2 shades of Christmas

     New Years Eve, setting up the fire works
      Our Christmas Tree!

      Hutch, a street begger that we have found a new love for!

Well after a wonderful Christmas and New year, things return to normal with our car engine pretty much blowing up 80k away from town!

Since Christmas has finished it has been interesting to reflect on what we have.  On Christmas eve we were giving a meal to kids and people who live on the street, and the very next morning opening presents, eating as much of whatever we wanted and generally going over the top!  It's a hard reality, one that you are faced with constantly here.  

Boxing day was spent with a lovely couple called Alex and Sara.  They are originally from Hertfordshire, and after working here in a similar fashion to us for the past 2 years, they are returning to England on Saturday.  It was great to have steak and chips and play board games. We even ate english chocolates and had crackers!  We will miss them when they return as they are close to our age, and have a lot of experience here for us to learn from.

New years eve was a very different occasion.  We held a party at Sean and Tapiwa's house, it was a bunch of young Malawians, and actually reminded me very much of young people back home.  The fire works were dodgy, the Fanta was cold, and the meat was very good.

Next week is the proper return to work, including Malingunde with Dalitso.  I'm lookiing forward to it, although with no car it might prove impossible!  We were taking 2 young girls from Wales to visit the lake, and when we were nearly there, the engine cut out!  We were stuck there for most of the day before a mechanic from town finally managed to find us and get us back home before it got dark.  We had rang the only break down recovery service in the country, but were quoted a minimum of £500! The truck had over heated, there was oil coming out of the engine and no water left.  There is some good news in that the mechanic said that it doesn't look as bad as he first thought, and hopefully may just need new hoses and a radiator cap.  But with money the way it is right now, and the exchange rate being so bad we have decided to see if we can sell the truck and buy a smaller car in better shape.  It's just costing us to much to run a big vehicle and we can't afford it right now.  Shame, I think, but Jo's pretty excited. The ironic thing is that I was so proud I had fixed the thermometer on my own - I obviously hadn't as it gave no indication the truck was about to explode!

One last piece of news - we are trying out a small Jack Russell, that we have called Chippy!  He was found by the Lilongwe animal sanctuary pretty beaten up by feral dogs and they asked Jo if she might like to take him.  So we agreed to try him out.  He is lovely, he's trained and he's not too yappy!

Lots and lots of love x

             Chippy, maybe he'll end up being ours.  (Certainly hope so)