clare in malawi

I got home from Malawi at the end of last week and have been trying to think since then about what to put onto this blog first, but it’s really hard to decide. One thing that is very striking about returning home is just how complicated our lives are here and how dependent we are on the rest of the world to maintain our lifestyles. In September, three headteachers from Malawi will be visiting their Link schools in Scotland – they are very excited about this as they’ve never left Malawi before. However, it is hard to imagine what they will make of Heathrow airport as their first impression of the UK. And then there’s all the other things that we take for granted: it has occurred to me more than once in the past few days to wonder how I could explain a washing machine to my Malawian friends.

The most important thing though is to pass on the greetings of a whole group of villages and Mlozi school to my entire family, all my friends, all the schools in the Gairloch ASG and the whole community (this sounds extravagant but is entirely genuine). They were delighted with the greetings, the pictures of our area, the letters and drawings from the children, and the gifts from our schools and community. Although materially they have very little compared to us, they have also sent back some drawings, pieces of writing and handicrafts done by the pupils as well as a specially-commissioned carving for the school. The fact that a visitor had come and shown an interest in helping them was tremendously important and exciting for them and, as the headteacher said at my farewell ceremony, they hope it will be the beginning of a long-lasting friendship between our schools and communities.

I have lots and lots of pictures which are going to take quite a lot of sorting through – but I’ll put some of my favourites on Flickr asap.