Where Did All The Time Go?

I can hardly believe that I was at home for 3 weeks. It was over in a flash. It was great to spend time with my family and friends, apologies to those I did not manage to see. I really enjoyed the freezing cold with the beautiful winter sun and frost. Powmill was lovely. Its quite surreal being back in Malawi. I was sweating from the second I got off the plane. Its really humid here and we have had some fantastic storms since I returned. Unfortunately I still don't have my biggest piece of luggage with everything that I needed to bring back, including my antimalarials. There are 5 haggis and cheese for our Burns Supper in the case, I think the haggis will be alive and running, hopefully not all over my clothes. Never mind, we can make stovies. South African Airways are not in the least helpful in locating and delivering my luggage.

My long flight was delayed. Before take off they decided to de-ice the plane because it had been on stand all day. Too bad they didn't decide to do it earlier in preparation for the flight. Then the gangway door was stuck to the plane and eventually there was a team of engineers trying to release it. There was a camera on the tail of the plane, we could see everything going on including the 6 car loads of people trying to release the plane from the door, or the door from the plane. I think it was eventually brute force that won the day. The entertainment did not finish there the finale was me fall unconscious, not with alcohol but I really should not have taken temazepam to help me sleep. Its not the first time that I have created havoc on a plane and probably won't be the last. They might have put me in 1st class to recover but all I got was a glass of water on the jump seat. I didn't come clean about the cause of my fainting but said I had a touch of malaria.

I had a great welcome back to Malawi, I was met at the airport by Sussanah, my car share, Erin, Peace Corps, and our new medical student. We had a cheese and wine that evening, minus the cheese in my case, and the next night Kwok, our established medical student cooked a fabulous Chinese meal for us. Harry was pleased to see me and the chickens are doing well, its eggs for tea tonight. The maize crop was about 2-3 feet high when I left its now over 6 feet some of it is about 8 feet. Everything is very green apart from the tap water which is brown.

You always have to be prepared for the unexpected in Malawi, public holidays are announced the night before and people turn up for work only to find there is none. I've returned from the UK to find that the government has withdrawn funding for nurse training and the college is closed. It is probably just a cost cutting exercise and funding will return soon allowing the college to re-open but we don't know when. If its an extended period of time it leaves me in difficult position. No job here, no job at home until June. I might just have to travel, it would be good to see Namibia, Botswana and Madagascar. Hopefully it will be resolved by next week.

Keep in touch, I'm on my last lap and its all the support and contact from home that has kept me going.