Friends and Neighbours

A few months after Girlie arrived in Malawi, she was made aware that she had a few relatives through marraige here.  They stopped by to visit briefly, but invited us to stay at their house in Blantyre if we ever wanted to get away.  So a couple weeks ago we finally managed a trip.  The plan was initially to visit Jane, the cousin of Girlie's sister-in-law.  Her family imigrated from India and she was born here in Malawi.  Her husband, who recently passed away, was originally from Sri Lanka and had a business.  She was now busy running a nursery school in Blantyre and her kids are married and living in the UK.  Confused yet?  Hang on tight.  We also had dinner with another of Girlie's cousin-in-laws (through the same in-law) who was born in Malawi, moved to India when she was six and moved backed to Malawi briefly before moving to New Zealand.  She was also neighbour of Girlie's brother who lives New Zealand and mentioned a couple of times how she can see the roof of his house from her patio.  She was in town for a few months helping her mother who still lives in Malawi and is having some health problems.  They were really great and very welcoming to people they have never met before.  When I met Joyce, I went right in for the respectful Malawian handshake and she went right for the hug.  Joyce could talk with the best of them and had many good things to say about the joys of New Zealand and Microwaves.  The conversation was made even more interesting by her background since it gave her an Indian/Malawian/New Zealand accent that was pretty trippy at times.  We stayed at Jane's house for the night where she provided us with various types of meats, beverages, and Sportscenter.  It was defininetly one of those bizarre "Where exaclty am I" momments.