14. June 2026

Reasons to be Cheerful

So the power issues of last weekend continued into the week and it wasn't until Tuesday that the Escom men, clad in orange overalls, descended on the village and salvaged the situation. Whilst waiting for transport to arrive and take them back to town, the engineers made use of the football field and played a quick game against the locals!

Speaking of football, I'm writing this to the sound of a very excitable match between two local villages. Everyone comes out to watch, piling on to the pitch to celebrate when a goal is scored and dancing at half time! Celebrations are likely to go on until well into this evening. Now, where did I put those earplugs...?

One of the houses nearby has installed a TV recently and there have been a few times this week where they've had football on, booming at full volume well into the night. Mentioning this to my brother on the phone yesterday evening, I asked, "Is there something big going on in the football world?" His dry reply was, "Erm, just the World Cup!" Oops. I'm not much of a sports fan, and with my immersion into lake life here I'm obviously losing touch with reality!

Generous Folk

More generosity from the UK this week, as we finalised three more student sponsorships starting from September. Then, at the end of the week, the offer of one more - hooray - and a suitable student has already been identified. Every day, I'm seeing what a difference this is making to students who would otherwise be unable to attend school. Thank you to all UK friends and family concerned - you know who you are!

No hard-sell, but please do message me if you would like to know more about sponsoring a needy student.

Talking and Chalking

I read that expression this week in a Malawian short story about teaching. It's been another week of talking and chalking for me, with some great work from the students. I think I'm finally getting better at 'chalking', being able to write more speedily and with less chalk breakage. I do, however, arrive back in the staff room after a lesson absolutely covered in the stuff!

Away from the chalk, there has been some great 'talking' too, including chatting to Andy, the founder and director of the school, who has received fantastic news this week; he has been appointed Dean of the Anglican Diocese of Lake Malawi - a huge (and well-deserved) achievement, about which he is being characteristically humble.

Madam C and I also managed an enjoyable catch-up this weekend, putting the world to rights. It was just what the doctor ordered for me, as I'd had a couple of days of feeling a long way from home this week - short-lived though, as today I've been back to having to pinch myself in order to believe I'm getting to experience this wonderful place! I took myself off with my new camera to capture the lake looking wild and beautiful this morning.

Monkey Mates

I'm getting very attached to my monkey mates here and have enjoyed photographing them this week. They are endlessly entertaining!

Weekend Housework

If you've just done your vacuuming for the weekend, please take a moment to wonder at that marvellous machine you plug in on a regular basis (and appreciate the electricity used to power it)! My weekend cleaning relies on my trusty little broom (which I love but it is time consuming) and my mop which I wring out by hand. Actually, much like hand-washing my smalls, there's something very therapeutic about going back to basics of cleaning. I may have to bring my little broom back home with me in the autumn!

Blogging Off

That's all for this week. I'm going to get this posted whilst I still have power and internet - daily outages continue to be a thing.

More next week, but in the meantime please follow me on Instagram @malawi_enjoying_ourselves.

Thanks for reading!

Clare