It is all here and while boxes are not yet unpacked, it looks like everything is intact. I gave the picture and mirror boxes a bit of a shake and heard no tinkling which augurs well.
Stuttafords came back this morning to put the dining table together; they had no alum keys yesterday and to unpack the glass. No glass breakages and Greg's mammoth television has also arrived unscathed.
The removalists arrived about 2.30 yesterday afternoon and by 5.30 we had everything off the truck and ticked off the list.
It was hot and sticky but it went fairly smoothly. I made sure Andrew gave water to the removalists and I kept a bottle by my side.
The furniture was unwrapped but we have left the boxes until the air conditioning people have finished, thus avoiding unpacking with half a dozen people wandering around and taking the risk of large air conditioners being dropped.
The air conditioning guys arrived late this morning and were expected to finish around one but it is now after twelve and I have just checked and would be very surprised if they are out of there before four or five.
Which is why I have the time to be writing this. With people in the house it is wiser to keep everything boxed up as opposed to unpacked and littered around the place until things can be properly put away. But there is no rush. We can unpack at our leisure with the guesthouse perfectly comfortable and easily accessible until the other house is set up.
As is the way in Africa, before they left I had to hand out a bit of Kwacha but first I had to count how many there were. With people milling around, upstairs and downstairs, it took me a while to count heads. And then I had to count Kwach and stuff a wad of it in my pocket until the time came to distribute.
It ended up at about fourteen lots of 500K because Andrew and Limited had been helping as well but also Fred the gardener and Stephen the guard had pitched in and so had Duncan the night guard.
Duncan did quite well actually because he had been helping for barely half an hour but I couldn't leave him out. The only one who missed out was Charles, the night guard, who had arrived late.
My preference was not to have the 'cast of thousands' and the inexperienced hauling things around the place but what do you do? I am sure lugging our furniture and boxes was more interesting than gardening or guarding and I am also sure they just wanted to help. And no doubt the possibility of extra kwacha played a part.
But it all went well. We had only one 'breakage' and that was the newly installed switch for the overhead fan in our bedroom.
It was an exciting day for Limited in particular. He asked if he could have some of the timber from the crates - five wooden crates in all - to make chairs and tables. It looked like good wood, pine I think, but thick and strong and probably better than anything they could get around here, if they could afford it which is unlikely.
I think the Stuttaford's people were hoping to take it away but I said, well, we paid for this didn't we so we can decide what happens to it. Well, the company paid for it actually but I am sure they would not mind making a lot of people happy instead of the removalists. So the timber was shared between the guard, gardener, Limited, Andrew and Stuttafords. I suspect the foreman got to decide what happened to the timber beyond our gates but our lot were very excited about it all.
Limited also asked if he could have some of the wrapping and some of the cardboard boxes and they left him three boxes. I asked him what he wanted them for and he said for storage and he could make things out of them. It's a reminder of how little people have despite the fact that compared to many in Malawi, Limited is quite well off.
So the cardboard boxes and wooden crates were an exciting windfall for more than just us. We were interested in the contents but the containers themselves were valuable.
We actually had two cardboard box 'coffee tables' for the four years we were in Angola. They were covered with sheets to look like tables and we had our lamps on them. We never got around to replacing them; partly because there were no side tables to be had in Angola from what we could see and it wasn't worth hauling something in.
It is great to have everything here and exciting to think about getting it all put away; furniture in place and pictures on the wall. It normally takes us 2-3 days to set up a house but with Limited and Andrew helping we should do it in half that time. There's a half a days work hanging the pictures if it is done by someone who knows what they are doing and a day and a bit if we do it ourselves. We did invest in a good electric drill before leaving Perth so if we must do it ourselves, we can.
And the good news is that Greg thought he might be away for a week from tomorrow but has been able to delay his trip for a week. What a novelty for me; not setting up house on my own!
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