Week 3 August 31

Things are not always what they seem. Take the power outage Sunday morning for example. There was Jean-Marcel in the middle of frying up the bacon, with eggs and toast waiting to be cooked and poof. No power. After a cursory glance at the breakers and checking that the whole house was out of power, J-M packed everything up and went next door to Pam’s to finish cooking brunch. Naturally, it wasn’t until a little while later that he decided to investigate the electrical situation further, only to discover this wasn’t one of the random roving power outages. Instead we had somehow managed to trip the main breaker for the house. Problem solved, power returned, another lesson learned.

With the second week of classes under way, I am feeling only marginally more prepared but I am beginning to understand the layout of the campus, recognize some of my students, and understand my timetable. The language challenges are being overcome as well. By language challenges I am referring to English, not French or Chichewa. Translating British English in its English, Scots and Irish variations is an ongoing challenge around the school. I frequently find myself asking “does that mean…” just to be sure. As for Chichewa, the local language, that will take more time and I am hoping the offer of language classes will materialize.

Another great success on Monday: the washing machine is now operational. Martha, our housekeeper, seemed as fascinated by it as we were when we finally figured out how to get it going. Looks like she and Jean-Marcel will have some fun figuring it out in the next couple of days. We’re hoping he can find the cycle that takes less than an hour and a half. Otherwise washing will be a rather slow process around here. But at least this means we don’t have to ask Martha to wash everything by hand. Many people do rely on hand washing but it tends to reduce the life span of the clothing rather considerably we hear.

Differences here? Well, the rhythm of the day is different for starters. I wasn’t sure how I would take to the early mornings but so far I am actually enjoying them. Mostly, I think, because it is light out even though I am up so early. The sun is rising as I get up at 5:30 and definitely up by the time I leave for school at 6:15 so it doesn’t seem difficult at all. The sunsets are indeed beautiful but when the sun goes down it really does disappear. By 7 pm it is very dark which makes it feel much later, and actually helps when one needs to go to bed early enough to make that 5:30 wake up call.

The school day is from 7:15 to 1:30 Monday to Thursday and 7:15 to 12:15 on Fridays. There are two half hour breaks in the day, one on Fridays. Thursdays there is also one less class to leave time for assembly. And although I have more classes and more students to teach this year, it doesn’t feel like more so far. I might revisit that assessment in a few weeks. We’ll see. Activities haven’t started yet and the marking is still light. It’s only been two weeks after all.

Have I mentioned the weather? Warm and dry, dry and warm, dry, warm etc. Does make for a fair amount of dust at this time of year. And smoke. Dry season seems to be burning season. Apparently there is an ongoing need to burn off grass and maize fields. Not quite sure why, but depending on the wind direction it can certainly feel like the Okanagan in forest fire season. It can also be quite chilly in the early morning hours, which is quite refreshing but does mean we need blankets at hand to get a comfortable sleep. This does seem to be changing as it is getting warmer already and a fan is on our shopping list. I expect we will need it soon.


The dry season also has the added benefit of making the ball roll farther on the golf course, and since this course is 7,000 metres that is most welcome. My caddy, Charles, has a good sense of humour. Very important if he is to survive watching me play. If he can maintain his current level of patience, who knows, I might even get to be a better player. This whole business of playing with a caddy was a bit unnerving at first and also creates quite a crowd on the course when playing with a foursome, pretty strange.

So here we are at the end of three weeks, driving on the left with confidence. The windshield wipers come on a lot less now. We even anticipate the potholes and speed bumps on our usual routes and can find most places we need to get to without much difficulty or anxiety.

Ongoing challenges include getting our medical coverage organized and driving at night. The former is a bureaucratic nightmare and the latter is just a little hairy. Local drivers use their high beams indiscriminately. Local pedestrians seem to wear dark clothing. Cyclists are not equipped with lights, nor are most of the broken down or ailing vehicles stranded along or on the roads. It goes without saying there are few street lights to help with any of this. The best strategy seems to be to drive as little as possible at night and stick to our well known routes when we do.

On the plus side, we have not only located the nearest vegetable market, close by but in a direction we hadn’t ventured previously, but we also found the Italian restaurant recommended by folks at the school. We tried the gelato and have promised ourselves a return trip the next time we have a dinner time power outage, unless we find a gas canister first. The gas canister is definitely on our shopping list.