Closure

A fitting title for the last post of the blog (at least for now). While it's still difficult to say goodbye to diplomatic life, I am deeply grateful for the opportunity that I had to go back into the field and spend time at one last post. In the 2015 "bidding cycle" (when foreign service officers find out what their next assignment will be) I was not initially excited about the prospects of moving to Bangladesh. In fact, I was quite resistant. But by the time we left Zimbabwe in June 2016 I had fully embraced the idea - only to have that opportunity abruptly aborted by the July 1, 2016 attack on an expat hangout in Dhaka. When the anniversary rolls around as it did recently, I still have quite vivid memories of that chaotic time in our lives. Living with John back at a post, having our whole family be together at post and travel in Africa as we did in May and spending time getting to know Malawi has brought a much better sense of closure. I'm hoping that it makes the transition out of the foreign service a bit smoother than it would have been if my abrupt end had really been the end. I've returned to Cincinnati to prepare to resume work next week and John will join me when he retires at the end of 2019.  It's been a wonderful 10 years but it's time to say ciao - for now - to expat life.

Last Excursions - Refugee Camp, Mua Mission Lilongwe Wildlife Centre

The soap room where they both make and package the soaps

I met my friend Florisa Mugambi (the one who was knighted) at a monthly farmer's market where she was selling some lovely items made out of Chitenje - which is the beautiful fabric that you see in many places in Africa. When I spoke to her, I found out that the items were made at Kibébé a social enterprise outside of a refugee camp connectd to a training centre. Flo's husband grew up as a refugee and I found their story intriguing. 

When Flo told me that they run experiences at the There is Hope training centre and Dzaeleka refugee camp I thought it would be a great thing to do with John's brother and sister in law who were planning to visit us. Flo was kind enough to plan a whole trip on the day that worked the best for our schedule so all four of us were able to attend. It was a fascinating experience - the camp is really a well established city. We had lunch at a restaurant inside the camp and our eyes were opened to a totally new perspective of what a refugee camp is all about. 

Kids with Dzaleka in the background

Another excursion that we saved up for Dan and Ruth's visit was to Mua Mission which is famous for its word carvers and the Kungoni Centre of Culture and Art that is there. It was fun to see the carvers at work, to shop for some wood carvings and fascinating to see the history of three main cultures of Malawi (Chewa, Ngoni and Yao). The centre is the life work of the priest Father Boucher whom we spoke to when we were there. 

We had planned to go to Mua Mission on July 4th, but cancelled due to the demonstrations that were occurring that day. For our visitors last weekend with us we were trying to plan a trip up north to stay on Lake Malawi, but once again plans were foiled by more demonstrations. So, instead, we combined a morning at Mua Mission with a lunch at the Red Zebra on the lake. A bit of a book end since that was were we went my very first weekend in Malawi. 

Since we didn't go away for the whole weekend, we had time to visit the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre on a Sunday afternoon. It was great to see their work - they try to release animals into the wild if possible so there wasn't a huge amount to see. But the animals we did see were in quite natural environments and walking on the fallen leaves through the paths was lovely. The monkey above was not in the secure part of the centre - there were LOTS of these guys running around free and we enjoyed their antics and getting right up close to them. 

Walkie Talkies,Tennis and New Ambassador

Before I got to Lilongwe, John told me about an expat walking group called Walkie Talkies. Since I've enjoyed having walking partners at my other posts, I thought this would be a great way to meet people. So, very early on I went on one walk - back when I was still transitioning to post. But then I planned some concerts and started to cherish my daily practice routine. Besides, sometimes I just stayed home rather than figure out a way to have the car so I could get to the walking spot.

But about a month ago I met one of the members of the group and realized I still really wanted to have a go at it. I'm glad I did - even with only a couple of weeks to participate it was really fun to get out and walk through the neighborhoods with this lovely eclectic group of expats. They always meet at a coffee shop so whoever wants to stay can have a quick cup of joe before going on with the rest of their day. Even though I only participated for two weeks it was fun to meet people from all over - South Africa, Zambia, UK, India, Germany, Lesotho, etc. A great expat experience!

Another activity that I had planned on pursuing was getting back to tennis. I had a great teacher in Zim - someone who had attended University of Cincinnati on a tennis scholarship! So, I intended on getting to some lessons in Malawi. But, like with the walking group, cello took priority and I was still trying to preserve my arm strength for that. But I really wanted to be able to play with John in Zanzibar so I finally scheduled a lesson before that. Since my arm did get pretty sore I didn't end up committing to it until my last month in Lilongwe after my major concerts were done. By then the weather was perfect and my coach Acton really helped me to keep improving my game. 

A little added bonus was that we played at the Ambassador's Residence. Malawi had been due for a new ambassador for months and we were thrilled that it was a family that we knew from Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, their arrival was delayed for a long time and they only arrived a couple of weeks ago. But I dropped off some cookies after my last tennis lesson and had a lovely coffee with the ambassador's wife. So sad that our time didn't overlap more!

Italian Knighthood (How I spent my birthday)

A newly knighted Florisa Magambi

Since my birthday falls in July I am usually in one of my two beloved spots - Ogontz Suzuki Camp or Westport, MA - with old friends or family around. Preferring not to spend my birthday alone in Malawi, I was thrilled to receive an invitation to attend the knighting of a new friend. It was the perfect way to celebrate my birthday African style. I traveled with 3 other expats out to Dzaleka Refugee Camp where Florisa Magambi was knighted by the Italian Ambassador (who came from where he serves in neighboring Zambia). John tells me about official events that he attends so it was fun to see for myself how they run in Malawi (lots of protocol!). Fortunately, the speeches weren't too long and the event was interspersed with drumming and dancing from the Burundian dance team. The guys on the team were all born in the refugee camp.

Florisa joining in the dance

Dancer greeting the Italian Ambassador

Florisa was knighted for her work with the refugees - in particular for her work with Kibébé which is a social business providing work opportunities through artisan products. More on Dzaleka after we make another trip there to the camp and to meet the artisans tomorrow. 

One of my friends in the car checked her Facebook on our way out to the camp and discovered it was my birthday. This is the same social friend who organized a group to attend our concert in April and was John's social sponsor when he arrived. She did a great job of celebrating me on my birthday - telling everyone we saw that it was my birthday and treating me to lunch after the ceremony.

For our evening celebration John took me to a new restaurant in the neighborhood (a Mexican place with good Margaritas) where I was further celebrated when one of the waitstaff noticed my gift box and card that I had brought with me to open at dinner. They brought out a complimentary dessert with candles and sang Happy Birthday! A great way to end a great birthday!

Safari in South Luangwa with family from the US!

Okay, I have to admit that our very first safari adventure in 2012 was a bit "meh". While it was amazing to see the animals in the wild we happened to go at the end of rainy season which is not prime time for animal. Our kids were at the stage of life where driving around a game park for a couple of hours at a time was not highly energizing - especially since Abigail had just gone on a school trip to the same park a few months earlier. Over the years my experiences viewing wildlife in Africa has grown on me and so I was quite excited that we had saved our trip to South Luangwa in Zambia for the dry season and our visit from Dan and Ruth - John's brother and his wife. Having the elephants traipse through our camp one afternoon was just one of the many highlights of our adventure.

My safari in Kenya was thrilling because of the opportunities to view the cats. South Luangwa was equally exciting in that regard, plus had the beauty of the Luangwa River which made driving around the park in the best light of day a pleasure in itself.

 Our first cat highlight was seeing a leopard guarding her fresh kill in a tree:

The next morning we went back to see that she had managed to bring her two cubs back to the kill area and she was finishing up munching on the antelope - we could hear her crunching the bones and got to see a hyena come scrambling when mama dropped a morsel.

Cub in a tree.

Besides the leopard event, we had a lovely time hanging out with about 9 lions one evening at sunset. 

We saw plenty of hippos, zebras, crocodiles, antelope, cape buffalo, a wide variety of birds, etc. in addition to the cats and elephants which were all fun to see. Besides the animals, the light at dawn and dusk was just amazing in the park. So thankful for the opportunity to spend a couple of days out in nature viewing all of the amazing things in God's creation. 

Satemwa Tea Estate - a bit late!

All the way back in February I posted about our trip to Zomba but never got around to posting about our side trip to Satemwa Tea Estate where we had lunch. I love visiting the green tea estates of Africa and it is also interesting to see an example of colonial Africa preserved at the estate house. Although the house reflects a bygone era, tea is still in production on a large scale in Malawi, Kenya and Zimbabwe where John and I have visited estates and always enjoy the beautiful sea of tea plants. 

The tea plants go as far as the eye can see.

A step back in time:

Lovely spot where we had lunch.

When we were leaving we thought there had to be a shorter way to get to the road than what we had used on our arrival. So we wandered for kilometers before realizing that in fact we had come in the correct way to the estate house, several kilometers off the main road through fields of tea. 

What's a Naartje?

Okay, so this one may look like a tangerine, but I promise you these local varieties are different. What makes them special is that they are super easy to peel. Here's the etymology of the word, which has several different spellings (I swear I've seen it without the t and a I definitely don't remember hearing the t pronounced): From Tamil நாரத்தை (nārattai, “citron”) through Afrikaans. Has been used in South Africa since 1790, but the first written recorded English use is by Lawrence Green in Tavern of the Seas, 1947. And the definition: a soft, loose-skinned tangerine. Most of them look quite a bit uglier than this one so if you are ever in the region and come across them my advice is to buy a bunch - even if they look ugly! Besides being easy to peel, in season they are juicy, sweet, and cheap!

You Know You're an Expat When/Civil Unrest

This is a common line amongst expats (perhaps more often - you know you have an expat kid when...). For me, one of the signs that I "really" live someplace is getting my hair done. When I moved to Zim I was NOT happy with the color on my first visit to the hairdresser. And it took probably a year to get it back to what I liked. Therefore, I just avoided this in Malawi so far by waiting until I was back in the US to get it done since I've had two trips there. This time I knew I could avoid it no longer. Fortunately, a friend of mine in Zimbabwe has a sister who works at a salon here in Lilongwe and she assured me her sister could handle it! I had walked past the shop many times since it's right across from one of my favorite grocery stores at the mall. The sign in the window also assured me they were up for the task:

So, rather than heading to Zimbabwe and playing a concert with unseemly grey roots, I made an appointment. Of course, it turned out that the day I made the appointment also happened to be the day that the local population decided to hold a massive demonstration/march - right in the area that I would have to cross to get to the salon. Wisely, I asked to postpone to the next day. There turned out to be more crowd gathering the day I went but in an area that I could avoid. It may be an interesting last month in Lilongwe - these protests are ongoing from the elections that were held over a month ago. I wonder if any of you have seen that in the news. 

Fabulous Five Weeks Part Three - Zanzibar

Have you ever read reviews right before you go on vacation for the place you booked? ALL the reviews - including the one stars? Or have you planned a big trip and had a couple of your friends tell you they didn't like the location? All those little moments of "I hope we made the right decision" to go to Zanzibar - traveler anxiety perhaps? - were forgotten during our fantastic family trip.

Planning a "big" family vacation took almost two years and we had such a hard time coming up with a time and a place for summer 2018 that we postponed until 2019. As always, there is no perfect time but I'm so glad we carved out 8 days to explore Zanzibar - a place that was high on the travel wish list for all four of us. Big benefit was that the girls were on their last US Government ticket to visit us in Malawi so at least we didn't have to pay for that part of the trip!

Stone Town is the old part of Zanzibar City and we thoroughly enjoyed our 4 days there (even the day we arrived after a 2:30 am flight out of Lilongwe). So much to see that the photos speak better than words:

Beach in front of the main building of Tembo House 

Arianna and Abigail ready for our walking tour. We were glad to have our lightweight pants for the hot but conservative location.

Below is a well known Stone Town spot called Jaws Corner. It's where 5 alleys converge and is a meeting place for locals. There's a public pay phone and there's a TV screen for the public. We visited the famous fish market and enjoyed the spice stalls on our tour.

Typical carved doors

The Swahili House - with a rooftop restaurant.

Winding alley - Stone Town is full of them!

Besides shopping and wandering around Stone Town, we enjoyed two great excursions during our stay there. 

The first was to the Spice Farm where we had a fabulous tour which was a highlight of our time in Stone Town. It took about 45 minutes to get to the spice "farm" - a demo plot that shows how spices are grown. We had a great (and humorous) guide who showed us all sorts of things growing and entertained us in the process. Cinamon, vanilla, turmeric, and ginger were just a few. At the end we feasted on a variety of fruit - coconut milk and the BEST pineapple I think I have ever tasted. 

The second excursion was to Changuu/Prison Island. The island has been used to house prisoners and quarantine yellow fever patients. Nowadays it's famous for the giant tortoises that inhabit the island. They were fun to feed and pet and our guide was gracious enough to take photos and WhatsApp them to me since none of us had a phone along!

This view from our room for the second half of our vacation pretty much sums up how perfect the five days were at Breezes Beach Club and Spa. For a long time I have wanted to take Arianna and Abigail to a beach resort since they have heard us sharing happy memories of our vacations in Jamaica. The half board quiet, but not too quiet, resort fit the bill perfectly. Thankfully, the rainy season that lingered longer than usual cleared out and we had sunny days the whole time.

The colors in this part of the world are just amazing. In part because the tides are so wide so the look of the ocean is constantly changing throughout the day. I haven't even captured dead low tide but you can get an idea of what it is like from the swim float placement in the two photos above. 

The lovely swings above are another view of the changing tide. In low tide you can walk a mile out from where Abigail is standing to take the second picture (of Arianna and me on the swings in the water). We did that walk one day (a "reef walk" because we went all the way out a mile to the reef) with a guide and saw amazing sea creatures. Besides the reef walk we enjoyed snorkeling, sampling the spa, and a wide variety of food especially on the themed buffet nights.  It was a vacation we will not forget and the whole trip to Africa with the girls was a fabulous way to end our time together as a Foreign Service family.

Fabulous Five Weeks - Part Two - Malawi, Zimbabwe, Malawi

After Arianna's graduation the four of us got ready to head back to Africa as a family! We had been planning the trip for months and now that it has come and gone I can say that for me it was a dream come true experience.





We landed back in Malawi the day before Abigail's birthday with a concert on the books over the weekend. So, it wasn't the most relaxing birthday but we still enjoyed celebrating her with a trip to the spa, lunch at a nearby restaurant and a home cooked meal with homemade ice cream (purchased ice cream is not usually good in Africa).

Breakfast on the Khonde and the usual stack of birthday gifts/cards for the traditional post dinner gift opening. 

After less than 48 hours in Malawi, we headed back to the airport for our return trip to Harare. I have been several times but neither John nor the girls had been back since our departure almost three years ago. Most of the girls' friends have left the country but a few remained and we had a wonderful time sharing meals with friends. One of the things we love about life in Africa is that whole families spend time together so our kids enjoyed seeing the parents of their friends because they spent time with them when we lived there. 

Besides eating meals with friends, Arianna got to attend her Saturday night Bible Study (it's been going on for 20 years!), Abigail was able to see a famous Zimbabwean sight (Domboshava) which she always wished she had visited when we lived there and I got to perform in a concert with my girls and John got to reconnect with many old friends.

Sunset at Domboshava

Post concert photo

Our return to Lilongwe was quite interesting - plane troubles on our layover in Zambia, reports of unrest back in Lilongwe due to the recent elections, many no show bags when we arrived at the airport, no driver waiting for us (which was highly unusual). Fortunately, there was another American/Zimbabwean/Malawian family along on the journey whom we had met when we first arrived in Zim who then transferred to Malawi and now we know them here! They also had their two girls visiting and had made a trip back to Zimbabwe (where they had lived even longer than we had). It helped to lighten the load of traveling woes to have company!

After landing we had a bit more than 48 hours back in Malawi to prepare for and give another concert, repack for our vacation in Zanzibar and get back to the airport. We were a bit uncertain as to whether or not the concert would go one due to the civil unrest but the day before and day of the concert were quiet so we went ahead with the plans. The turn out was on the small side since many people were still staying home but it was a lovely appreciative audience and fun to do a concert at an old theatre in Malawi.