May 24, 2009

From moody to amused, most of the time. How things evolve here in our little cocoon. I started this piece on May 5 with the following entry:

The caterpillars are cocooning and so are we, it seems. Here we are in a state of virtual immobility, with nothing apparent happening on the outside but preparing for change on the inside. Much of our time is currently consumed by battling the bureaucracy, filling out forms and attempting to hop through the hoops that will allow us to spread our wings and fly out of here on June 22.

May Day has come and gone. We celebrated Labour by doing nothing, well, not entirely. We played golf and did as little else as possible.The extra free time afforded by IGCSE exams serves to emphasize the futility of trying to get anything done, more time to wait. More time to accomplish less. If the power is on we make dinner early to avoid the blackout. Then, of course the evening stretches out interminably.

The election talk provides some diversion, but really it is another case of wait and see. No one really knows what will happen, if all will go smoothly or all hell will break loose. Not much use in worrying: just more waiting.Even the activity I have been assigned is much less than active. Wandering about the golf course supervising while the kids have their lesson, not onerous but hardly stimulating.

Practising patience,

Suddenly sympathetic,

Wishing,

Waiting,

Wanting to be

That beautiful butterfly.

Now here we are on May 24 enjoying another quiet but pleasant weekend. In the interim the butterflies have not yet appeared; however, Malawi has been quite entertaining lately. As some of you know, we played in the Lilongwe Open golf tournament two weeks ago and much to my amazement, and amusement, I won the ladies section, as well as the closest to the pin. Never having won a trophy of any kind before, I find it hard to suppress a giggle whenever I glance at this one. And although J-M didn’t bring home any prizes, he was also delighted to participate in both the Lilongwe and Malawi Open events over the last two weeks.

While J-M was participating in the Malawi Open I joined my friends, Jen & Pam, to form a dazzle of zebras at the Run/Walk for Wildlife in support of the Lilongwe Wildlife Sanctuary. Isn’t that a lovely word for a herd of zebra’s? And as you can see from the photo we were quite dazzling.

As for the elections, they have come and gone. The concerns about post election riots were unfounded as the people turned out at the polls in large numbers to peacefully reelect the incumbent president and his party with a huge majority. From an outsider’s perspective it was all very colourful and interesting to see and hear the pre and post election discussions. Malawians also put the voters back home to shame as I compare the voter turnout here with that of the recent B.C. election. Most people here might not have much but they do appreciate their democratic right to vote and take this civic responsibility very seriously.

The next four weeks promise to be quite busy as we have all these triage decisions to make about what to pack and what to leave behind, plus the paperwork to get us out of here and back into Canada. Year end exams and reports are upon us as well as the various sporting and performance events not to mention the inevitable award ceremonies. It is that so-much-to-do-so-little-time part of the year. In the midst of which I have managed to book myself into a weekend yoga retreat at Pumulani June 5-7. What a lovely farewell treat that is going to be.

And with that mind, I had best get moving on all those other chores.