Days with M

Got a car. Yessss, life without a car here is somewhat limited. Getting number plates (the car is used, but straight from Japan) and the first road trip.

 Cape Maclear. fun.

 Very fun. 

 Zomba plateau. Stunning, but super cold. 

Zomba plateau. 

And more

 at work. power cut breaks and phone charging at those times

porridge with papaya from the back yard. sweet melon growing super fast. and the best present ever 

 landscape just outside lilongwe and the presidential residence

brilliant glasses from cut bottles (will have some made too), modern hair salon and belgian meets malawi in ultimate

on the left the view on the centre of lilongwe. not a big city, but has bike lanes!

Bits of life

our two (a bit filthy, but still lovely) dogs. and how their food is transported

 

 our lovely house and the new herbs I got (the empty pot is where the sweet melons were planted)

our house-warming party and almost daily shared dinners with neighbours and friends

One month in

Just a quick update on the last weeks. I've been here a month now - the time flies with all the nice people around, little weekday pleasures and weekend trips. 

A day trip to Dedza. Beautiful landscape, quite nice pottery. 

 My new (permanent) little house. Freshly painted, simple but really comfy and cozy, and perfectly located between the town centre and my office - 10 mins biking each way. And the most important: a great housemate (on the right) and next door neighbour (on the left). 

 Kawalezi Tea Estate. Amazing scenery. 

 Kawalezi Tea Estate: Fairtrade tea made safely :)

VSO Peer Support workshop in Chinteche. Lots of fun & beautiful stormy lake. 

Settling in

So, after almost 2 weeks, I begin to slowly settle in. I got a house (temporary & shared), a desk, a bike and a first frisbee practice completed :) Having a bike and lovely colleagues who insist on driving you everywhere makes things much easier. Biking back after dark is not so fun with hardly any streetlights, but I'm getting used to it. I guess I will just look for a better front light to be able to avoid potholes ;)

Plus there's more to do in Lilongwe that I expected. There are frisbee pick up games twice a week, yoga classes, running meet ups, Afropop classes, movie nights, acoustic nights, salsa nights, quiz nights, jazz afternoons, gospel concerts, occasional poetry & spoken word evenings, volleyball league (apparently massive, but there's a holiday break at the moment). Seriously, more to do than evenings in a week. 

my office at the CSEC 

 first shopping. coffee, rice, peanut butter & the newspaper made in Malawi :)

got it second hand from another expat. very happy! 

my little, temporary home. cozy.