"Water shedding?"

Last December I believe I mentioned "load shedding" in South Africa. As of yesterday, we seem to be experiencing water shedding here in Blantyre. At least, that's what our handyman called it. I don't know if that's a common term, or if he just made it up. We had just asked him if he had shut off our water for his work, and he explained that it was our whole area that was affected. He claimed it was something political. Not sure what anyone would gain by turning off the water, but I don't know much about politics here. Anyway, our water still isn't back on, so we are just waiting. We have plenty of drinking water available, so that's the most important thing. I keep reminding myself that some people are living without readily available water all the time, so surely I can stand it for a day.

We will see what the Bertrands have to say about it when they get back from Lilongwe.

Some of you were asking if the escort I got into the prison indicated that it was not a safe place. This week our friendly guard told us to phone him when we get to Chichiri and he would come to escort us in. I suspect that it's simply a matter of procedure that was neglected before. I still feel perfectly safe among my students, so I am not worried.

My friend Lyca popped into my class on Monday. I was busily doing an exercise on subject, verb, and object with them, to make sure they understood what they were supposed to do, so I wasn't paying attention to anyone coming or going. When I turned around and looked at the whole class again, there was Lyca, sitting in the back, smiling at me! What a lovely surprise! The students were busy for a bit with their work, so we had a chance to chat for a minute. She was in to teach her TEEM class in the women's section and decided to surprise me with a visit. It certainly worked! She soon had to leave for her own class, but it was good to see her again. (TEEM, for you who have forgotten, stands for Theological Education by Extension, Malawi. It's basically Bible study from what I can gather. She's very good with her students.)

Tuesday was a national holiday, Martyrs Day. I understand it's in honour of political martyrs rather than the religious variety. It didn't affect us much, since Tuesday is a day off for us anyway. The churches had services of prayer and fasting, according to our friend the guard at Chichiri. At least he said his church did, and St. Michael's and All Angels seemed to have something going. We could hear their music all afternoon.

I was asked last week to make up questions for a test for my Forms 1&2 classes. I handed them in on Friday. I hope they are what is needed. It's hard to know what kind of questions to ask about grammar, other than just the usual exercises. So that's what I did. I will likely find out this week if they are satisfactory.

Thursday was another busy day at our house. It was Fatima's usual day to come and clean up, but our handyman had also arranged to come and work on installing our new shelving unit in our kitchen. So poor Fatima had to work around him for the second week in a row! She's very good at her job and managed to do her usual work in spite of the challenge. We are very happy with her.

Well, there isn't too much else to say. Things are pretty routine. We still enjoy our work and keep hoping that they will increase us to five days a week. Maybe when the new term starts in April (I think) we will be able to persuade them that we can do more.

Meanwhile we are doing well. Life is good. As they say in our church services, God is good all the time.

I wish I could have gotten a picture of Steve in a huddle with his students! He had given them a game to play to practise their mathematics, and he was apparently explaining it to one of the groups. Well, everyone gathered round. I happened to see him from my classroom, in the centre of a large group of Malawian men, all intent on what he was showing them. A perfect teaching moment!

The dogs, fascinated by the stray dog outside the gate.