Birthdays, bouquets and diesel.

 It is hot at this time of year. Well, it is as hot as Malawi gets the climate being generally mild with temperatures rarely rising about 32C. There's a touch of humidity to the air - the wet season having hiccuped the other week and then choked on itself - so we wait for the rains to arrive in abundance.

The roses are in glorious bloom and Limited has plenty of floral material with which to work. He really is very clever as photos of his bouquets, above and below, reveal. in any other world he would be a florist.

I am going to bring him some seeds back from Australia so he can grow some flowers at the quarters and perhaps his wife can sell the bouquets to bring in some extra money. Limited, who is not a gardener can grow and sell his produce in the way that Fred, who is a gardener, cannot because his employer won't allow it.

Fred seems to be staying out of such trouble but I have no doubts that with seven children he would be working in some way to augment his income. I am wondering if some of it involved my mulch. Before I left last time I bought some mulch from the nursery and we did all of my pots.... some six or so with a nice mix of soil and mulch. Looking at my pots today and feeling the concrete nature of their 'face' I don't have a sense there is much mulch left in any of them. I suspect when I was away the mulch was removed and garden soil replaced it... but what do I do? Fred has been in enough trouble as it is and it is not worth bothering about. My herbs seem to be doing reasonably well once they have struggled forth from the strangling clay!

The most exciting thing to happen this week was getting a jerrycan of diesel for the generator. The power cuts are increasing and in that stimulating way of life in the Third World, utterly random.


It would be easier if they were regular and one could plan but life is not like that most of the time and definitely not like that in Africa. It would be too easy after all if you knew when power shedding, for that is what it is, was about to take place. Or for that matter when someone was going to cut the telecommunication lines in Mozambique to collect the copper wiring.

I woke up two mornings to find no power, and no landline either but that's a separate issue, and then had to wait between four to six hours for it to be restored. With diesel low there was no cooking until I had the power back and then a frenzy because while the preferred 'power-shedding' moment seems to be six at night just when everyone wants to cook dinner, it is neither predictable nor regular.

There can be a cut at three or four for an hour or two; then another at six for an hour or four... thank God for the slow-cooker which has been an absolute life-saver. With the battery inverter we have toaster and kettle operational and other equipment but the slow-cooker is the only piece of cooking equipment I have which will run this way. I am thinking investing in an electric wok might be a good idea. I did have one once, in another life.

But the complication this week was that there were no supplies of diesel, and the generator was very, very low and the diesel it contained had to be kept for my coffee machine... some things are more important than food. We did manage to get the car filled and had high hopes of syphoning off enough (because they refused to fill jerrycans) to put in the generator. But again, in the way of Africa, of course the car has been fitted with anti-syphon devices to prevent theft. Of course. But luck would have it and the company had an allocation which allowed us to get one jerrycan filled.... as of last night our yellow plastic container is full... so life is almost normal although my repertoire of hot dinners which can be prepared without a stove has risen exponentially.

And there are leftovers. The freezer is rapidly emptying as I discover quiche, beef soy noodles, soup, oxtail stew, curry and other such ready-made delights which can often be re-heated in the slow-cooker or which require little time or diesel to be made edible.  At this time diesel or petrol are like gold... if you have them then conserve them. Hence the inclination to work with available power supplies as opposed to cooking at whim and using precious diesel.



I have also mastered the art of pre-preparing so that food can be cooked and then quickly reheated when the window of opportunity is open. That and eating dinner early.... just before six is a good bet because the only other alternative is after nine which is a bit late. Well, it is for me anyway.

It is also a reminder of what creatures of habit we are. When the power has not gone out by ten I find myself feeling unnerved, waiting for something to happen. It only impacts the oven but that is pretty major here for me because I do cook a lot and working in around diesel shortages and power cuts is something of a contortionist feat.

Beyond the normal issues of functionality, life muddles along in Malawi, clearly easier for me than for most. Andrew turned forty the other week which is something of a milestone in a country with a worryingly low longevity rate.

We gave him the same as we had given Limited a few months ago - a block of chocolate, a packet of good steak and K10,000 which is more than enough to make for a celebration of any event, with some left over. I did hear the next day that Andrew had been dancing at his birthday party so it sounds as if celebration was the order of the night. As it should be.

Life expectancy for men in Malawi is forty-four years and for women fifty-one. On those odds it is no wonder that Andrew celebrates although I suspect the most energetic dancing will be done at his fiftieth. Malaria and Aids are the big killers here and while it is only perception, both Andrew and Limited seem to be very responsible and happily married which should lengthen their odds accordingly.

So the highlights have been Andrew celebrating turning forty and me celebrating a jerrycan of diesel. Says it all really!

Although I would add, while not a highlight, more of a resolution, we also got our dryer back this week from Johannesburg. Some $A530 later we now have an electronics board which will enable the dryer to function with Malawi's erratic and low power rate. We can dry things if we need to and actually have fluffy towels. Funnily enough I think I have gotten used to the 'sandpaper' version of towels dried into boards on the line and then ironed by the guys ... sort of a loofah drying process.

It is nearly a year since we moved into the house and unpacked all of our goods and the dryer repair was the last on a long list of 'to-do's'.... something of an achievement really and while the highlights and progress of the past two weeks may seem trivial to most, the reality is that living in Africa one realises how important supposedly trivial things can be.

Familiarity may not necessarily breed contempt but I do know for a fact that deprivation breeds appreciation.

Brian's Brilliant Bread otherwise known as Idiot-proof breadmaking!

The most exciting thing to happen this week was producing a loaf of bread which actually looks and tastes as bread should.

Bread making was one of the things I wanted to practise here in Malawi but I had been steeling myself for the test because I had had so many failures in the past. Yes, I know the science of it, tried countless recipes, bread-maker, hand-maker .... and none of it really worked. Heavy, yeasty tasting lumps of cooked dough were the result.

But not any more. A friend introduced me to what he calls his fool-proof bread last week and despite a first failure of mis-measuring the flour and then a second failure because the power went out and we had no diesel to run the generator, today I accomplished what had seemed impossible. A good loaf of bread. I would add that the two failures came out as foccaccia and I turned them into croustades.... thin slices baked with olive oil, rosemary and salt. Delicious.

This bread has a lovely dense texture and a wonderful crunchy, caramel crust ... very like excellent French bread.

So, here is the recipe. If I can do it anyone can do it!

QUICK MIX BREAD

600grams of flour. 
One teaspoon of salt.
One teaspoon of dried yeast.
500ml water.


I have been using White bread flour since it is all I can get but Brian used 80% whole wheatmeal and 20% triticale flour but I gather, from what he says, that the recipe is so foolproof you can experiment to your hearts content.


The yeast I have is Lowan's dried yeast which I bought in Perth and had shipped here but which I have kept in the freezer for the past year and which remains in the freezer to preserve it.

The water came out of the tap so room temperature. 

Tip the flour into a large bowl and add yeast and salt and mix with a spoon. Make a well in the middle and tip in the water. Stir until incorporated, about 20-30 seconds.  Cover bowl and leave for 18 hours. 

Most of the rise happens in the first 10-12 hours but it develops better crumb and flavour if left longer. Not too long or it will break down to goop so put it in the fridge if longer than 18 hours at 20C room temperature.

I covered mine with some gladwrap and put a plate on top. I left it in the kitchen for 2-3 hours and then put it in the fridge overnight...probably 20 hours or more. I took it out of the fridge and left it at room temperature for one or two hours to 'warm' a little.

Tip bowl out on a floured surface. Sprinkle flour on top and gently pat out then fold in thirds lengthways and again widthways. Turn over and keep tucking under edges while you mop up the flour on the board. About a minute.

The mixture is sticky so use a rubber spatula to ease it out of the bowl. I actually missed the patting out bit, only registering it now, but mine was fine anyway. As I said: idiot-proof. I actually tipped out my dough and with floured fingers flopped it over width and length three time and then dropped it back into a bowl with a little flour on the bottom. 

Then leave for an hour or so (it could take up to five in cold weather) until dough recovers if gently pressed. It will still be sticky.

I put a tea-towel over the top and left for 2-3 hours by which time it had risen to the top of the bowl. 

Put your pot for cooking the bread into the oven. Brian used a Le Creuset saucepan and I only had a shallow Creuset so tried that for my two failures until remembering I had a pyrex casserole dish with a glass lid which would do the trick. You need a pot with a lid which will take really hot temperatures.

I put my pot in the oven before turning it on and let it heat up gradually. It would not matter if you put a heave cast-iron pot in a very hot oven but I would not want to test pyrex. Preheat oven to hot. Mine was at 230C. I have heating elements at the top and bottom of the oven and just put on the bottom. The rack should not be too close to the heating element so if yours is on the bottom then put it just above centre and if it is on the top then just below centre.

Take pot out and sprinkle oats, bran or cornmeal into the pot and  tip in dough. You can also sprinkle any of these on the bread before baking.

I simply used flour and because there had been flour in the bottom of the bowl in which the dough proved, when I tipped it upside down into the baking pot there was flour on the top.  I am actually thinking in future I might put a bit of oil in the bottom of the baking pot because I am not sure I like the cooked on flour which results otherwise.

Bake for 45 minutes with the lid on and then 10-15 minutes uncovered. Let rest at least twenty minutes after baking before cutting. 

You can freeze the dough before the second rise and of course you can freeze the bread as a baked loaf, sliced or unsliced.

THUNDER, THWARTING AND THREADBARE

The sky is grey and the thunder has begun. Perhaps the wet season will come early. I hope it does if only to wash the thick layer of dust off the leaves and restore some brightness to the world.

There is an immanent feeling to the season, as if everything is waiting for the rains, which, I suppose in a way is right. At ever level there is an expectation that change will come; that a cleansing and renewal will begin.

I like the symbolism of that both personally and collectively. The past few months have been challenging on a variety of fronts for both of us. Work challenges for Greg which of course involve me and personal challenges for both of us. If ever we thought our lesson was not to practise remembering that 'certainty is an illusion,' we are being reminded now.

I wonder sometimes if it is easier to process challenges if one stays in one place and has a support network of friends and family on hand. I suspect it is. But then does one learn as much? I have to say that because I have to find something positive in my experience of being so often, so alone, and having to work through difficult things - material and immaterial.

On the plus side, I think living in the Third World is a constant reminder that one has inconveniences, not problems. And no issue with anyone, no matter how painful, is beyond resolution. Perhaps also distance makes things harder as well as easier. If you are separated from a situation which is difficult it is easier to ground one's self and to find a place of balance, but it is also more difficult to work on the issues because of the separation of time and distance.

It is funny really, although funny is probably the wrong word, but in truth, the most painful place is where the greatest work is done and yet most of us do everything we can to remove ourselves from it. To distance ourselves from what hurts. Perhaps like all things the lesson is moderation. A bit of distance but not too much; a bit of exposure but not too much.

As if life could be organised in such a way. Which takes me back to the other illusion, that we control our life. That we plan our life. It is of course life which plans us and the only control we have, and that is varying in everyone, is what we do with what happens to us. Some people have the capacity to learn more than others; some to learn faster and all of us learn different things in different ways.

I wonder too if we feel greater sadness as we grow older. Possibly because feelings are always more than skin deep and are sourced in every experience we have had so the older one is, the more layers of experience to plumb. or perhaps as one gets older the greater is the need to heal what remains unresolved and so when life pushes on a place of pain it hurts more.

For now I wait for the rains to fall both literally and metaphorically; washing away the layer of dust which chokes and hides. I think that is what I like about the seasons - that ability for things to change in an instant - for something new to be created from the old.

In essence it is about honouring each part of the process as a moment of Now - perfect in itself. I wish I believed that. So many things are easy to say and hard to live. Cleansing rain and cleansing tears surely serve the same purpose.

Talk about thwarting which was in the title of my latest blog post... it was fine until I went back to do some corrections and then turned it all into a format mess.

Google Blogger has a glitch at present. When I use Bold, Italic or try to upload images it turns the copy to format. Until I get it sorted it will be plain type with no images.

COCKROACHES, COOKERS AND CAKES

Walking into the bathroom the other night I saw the most enormous cockroach sitting on my toothbrush. After years living in India (where it really was truly filthy) and in Africa (where it is moderately filthy) and in Perth (which seems to be cockroach central and I don't know why, but I remember in 1980 coming into the kitchen of the old house we were renting, to get a drink of water and the floor was literally a mass of movement) I don't bother too much about these creatures.... but, the toothbrush was pushing the limits of my tolerance.

I gave it a thorough scrub in hot water and then put it away in a drawer. However, it did dawn on me the next day that cockroaches get everywhere so they were probably sitting and shitting on it in the drawer. Let me just say that I believe challenges to one's immune system are good for you so the cockroach on the toothbrush is more an aesthetic issue for me than one of hygiene. I don't think you can survive four years in India without becoming somewhat resilient about such things.

Anyway, a solution was found when I pulled out a spare airline toothbrush... we have so much spare airline stuff it is not funny .... complete with its own neat little box to cover the brush. Snap, and no more cockroach feet on my toothbrush. One problem solved anyway.

Given that I always ponder the symbolism of things I don't know why I did not wonder why, after more than a year in Malawi, suddenly I had a cockroach of mammoth proportions appear in my life.... but I didn't. Hence the necessity for the next lesson I am sure.

A few nights later I woke because something which felt awfully like a cockroach was scurrying across my midriff. I sat up, brushing furiously and we turned on the torch which we use to track mozzies… and that’s another story…. but later. Anyway, an equally enormous cockroach was burrowing away beneath the sheets. We pulled back the mozzie net, recently replaced because all else had failed, and pulled off the sheets only to watch it disappear beneath the mattress. They are amazing creatures. How on earth do they get into and out of such small places without being squashed?

Not that I really cared at 2.55a.m…. yes I looked at the clock. Greg jiggled the mattress and out it fled. Captured finally beneath a china dish, paper slid underneath to capture it, and tossed out of the window.

What was it about being awake at 3a.m? We had had a few restless nights being dive-bombed by mosquitoes around about that time. It’s the time of night when work is done on liver and lungs… symbolic of passion, anger and grief and yes, all of these things had been at work in my life so perhaps the inconvenient creatures were just performing their required task.

Anyway, flyspray and swatting did not work so we tried the fan. It was awfully noisy so we put the air con on… they don’t like being cold. But, in the new world of Malawi power we keep getting surges which shut the air con down and then turn it on again… beep, click, lights on and off…. Aaaaahhhh. Which set us finally hunting for the mosquito net we had used when we first arrived.

I don’t know why we did not think of it before because it definitely works. I did hear buzzing one night but when I turned on the light the mosquito was clearly outside the net in a fury. Back to sleep. I can put up with buzz if I don’t get bitten. Mosquito nets however do not keep out cockroaches although I suspect this one was something of an emissary given the number of places I have lived where they are in huge supply and never yet have I had one in the bed. Well, not that I know of.

But back to the cockroach. So what did it mean? The midriff is the Solar Plexus Chakra and so the combination of the two must have symbolic meaning. Everything has symbolic meaning.

The cockroach is all about survival and reminds you that no matter what life throws at you, you have all the tools necessary already at hand to survive even the worst that life can throw at you. The cockroach shows you that you have the ability to know when it’s time to scurry out of the way of danger and also how to survive in all circumstances and environments. I had been doing a bit of scurrying of late that's for sure.

Cockroaches are symbolic of tenacity and longevity and could symbolize the need for renewal, rejuvenation and self-cleansing of your psychological, emotional, or spiritual being. Let’s just say this is a time of renewal and there has certainly been some cleansing going on.

The Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura) is known as the Power Chakra, driving for control, competence and success to fortify the ego. And yes, issues of ego and power have definitely been at work.

The Manipura Chakra, which means the diamond, is the energy center of personal feelings, power and sensitivity. When in balance, this energy center creates a person who is outgoing, cheerful, open and expressive, intelligent, self confident, flexible, and has a keen sense of respect for themselves and others. This person is also very decisive and has strong nerves. And I have needed strong nerves.

This person may also show qualities of being out going, cheerful, spontaneous, relaxed. This chakra can give clarity of thought and an increased awareness. It stimulates interest and curiosity.

The Solar Plexus Chakra often deals with raw emotions, like anger, frustration, and intuition or gut feelings. Being extremely sensitive, particularly to the emotions of others any blockages here can easily create uncontrolled emotions, tenseness, hostility, rage and severe stomach problems.

Located between the sternum bone and the belly, it governs the will, the mind, emotions, stomach, and upper digestive tract, assimilation of nutrients, psychic experiences, rational left brain) thoughts, ego, vital energies, control, accomplishments, and the freedom to be yourself.

Organization is important to this chakra that likes everything orderly and disciplined. ah yes, that desire for order which I am sure manifests as wanting to have some control over my life. Fool that I am. Actually I have spent most of my life practising going with the flow. There is no control over anything or anyone but Self. And even that is limited.

It is the centre of self- esteem, power, directed will and it radiates expansiveness, warmth & joy. It quickly takes issue when feeling threatened and this can cause an even greater bridge to have to span when treating problems.

I am always struck by how perfectly things fit when seen symbolically because all of these issues relate to what has been happening in my life. Or rather, the stage I am at and the lessons I need to learn.

But beyond the spiritual and metaphysical it has been more mundane. We moved the fan from the bedroom to the lounge room, or rather got Steve the electrician to come back and move it, down to the lounge room which it is absolutely silent no doubt because it is fitted to a concrete ceiling as opposed to a plasterboard one. It also looks better and gets used much more.

Steve is also fitting the old cooker to Limited’s kitchen so Limited was looking very happy this week. They have a two-hotplate portable on which to cook currently so four hotplates and an oven is quite an improvement. We are bringing another new oven for the guesthouse and will then fit that old cooker into Andrew’s kitchen.

I have told Limited I will show him how to make some simple cakes. I gave him a basic cookbook and a cake tin. My cake baking was a bit disappointing this week when I made another avocado cake, using a greater quantity of avocado from the freezer and it was quiuQ.I3H#am a bit disappointed with Malawian avocadoes although I am now beginning to wonder if it is our tree more than anything. They are all a bit tasteless and watery but the fruit from our tree also has a bitter edge.

The trunk is covered in slashes which Andrew told me were made to make it produce more. I told him that was cruel and the tree would feel pain and he was not to do it again. I am wondering now if the tree was so traumatised it is producing bitter fruit. Anyway, I am throwing out the rest of the frozen avocado. I hate throwing things away in Africa but so far, soups, cakes and dips have not worked very well because of the bitterness.

I did however have great success with an apple spice cake and an apple pudding cake the other week. The other thing I have been doing is making syrups from the white wine I have bought to try but which is so awful…. not bad… but just too, too mediocre to drink …I cannot drink it. So far I have made chocolate, lemon and vanilla syrups. Waste not, want not.

Talking of household equipment ... we get excited about the little things around here... we also finally got the Miele dryer down to Joburg to be assessed and have been told there is nothing wrong with it. Sigh. The only problem is that it is set to not function if power is below a certain level and of course, in Malawi, where power is almost always below certain levels and forever a moveable feast, it does not work. The solution it seems is to order a new board from Germany … $700… which can be set to function at a lower level and which should restore our dryer as a functioning and useful piece of equipment.

Other than that it has been a week of work, writing, painting, cooking and reading. I am currently reading a book about the use of music by healers in Malawi. It has yet more fascinating information on the prevalence and destructive impact of witchcraft in this country.

Written by an American anthropologist who was here in the 80’s I doubt much has changed. Beliefs in witchcraft underpin African society to a profound level. It makes life so much harder and so much more terrifying.
It is good to remember though that there is nothing here which could not be found in Europe centuries ago. This struck home again last night when I was watching a programme about syphilis in England in the 19th century.

Apparently men believed that having sex with a virgin would cure syphilis. And here, again, in India and Africa and no doubt other parts of the Third World, men believe that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS.

What is it about men and what is it about such beliefs? We have more in common than we think.