Andermas
The old (Church) year was seen off with Gule, of course, but it is appropriate to record here the manner in which Advent Sunday was marked. My colleague T. arranged for a service of Choral Evensong in the Kamuzu Academy chapel. Such rites are seldom performed in a chapel inspired by Presbyterianism and inclined…
Read MoreOn Pain
Today for St. Andrew and I emerge from most of six weeks of pain, Deo gratias. The pain is rheumatism, in the foot, which has made walking to feel as if it were on raw bone. A step requires the unwelcome calculation of necessity and desire against pain. The liver grows accustomed (or not)…
Read MoreWords lead to Deeds
I return to Nampula, in the north of Mozambique, which I reached once, long ago, by boat and lorry, but most recently en route to Nairobi (and Kigali) by air. It seems an act of supererogatory grace that I am enjoying the relative comfort of Business class: by a quirk of Kenya Airways the…
Read MoreL’amour des escargots
Back to Malawi, and while my assistants follow an Elephant to the Kulamba ceremony in Zambia, I am enjoying the otium of Little China. Malawi synchronicity has allowed something rather wonderful to result. (Gentle Reader – What follows is the substance of a letter to a dear friend and former colleague in England.) Yesterday…
Read MoreMalawi in the Time of Covid
It is possible, once again, to consider travel ‘beyond the Lake’. If God and Kamuzu Academy allow, Tuesday will find me in Nairobi and Wednesday in Oxford. It is appropriate to reflect on what has passed since last I left Oxford on Saturday, 4th January, 2020. I recall that Lent Term well. I wondered…
Read MoreAt Dedza Pottery (again)
Hence up country (with the customary measure of diffidence) again. It is necessary to set aside the usual standards by which one marks ‘the Days on the Year’. One recalls from Oxon. with fondness the beauty of the Mass of Christmas Day at the Oratory; and the time between Christmas Day and the Epiphany…
Read MoreEighteen Years on the Inside
The rains have failed. A burning sun has set over 2021 and the Kasungu – Lilongwe plain. The heat torturous. Diversion must be sought where it may. I note this, by David Warren of Toronto, founding editor of The Idler, on the eighteenth anniversary of his reception into the Church. Mine is also eighteen…
Read MoreChristmas Day
For Christmas Day… White egrets perch atop the papyrus at Kamuzu Academy’s ornamental lake. They are the harbingers of rain. White lilies spread over the waters of the lake. Cyperus papyrus
Read MoreRains at Advent
There fell today the first heavy rains: later than last year, so all the more welcome. November is an exercise in endurance: a succession of days that seem always the same under a burning sky, when that part of Malawi which is not European has the good sense to attempt as little of purposeful activity…
Read MoreThe Immaculate Conception
For the Immaculate Conception… Two bead trees (Adenanthera pavonina, also called false red sandlewood) flank the entrance to Kamuzu Academy’s library. They are native to India. It is alleged that their seeds were used once to weight gold: 30 seeds = 11.5 grammes. A. pavonina
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