Rainy season starts with a splosh

Hello everyone

November totally whizzed past in a haze of travel for Gav and getting into work for me, and the start of the green season with the rains has been fantastic.

As well as the trip to Philadelphia to present his research work from London (which went down very well and lots of support was offered to the dialysis unit) he went to London for Ben’s Bar Mitzvah and then onto Uganda to teach kidney medicine for a week, before flying through Joburg to see family including Min who turned 100 this year and looks amazing for it, then coming back to Malawi.

Joshi is now 8 months old and weighing in at 9.4 kg this week – he is as big as a 17 month old at mother and baby group and heavier than her! He is getting ready to go on the move – he can rotate on his belly to get objects but can’t crawl yet, but it won’t be long. He eats everything put in front of him and loves his finger food – especially now he has two bottom teeth coming through. He is so smiley and funny and loves games and is getting on brilliantly with Annie his permanent nanny which is fantastic and means I don’t worry about him at work at all – every time I come home he is playing with Bempero (Annie’s daughter) and having a lovely time.

Work for me has been going well and getting steadily busier as I get ready to start my study in January. My team have started work (sorting the equpiment in the pic) and are doing brilliantly so far in the new A&E which is very glossy and shiny, and very busy.

 

We are piloting the study procedures and data collection this and next week, and then will start collecting data after Christmas all going well.

I had a fantastic weekend while Gav was away going to the St Andrew’s day ball – where the very few scots in Malawi and the large numbers of south Africans with Scottish relatives plus all sorts from Blantyre’e ex-pat society meet to drink whiskey, eat imported haggis and dance a ceidlh (sp)- lots of fun with mates and an excuse to dress up, but am not sure what the Malawians thought of it! (pic on the left below is of the very eminent Prof Liz Molyneux, OBE, enjoying the dancing and on the right is Miguel (R)and Steve McKew.

Peter gave the speech and did a stirling job in his kilt. We also said goodbye to Miguel and Aranxa who work at MLW and their Spanish flair for parties and fun will be much missed L

To escape from Blantyre while Gav was away, Joshi, Roshina and myself to treated ourselves, found some petrol for her car and drove back to Norman Carr cottages for the weekend to relax and unwind.

It was hot and beautiful at the lake, and we had a fantastic time as always doing nothing but eating, swimming, sleeping and relaxing – we had a bit of excitement when a bat flew into the room while Joshi was feeding, but apart from that it was event free, just gorgeous. Joshi enjoyed the fine dining and gave baby-led weaning a new dimension at dusk on the beach.

The rains have started here slowly but have really started to get going in the last week. Joshi is fascinated by the downpours and the garden loves it – as do we as it has cooled down, and the light is amazing as you can see from this pic.

The diesel (and now petrol) saga continues, queues are an everyday occurrence but we have enough stockpiled we think to make our Christmas trip with mum, dad and Ros which we all can’t wait for! Bingu apparently needs to devalue the kwacha to enable the forex to start flowing (it is over valued) but this will cause everyone’s living standards to fall as the cost of living will rise.

Lots of love and happy Channukah and Christmas to everyone

Emma Gav and Joshi J

Hot season and Emma goes back to work

Hi everyone

The last few weeks of my maternity leave were during the hot season here – the colonials used to call it ‘suicide month’ as the heat can be unbearable. In Blantyre it reached 39-40°C in the sun at midday and over 30 in Joshi’s room. Despite that he coped amazingly, drinking loads and sleeping through the hottest bit of the day with the help of the fan. The best way to cool off we found was to visit our friends Peter and Ellie MacPherson and jump in their pool – there is not much more fun to be had on a Friday afternoon and Joshi loved it. Thanks guys :)
Due to lack of fuel and cash flow we have spent the last few weekends in Blantyre braai-ing and seeing friends. This weekend was the firework display at the sports club - the whole of middle class Blantyre in their finest dancing to local music and watching some hairy fireworks some of which fired at 90 degrees into the crowd. It seemed as far from Guy Fawkes and freezing damp English fireworks as you could get.

Ruth, Helena, Ellie and Emma cool off with Zoe (2yrs) and Hanna (5 yrs)

Joshi is nearly 7 months and is growing like a bean pole. In the picture below he is playing with  friends from mother and baby group – both girls are 10 months old and he is the same size as them! He is not missing me at all when I go out to work as he loves Patricia his nanny and they have a wonderful time playing together. She has so much energy to playing imaginative peekaboo even when it is really hot! Joshi is eating all sorts of things now, and making an incredible mess each time. Thanks to Gill we can throw him in the paddling pool after lunch which helps keep him vaguely clean. He is so sweet and chatty and loves running around in his walker and playing with Gavin’s phone. He is so strong and every day his hand eye co-ordination gets better and better.

Family news

We are totally thrilled that Michael asked Julie to marry him in South Africa last week, and are so happy for them both. Gavin is looking forward to meeting his sister-in-law to be in New York at the weekend. Mazeltov to you guys!

Back to work

Just as I was dreading going back to work in the hot season the rains have started and everything has cooled down and greened-up – the garden is looking amazing now. I have been bumped out of my posh air conditioned desk while on maternity leave and am now in a converted shipping container while the new building is being finished grrr. Work so far has been ok, I am going back slowly and did my first ward round today in the hospital – I think I managed to do some good I hope. My trial set up is going ok so far, and we have appointed a study team and the A&E has finally opened at last, 8 months late exactly, so we should start in December all going well.

My office is behind the mango tree on the left

MLW main offices with new building in the background

Flame trees in the car park at work

Despite the heat the Blantyre dialysis unit opened its doors in October and dialysed its first patient, which is an amazing achievement for Gavin and the hosptial. So far the unit is operating well and kidney patients now have the option of Government funded dialysis without travelling to or moving house to the capital. Gavin is also travelling to the US where he is presenting his UK research work to a very prestigious conference and we are very proud of him, although I don't envy the 19 hour flight from Joburg to NYC, I do envy the cheese he is going to eat!

 

Local politics

Politically things here seem to be on a slow downward spiral. The shortage of forex continues, but we managed to get diesel this weekend, the first for 2 weeks in town. Everyone is stockpiling and fights in fuel queues are becoming common place now. Our landlord nearly got beaten up in a diesel queue recently and in a typical example of market forces everyone is stockpiling and the black market is flourishing. All the bits of the economy that are fuel dependent are struggling and the main forex earner, tobacco earned less this year than last. Bingu’s brother has not managed to persuade any donors to restart direct government aid. Soft drinks are now scarce, even coca cola, and the bottle plant is prioritizing beer over soft drinks – when the beer runs out we are really in trouble! While all of this is going on the reserve bank is building a 45million kwacha (about 180 000 pounds) swimming pool for the governor’s mansion, the president is on holiday in an undisclosed location, and the president’s wife said ‘the fuel crisis does not affect ordinary Malawians as they are too poor to have cars’ – our very own African Marie-Antoinette me thinks.

Update: fuel prices just got hiked 30% across the country this week to increase revenue to the govt - but no promise to use the money to increase the supply.......

More soon

Lots of love

Emma, Gavin and Joshi J

Margaret and Gill visit Malawi and Zambia

OR Joshua and the leopard

Hello from Malawi

Time here seems to be flying past. Joshua is now 6 months old and is weighing in at 8.7kg! He is thriving in Malawi and is now rolling over, sitting and trying to wave, as well as turning the pages of books, laughing and enjoying lots of games. He is eating solids and so far enjoying all the tropical fruits and vegetables, especially pawpaw from the garden. It is nearly the end of my maternity leave, I am going back to work on the 1^st of November.

September and October have been beautiful months in Blantyre as all the Jacaranda trees are in bloom, and the most ugly roads are transformed into purple avenues. Our diesel issues continue as ever as the chronic lack of forex continues, but the president’s brother is in the UK this week mending fences so we all hope the aid restarts and the economy picks up. The president remains unpopular but there so far is no more talk of demonstrations, although that is probably only a matter of time as none of the issues that prompted the upset in July have been resolved. Gavin is very close to starting haemodialysis in Blantyre at last (!) and also has been given 2 grants to help investigate kidney disease here, which is brilliant.

We have also acquired 2 cats (Mphatso and Miskey) from a leaving friend who have sorted out our mouse problem and are a very welcome addition to our household.

 Goats and chickens are next………….

We had a fabulous 2 and a half weeks where my mum Margaret and her friend Gill came to visit. We travelled around Malawi including day trips to the tea plantations at Satemwa and the Zomba plateau, where both Margaret and Gill both especially enjoyed the botanical gardens. Gill and Margaret also put their gardening skills to use in our garden, and we now have planted passion fruit vines along with morning glories and various other gorgeous plants. Gill is also an amazing seamstress and made Joshi a variety of African outfits using Jill Traub’s old sewing machine, including a unique African Kippa.

Jacaranda trees in the garden in Blantyre

Joshi showing off his African handmade Kippa

Gill, Margaret and Joshi in Thyolo mountain

We went back to Norman Carr cottage on the lake for a weekend of sun and relaxation during the Lake of stars festival, although we did not in the end make it to the festival – working out how to get there with Joshi’s routine and breast feeding became too complicated. However there is always next year, and we would love to hire a cottage and have lots of visitors………………

The highlight of our trip with Margaret and Gill was 5 days in the South Luwangwa National park in Zambia. We stayed at the fabulous Mfuwe lodge which overlooks a watering hole, where you can sit in the infinity pool and watch all the animals come to drink. All the animals had babies and we got so close it was amazing. Joshi came on all the drives and loved bouncing around on the back of a land rover  and did not cry or make a fuss, even when confronted with elephants and hippos. He just took it all in his stride, and made friends with everyone in the lodge (he was by far the most popular guest!). We had an amazing guide, Patson, who had been trained by the late, great Norman Carr himself and we failed to find a question about the bush he couldn't answer, and he loved having Joshi in the car on the drives.

Joshi enjoys his game viewing spot, and Margaret and Gavin do the same from the pool!

The scariest moment of the trip came on one evening drive where dusk had fallen and we were using the spot light to see the animals, Joshi was dozing in his car seat under his mosquito net. We heard from another car from our lodge that there was a leopard in the bush, so we drove up, and we could just see it hidden in the bushes up front. Joshi chose this moment to wake up and start to baby chat. The leopard instantly pricked up its ears and came towards the car – you could see it thinking ‘that is a baby something and I am going to check it out’. Fortunately it was distracted by an impala and started to hunt instead, and my adrenaline levels came down a bit. I then had the challenge of breast feeding Joshi, under a mosquito net as we drove along bumpy roads in the dark- so African and nothing the NCT can prepare you for! The leopard was the most magnificent animal, and the first one that either Margaret or Gill had seen.

Coming back to Blantyre after that was a good way to wind down and now we are getting into a work routine here. I am excited to get back to work and do my research that I came to Malawi to do, but I am sad that mat leave is coming to an end as this time has been magical and some of the happiest of our lives.

Lots of love

Emma, Gavin and Joshi

ps some more safari pics to entice you to come and visit..........

Bush sundowners & Joshi with Patson overlooking the Luwangwa river

Malawi update - Louise and Stephen's Malawi holiday

Hello there

Life here has picked up speed dramatically throughout August. Gavin started work full time as a lecturer in medicine at Queen’s and his talents are unsurprisingly in a lot of demand, so he is very busy. Joshi is growing on a daily basis and now is 5 months and weighs 8.1 kg (or did last week – we are sure it is more now!) and is so adorable. He is nearly sitting and rolling, and has started eating sweet potato and mashed banana in addition to milk as he is hungry all the time and growing so fast.

The most exciting thing in August was the arrival of Stephen and Louise for their first (we hope of many) visits to Malawi. They had a wonderful time hanging out with Joshi who loved every minute of their visit, and they got used to the ups and downs of life here including the hunt for diesel, regular power cuts, sitting outside for every meal and eating fresh produce from the garden every day. For Stephen’s birthday we went to the Zomba plateau for the day where we had lunch and bought amazing fruit and veg. The plateau has its own microclimate so you can buy everything from passion fruit to rhubarb on a good day and is much higher than Blantyre so the air is cool and the views to the lake and mt Mulanje are stunning (unsurprisingly it was the British colonial capital so the architecture is also very interesting).

We went up to Lake Malawi for a weekend to stay at Norman Carr cottages which was wonderful, and included a boat trip seeing fish eagles fishing and snorkeling, and a lot of hanging out on the beach.

We also spent a weekend in Satemewa tea plantation staying at Huntingdon House (an old colonial house now a hotel, still owned by one of the oldest white Malawian families) which was also beautiful. We drove up Thyolo mountain to have a picnic with amazing views for the day, and enjoyed the high life in the house for a couple of days.

Currently our entire pea crop has been eaten by the local troupe of vervet monkeys and any ideas to keep them out of our veg patch would be most welcome esp as we have tomatoes and other yummy stuff coming!! I have started going to a local book club, and Joshi is loving hanging out with other kids at the mother and baby group. We had our first braai last weekend which was yummy, and hopefully the first of many.

There are more demonstrations planned for next week and we hope if they happen they will be peaceful this time. We are back to the lake again this weekend for the annual Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust conference where researchers from Liverpool and Malawi meet to discuss progress over the year and plan new research and it is at a very swanky resort so we are looking forward to it, and have managed to get a full tank to get us there. I am unfortunately going to do some work and presenting, while Gav hangs out with the other trailing spouses and kids at the beach/pool – much more fun….

After that Margaret and her friend Gill arrive and we are back to the lake again for the Lake of Stars festival and then to Zambia on safari – it’s a hard life!

Lots of love

Emma Gavin and Joshi J

Breakfast on the private veranda at Huntingdon House

Dreyers walking in the tea plantations

Playing on Thyolo mountain

View of Satemwa tea plantations

Stephen and Joshi in Thyolo mountain

sunset and sunrise on lake malawi

Fish eagles flying with fish

 This is what happens when Emma tries to imitate the wildlife photographer of the year pics........