Week 2

August 24 2008 Week 2

The week started extremely well. Both of our shipments of goods, from Switzerland and Vancouver, not only arrived at the airport but were liberated by customs and delivered to us. Even better, we have found only one broken coffee mug. Everything else appears to have made it intact. We do indeed feel blessed.

Opening our boxes has felt a little like Christmas every day. I can’t remember when I have been so happy to see a decent can opener. We are certainly getting great joy out of small conveniences these days and these have offset the down times when the stress of trying to get things organized felt overwhelming. There are just so many little things to deal with and everything seems to take more time than we expect. It’s all part of the learning process.

Classes started Monday as well, and although I felt completely unprepared, the kids have been very tolerant of my small goofs. My colleagues are also both cheerful and helpful. Tuesday and Wednesday I felt completely frazzled but by Thursday I my equilibrium was returning. Perhaps it was the lovely dinner Arnaud cooked for us that helped. Bœuf bourguignon and a nice glass of red wine certainly help raise the sagging spirits.

Somehow we managed to get to the end of the first full week of classes reasonably unscathed. Friday classes ended early, as promised, at 12:15, and the whole staff was invited to lunch in the garden at the director’s house, a very congenial affair. Lunch was followed by a round of golf: nine holes for me with the ladies and 18 for Jean-Marcel, who had started earlier since he didn’t attend the luncheon.


Successes of the week:
• The arrival of the boxes.
• Getting all the papers and stickers for the car so that we can drive legally.
• Finding the bank and depositing the first pay cheque.
• Getting the bank to give us some cash from said cheque.
• Only one power outage so far.
• Finding the food store that has better quality produce, bread and meat.
• Finding the Korean restaurant again and enjoying a meal there.
• Finding Dedza, the town with a well known pottery, and purchasing a set of locally made dishes.
• Buying some delicious local tomatoes from the roadside vendors on the return from Dedza.