Nkwichi in the rain

After 4 days of hot weather and beautiful blue skies with white fluffy clouds we woke to torrential rain. Very welcome as it cools and refreshes!

Yesterday we all had dinner together on Venus beach, Malcolm, Helen and Kiri, Fiona the American volunteer and ourselves. Lightning over the Malawian hills gave a beautiful light show. In the night we heard thunder rolling across the sky. Very different to England where we hear a single clap of thunder. Here it rolls across the sky like train running above the clouds, coming from one direction and rushing past to the other side of the sky.

The next day was our first at the lodge with rain, the cloudy skies mean no power and therefore no PC’s and no internet. Malcolm has taken the boat out on the lake with a laptop and will use wireless dongle from the Malawian TNM network to connect and collect the email .

The internet service has become critical here again, our provider has been warning that the satellite signal level is way too low and that they will have to cut us off.  This has been ongoing for a while and was an issue when we first came in August 2009.

It seems now to have reached a final stage and so yesterday was spent tuning the satellite antenna. We improved the signal a bit but it is still a way off the required level.

The claim was that the antenna was warped but now following some images of the view from the antenna it seems that there may be too many trees around the location. We are still discussing.

Peggy is teaching daily and enjoying it very much. All the staff are so happy that teacher is back, and she has had good feedback on success in training individuals from the other expat managers.

Those who we brought requested items back from the UK for are thrilled with their new acquisitions.

Veronica and Flora with their watches, Flora is so happy!  Every time I see her I ask the time, she loves showing her new watch.

The roof at Songea house has problems, the thatch has come off about a quarter of it. The builders are busy making repairs before more rain comes.  There are small leaks in some of the chalets as well, It seems that there has been so little rain so far this year the rooves have not been properly tested by the water yet. This is important because we have guest arriving tomorrow for one of the leaky chalets.

It is funny to see the local staff walking around with umbrellas, something expected of England!

We sleep well and the food is simple and delicious. We have enough!

Its Friday, we wake to blue skies but the thunder rumbles again. By 7 in the morning the storm is on us, Lighting flashes across the sky, and the rain falls in sheets. Everything is immediately soaked and the paths run like streams. There is no power from the solar cells so again no power or network. The sky is dark and I read a while and enjoy the cool that the rain brings.