Whoa...

NOTE THIS WAS WRITTEN A FULL ON WEEK AGO AND NOT POSTED DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES...

Don't know how almost three weeks has gone by since I last blogged...have been in a work-obsessed fog....may be emerging some time soon depending on how this week goes.



Anyways, back to Oct 23 - Jules's pub night was a great success...we deep fried mars bars, cheese, zuchini, onions, tasty soya pieces and I think a few other things...most of our friends were able to make it and we had a great time.



Our car is still in a non-mobile state...apparently the gear box is totally wrecked and there are no automatic gear boxes in Malawi - we have sources looking in Mozambique and South Africa, but no luck so far! We now have to decide if we should replace the automatic gear box with a standard one but I am worried about it affecting the resale value - any comments on this one? We are mechanical idiots so no idea what we should do about it.



October 30 was a momentous occasion - Regan turned 16! We had a double celebration planned - dinner out on her actual birthday - it was really nice. On November 1, we hosted a party at our place with a DJ and tons of roasted meat (very Malawian). Most of Regan's friends from school were able to make it and the teens had the run of the house and front yard while we hid out in the back with some friends, doing occasional walk-throughs to ensure we provided some level of supervision. I think I can say that it was an unqualified success.



Last week from Monday to Wednesday I was working in Mzuzu doing follow up from my M&E workshop. I was scheduled to do the same thing in Lilongwe on Thursday and Friday, but only made it on Friday. On Thursday I attended my first funeral in Malawi - for my friend and co-worker Chris's dad. He was ill for some time and finally diagnosed with lung cancer. It was sad, but not unexpected. The funeral was in Chris's home village and was an interesting experience.

We were very late in arriving - we were supposed to take a mini-bus but somehow it left without us. Luckily we were able to catch a ride with the Health Secretary who had a meeting first...however we were quite late in leaving. In addition we got totally lost on the way, so arrived at 12:30 when the mass was supposed to start at 10. Being a popular family there were many many people there to pay their respects, so in fact, the mass didn't even start until 1:30 or so. We had some food, then listened to people make speeches and then headed to the church for mass. There were so many people we wouldn't fit in the church so we sat on the ground outside. The mass was all in chichewa, so no details about what was said...sorry! After mass, people accompany the body to the graveyard...my colleagues were in a hurry to get home at that point, so we just left after the mass.



This past weekend was relatively eventful but deserves its own blog...more later