Less than 2 weeks now!!!

It’s now less than 2 weeks until I return home.

I can scarcely believe how fast the time has flown by, but at the same time I am incredibly relieved. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my experience, but I am well and truly ready to go home now, I think.
I’m a bit stressed at the moment about the last few bits and pieces I have to sort out, but hopefully they will arrange themselves without too much fuss on my part. I’m a bit frustrated by all of the hoops I have to jump through for college, but to be honest that’s probably just tiredness taking its toll. I need to rest – I have exactly 9 days in between returning home and going back to college, so I’m not going to get a whole lot of opportunity, but I’ll need to make the most of what time I have.

I’m practically mad with excitement at the thoughts of seeing everyone again. Like, as in, jumping up and down excited!! Ludicrously excited, even! I’d say that about half of my luggage at this point will most likely be consumed with gifts for everyone, but that’s ok because I planned for it. I’m going to leave as much as possible behind me that I will not need, and make room. I’ll cram it in if I have to! Besides, my luggage goes straight from flight to flight so I won’t have to handle it from the time I hand it over in Lilongwe until my blessed arrival in Dublin airport!

My last while has been quite busy, actually. Last week on Friday I was honoured to be able to represent the Centre at a meeting of Civil Society organisations in Lilongwe. It mainly focused on how to promote better co-operation between the various charities and organisations operating in Malawi, and how to promote dialogue between ourselves and government. Rather ironically bearing this purpose in mind, the government representative who had confirmed their attendance on the day never showed up. Kinda sums up the problems we have in engaging them in dialogue really, doesn’t it? Apparently it happens pretty frequently too. Government officials are requested to attend meetings and conferences, say they will attend, and then either pull out at the last minute with some feeble excuse or simply never show. It’s frustrating, to say the least.

On a lighter note, I nearly had my right boob exposed to a roomful of strangers and priests last night... Yes, you read that correctly... Let me tell you... We’ve had guests the last night or two, a Zambian family who hosted one of the student priests here during his earlier studies. There’s the grandmother, I think, the daughter, 2 or 3 uncles, and a precious little 2-year-old named Joseph, or Jo-Jo. He’s adorable... and anyone who knows me will not be surprised to learn that I spent most of the evening GLUED to him. We were playing peek-a-boo with the kitchen chairs, running around the table, tickling on the couch, jumping up and down. It’s hard to say who got more overexcited, me or the baby... good times!!! We should also note, that the culture here in Malawi/Zambia surrounding breastfeeding is rather different. Baby wants boob? Boob is promptly whipped out and baby stuck on it, cool as a fishes’ fart. Bob’s yer uncle, Fanny’s yer aunt. Doesn’t matter if you’re in a church, on the street, or in a bus. Baby wants boob, baby gets boob – and not always just from mommy. In village settings it’s quite normal for baby to be fed by any lactating female, especially within the extended family. So to the mind of a toddler like this little guy, it’s not just mommy’s boob that’s available when you’re hungry, it’s any boob at all... Lo and behold, we were just settling after having dinner, baby had gone quiet for a while, when what does he do? Marches over to me and pulls the neck of my t-shirt down to get some booby, that’s what he does. The whole table just cracked up laughing, myself included – albeit in my case with a red face! Thankfully my quick reflexes (?!?) kept me nanoseconds away from having Rightie exposed to everyone...

So, this time 2 weeks I will be at home already. I hope you’re all ready, already!! LOL