes across the back, pimped up for extra shock value. I must admit that they repulse me. The ants which swarm over our kitchen sink from time to time are for me much less bothersome, though they rile Steph, who has implemented a strict system of water filled plates into which we place potential ant attractors, out of temptation’s way. Of course, some of the ants do bite, and that’s unpleasant. A few times I’ve been washing dishes, suddenly interrupted by sharp pricks on my torso. Looking down I see the little buggers crawling up my shirt and down my pants. It can be much worse if we sit outside. If one is not weary outside one realises far too late, and jumps up at the first prick to find hundreds of ants on shirts, trousers, skin. (Most don’t bite, but enough do.)
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Home is where the bread is

September 25, 2008 at 7:55 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

This afternoon left work early to go into town for some essentials, like bread flour. The bread in the shops here is generally white and has a crumbly texture like cake, with no substance or flavour. I now understand the dismay of some Germans and Dutch when they come to the UK and can’t find the good quality bread they are accustomed to on the continent.
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Cinema Matawale

September 22, 2008 at 5:33 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

Various small retail triumphs today. After the morning’s induction – a very useful talk with Felix Kauye, the Chief Govermment Psychiatrist – we headed into town to do some shopping using Rob’s car. Rob comes in to Zomba from Blantyre every Monday and Tuesday, staying over in our large house, and while we are without transport his RAV-4 is a luxury. Found the local Carlsberg depot where one can buy a crate of 20 Carlsberg “greens” for K1470. That’s a mere 74 kwacha (30p or R4.60) per beer, including bottle deposit. I think we’re onto a winner there. Then into town, where I manage to find white bread flour – in 10kg sacks, for about the same price as the crate of beers! I’ll need to bake a loaf of bread in the little oven about every three days to get through that bag in four months. I am very pleased with this. Driving back to the house, Steph points out a small rattan couch being sold next to the road which she was quoted K3500 for. We stop and talk to the man who seems to be in charge of making them. This time, with more than one person showing interest, the price starts at K4500, but we rapidly bring him down, eventually negotiating two couches for K6000. Only one is ready now, and we’ll pick the other up tomorrow. That’s £24 for a very basic lounge suite – plus K300 (120p) for a gentleman to carry them to our flat. I do feel almost a bit bad about this, because the couches are well made and seem to be worth much more.

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Who guards the guards?

September 18, 2008 at 10:45 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

Our night guards continue to cause consternation. Usually, people here who are perceived to be wealthy will employ someone to sit outside their house during the day, and someone else for the night. In our case, the Mental Hospital supplies our house with a rotation of guards doing roughly twelve hour shifts each. Vincent was replaced by Patrick who was replaced by Laston, and so on. The guards are a cheerful and extremely helpful bunch, though their main role seems to be to open the front gate when a car hoots outside. They also knock on my window after lights out if any of the doors are unlocked – which is a great service. Read the rest of this entry »

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Protected: Cellphone and internet at last!

September 17, 2008 at 3:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

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All part of the challenge

September 16, 2008 at 10:27 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

I’ve been here only 12 days now, but it feels like months. My bare room is silent and impersonal and unyielding. I feel out of place, again well out of my “comfort zone”, unable to settle. Tonight I long for the familiar, but “home” in Edinburgh feels very distant and beyond reach. I don’t know what I will be able to do here, my limited experience suddenly feels ridiculously inadequate, my friends and family are miles away, and I feel quite alone here. This is part of the challenge of being out here though, I reckon, and it will improve as this world becomes familiar.

I start to re-arrange my room, to make it more my own. There is very little in it, so I improvise with what I have. Mattress next to wall, my old suitcase becomes a table, the single bed base becomes a wardrobe. I unpack my clothes, and my Edinburgh University fleece reminds me of a completely different world and friends. and this welcome association makes it suddenly mean more to me than it has before. It seems out of place here, also partly because it is so hot and I doubt I’ll ever need to wear it.

The room is better once I have imposed some order on it. The dogs outside have started their howling, and our water has just gone off. I am starting to better appreciate how one can become slowly unhinged when alone in an alien environment, with no external reminders of the norms of one’s accustomed civilisation.

My room after rearranging

My room after rearranging

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Zomba on a Saturday

September 13, 2008 at 8:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

Today I went into town. We live in Matawale, a suburb just on the outskirts of Zomba town. A ten minute walk and a five minute minibus ride for K70 – 30p – gets me into town. I greet the locals with the brief opening we learnt a few days back, and it really works. The routine dialogue is followed pretty much verbatim every time:
“Moni achemwale/abambo/amayi/achimwene” – “Hello young woman/man/woman/young man”
“Moni …”
“Muli bwanji?” – “How are you?”
“Ndili bwino. Kaya inu?” – “I am fine. And you?”
“Ndili bwinonso.” – “I am also fine.”
“Zikomo.” – “Thanks. [And lets now move on to business.]“
“Zikomo.”
This is cursorily rushed through, sometimes without even slowing down if walking past each other. I suppose it’s not that strange – we greet people like this in English also, but here it is done routinely.
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Shadows in the dark

September 12, 2008 at 9:35 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , ,

Malawian roads at night are hazardous. After a morning of reviews, summaries and reflections (VSO style), all the volunteers and employers had a last lunch together, followed by heartfelt goodbyes and good wishes, and a final trip to pick up extra supplies. VSO has thought of most practical things, and supply a foam mattress, cooking plate and fridge (and other smaller sundries like mosquito nets and water filters) to everyone. Our employer, Zomba Mental Hospital, had kindly sent the clinical nurse manager, the HR manager, and a driver to meet us and drive us back to Zomba. Tagging along with them was a detective who used the opportunity of a ride to Lilongwe to get details of a case he was working on.

Everything must go!

Everything must go!

So it was a tight fit in the hospital’s double cab bakkie! We left Lilongwe with seven people squashed into a double cab (the senior nurse sitting on the lap of the HR manager in the front, four of us in the back), with three mattresses, a fridge, multiple bags, backpacks, an iron, boots and the driver’s sister on the back. It would be a four hour ride down to Zomba. Read the rest of this entry »

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