Mikä Malawi

Last week I turned 29, should I freak out? That´s like hitting the thirties.. No, I am actually quite happy about it. Growing older and wiser is not bad at all. I am glad to be in the right place in the right time, knowing what I am doing, knowing why am I doing it and above all, enjoying doing it! So many stupid things I´ve done in my life and repeated way too many mistakes, I am glad to have these brains of a 29 year old me J Love the view but tough roads to ride. And some hundred meters from here a two meter long python crossed the road when I was walking so need to watch where you put your feet also! My motorbike finally came to Mzuzu. Things happen slowly, yes you know it already and because of one thing and another it took quite some time for me to get my bike. But it´s here now and we are out in the field doing the work that we are suppose to be doing.  First things first, we are terribly late with the pass-on program so that was the first thing we started to work on.

The weekend has been just great! I´ve been out a lot to see Mzuzu, getting to know new people and I´ve really enjoyed it. People are friendly and happy, they smile a lot and smile is always good for you. I think we should smile much more at home, we often let little things bother us too much. Nightlife is all about dancing and I must say it´s a very good exercise to do. Today I read the news from Tohmajärvi, Finland where a cowhouse was on fire and 40 cows died. It´s terrible, no one should have to face such tragedy. It also brought my thoughts to a farmer whom I went to see on Friday. She had one cow, her livelihood is pretty much depending on that one cow. The cow was a nice jersey cow, she had well kept “khola” (the “cowhouse”, will get you pictures later). Everything seemed to be in good order. Unfortunately the cow had been sick for a month now and on Friday morning it had died. It had been treated 3 times during the sickness but there is continues shortage on animal drugs.

Almost 3 months have passed in Malawi now and I am getting nicely settled in to Mzuzu. The weather is getting colder now that we are getting closer to winter. Well winter in Malawi cannot be compared to winter in Finland, I would still consider this as a Finnish summer. Our house starts to feel more like home every day and I am learning how to cook Filipino food which is so delicious.  The president died some time ago so we are facing big changes now in Malawi. The national mourning started with 10 days but was soon extended to 30 days. The whole episode was quite strange and I am convinced that the whole world knew about the death of the president before the news were finally released to Malawians. The dead president was travelling around the country, he came to Mzuzu also. The money spent on the funeral exceeds over 1,1 million in euros which is just a bit too much in a country where people die of hunger every day. But we have a new woman president now and hopefully things will cha