African family Christmas

December 2012

We were all very excited about Christmas this year – not only was it Joshi’s first, but it was to be the second Wall African family Christmas. Mum and Dad arrived on the 18^th of December for 3 weeks, bearing many gifts, the most exciting of which was a baby bouncer for Joshi and a fold up bike for me – my answer to getting fit/loosing baby weight/getting to work when we have no diesel. Along with these presents she also brought untold luxuries of porchini mushrooms, salami, parmesan and olive oil yum yum!

We all left Blantyre on the 22^nd after work and spent two nights at Zomba forest lodge – a tiny converted colonial house half way up the zomba plateau with lovely food and no electricity – cool mosquito free evenings by the fire drinking gin with the owner, Ronald, and setting Malawi to rights were so relaxing, and we realized why the colonials liked Zomba so much. We tried Joshi out in the backpack given to us by Esselien, which he loved, as the hiking on the plateau is spectacular.



Family breakfast on the lawn at zomba forest lodge

View from Zomba plateau towards Lake Malawi

After two nights we came down he mountain to the heat of the lake, and the luxury of Pumulani lodge which is run by Robin Pope safaris and has recently been voted best lodge in Malawi. It certainly was like stepping into another world coming from the dusty car to the massive veranda with a beautiful panorama of the lake. We knew we were meeting Ros there, who had flown from Kigali via London, but we were all over the moon to see that Imo had come with her at the last minute (a well kept secret by my husband!).

View from the terrace over the pool and lake at Pumulani

African Christmas lunch of barbeque steak and prawns yum

Ros enjoys babysitting

Joshi ad Gav enjoy the views from the pool



Joshi opens his first presents!



We had three unbelievably luxurious nights in our private chalets built into the hillside, swimming in the lake and the infinity pool, eating lovely food and generally chilling out. Joshi loved his first Christmas, although was more excited by the wrapping paper than the presents themselves, having the family here was really the best present of all.

Boxingday brunch on the Pumulani Dhow

Joshi makes friends

Joshi hangs out with Imo on the beach

Sunset on the lake - stunning and peaceful

En route home we dropped mum and dad for two nights at Liwonde national park to do some safari and came back to Blantyre to chill out, via the hippo view lodge where  Joshi became properly African eating chicken and chips, and washing his hands in the most bizarre sink we have ever seen!



 The next few days with Ros in Blantyre zoomed past, and before we knew it she was off back to Kigali and we had new year here in Blantyre, with mum and dad babysitting – dinner with friends in the open air and some cheesy music was a relaxing and lovely way to see in 2012. 2011 has been a great year for us, with the arrival of Joshi and settling down as a family in Africa, and the holiday was the perfect way to celebrate.

Gav and Emma with Nick Roshina and Helena at midnight

Laura and Brigitte

Now January is here, the rains have arrived properly, the garden is flourishing with Mum’s expert advice, and we are all back to work. Joshi is 9 months now, weighing in at a whopping 10kg and is so happy and thriving. He has cut two bottom teeth and the top ones are on the way, and is starting to chat adorably (but incomprehensibly), bounce away in his bouncer and commando crawl over the floor – a very good start to 2012!

Happy new year to all

Lots of love

Emma Gav and Joshi J 


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