Some steps forward and a few backwards

Well, we have made progress on the genset shed (see pics above and below) and with any luck the generator should be bolted into place before we leave on Friday.

Apart from differing views on which way the roof should slope to cope with rains in the wet season, which is nigh upon us, the process has been relatively drama-free. The circuit board turns out to be about ten times bigger than expected which means we lose more storage space than we thought but I am not sure how effective it is going to be for storage given the breeze-blocks in the walls and the wrought-iron doors we will need to ensure ventilation is adequate for the generator.

When Manuel appeared with the circuit board it was clear that my instinct to make the shed as big as possible was a good one. Still, it is  a serious sort of generator and once up and running should remove the uncertainty factor from my cooking and put an end to double dinners.

We are going to have the roof sloping away from the house, the back wall of which you can see in the pic above. The door to the right leads out of the courtyard which previously contained a three-line clothesline but which has now been swallowed, well, half of it, by the generator shed. Our laundry is on the other side of that door/gate on the right-hand side of the pic above.

And talking laundries - on the 'steps forward ledger',  a young man called Griffin Khonje arrived on Saturday morning to sort out our washing machine. It was a bit of a joint effort with my reading of the manual to eventually discover that the support bars which he thought he had to re-insert were actually stabiliser bars which must be in place before the machine is moved and which the removalists clearly inserted and which now had to be removed in order for the washing machine to work properly.

Mea culpa. I really should have gotten in touch with Miele before the packers came in to find out what needed to be done to move the washer and dryer safely. Anyway, all's well that end's well and I know more about my washer than I ever did. My father-in-law, Roy, always said the first thing you do when you buy something is read the manual. Of course I never do. I tend to approach things from a needs-based perspective; if I need to do something then I find out how to do it. I wonder how many people ever read the manuals unless they need to?

The process took about four hours and we were two hours into it before I realised that Griffin needed to be doing the opposite of what he planned.  He hadn't read the manual even though I handed it to him when he arrived. I did notice that he sat down and read the manual for the dryer before he started on it. Lesson learned. I heated up some soup for him and Limited and Andrew after the washer was sorted and before he got started on the dryer.

That however constituted a few steps backward. No lights on the dryer and no insight from the manual and nothing from Griffin's efforts. Eventually Limited came to say he really did not think he could do it and we should get someone else.  I had begun to think the same thing myself but Griffin, apart from not reading manuals, had seemed to know what he was doing with the washer and I respected his skills.

However, shortly after even he admiteed defeat and I said I would get in touch with Miele and ask them for advice on what to do. I am wondering if some water got into the wiring en route and that is why we have power to the machine but no further than the contact point. An email has winged its way to Miele and I await their advice as to what one does in Malawi when the nearest service agent is in Joburg.

And another step backward on the electrics front is that our little B&O sound system has also become 'lightless' and refuses to work. It was fine a few nights ago but when we tried to put on our dinner music last night it was as dead as the proverbial dodo! Sigh. I doubt that there are many B&O service agents in Africa beyond the borders of SA so I am not sure how we are going to get that fixed.

Then again, Malawi has managed to produce most people for most problems most of the time so I shall see what I can find. One job done and another one appears.

One major plus this week was getting our pictures hung. Manuel who is doing our generator and who did the air cons and who is extremely efficient recommended a young man he knew and Andrew arrived with his drill, masonry bit and screws and plugs on Tuesday. Five hours later we had 30 pictures hung.

The huge painting of somewhere in Russia I think,  (see below) although that is a guess, took three goes to get up so we shall have some holes to fill when we take it down. Then again it took the two picture hangers who did the job in Perth the same amount of tries to get it right so he is hardly an orphan.

It looks great hanging over the dining table and it is the first time I have had it hung where I can sit and look at it from the lounge. In both of the Perth houses it was so big it had to go in the stairwell.

The other two 'hard ones' were more of a weight than size problem; the South African painting and the mirror but they went up with no trouble at all. It seems odd to think that we got these things in Cape Town and now they are back in Africa for a time. As are quite a few things in this house.

The mirror, (see above) has gone up by the front door and the painting (see below) as you walk through into the kitchen. When I think that these two have travelled from Cape Town to Adelaide to Perth and now to Lilongwe, along with the huge Russian painting, I can only be grateful that they have made all of their journeys without damage.

Then again, the early settlers carried valuable pieces of furniture and art and crockery across the world from Europe and England to Australia, Africa and the Americas long before removalists packing became something of an art form.

These big pieces were also packed in wooden crates for the move and I am sure that helped. Those wooden crates have now gone to make chairs and tables for Limited and Andrew. All in a good cause.

I am not sure what Andrew and his helpers, Limited and 'my' Andrew as we had to call him on that day, thought of the photo of my Russian goddess shaman figure which we hung in the dressing room; all feathers and bones and beak but I have found the Malawians to be pretty pragmatic and they did not seem too phased.

 I told them she was a Russian mother goddess and they just nodded. They are all pretty christian around here but, like a lot of Africa, the christianity sits on top of far more ancient and still revered shamanistic and animistic beliefs.

Some people are repelled by what looks like a decaying body but I think it is wonderful. Greg took the photo when he was in Khazakstan years ago because he knew I would be interested. I liked it so much I had it framed and usually hang it by a door so she can be a guardian at the 'gate.'

She represents the 'death' aspect of the Goddess and reminds me of the Indian Kali. Such images are meant to show us what is beneath the illusion of 'form.'

The ancient mother goddess was always seen as a trilogy: Mother, Maiden, Crone and Creator, Protector, Destroyer.

She has been with me now for about ten years and has hung in many of our homes. We have pictures here from all over the world - places we have lived for months or years - including Russia, India, England, Canada, South Africa and of course Australia.

Few of them have any real monetary value but all of them are important to us. They are memory, memento and decoration. They are 'things and stuff' but the 'things and stuff' which help us to re-create a 'home' time and again.

There is no doubt that pictures 'finish' a room and it was the last big job on the list. I can now say that we really have moved in. Although the painters have to come in tomorrow and touch up where repairs have been done to the wall so the television set should be moved for the 40th and last time which really signals that we have moved in!

So, eight weeks on from arrival and a few days before we return to Australia ... Greg for a week and me for a few weeks, we are pretty much organised in our Lilongwe home. It could have been much harder than it has been and it could not be any more delightful as a home than it has turned out to be. I feel very fortunate to have such a nice place to live and to have the opportunity to spend time discovering another country - in between my editing work, my writing, my reading, my cooking and my being.  It is all good.

NB. In the spirit of 'reading the manual,'  after writing this I decided to have a more careful look at our B&O and on doing so thought it might be wise to experiment with the adapters as opposed to just changing power points as we did the other day and voila! Le musique et bon! Greg has had Keith Jarret returned to his world and we have one less job on the To Do list. I then tried the same exercise on the dryer and found that yes, a light did flash on for the first time .... we must have some dodgy adaptors.. but did not stay on. This leads me to suspect that the dryer can work but does not because there is not enough power available at the socket. Another job off the To Do list but replaced by one for the electrician: increase power to the laundry sockets.