Out of Africa...

So, we organised our flights back to the UK through a number of manic phonecalls and then a plater of emails between London, Addis Ababa and Malawi and finally got a date to return to London.  Unfortunately our onward flights to Belfast were going to cost us far too much (£50 to change and then an extra £230) so we decided to rebook flights with a different airline (Easyjet) which worked out at less than £50 all in!

The only problem was - and this required the utmost of careful negotiations and tact - our final flight back into Belfast wasn't going to be for 5 days after we arrived in London! We would be stuck in England for 5 days so what could we do?

Thankfully a close friend, Aaron, and his partner Tara, helpfully agreed to let us stay with them for the few days we were to be there - a God send!  It was all looking good and it would be great to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since the wedding.

It was so nice to be back in cool/cold weather too! We landed after 13 hours of travelling (excluding the 7 hour to, and overnight stay in Lilongwe) from Malawi to the Congo, on to Addis Ababa and then to London.

We arrived in around 6.30am and went to pick up a hire car to help us get around over the next few days - it was once again nice to be back driving.  We got to Aaron and Tara's shortly after 8am just as Tara was about to head to work - and she was shocked to see these two tanned figures appear at her door in summery clothes!

It took me a while to acclimaitise (hence the flipflops and t-shirt) but Danielle was feeling the cold straight away so our first port of call, after a quick nap, was into High Wycombe to get some clothes to wear that were more suitable to the temperatures in the UK!

Danielle really felt the whole reverse-culture-shock sensation while we were driving around.  Not seeing multitudes of people walking around, seeing animals actually in fields, how green everything was in comparison to Africa, not seeing people working in the fields to the same scale, and even having running water that you could drink!  I don't know why I don't get those sensations - I seem to be able to switch from one world to another like turning on/off a light.  It is possible that some of that comes from the years spent as a child at numerous times throughout the year living in Donegal in the West of Ireland.  I remember having to go and collect water from the river and local wells so that there was something to wash and drink, I've experienced cereal with the fresh milk still warm from the cow's udder.  When in Donegal I wouldn't think twice about going outside for a pee, back in Belfast I wouldn't consider it - an immediate switch happens and I think that is the same between UK and African living.

We also began looking for work for when we got home to cover us until we would leave for Korea.  We had a quick chat on Skype with our recruitment company out there too and finally set a firm date for our interviews which were scheduled for 5.20am for Danielle and 6.20am for me! Doh!
We had a great time in England - we got to go into London to see Wicked (though Danielle's cousin Rachel was off that night - she plays Elphaba (the green witch)) and enjoyed it so much that we swore we'd go back again to see it when Rachel was working.  We also got to enjoy Bonfire night too and it sort of made up for not having been around for Hallow'een.


Hot food, good craic and, of course, fireworks! We had a great time!  And even little Sam showed no fear or shock at seeing or hearing the fireworks at all!



On the Sunday night we left and headed to Luton airport and got the first flight home to Belfast.  We arrived in and again got a hire car just to help us get around and surprise everyone.  We stopped up to my parents' house first.  My brother Tomás opened the door saying, "Holy S%&T! Holy S*"t!" quickly followed by tears from my mum.  After a bit of breakfast we drove over to Danielle's mum's and again there were tears flowing as they were so surprised and happy to have us back home.

So, that's us home until Jan/Feb when we head off again.

(Well, its techincally the end of Jan 2011 now and we now know that we leave Belfast for South Korea on the 15th of February.  We have been told we will be placed somewhere in the Cheungbuk province - an area that wasn't even one of our choices!  So, the next time we post it will be from Korea!

It will be much easier to post on the blog from there - super internet speeds! And I am sure there will be so much to tell!  I also hope to get some video footage on here too so that is all still to come!)

Korea was calling and we had to go!

Well hello folks!

It has been a very long time since we last posted anything on here and that has been due to a number of various reasons that I will quickly skirt over so we're all on the same page! lol!

Since I last posted we have celebrated Danielle's 25th birthday while in Malawi.  This was preceded by a number of bouts of what appeared to be an emotional breakdown (nothing to do with her age) due to the medication that we were taking for Malaria - Lariam.  It seems that the drug was causing her to be extremely overly emotional resulting in tears flowing at any point - even in the middle of laughing she would break down into floods of tears!

There was an up side to the tablets in that they temporarily rid Danielle of any intolerances to the food types that normally plagued her - but the final straw was when she started having nightmares about the snakes and scorpions crawling over her during her sleep.  So it was clear a change was needed.

So we made a big thing of celebrating her birthday as a bit of a pick-her-up!  I was a bit crap to be honest - we were in the middle of nowhere and the option of even getting her a present was a far fetched one! A card.... well, they don't even seem to have postcards here nevermind Birthday cards!

We went out to the next lodge, Chintheche Inn where two of our friends Nick and Zana are in charge, for a lovely meal and a change of scene.  It was great food which we were so glad it lived up to our expectations. 

On Danielle's actual birthday we all got together to have a brie (BBQ) with Richard, Lauren, Zana and Nick.

During the course of the evening of the party it was sort of decided that Danielle and I needed to escape from Makuzi for a bit and it was agreed that if we could sort out the logistics of it all then we would take the following weekend off.  We decided to head south ( a 7 hour drive) to a music festival called Lake of Stars - an event that was also to be Danielle's first experience of CAMPING!!! (Something she swore she would never do!)

So, we went for broke and did it - borrowed a tent, some mats to sleep on, the ute and hit the road!

The drive down was great - it felt like we'd had our wings released and it was such a relief to see Danielle suddenly come back to life as we enjoyed the scenery, trees and people.

Even though we had already done our sums and knew it was going to be an expensive 5 days away - we knew we both needed it and even if it left us broke it would be worth it!

Lake of Stars is quite a good idea as far as festivals go.  It is organised by an organisation in London and really tries to attract UK based artists along with a number of African based ones to perform at a weekend festival.  It is also promoted via STA which means that a lot of young people take the opportunity to visit Malawi for Lake of Stars and then also either have a safari or travel around the country which helps feed into the economy of the locals - not necessarily the government (which is possibly the bane of the country's problems).

Anyway... it was great to get away and I really enjoyed the driving too - could have been a longer trip but work called!

The next thing we knew emails expressing concern over our skype connection and telephone line began to come through to let us know that if the connection wasn't improved then we would not be able to conduct the interviews for Korea... and therefore would not gain a placement for travelling there.

This stumped us... there was no way we could possibly do anything about the quality of phone or internet connection in the whole of Malawi... so we were pushed into making the extremely difficult decision to leave Malawi and return home... devastating for both us, our friends, the school and the children.



Danielle's class.

Colm's class.

The following week, after numerous phonecalls and emails, we were flying back to London.

What happened next I will blog later this week! Promise!





Greetings from Makuzi Beach in Malawi!

It's been a while since we last wrote on here...

We were back in Belfast for exactly 20 days... which was just enough time for Danielle's sister to eventually give birth to a beautiful baby girl, Sophia.  It also allowed us time to catch up with some of our friends and family before our next 3 months away in the wilderness of Africa.

We left Belfast on 20th September on an afternoon flight to London Heathrow and then, a few hours later, we boarded a flight to Addis Ababa.  By 6:30ish the nest morning we had landed in Ethiopia and then had a short 4 hour flight on to Lilongwi in Malawi.
The airport in Lilongwi was relatively simple, old and easy to pass through - one room and a runway!  A man called Sam was there to collect us and bring us into the city of Lilongwe itself to where Lara lived, and where we would be spending our first night.  Lara had only recently moved back to Lilongwi from Makuzi Beach so that her sons could go to a proper school for a few years.  Prior to this year they were home-schooled.

The drive itself was an eye-opener as there were so many people just walking... though it appeared that it wasn't to anywhere in particular!  There were the odd number of schools scattered here and there with hundreds of pupils just finishing for the day (around 1pm) which we initially thought was a bit early however they do start school at 7am.
When we arrived at Lara's we met her and then opted for a few hours sleep and a shower before dinner.

We woke to a very dusty and misty evening in what sounded like an alien city that we had only ever encountered via television and film.  Outside was the hum of insects, traffic and birds and cutting above all of this was the evening Call to Prayers for the Muslims at a nearby Mosque.  By 8pm we were back in bed and preparing for an early start and a long drive from Lilongwe to Makuzi the next morning.

Wednesday morning came all too quickly - again wakened by the hum of animals and just before 5am there was the Call to Prayers - which was a very pleasing way to rise... so we were more than ready for our 7.30am 4 hour car journey north.
During the next 4 hours we learnt a lot about driving on the roads in Malawi - which included the necessity to use your horns at least every 100 yards or so... not due to traffic (which we were surprised that we did have a traffic jam in Lilongwe - a place that as a city appears so sparse and undeveloped we couldn't see where everyone was possibly trying to get to) but due to the roads being regarded as public footpaths.  It became clear that forgetting your Drivers' License was a big No-No too as there were randomly placed Police check points scattered along our journey, though they did have extremely varying levels of security being applied depending on whether you knew the officers, had previously bribed the officers or just didn't mind being detained indefinitely at their leisure.

We soon arrived at Makuzi Beach and settled into our accommodation for the next 3 months, a three roomed abode which they kindly had put a double bed mattress into along with some cutlery and pots and pans.  An outside toilet and shower told us we were in the lap of luxury... but the shower doesn't work.

We have met some wonderfully accommodating people here so far... not least Richard and Lauren who are managing the nearby resort of Makuzi Beach Lodge - without them we would probably have packed our bags and returned home.

I will try to add more as soon as I can - though the internet is a separate problem in Malawi... at 115bps it is possibly the slowest connection I have experienced since the internet was first accessible to me.

I will leave you with the revelation that although Malawi is only 1 hour ahead of GMT, it seems to be 4 hours behind GMT - our day begins with the morning chorus (and a cockerel or three) at around 4.30am, which gives us some time to lie in bed and contemplate the day ahead (or to try and get back to sleep).  We walk to the school just after 6.30am for classes at 7 - and at present we finish teaching and are back home by 9am.  Lunch is ideally around 10.30am, dinner is started around 3 though normally eaten at 5pm just before bed at 6.30/7pm as it is completely dark outside by this point.  Not sure how we will last past 6pm when we get home to Belfast at Christmas!

All the best for now!

Back to work...

Danielle and I have settled into our new roles in Uclés as Dance and Music teachers respectively... and so far so good!

We had sort of hoped that it would have meant a little less work to do - but unfortunately it hasn't!

I've also had to explain to different classes how I lost my wedding ring at the beach in Hospitalet de l'Infant and that there are somethings you just cannot replace no matter how much money you have.  One of the teachers even thought I was bluffing!

I will have a few pics from the last wee holiday and from Uclés (which starts it's own Fiesta activities tonight and runs all weekend so we will have many sleepless nights ahead).

Cheers,

Colm

Long time no writing...

It has been a while since I have been able to get online to write on this blog... and to be honest I'm not sure there is much to add!

We finished our first month working for Forenex and thoroughly enjoyed it! The food was rubbish, it was so hot that it was difficult to sleep, lack of sleep made us stupid and Danielle nearly turned to drink to ease her stresses! lol! But the kids were great craic and we had a wonderful time meeting them and making some new friends amongst the other teachers.
And Danielle enjoyed it so much that she volunteered us to be available for another fortnight should we be needed! Doh!

We then stayed with one of the other teachers, Charley, and her husband for the weekend until we had to travel on the Med.  She isn't always up for having her photo taken.... though sometimes its hard to stop her...

So, we set off for a short holiday last week and joined up with Danielle's Mum, Charley-Louise and Pearse in Hospitalet de l'Infant... which is about 45 mins south of Tarragona.
The journey here has been something of a story too - the Spainish website for the trains won't work in English so we had to do it in Spanish... so we booked an overnight train to Tarragona from Madrid... all that was ok!  Then when we actually got the train, the Preferential cabin we got was from the 1960s, and smelt like it hadn't been cleaned since then either! We also had to share it with 4 others so the opportunity to sleep for 7 hours flew out the window!
To cut a long long journey short - after a really awful night's travelling I lost my treasured straw hat and when we got to Tarragona we had to wait for a further hour in the dull and cold street as Danielle's Mum had sent our lift to the Bus Station for some unknown reason.... but we're all ok and smiling now!!! 

Hospitalet isn't much to write about - its small, everything closes at siesta and its full of French, Germans and Spaniards... plus a handful of Brits and the 5 of us that are Irish.  Having said that, it has a summer programme of 'entertainment' (they seem to have used that in its loosest possible terms) which has at times been entertaining.  There was a night which was billed as Dancing with Mar Blava - which turned out to be two different schools of dance, one contemporary and the other Flamenco, at it was genuinely really good - especially the Flamenco!

They also have outdoor cinema once a week, but it was Avatar last week and this week its Invictus so we aren't going to bother with that.  Every so often something else pops up that keeps us amused at night - otherwise it is the beach from 12pm until around 8pm at night (except for me who has work to do!).

So... it's time I got back to said work.. no rest for the wicked!

C

Quick there's an internet connection - use it!

We haven't had internet access for just over a week - and all of the teachers have been going spare as we are about to enter our last week of teaching and need to arrange travel and accomodation for next weekend!

We've been having lots of fun too!

Last night we took part in a Terror Night organised for the kids - to pretty much scare the tripe out of them... and in the majority of cases it worked!

I had taken part in something similar in my first week of teaching but more teachers took part last night which made it a lot more fun!

Danielle and I also taught a wee Merengue class on Wednesday night for a laugh!

I've lots of emails to respond to - and photos to upload so I'll try and get on here again over the weekend to update you further on our antics!

Drrrring! Drrrrring! Back to school!

Danielle and I started back to school this week with us both teaching Elementary English to 8 - 11 year olds in an old monastery in Uclés.

Lots of Lesson Plans along with 5 hours of English per-day!

The food is well below standard, served on prison style metal trays (apparently that was actually the norm here in Spain up until the 00s started!), and the double windows and doors just magnify the sun and heat so we all spend much of the day dying! But otherwise it is a lovely place!

This is the corridor from our staff room to my classroom.

And this was my classroom at the start of the week - but now it has a load of pictures on the walls and across the middle of the room. 

The children had an exam today... which one described as 'isi' (easy) - but unfortunately the same child didn't do too well in the exam! Oops there! Wasn't that easy then! lol!

We did have a fantastic night on Wednesday when we watched the Semi-Final match between Germany and Spain.  I admitted that I really was convinced that Germany was going to wipe the floor with a slow and lathargic Spanish team.... but was extremely pleasantly surprised to watch them finally step into gear and also see almost 400 students (packed into a small corridor) go absolutely wild as Spain scored!

We will spend Sunday evening with them too - hopefully watching Spain win!