Busy busy busy
on Nikki in Malawi (Malawi), 01/Sep/2010 18:54, 34 days ago
Last week I was back down in Chikhwawa again on the Monday and Tuesday to revisit the students there and see how they were getting on. Anyhow I decided this time as I was being let loose all by myself that I would drive. This time I took my camera to take pictures of the road and the obstacles but sadly the battery died and I didn't get many at all. And there would have been some amazing ones. The picture below is the view of the hills/mountains as you are coming out of Chikhwawa. (And a very badly focused picture also– but then my camera battery said no)Now if you can imagine a steep road curving all the way down those hills, with nothing but cliff on one side.On the way up I had to overtake 3 huge broken down Lorries, who have of course conveniently broken down on a steep part of the hill right on the apex of the blind bends. We are coming to the conclusion that it is probably a law in Malawi that if you break down it should always occur at either a junction where there is no room to overtake or on a blind bend, preferably on the steepest hill you can find. 'You always get lots of warning though (if it is in town– a long queue of traffic and if it is in the country – half a dead tree for about a hundred yards in front). Will have to get some pictures so you can see what I mean.Otherwise have been busy supervising the students on the ward, doing OSCE tests, skills practice in the lab, lots of marking, and helping the college with the end of year collation of all the exam marks and clinical evaluations. The students all finish the school year at the end of this week and are then off on holiday, as am I. Very excited about that as have friends coming from the UK with more goodies for me. Prior to that though on Friday am meeting up with Bex and Matt who have also just returned from a short break in the UK, and who have also ............ yup you guessed it brought back stuff for me, and happily have picked up two parcels from the main VSO office that were sent out back in July for my birthday and have now finally arrived. It feels rather like Christmas.