From Mullahead to Malawi

No such thing as a free lunch! I am sitting writing this by a pool, overlooking a golf course in Dwangwe, which is a lot further south from our present home and down the lake shore!! The town is built on a big swamp, where many rivers feed into the Lake. It feels incredibly decadent, given the poverty that we have passed through on route, few tin roofed houses and just tiny little thatched huts, where people live off the land and fishing. The Tsasa Estate is a big sugar refinery for the surrounding areas which grow sugar cane, it is a subsidiary of Illovo a South African Sugar producer and which is also connected to   Tate and Lyle.     Johnny our host, had decided we needed to enter a golf competition here, and if Charlie and I both entered we would get free accommodation for the weekend as visitors! But this meant that I had to play ball, literally and metaphorically!! Those of you that know me well will appreciate that this was a big ask! My attitude to golf ...

The longest 17 kms On Saturday, after a nerve steadying bowl of porridge ,we felt brave and we decided to attempt the Gorody road. We have looked down at the tantalising lake and beach below us for so long and still haven’t experienced it. So we set off, drove down, but essentially I kept my foot on the brake for most of the journey and let the car gently roll down, the main task was trying to avoid the worst of the rocks on the track, the most damaging potholes and of course with the sheer drops on one side not get too close to the edge! We prayed hard we wouldn’t meet anyone, even the road up to Slieve League in Donegal and meeting a Winnebago wouldn’t compare to how little wriggle room you had if you met someone on a bad place. We only met one vehicle and it was at a good place where we were able to pass, other than that we managed to negotiate the 20 hair pin bends without incident. We had given a local a lift and he allowed it took him just over an hour to walk down usin...

Refreshing, refuelling and restocking Blog post 1/10/17   We were rapidly running out of food, both for ourselves and for the animals, we needed to get more petrol, the nearest fuel station being over 2 hours away and we needed a change and a break after a rather disheartening week where we had a further neonatal death. Finally, we had had a phone call from the synod office to tell us that our supposed 90day visas were only valid for 30 days and we were about to run out so had to go and see them in the office in Mzuzu, so all in all a trip to the big smoke of Mzuzu was needed!   We set off, giving our neighbour a lift who was going on leave. Having chatted to her the previous day as she dried her maize meal and sieved it so that she could bring it with her as a gift to her family in Lilongwe she offered to roast peanuts for us for the journey. She also allowed she would be bringing dried fish for her family too and on a three-hour car journey in the heat, this did...