Eighth Letter From Africa, May 2008
Hello Everyone,
Time to let you know what we have been up to for the last seven weeks. Things went along as usual until our Managing Director's visit in late April. We told him we were unsure of when to take our holidays because of the escalating work load, and he suggested 'now' rather than September when we had completed a year with the Company. (Paladin pays for us to fly back to Perth twice a year, once is compulsory but the other flight can be to anywhere else in the world up to the value of the return fare to Perth.) With this in mind, we e-mailed a travel agent with a proposed plan to fly to London, do a coach tour of some European countries and be back in Malawi in two weeks. Because of short notice, most of the tours were booked out, but we finally got confirmation on an earlier than expected tour 2 days before the flight!
There was no Paladin transport available to get us to Lilongwe for our flight to Johannesburg then London, so we booked seats with a reputable coach company. After 11 hours we got to Lilongwe at 11.15pm and to our dismay, discovered the big suitcase with all our clothes, shoes and medical kit had been stolen from the luggage compartment!! At least we still had our hand luggage with passports, wallets, cameras, ticketing details etc and a change of underwear! Determined not to let it ruin our "once in a lifetime holiday" we went shopping next morning for two smaller suitcases but had to wait until we got to London to find suitable clothes to wear in Europe. A kind tour agent at our hotel sent us to a realistically priced, one stop shop for all our clothes and we were able to get shoes, toiletries etc in nearby shops. Never have I so easily found clothes that fitted so well - Someone was definitely looking after me :)!
Next morning we boarded a coach to Dover (complete with dazzling white cliffs!) and crossed the channel by ferry to Calais where we boarded another very comfortable coach, met our top class driver and tour leader and headed into Belgium for the night. We had lovely spring weather and a fantastic 10 days through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France and then back across the channel where we had three days enjoying London before our flights back. What a wonderful experience with so many photos and memories to treasure!
Back in the real world of Karonga, the good news is we only have a few days before we shift into our rental house on June 4th. Rina is planning to visit for Chris' big "0" birthday party on June 21st so that will be our unofficial house warming as well.
On the language learning front, my excellent teacher suddenly had to leave town at the beginning of the month and won't be back - disappointing, but I'm working at revising and using the 430+ words she taught me until I can find a suitable replacement.
For those interested in my crocheted bedspread, yes, I did get it finished before we went on holidays, except for a few more rows to complete the border. In the meantime, we are using it every night now that the evening temperatures have dropped to around 24oC.
You may have heard on the news about a worldwide rice and wheat shortage, and non-South Africans being forced to return to their home countries. These factors are starting to affect Malawi socially and economically. In our area business men from other countries are buying up truckloads of rice, maize and beans causing prices to soar. Farmers enticed by high prices are selling their food supplies with little thought to the future and the possibility of creating a famine situation. We're praying for Government intervention to bring the situation under control.
We hope things are going well for you and would love to hear from you if you have time.
Warm regards,
Chris and Anne Mattinson
30-5-08
Hello Everyone,
Time to let you know what we have been up to for the last seven weeks. Things went along as usual until our Managing Director's visit in late April. We told him we were unsure of when to take our holidays because of the escalating work load, and he suggested 'now' rather than September when we had completed a year with the Company. (Paladin pays for us to fly back to Perth twice a year, once is compulsory but the other flight can be to anywhere else in the world up to the value of the return fare to Perth.) With this in mind, we e-mailed a travel agent with a proposed plan to fly to London, do a coach tour of some European countries and be back in Malawi in two weeks. Because of short notice, most of the tours were booked out, but we finally got confirmation on an earlier than expected tour 2 days before the flight!
There was no Paladin transport available to get us to Lilongwe for our flight to Johannesburg then London, so we booked seats with a reputable coach company. After 11 hours we got to Lilongwe at 11.15pm and to our dismay, discovered the big suitcase with all our clothes, shoes and medical kit had been stolen from the luggage compartment!! At least we still had our hand luggage with passports, wallets, cameras, ticketing details etc and a change of underwear! Determined not to let it ruin our "once in a lifetime holiday" we went shopping next morning for two smaller suitcases but had to wait until we got to London to find suitable clothes to wear in Europe. A kind tour agent at our hotel sent us to a realistically priced, one stop shop for all our clothes and we were able to get shoes, toiletries etc in nearby shops. Never have I so easily found clothes that fitted so well - Someone was definitely looking after me :)!
Next morning we boarded a coach to Dover (complete with dazzling white cliffs!) and crossed the channel by ferry to Calais where we boarded another very comfortable coach, met our top class driver and tour leader and headed into Belgium for the night. We had lovely spring weather and a fantastic 10 days through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France and then back across the channel where we had three days enjoying London before our flights back. What a wonderful experience with so many photos and memories to treasure!
Back in the real world of Karonga, the good news is we only have a few days before we shift into our rental house on June 4th. Rina is planning to visit for Chris' big "0" birthday party on June 21st so that will be our unofficial house warming as well.
On the language learning front, my excellent teacher suddenly had to leave town at the beginning of the month and won't be back - disappointing, but I'm working at revising and using the 430+ words she taught me until I can find a suitable replacement.
For those interested in my crocheted bedspread, yes, I did get it finished before we went on holidays, except for a few more rows to complete the border. In the meantime, we are using it every night now that the evening temperatures have dropped to around 24oC.
You may have heard on the news about a worldwide rice and wheat shortage, and non-South Africans being forced to return to their home countries. These factors are starting to affect Malawi socially and economically. In our area business men from other countries are buying up truckloads of rice, maize and beans causing prices to soar. Farmers enticed by high prices are selling their food supplies with little thought to the future and the possibility of creating a famine situation. We're praying for Government intervention to bring the situation under control.
We hope things are going well for you and would love to hear from you if you have time.
Warm regards,
Chris and Anne Mattinson
30-5-08
Labels: News fm Africa
posted by Chris & Anne Mattinson @ 3:23 AM
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