Friday 13th.

I’d foolishly said on Thursday night that nothing could happen – what could possibly go wrong when we were on a day off and in the middle of nowhere? How wrong was I!!
The day started fine, sort of…the person who’d said he’d come to fish the hot water element out the tank so it could be replaced didn’t turn up (due to lack of available ladders we found out) but that was no great drama – bird baths with a pan of boiling water aren’t so bad really!
I then left for Thyolo, picking up Ali on the way, who’d set off walking at 8 to see how far she’d get – 17 of the 20 kms she managed – good effort!! We did useful jobs for a while, posting letters, picked up our ATM cards from the bank (still can’t get over the fact that they were there when they said they would be!) We bumped into Anthony, who works for the College, and he helped me figure out to work the new-fangled mobile phone credit system. He also gave us directions to what I thought was going to be an internet café, which I was quite excited about, but it turned out to be the telecommunications office, which does indeed have internet, but not in a café stylee! I tried to explain to my new friend behind the counter that what I wanted to do was pay to check my emails but instead I was offered one of their special promotion priced modems ‘which will let you check emails and all of the internet, madam’. Hmmm, not really getting the point there Sonny Jim. The manager was then consulted on the issue and the upshot was that I was sat down at my new friend Roy’s desk and logged onto his machine – marvellous! So, not one to miss an opportunity I did indeed check my emails and posted the previous blog, twice it appears! For some reason, it all came up in German and it was by pure guess work I managed to click the right gobbledygook button. Roy disappeared for lunch, so I couldn’t really say a proper thank you, but I’ll pop back one of these days – hopefully the special promotion will be running!!
Anyway, enough about errands…lets get to the Friday 13th stuff. We needed to do some shopping so pulled into the PTC and were confronted with scabby homeless man having a full-on epileptic fit in the doorway – eyes rolled back, jerking limbs, frothy mouth – the works! ‘Well, whats going on here’, I calmly remarked to Ali. We got out the car and looked at each other, wondering what we should do – should we dive in there, skilled professionals that we are or stand and watch like everyone else appeared to be doing. Luckily, Anthony, appeared so we asked his opinion…he was informed by the PTC people that the poor guy was a regular fitter, well known at the hospital, but wasn’t terribly compliant with his medication. No one seemed that bothered and laughed at us for wanting to help. Fortunately he’d landed in the recovery position and after he’d stopped jiggling about, looked quite comfy in a post-ictal kind of a way. We couldn’t just do nothing so we hopped back in the car and zoomed off to the hospital, where we pinched the Clinical Officer from the A&E department, and then zoomed back to the supermarket. As we drew up, he exclaimed, ‘Oh yes, I know this one, he is always doing this’. ‘Good, good’, I thought to myself, ‘at least he knows what we’re dealing with here’. We trooped out of the car and stood on the pavement in front of the shop, pointedly ignoring the town leper that was trying to get in on the act too (fat lot of good he’d have been though – all thumbs and no fingers!) Mr Medic heaved Epilepsy Man upright and spoke to him in Chichewa and even though he didn’t get much of a reply, at least he was responsive now. Mr Medic didn’t think he warranted much more attention so we trooped back to the car and dropped him back to the hospital. All very bizarre…and not very nice, not nice at all.
We couldn’t face going back to shop so we decided to go and check out the Thyolo Sports Club instead. Now, I’ve been there before and it was pretty much as I expected and remembered clay/dirt tennis courts, brown grassy cricket pitch, a couple of rusty swings and an old seesaw etc etc. Not so for Ali who had imagined she might pop there to use the gym and run about in a sporty kind of way. What I hadn’t remembered was the ladies loo – as you walk in there are two fully made up beds, little bedside tables and everything. There is also a room with a cot and baby changing mat, some showers and of course, some loos – all very tastefully decorated - I shouldn’t think its been changed since my parents were there in the 1970s – I probably had my nappy changed on that very mat and was put to sleep in those beds too as my parents partied the night away! Odd!
Just about recovered, we got back to the supermarket, avoided looking too closely at the guy who was now flat on his back and Leper Man who was gnawing on a maize cob. We trawled along the shelves, picking up a few things, not the little kittens though, Tina and Something-or-other, who were wandering about the shop floor with stickers stuck on their heads with their names written on them in biro.
After that we headed home. Best thing we thought before we got into any more sticky situations! We’re not safe to be out, I tell you. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, nothing would have topped the morning though now would it? The last joke of the day was that the power went off, just as we were about to treat ourselves to some bananas and custard! It was pretty stormy outside, a tree must have fallen on a line somewhere or something. We knew it wasn’t just us, not only because it was pitch black outside but because of our failsafe mother board or what ever it is called. The trip switch is still living in a drawer and the wires that should be all nicely wired in and earthed, dangle freely, twisted together in a ‘no-one can make us trip’ kind of a fashion. We dashed about lighting candles, here and there and as Ali went outside to check that the guard was ok, she managed to pull the door handle completely off the outside – good job! To be fair, it was held in by 2 pretty tiny screws and the whole thing is rather ropey. So, out came the trusty penknife and after rummaging around, we found a more lengthy screw – just one – but it seems to be doing the trick. Even though it was only about 8pm there was nothing else to do so we went to bed, Ali lighting her way down the corridor with her head torch and me with my USB light plugged into my laptop – a couple of very 21st century wee willy winkies!!