We are very sorry that our blog has fallen a bit behind
times with everything that has been happening over the last three months. This
update is a short summary of some of those things as we have pinged between
Malawi and the UK balancing family, work and friends.
August
After all our travelling and parties in July, August was relatively quiet. Our chickens finally decided they were ready to lay eggs, and Elias proudly presented us with our first one at breakfast one morning. The weather got steadily hotter as the winter ended and work consumed both of us. Joshi started to run around naked in the heat Malawi style and his vocab passed 100 words. We welcomed back lots of friends who had been away for the long school holidays and sadly said goodbye to lots of good friends here including Roshina and Aisleen who all had to get back to the NHS after a year here. We have enjoyed meeting new friends including Isobel and Stephen and Georgie and Micky, and Joshi has loved hanging out with all the new additions to baby group.
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| Elias with our first egg |
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| Joshi learns to drive |
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| Too much cake at Georgie's birthday party at Huntingdon House |
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| Fruit buying day out to Zomba plateau - 16 jars of Jam made for the year |
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| Emma jumps in the freezing waterfall on Mulanje mountain to celebrate the start of the hot weather |
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| Joshi learns to paint everything and everyone |
September
We were gutted to say goodbye at the start of Sept to Helena and Nick who have been such an integral part of our life here in Malawi - they have permanently moved back to the UK now, but are settling back in really well.
We spent most of September in the UK for a mixture of work and holiday. I had to present
some of my early research data at a meeting in Chester and Gavin had to see his
supervisors here to ensure his research and clinical work in Malawi was being
recognised. We rushed up and down the country trying to see as many of our
friends as we could in three weeks, and it was so lovely to catch up with
everyone, and we are so sorry we didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to, time
was just too short. Joshi travelled around amazingly well, and was so chilled
out meeting so many people and just getting on with socialising with all his
new and older friends he met. One day we had breakfast leaving Cheshire with Jules
and Rob and their children, lunch in Bristol with Al and her new baby, and
supper in Tiverton with Cat, Helen and their children. Thanks so much to
everyone who squeezed us in at short notice/came out of their way to see
us/fixed up meet ups, it was brilliant to see you all, including Georgie, Charlotte, Claire, Ruth, Cat, Jules, Lou, Hel,all the JAGS and DC posse :) and everyone who made it to steak night and to the BBQ in Wembley. We are gutted to have not seen everyone we wanted to in such a short time.
We spent a lot of the
time in Clapham with my family, as there are lots of ongoing problems with Dad's health. We are all hoping he will recover soon and everyone enjoyed having Joshi around to laugh and play.
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| Georgie and Roger with Miri |
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| Joshi checks out his first ever haircut |
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| Garden centre with Grandpa Stephen |
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| Cousins in Wembley |
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| Beautiful Bella with Claire |
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| Joshi is outdanced by Orla Dancy |
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| Jules, Emmie, Joshi and Gav walk Poppy the dog |
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| Al reads Joshi a lunchtime story while Ned snoozes |
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| Will, Ben, Martha and Joshi collect Devonshire eggs, good life style |
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| Bristol flatmates 10 years + on |
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| Joshi learns to dunk |
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| Daddy and Joshi check out the Devon wildlife |
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| Charlotte and Joshi charm each other |
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| Gorgeous ladies with gorgeous babies |
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| Gardening in Wembley |
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| Ta-dah! |
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| hours of fun with a reliable water supply in Wembley |
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| 'Look mummy - fish garden!' |
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| Clare and Lou with Max, Izzie and Alec |
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| JAGS posse- fun and very noisy lunch |
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| Joshi hangs out with Mini who is due to be 102 next year |
October
Now we are into October the hot season in Malawi has really got underway, and it was lovely to step off the plane at Blantyre into hot sunshine, although everything is very dry and dusty. Amazingly my study and the dialysis unit suffered no major disasters while we were away, and everyone here welcomed us back after our trip. Joshi’s vocab grew with his height while we were away and he is now chattering away in 3-4 word sentences, can say ‘please’, knows his primary colours and can count to five, age 18 months.
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| The only way to feed the chickens in 30 degree heat |
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| Joshi shows Cal how its done |
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| Back to Skype to chat to Granny and Grandpa |
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| Helping out building the outdoor cinema |
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| New friends Joshi and Saskia in the tea estates |
We are spending his 18 month ‘birthday’ and Malawian mother’s day in the Satemwa tea estates, one of our favourite places to come to relax away from Blantyre. I am typing this on the huge veranda of Chawani bungalow, listening to the birds and watching the monkeys hopping from tree to tree while Joshi and Gav snooze in the shade. We have a busy few weeks leading up on Christmas now with trips to Uganda for both of us to teach, and more nephrological visitors from the UK for Gav, plus hopefully a trip to the lake or two.
More soon
Lots of love to all
Emma, Gavin and Joshi J
