When the walls fall (September Prayer Letter)
The brick wall around our house has succumbed to heavy rains and has become something of an allegory for our current season. For the second time this year, a section has fallen, revealing a lack of firm foundations. Brick fences, as they are known here, are a common sight in urban areas. They are often […]
People to People Podcast
We recently had the chance to join the People to People podcast which explores the link between Scotland and Malawi. It’s a really great series and we’d recommend you check it out from the start. We’re on “People and Possibilities”, the final episode.
Climate change is real life in Malawi
Climate change is high on the agenda this year with Glasgow hosting the COP26. And there we have it, one sentence in and we already have an acronym and a conference. It seems the conversation around climate change has become burdened by the political dialogue that is meant to address it and shrouded by the […]
Prayer Letter: April 2021
It is good to be writing to you from Mzuzu again. When we last wrote, we were completing our self-isolation after travelling from the UK. At that time, Malawi also experienced a second wave of COVID-19 cases that was much larger than the first. Hospitals began to fill up, and oxygen supplies started to run […]
Splendid Isolation?
We returned to Malawi last week, escaping the UK on lockdown day. We’ve arrived back as the country is experiencing a rise in coronavirus cases which is being attributed to the South African variant. Essential Travel In a journey that was full of hurdles that could have seen us returning to Edinburgh, we’re thankful that […]
Not quite home from home
I should start by saying that we have been wonderfully welcomed to Malawi. One of the reasons that this posting was so attractive was that it is in the northern city of Mzuzu. It’s big, but not too big. People get to know you, but not everyone knows you. It’s well served, but not too […]
Prayer Letter: February 2020
Malawi, like much of Africa, has a reputation for having a slower pace of life. However, that does not seem to marry with our experience as it feels like a few weeks since our last letter and it is actually over two months ago. While it is true there are many things that can’t be […]
A day in the life…
It might be easy to imagine me out ‘in the field’ (wherever that is), traveling in a 4×4 through the red-brown mud of rainy season and wearing a khaki utility vest (I have the vest, it has 14 pockets and 4 hooks – for what, I do not know). I do go out to visit […]
Seasons
“Do you have a rainy season in Scotland?”, our gardener asks me. I smile as I answer: “It rains all the time there, no matter the season!”. It’s one year ago today since we arrived in Mzuzu. We have seen each of the weather seasons come and go during that time: the warm rains, the […]
Prayer Letter: December 2019
Christmas carols in over 30ºC heat is a new experience for our family. This time last year I was headed home after spending 6 weeks here in Mzuzu, starting work and preparing for our big family move. Now Mzuzu is a second home to us. We have friends, colleagues, a local church, a house and […]