The move has been made

It will come as no surprise to anyone that this week has disappeared without any updates on this site. Moving in proved to be as expected except for the Africa factor where jobs which were meant to be done before we moved in have been done as we moved in, as we unpacked and not only have they been done they have been re-done.

It has been a lesson in patience and a reminder of Malawi time! Although I have to say, compared to Indian time the Malawians are pretty punctual.

It was great to unpack our things and put them in place. As I learned long ago and have said before: familiarity does not necessarily breed contempt but it does breed familiarity. It is the familiar which makes us feel secure and comfortable. I suppose it is why people are reluctant to leave homes, lives, jobs or relationships; when we feel secure and comfortable we are better able to believe in the illusion of certainty.

But, it is a comfortable illusion and I for one am grateful to have our things around us once again. We are in, as they say and apart from pictures still to be hung we are pretty much organised. However, the past week has been a haze of air conditioner technicians, plasterers, painters, telephone installations, internet installations, curtain hangers,  DSTV technicians, gardening jobs,  generator deliveries, bricklayers, alterations and installations in the guest-house, guest-house guests and a heavier than usual load of editing work.

We are nearly there. One of the dumbest things we did was put an air conditioner above the HUGE television set which was Greg's choice not mine; the size of the television set that is.. there wasn't much choice about where to put the air con. The .....thing has been pulled out and pushed back two dozen times in five days because of issues with the air con. Yesterday was the third replacement of parts.

When they left they said it was fixed. It wasn't. Surge protectors on the air cons have not been able to cope with the surges and have had them switching off and on. At least that was the story.

More work today and we think it is finally fixed.  We have a higher amp surge protector and the electrician found a fault in the circuit breaker for that section. Fingers crossed the problem is finally solved.

The television set gets dragged out once more on Friday, well, probably twice because of painting, so the peeling plaster and paint can be repaired properly.  And all of the furniture will have to be covered in sheets because of course they now want to scrape and gouge it out again before putting a plaster-lime mix onto the wall and making it flush.

I thought that was what they were doing in the first place but clearly not. They plastered and painted the repairs too soon and within a day our plaster was bubbling off the wall in massive blisters.

I did get a story, and this from the expat in charge, that they had wanted to get it done quickly for me.......... I replied, I wanted it done properly. If you had told me it had to take a fortnight to dry I would have said fine. I can't see the point in doing a job quickly if it won't last.

I do think that some people don't think and want to please so much that they do what they know they should not do; or refuse to think about what the results are likely to be, hoping, against all experience they have ever had, that this time, miraculously, the plaster and paint will adhere to 'wet' cement and lime!

He is a really nice man and works in Malawi building health centres and I am sure he did just want to please me but he should have known better. Maybe I scared him! I can't believe that. Maybe Texans are just programmed to be nice even when they don't want to be?

Given my absolute lack of expertise in plastering and painting - growing all the time - I am (or was) reliant on those who know more to tell me what is required not what I would like to hear. It has been, I am sure, a lesson for my American friend as well as myself. But it is hard to know the questions to ask if one has never encountered the situation.

I am making a note that in future I will ask: 'Tell me everything that you know about this situation, this process and how it should be done.'

It is a reminder that we make better decisions if we have as much information as possible. It is I am sure, more common than not, that we make decisions based on little or no information or experience and then wonder why things go wrong. The Virgo in my pushes me to research things and I should have done some 'net searches' on wall repairs so I knew what was involved. Note to self: if you know nothing about something then find out something about it before making decisions.

The curtains arrived  on Tuesday and were too short - measurement from top of curtain instead of hook line being the reason - and went back and returned Friday. They look great except one set was made to sill level instead of floor level and not what I had requested so they were sent back and the new ones arrived today.

Peggy and Rose who have done the curtains have done a fantastic job. When 'mistakes' have been found they just go away and fix it without quibbling or asking for more money... it just gets done. Given that it has cost just over $200 to make and install curtains in the entire house it is excellent value for money. However, while it isn't much in dollars for us it is a lot in Kwacha for them. But the standard of work is excellent.

The only remaining hiccup is a 'flaw' in our bedroom curtains. This is so slight that it is not worth finding new fabric and remaking them but there is a 'lighter' line which runs through the curtains at the same level. Peggy was disappointed when she saw it. It was the sort of thing which would only show up when the curtains were hung against the light. She had been very careful at Akbanies to check for flaws but she said in future she will have to check even more carefully. And I am sure she will.

I went out yesterday to inspect the 'house' being made for the generator and asked them to make it a foot wider. We lose one clothesline but given that they have begun laying bricks better to do it now than decide later. As the shed 'stood' someone of a skeletal shape - definitely not Greg or I -  might have scraped through on either side but that was about it. Luckily I went to look or we might have been tearing down walls of greater height.

And following a later inspection that evening and more discussions about access, putting in diesel, doing repairs and heavy rains we have made the 'shed' another foot wider, thus losing another clothesline and leaving us one which runs close to the razor wire.  I doubt we can do much with the razor wire so shall have to string lines across the courtyard vertically as opposed to horizontally.

We have also decided to put in a concrete base which is the slab we thought we had to install in the first place but which will now 'seal' the first layers of brick - locally made - which look pretty porous, from the heavy rains which are imminent.

We had hoped to avoid doing the slab because the concrete was found to be nearly four inches thick and strong enough to bolt the massive generator securely in place. However, having learned from my wall repairs I put more specific questions to the builder and made it clear we wanted one good job which would cover all possible problems, needs or catastrophes.  This adds to the time but, having done without the generator for this long it matters not a whit how long it takes as long as it is done properly.

The 'shed' should be finished by the end of the week and should be connected soon after but it probably won't get its roof and doors for another week.

The telephone technicians came this morning and scrambled around in the roof to get the phone and internet modem connections where I wanted them - next to my desk. They knew they had to get up into the roof because we established that when they came yesterday but they had no torch.

Neither would we have had one except we found that our new electric drill came with a torch, very sensible, and we had charged it up at the weekend.  I must have known.

Four hours later we were all set up without too much dust or drama.  Except that the 'house connection' is still too weak, despite being told it was much better than what was previously installed so I still have to use an internet dongle for reasonable access. I am hoping that whatever else needs to be done to make it work as it should does not require changes here.

Then again, it may have taken three times as long as it usually would but all is looking good. The washing machine is not working.... drum has come adrift I think ... but Manuel, who has organised the air conditioners gave me a number for someone who does all the work for the American aid agencies here and so Griffin Khonje will be here at eight on Saturday morning.

Looking back I should have gotten in touch with Miele before we packed it for the move. Then again, that is what the removalists are meant to know. However, fault is largely irrelevant at this point and here is where we are at.

More finger-crossing that he can repair the Miele front-loader otherwise it will be an insurance claim and need to be replaced out of South Africa.  Luckily we have the washer at the guest-house to use while we wait.

The move was relatively breakage-free although I had a few moments of 'horror' when the De Longhi coffee machine would not work. While we might be able to get our washer fixed here I would say there was Buckleys chance of finding a coffee machine repairer in Malawi. With some tinkering and cleaning on my part and Greg's we finally had it operational. It was my first decent coffee in two months.

Beyond the washer breakages have been minimal: one wine glass broken by Greg as he unpacked and a small piece broken off my pottery dish. They ignored my packing instructions so I should be grateful that it arrived in as good a shape as it has. Then again, I can always make another one when I get back to pottery classes.

So, as things stand, my picture hanger Andrew who was due at 9 this morning did not come but may come tomorrow and hopefully by the end of the week; the wall repairs will be completed by the weekend; the washing machine hopefully will be operational; the genset might be connected by the weekend; the genset shed should be completed by next week and apart from a few minor repairs like cupboard doors which won't stay shut (quite a few of them); or drawers which won't open (few of them too); aluminium doors which require herculean effort to lock and unlock; missing taps (only one); crappy showerheads which need to be replaced; the odd broken tile .... we are, as they say, pretty much set and the house is a lovely place to be.

As we enter our ninth week in Lilongwe it is probably not a bad effort! The frustration levels have been minimal which probably says that my 'inner work' has worked to some degree and that 'patience as a virtue' is becoming my middle name.

My desk on the landing is a great place to work and with less people roaming around the house I plan to get my two edits completed before we return to Oz at the end of next week.