Colonial Africa No 15

Of course it wouldn’t be very British of me to not start off by mentioning the weather. We are now in to the full swing of the rainy season and there are regular outbursts of rain throughout the day and often all night! We can therefore empathise (to some degree) regarding the bad weather you guys have had in the UK and how much it can impact on your day to day life. As we speak the rain is making a pitter-patter sound on the tin roof, making me feel very sleepy….but let’s press on.

As usual we have been busy with caring for the children and trying to keep them entertained. We have had a few new arrivals at Open Arms recently, first being four fury residents….the guinea pigs. These timid and at first scared creatures are pets to the older children at Harrogate house. We have been taking the children to the guinea pigs home regularly so that both the children and guinea pigs can get used to each other. Luckily due to Kim being a massive animal lover and very confident with animals he has been picking up our new fury friends and encouraging the children to care and look after them. Some of the children are confident while others squawk and squeal at the sight of them, as they are not used to such animals. We have yet to name them but hopefully by the time we leave they’ll each have their own name and be fully settled in to life at Open Arms.

The other new arrivals are two new babies called Chisomo (meaning Grace) and Osbon who arrived at Open Arms home a couple of weeks ago. They were both very small and have been extremely weak, needing some regular visits to the hospital to give them the care and medication they needed. Luckily they both appear to be getting stronger which is great news. Unfortunately one of the sad realities of being with these orphaned or abandoned children is that they can arrive very ill or weak. A new baby arrived last week only 9 days old and passed away in the middle of his first night here. But for the ones who do make it through they are given such a great start in life, with the love and care they receive from the mothers here, which makes it all worth it.

Another departure was our fellow house mate and volunteer, Corrine leaving after 3 weeks of being here and heading back home to the UK. So we’re all on our own again in the house until the next volunteer arrives from the UK, with a few requested home comforts (magazines and percy pigs)!

Since we’ve been here, every week we’ve tried giving the Harrogate house children a treat and when it was Shrove Tuesday it gave us the perfect excuse to make pancakes for them (and was just as much a treat for us). We were surprised that both the children and mothers had never heard of Shrove Tuesday or pancakes so as well as being a treat it was also a learning experience for them. Some funny faces were pulled as the sourness from the lemon hit their taste buds, but didn’t stop them from gobbling it all up. As you can see from the photo, another treat was every child’s favourite…jelly! We attempted to make custard, but after that turning in to an orange, lumpy gloop we decided to go with sliced banana on the side (a far healthier option).

Our latest weekend excursion was to a tea estate called Satemwa, owned by the father of the two ladies we met in Liliongwe who kindly looked after us when we were last in Malawi. Before arriving to this idyllic setting, we were able to experience and see some of the diversity of Malawian culture. A Muslim festival was underway when we travelled through a town called Limbe, where spirits were high and people were chanting down the streets. This left the minibus drivers very irate as they struggled to maneuver through the large number of people. After some (we can only assume) strong words being passed between our bus conductor and a road worker, the road worker started bashing the side of the bus and the conductor with a wooden rake! Road rage takes on a whole new meaning in Malawi.

Once at Satemwa, we treated ourselves by staying in a place called Huntington House set in the grounds of the tea estate. It consists of five bedrooms lavishly decorated with a real colonial feel (and what a contrast from the day to day life of most Malawians). Once we had settled in we went for a tea tasting session, and as massive tea lovers we were looking forward to tasting the variety of teas grown on the estate. It was interesting to learn that white, green and black tea, all come from the same tea leaves and the arduous process taken to produce a good cuppa tea. After a nice stroll back from the tea tasting we retired to the front lawn for high tea and a spot of croquet (ra ra ra)!! And we’ve never tasted such an amazing chocolate, banana and nut cake before. The evening ended with more great food, all with a tea inspired theme. We were hoping to explore the estate by going quad biking on the Sunday morning but unfortunately it was raining so instead we had a long and lazy breakfast.

After experiencing ‘Colonial Africa’ I soon discovered what else Africa has to offer….tropical disease! Over the past week I had a perfect red ring developing on my face which was getting larger, only to find out it is ring worm! Not a parasite in my face which I naively thought it was, but a fungal infection I had more than likely caught from one of the children. Anyway it’s disappearing now and hopefully we won’t get to experience any other lovely diseases Africa has to offer.

That’s all our news for now and we hope your all well.

Love Nat and Kim xx