Malawi - More Preparations.

In life if you don't know the question to ask it can be very difficult to find the answer.

So - I wanted to get refills for a plug in Mosquito zapper for my room, which I haven't used for a long time. My refills are square, current ones are oblong. To cut a very long story short I have to ditch the old one - fine. However Malawi turns out to be the only African country which has UK sockets. UK electric bug zappers have USA, European & North African fittings to be used with a travel adaptor. A huge amount of time later decided to buy a local one out there - hopefully.

The information is all out there on the web or by emailing companies. It's just all time eating into my life & I have other things to do.

I have retrieved my old phone & charger from my Grandsons to use with a local sim. But the instruction book has gone missing & I don't have a record of the number. I think that the local sim will come with it's own number though if it's the same as Kathmandu.

Every surface in my study is now covered with medical supplies - my meds, malaria meds, anti mozzie sprays & sting relief, sunscreen, anti bac gel, wet wipes..... I'm a travelling pharmacy. I keep thinking how lucky we are that all of this is available to us, whereas the most basic healthcare is denied to so many in the African sub continent.

It's two & a half weeks now till I go. Things are coming together. I am a planner - I do think ahead. Sometimes I wonder if over thinking things is not necessarily a good thing.

I'm reading "The Shadow of the Sun" by Ryszard Kapuscinski - published in English in 2001 - A really great insight into Africa from a journalist who lived there from the 1950's for about 40 years on & off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kapu%C5%9Bci%C5%84ski

In the book he says Africans live in the moment - literally. "Africans apprehend time differently - it is much looser, open, elastic, subjective. Time vanishes when we neglect or ignore it. If you go to a village where a meeting is scheduled, but find no one you ask - When will the meeting take place? The answer - When people come".

I think I need to embrace that concept.