Noises

One of the things that I didn't realise before coming out this time is just how big Blantyre is – it has a population of nearly three quarters of million people. Yet at night time it is totally silent because a great number of these people don't have electricity, so will just go to bed when it gets dark.

Today is a Saturday so it is exceptionally noisy this afternoon there seems to be a lot of clubbing going on – it is rather like being at the cusp of several stages at a festival, music and djs blaring in all direction. Mixed with that is the noise of the noisy English people at the pool, there is never many people staying here but it seems a place to come to eat and swim in at the weekend. Quietly in the background to all this cacophony are the weekday usual quiet sounds; the huge dried seed pods falling from the trees, the bleating of the next door goats, the call to prayer from the mosque and the beautiful singing of the the shy birds at the side of the pool that I've yet to identify. I've downloaded a book of southern African birds with sounds so I will have a trawl and see if I can find out what they are.

Vignettes

I realise that I am never going to manage to write a diary style blog so I will instead write small bits and pieces as they occur.

Arrived

We safely arrived in Malawi last night. The journey was uneventful apart from being stuck on the runway at Jo'burg for 40 mins on the runway on the way to Malawi, fortunately we were both so tired that we slept through it as it was very hot. Thankfully that was our only flight on Air Malawi as their planes (plane?) always looks so tired.

Dawn from the plane flying into Africa was stunning. The sky was so red and the little clouds on the horizon looked like silhouettes of trees and houses so it looked like land. It was magical. There were also little 'hills' of black cloud below with local intense electrical storms.

It was lovely to be back in the hotel again and to see all the staff again, it is definitely like a home for us here. I love the sounds and smells of this place - I wish I could bottle it all up and take it home so I could instantly be brought back here. The smells are of warm earth and wood smoke. The sounds are of a beautiful bird song (I will have to find out what the birds are at the hotel, I never see them but their song is wonderful), distant people laughing, music, sometimes drums and the call to prayer.

Julie and Chris who've been here since Tuesday met us last night for a working dinner to discuss the progress we made and what we want to do this week.

I slept like a log! The bed is so comfortable and I am really grateful for air conditioning.