The Last Post

I recently read ‘Malawi is like Malaria, once it’s in your blood it’s there for life.’ I think that is true. Pam and I will never be able to get Malawi out of us. It is in there. We will probably come back at some point as well. For how long and when who knows? I’m not quite sure how I summarise the year. It probably didn’t take long, maybe 6 weeks, before we felt like we were living here rather than holidaying here. And I guess that was what it was like. We lived here and although we knew it was for a definitive period we made the most of it. We have made some friends for life and I would like to think that we have had a positive effect on the people we have tried to help out here. They certainly have had a positive effect on us. And so there is little else to say other than the finally statman which kind of sums up our year quite succinctly.

But before I do here is my top three things of our year in Malawi,

 3) Winning the Leslie 7s – it encapsulated all the social aspects of our time here
 2) The Lake – bit cheeky having the lake as a single entry but it was so beautiful and serene that it definitively deserves a mention.
1) My drain – now I know this may seem a bit weird. I built a netball court, football pitch and the solar panel array. But the drain that we put in will probably make more of a difference to more people’s lives than anything else I have done out here. And for that reason I am proud of it.

 Pam’s piece ‘The work was always the most important thing. It was the highest of the high points and definitely the lowest of the lows. But it is those times when you get to take a step back and enjoy the little things that have made the difference to working and living here.

 Pam’s top three;

 3) The Lake – Especially being made part of Smickey and Helen’s family at Cape McLear. 2) Christmas Tour – Our little trip around Malawi was the first time we left the city of Blantyre and saw some of the country.
1) South Luangwa (especially Cumberbatch Fest) – This was our safari to Zambia and we lost ourselves in fits of giggles over the most ridiculousness of the idea of a festival dedicated to the actor.

And then the A-Z of what we will miss;
Animals, Amarula, Adina, avocadoes, aussies.
 Birds, beehive, braais, BSC, branta, bats,beans,beebikes.
 Chilomoni, Chiyembekezo (car, Cape Maclear, Cure Cafe, Chez Ntembe, cocktail parties. Debbie, Dedza, drink driving, Drain, Dutch, dogs, drinking games
Early nights and eyebrows.
 Friends, film files, football field, fresh food, flowers.
Gin and ginger, goat stews, giant insects, Gulu wamkulu, greenery.
 Holidays, heat, head carrying
 International community, Infuse, Ida.
Joe and Gift, JCBs, Jacarandas
KAmpango, Kate, Khondes
La Caverna, Leslie 7s, Liquor garden, Lake Malawi, Laughing.
 Mua Mission, Mayoka village, Mitsidi, Mangoes, Malawians, Matola.
Nsima, Ndafakale, Netball court.
Osadandaula.
Prices, pharmacies, prawns from Mozambique, pang’ono pang’ono.
Queens
 Rum and ginger, relaxed pace, road trips, random parties, racing from BSC to Doogles to Chez.
Sunshine, swimming pool, safari, superior halaals chicken curry, Smickey, Sandra, stars, sunsets.
 Two hour lunches, tomatoes, tans.
 Undulating landscapes, ubiquitous royal mail bikes.
 Views.
 Waving children, wedding cars.
X-rated films with Agogos.
Yelling ‘beebike’.
 Zomba, zikomo, Zambia

STATMAN
 Days in Malawi -338
 Days in Zambia – 3
Days in Mozambique – 4
Home travel – 16 hours

 BLOGSTATS
 Blog posts – 51
 Page views -6508
Countries that viewed blog top ten; UK, US, Malawi, Saudi arabia, ukraine, turkey, germany, feance, portugal and new Zealand

 Notable others; Mali, Montenegro, Brazil, Thailand, Russia, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Poland, Maldives, Madagascar, Canada, Mozambique, Mexico, Tanzania, Greece, Australia,  China, Netherlands and Israel.

  And that people was the year that was.