4th November
New month. Another one down. Where to start this week. At
first I thought there wouldn’t be much to talk about on this weeks postings
because we had nothing organised. But of course something always crops up.
So last time we spoke I told you I was off cycling with
Martin, who is one of the national coaches. Well as you are reading this I
survived but only just. So Tuesday evening I went round to Martin’s house where
he got changed and then suggested a gentle 10k ( he normally does 40 to 50 each
morning). I stupidly agreed and so off we went, he with his very nice hard
tailed mountain bike, me with my cobbled together bike I found in the shed. The
seat is too low and I have since discovered the brakes don’t work – it seems to
be a common theme out here!
So we start down a bumpy path, then down a dirt road, then
down a concrete road, back to dirt again. You may have noticed the same thing I
did after around twenty minutes. It was all down hill. Quite a steep hill. I
politely enquired whether our 10k was a nice circular route? It was not.
Martins plan was to turn round and cycle back up. This revelations was at the
same time the cow walking back up the hill passed out, keeled over and died of
exhaustion. No I’m not joking it genuinely did! Not to appear too ungrateful I
agreed we would go to the next bridge and turn round.
Well I beat the cow. That is the only thing I can say.
Martin calmly cycled up the hill chatting away, to problem at all. I wheezed
half way up the hill ( yes Mum and Tina, I had my inhaler and no it didn’t
help!) and then had to have a rest. At one point I had 3 year olds running
alongside laughing at the poor azungu (white man) dying whilst trying to cycle
up a hill. We also found a trail of blood which after the next bend we realised
was the cow, now on a cart being pushed by a bunch of villagers. Spurned on by
the thought of a similar fate, and also my pride which was taking a battering I
decided I would cycle passed them. Which I did. Right around the corner where I
promptly got off and pushed the thing!
When we eventually got home my shirt was soaking, it was
about 28 deg I reckon when we went out. But I have also discovered that
Mountain Bikes are much cheaper over here and may be investing if I can find
out how much it is to get it flown back!
Wednesday was the last day for my architect Pamela, who is
has gone from 38 degrees ( that was Sat) to the 8 degrees of Glasgow! So anyway
she was leaving Wednesday and decided to having leaving drinks...as you do. One
crate (20 bottles) of fanta, one of coke, and two of greens (Carlsberg). I had
spoken to our foreman and asked him to come up with some pretence to hold the
work force back and so at 4.30 Pamela turned up with the drinks. What she, and
to be fair I, had expected was to put the crates down, everyone comes across
and takes a drink and we all stand around and have a chat.
No. What happened was they were all sitting round in a giant
circle. The crates were put in the middle with Pamela on a table and Vaida (HR)
took a register inviting people to come up one at a time to take a drink. To
make matters worse it turns out most of our work force either don’t drink or
didn’t want to in front of the bosses. Fanta ran out first, then coke, and we
had a full crate of greens left. It was intimated that some may have thought it
a test to see who drank and then they would be fired. I swiftly step into the
breach and had a beer to demonstrate this was not the case but to now avail. It
was by far the single most awkward thing I have seen out here! I now know what
not to do when I leave.
So Pamela is the one sitting on the bench and the construction team can be seen in the far distance. The guy in the yellow shirt was official bottle opener!
And so onto Saturday. Well there was a rugby game. Australia
and England. Now I have only found one Australian so far and she’s not that
into sport, which is disappointing. Anyway Malawi and all Malawian sports bars
are obsessed with English Football. They all support one of four teams;
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and of course Man Utd. So we thought hmm best check
if our local, which only has one TV, will show the rugby. Felix said of course
as long as it doesn’t clash with his team Arsenal. It didn’t so at 4.00 four of
us went to the bar. At 4.30 Felix turned over the Chelsea match even though it
had 3 minutes left to go and the locals were not happy. I told him to turn it
back until it was finished and then we settled in to watch England beat
Australia. I also had to explain the rules of rugby to the 20 or so Malawians
in the bar who had no idea what was going on. It also meant that we missed most
of the Man U game, but the three goals were scored at half time in the rugby
and so no-one really minded .
Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday as it has been a
while since I have drunk and I decided to stay and bond with the locals. One
who had a great affinity for tequila! A dip in the pool the next morning did
wonders!
STATMAN
Rugby Score – Eng 20 – 13 Aus
No of Aussies that might read this – 1 Hello Jannette J
Actual Km cycled – 6
Number of Malawians that understood rugby after my
explanation – 1
Number of Tequilas drank – 1 too many.
Science experiments conducted – 3. An empty coke bottle will
fill up and the right itself if placed
in the pool. The empty fanta bottle will
fill up but then upend itself and float in the pool. And the three surface
storm water drains where we live are not connected.
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