Eleventh Letter from Africa, November 2008
Hi Everyone,
The strong winds that blow dust over every surface have thinned out the excess mangoes, and the trees are groaning under their prolific load of expanding fruit – just a few weeks and we’ll all be enjoying them - mmmm!
Other trees all over the country are putting out new leaves in anticipation of the rainy season. Doesn’t make sense, does it? Leaves come out after the rains, right? It’s even harder to comprehend if you could see of how parched and hot it is at present.
The big, old Boab at our front gate not only has leaves but its big white flowers delicately perfume the air each evening. I’ve heard the aroma described as both jasmine and baked potatoes! Did you know that tartaric acid is made from the Boab fruit? It is commercially produced a can be found in the baking section of some shops.
Chris has continued his food buying programme, which is now streamlined to the point that his workers can do all the purchasing with minimal supervision. He holds the purse strings, keeps check on the freezers, checks the delivery invoices and does the accounting and reports. He has been greatly assisted by the arrival of two large freezer units (one of which is running beautifully now that the electrical problems have been sorted out!) and an 10 tonne fridge/freezer truck which greatly helps with transporting food to the mine – the only problem is that its refrigeration unit doesn’t work yet! Such is life in Malawi!
The new Community Health Workers, Jim and Robyn Nottingham arrived late September and it’s been great having them here. They have adjusted well to the heat and frustrations, and made very positive progress in their work in just a few weeks.
Gregarious Jim loves getting to know the people, and Robyn, an avid photographer, is never short of something to photograph! (See chameleon below.)
At the beginning of October I went with Jim and Robyn to show them Mzuzu, a lovely town in the hills about three hours drive south. While there I had a meeting with a Malawian Presbyterian minister, who, with his brother, has translated the Good News Bible into the Chitumbuka language. (Although ‘retired’, he works full time teaching at a Seminary and running the Mzuzu branch of the Bible Society!) He is keen to translate the Christian Family Living course for me and said it is a very important book for the people of Malawi. Two weeks later, after meeting his team (3 translators and a consultant), we formalised the agreement by signing a contract for them to begin translation right away. I had a meeting with them on Monday and they are making excellent progress, and plan to have it completed by mid - December. I will need to make another visit then to do some back translation checks and fine-tune the formatting. The next step will be getting it printed – there are not many local options, so we may need to have it done in another country.
On Sunday I showed Jim and Robyn the town of Livingstonia named after the famous Dr but not established by him. It is located about 1½ hrs drive from here, at the top of a high plateau with a fifteen kilometre, 19 hairpin bend road to negotiate – it’s incredible to consider this was once part of the main road linking Karonga with the South! They were suitably impressed with the distinctly Scottish atmosphere of the stately buildings making up the university, Technical College, High School, Hospital, Museum, huge church and numerous dormitories and staff accommodation. We also visited a nearby waterfall – it took some persuading for Robyn to get me that close to the BIG drop!
I had a weekend with Rina in Lilongwe recently, and we both enjoyed reading, talking for hours at a time and eating out at restaurants! She had come to see a doctor, as antibiotics prescribed in Blantyre for a throat infection weren’t working, in fact she was steadily getting worse. The new, stronger ones did the job and she was feeling much better after a few days.
We have tickets to fly home to Perth on December 19th, arriving in Perth on Saturday 20th at 11.35am. We then fly back to Johannesburg on Jan 7th, overnight, and get to Malawi the next day. Chris is flying to Sydney on January 2nd to have 4 days with his Dad and brothers before the Jo’burg flight. We’re looking forward to catching up with lots of friends and relatives, but not to arriving with jet lag in the midst of the Christmas rush!
Warm regards,
Chris and Anne Mattinson
10th November 2008
Hi Everyone,
The strong winds that blow dust over every surface have thinned out the excess mangoes, and the trees are groaning under their prolific load of expanding fruit – just a few weeks and we’ll all be enjoying them - mmmm!
Other trees all over the country are putting out new leaves in anticipation of the rainy season. Doesn’t make sense, does it? Leaves come out after the rains, right? It’s even harder to comprehend if you could see of how parched and hot it is at present.
The big, old Boab at our front gate not only has leaves but its big white flowers delicately perfume the air each evening. I’ve heard the aroma described as both jasmine and baked potatoes! Did you know that tartaric acid is made from the Boab fruit? It is commercially produced a can be found in the baking section of some shops.
Chris has continued his food buying programme, which is now streamlined to the point that his workers can do all the purchasing with minimal supervision. He holds the purse strings, keeps check on the freezers, checks the delivery invoices and does the accounting and reports. He has been greatly assisted by the arrival of two large freezer units (one of which is running beautifully now that the electrical problems have been sorted out!) and an 10 tonne fridge/freezer truck which greatly helps with transporting food to the mine – the only problem is that its refrigeration unit doesn’t work yet! Such is life in Malawi!
The new Community Health Workers, Jim and Robyn Nottingham arrived late September and it’s been great having them here. They have adjusted well to the heat and frustrations, and made very positive progress in their work in just a few weeks.
Gregarious Jim loves getting to know the people, and Robyn, an avid photographer, is never short of something to photograph! (See chameleon below.)
At the beginning of October I went with Jim and Robyn to show them Mzuzu, a lovely town in the hills about three hours drive south. While there I had a meeting with a Malawian Presbyterian minister, who, with his brother, has translated the Good News Bible into the Chitumbuka language. (Although ‘retired’, he works full time teaching at a Seminary and running the Mzuzu branch of the Bible Society!) He is keen to translate the Christian Family Living course for me and said it is a very important book for the people of Malawi. Two weeks later, after meeting his team (3 translators and a consultant), we formalised the agreement by signing a contract for them to begin translation right away. I had a meeting with them on Monday and they are making excellent progress, and plan to have it completed by mid - December. I will need to make another visit then to do some back translation checks and fine-tune the formatting. The next step will be getting it printed – there are not many local options, so we may need to have it done in another country.
On Sunday I showed Jim and Robyn the town of Livingstonia named after the famous Dr but not established by him. It is located about 1½ hrs drive from here, at the top of a high plateau with a fifteen kilometre, 19 hairpin bend road to negotiate – it’s incredible to consider this was once part of the main road linking Karonga with the South! They were suitably impressed with the distinctly Scottish atmosphere of the stately buildings making up the university, Technical College, High School, Hospital, Museum, huge church and numerous dormitories and staff accommodation. We also visited a nearby waterfall – it took some persuading for Robyn to get me that close to the BIG drop!
I had a weekend with Rina in Lilongwe recently, and we both enjoyed reading, talking for hours at a time and eating out at restaurants! She had come to see a doctor, as antibiotics prescribed in Blantyre for a throat infection weren’t working, in fact she was steadily getting worse. The new, stronger ones did the job and she was feeling much better after a few days.
We have tickets to fly home to Perth on December 19th, arriving in Perth on Saturday 20th at 11.35am. We then fly back to Johannesburg on Jan 7th, overnight, and get to Malawi the next day. Chris is flying to Sydney on January 2nd to have 4 days with his Dad and brothers before the Jo’burg flight. We’re looking forward to catching up with lots of friends and relatives, but not to arriving with jet lag in the midst of the Christmas rush!
Warm regards,
Chris and Anne Mattinson
10th November 2008
Labels: News fm Africa
posted by Chris & Anne Mattinson @ 1:06 AM
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