B&B's Blantyre Blog

Hello! Ben here - long time, no blog. We've kept meaning to write one, but with this hokey kokey of lockdown and coronavirus we keep waiting for things to be more known or certain before we do! But of course, things keep being unknown and now unfortunately we may only have a couple of weeks left in beautiful Malawi! Lazarus Chakwera Some big things have happened in Malawi since we last posted. Mainly, there's a new president! There's generally a really great buzz around him and what he could do for the country. If you're interested this BBC article gives a pretty good overview of Mr Lazarus Chakwera. He seems to be genuinely not corrupt and over the past few weeks we have been seeing arrest after arrest of corrupt officials who had been getting away with murder (sometimes literally). So that's exciting, it's really cool to see action being taken and there being a new hope for the future of Malawi! Holidayyyyy Over the past couple of months we&

Hi everyone! It's been a  wee while since our last update, quite frankly because things have been changing at such a pace that we have barely been able to understand what's going on ourselves, let alone explain it to others in blog form! Coronavirus You won't be surprised that a large part of this month has been spent grappling with the global pandemic that came totally out of left field and sent the whole world topsy-turvy. I had planned to just have a short paragraph on this, but there's just too much to share to get into a short section (I've tried writing this blog three different times this week, and by the next day everything I'd written had changed!), so please bear with a bit more chat about Covid-19…sorry! Malawi was one of the last countries to confirm cases of coronavirus, in early April. The numbers suggest that the spread here is pretty slow, and largely just imported cases. At time of writing, there have been 17 confirmed cases of cor

Moni anzathu!! (Greetings friends of ours) We've had a pretty busy yet restful February! There have been a few moments of stress and anxiety, but many more times of fun, rest and joy. We've really had fun with church this month! There have been quite a few events which have brought us lots of joy. For example, there was the first CCC sports social! I haven't played football since arriving, so was pretty pumped for it. We went to a nearby pitch after church and had a game of football, the frisbee being thrown around, and a smaller ball also being kicked about.  It started off with quite low numbers, but before we knew it loads of local kids had joined in and it was pretty packed! The community spirit was great and I really enjoyed that it was so chilled, without strenuous planning or rigid programming but happened naturally. However, I do have to apologise to Dumi who put about 10 chances on a plate for me and I wasted nearly every one of them…so sorry, pepani.

Hi all, It’s been a while since our last post, pepani (sorry) about that. Christmas and Crossover Reading back on our concerns that Christmas would be a lonely period for us, I’m very pleased to say it was actually one of the most fun-filled weeks of our time here so far. We were very well looked after, and our time was spent with our friends and family here in Malawi. We enjoyed our first Christmas BBQ, and our first all-night prayer meeting on New Years’ Eve! We’ll treasure the memories we made during our Malawian Christmas for the rest of our lives, I’m sure. And I’ll always fondly remember entering into a new year and decade singing “You are Faith(y)ful Oh Lord” with gusto, surrounded by our church family. It was for sure one of those moments that you catch yourself, remember where you are, and how absolutely blessed you are to be there. Our church family after the Christmas Day service. January (the worst of all the months, am I right?!) January has been pret

Hey friends! As if it's December already (though the weather here tends to disagree - will we ever feel cold?) and we've been in Malawi for three months!?! Coming into this festive season has been very strange, and made us miss family, friends and traditions back in the UK more than before, but we are enjoying being creative and working out ways of making Christmas special, Malawi style. We are so grateful for thoughtful post we've received from family members who have also lived abroad at Christmas time and understand it can be hard, zikomo kwambiri! Up Michiru Mountain This month has been a massive learning curve for me (Bekah), and I've had some of my hardest days, and also some of my best days. In early November it hit me quite suddenly that I wasn't coping, in fact, I was really struggling with my mental health. So much so that I went to the doctors, and have been seeing a counsellor over the course of the six weeks. As hard as it was to acknowled

Long time, no post! A fair amount has happened since we last posted, so here's a few highlights and things of note from the past month or so. Being Part of the Family We've really started to feel a part of things here now - which is really nice! Obviously we will always be the mzungu (white people) who get shouted at in the street and draw attention whenever we go to a village, or anywhere outside the city centre, or anywhere inside the city centre… But in church we are experiencing being accepted as normal members on the monthly rota. So to any Malawi friends reading - zikomo kwambiri! L to R: Hannah, Stephen & Mercy Monjeza; Bekah; Scrivin, Cathie, Annie and Gogo Kamanga; me! One day in particular when we felt really a part of the family is going to our friend Cathie's graduation! We road-tripped to a different city with the Monjeza's (mentioned in previous blog - great people, good friends) and sat under the shade of a tree entertaining (and bein