January 2012 hellos and goodbyes

January started with us all saying goodbye sadly to Ros, Mum and Dad, the latter after they spent a couple of nights in the Satemwa tea plantations hiking and looking at birds.

Joshi in his christmas baby bouncer

We got back to work and my study started proper recruitment, so I hit the ground in a whirlwind of problem solving and team management. My team are fabulous and so hard working – they actually look depressed at the end of the day if they have not managed to recruit a patient! It is peak malaria season now the rains are set in, and every day the corridors of the hospital echo with the incredibly beautiful and moving sounds of singing as people accompany bodies of dead relatives to the mortuary. I had to buy quinine for a patient this week as there is none in the hospital (along with a chronic shortage of other essential drugs), a situation a Malawian colleague described as ‘shameful’.

January has been a month of hello’s and goodbyes – sadly we said goodbye to our friends Ruth and Steve McKew who have gone back to Cheshire with their daughters after 3 years in Malawi. Zoe their youngest had to double check there were no crocodiles in the river in the UK as she has lived all her life so far here J. Ruth had several leaving parties including 30 odd women invading the Bombay Palace to play games and eat curry, and a Burn’s night dinner which ended with several people in the swimming pool!

Escorting the haggis

From the left: Nic, Helena, Ruth, Emma and Roshina drink wine and giggle

35 women descend on the Bombay palace to say good bye to Ruth



The Burn’s night dinner was memorable for that, and the fact everyone had a good, but surreal time paying homage to the haggis, listening to bagpipes, drinking whiskey and dancing a ceidlh, with the Malawian staff (and Gav and I!) looking on in good natured bemusement. We are also shortly saying bye to Jacqui who has been in Malawi from Australia for 10 years and we will miss them all.
Gav Joshi and I have loved spending time together as a family in Malawi -see pics below.

Joshi learns to sing with Gavin

Home haircut Malawi-style

Hanging out in the hammock in the garden

Joshi hangs out with mum and dad on the khondi



Sarah with Amos (3) and Arava (12 weeks)

We have also said hello again to Sarah and Naor Bar-Zeev, the lovely Australians who rented our house here while we went home to have Joshi, and then went home themselves to have a lovely daughter Arava (sister to Yona and Amos). They are living up the road and are settling back into being a large family here and it is fab having them so close.


We also have been on a day safari to Nyala park, which is only an hour's drive away and is a private reserve so you are guaranteed to see animals. We are pleased we went when we did as the road has now been washed away in the recent floods.



Giraffe and baby in Nyala park

Joshi continues to thrive, he has gained a whopping 600g in one month and is now 10.6 kg at 10 months. He is an adept crawler now, eats with his hands making an enormous mess, and Is starting to pull himself to standing. He chats away in baby language, can clap hands and loves to play football in his baby bouncer and read books with daddy. and mummy. He is developing into an adorable relaxed friendly little person and we are so lucky to have the wonderful childcare here to support us. We hosted baby group for the first time this month and had a fabulous afternoon, especially Joshi hanging out with his posse of baby boy mates.



Our lounge is overtaken by mums and babies!

Joshi shares his baby bouncer with Eidlih (13 months)



Joshi hangs out with his posse of baby mates Seb, Caleb and Max

Time is flying away with us – I meant to post this at the end of Jan, but I hope everyone is well and enjoyed Valentines this year (I got a bunch of flowers picked from the garden!) and I hope in the next post we will be able to announce the arrival of some chickens – it turns out buying chickens in Malawi in a recession is harder than we thought.

Lots of love to all

Emma Gavin and Joshi xxJ



Mystery giant antelope in Nyala park - can you identify it??



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