The Week-End (July 10th-13th)

After saying goodbye to the caregivers on Friday, the next event was a goodbye ceremony/dinner for the US group/Malawi WR staff. It was nice, the US group gave the WR staff gave gifts to the US guests and in turn, the US group gave gifts to the WR staff, and I got a pack of Hershey’s chocolate which should be lasting longer than it is : ) it’s a pack of 6 bars and after 3 days, there’s only 2 bars left, but to be fair, I’ve given 2 away. For someone who doesn’t like too much chocolate, being in a foreign country gives you a certain appreciation for anything remotely sweet or chocolate-y. I’ve also taken to eat bananas, which I usually don’t eat in the States, though they are much fresher here. Back to the dinner, one of the best parts of the meal, I thought, was that we were all eating together, the US group, the WR staff from both Lilongwe and Mzimba, and of course, me. I like being around the staff from Lilongwe in addition to the staff here in Mzimba, everyone is really nice.

Then on Saturday morning, we said goodbye to the US group and Lilongwe staff and I chilled for the rest of the morning until I met up with Owen and we played some games throughout the afternoon and then went to his house for some sweet potatoes, one of my favorite things to eat in Malawi : ) The US group left some board games for the after school clubs, including games like Monopoly Junior, Checkers/Chess, Chutes and Ladders, Set, and UNO, all of which I have to teach Owen, which really means that we get to play a lot of games in the next couple weeks when we have time. On Monday, the games also served to be much of my entertainment for the day. I had nothing to do, so Abraham, who works as the security guard at the WR office, and is possibly the only other person who gets as bored as me at the office, and I basically played every game that is stashed in the closet. So yeah, good day Saturday.

Sunday = a good church service, a friend preached John 17, a passage I have been very interested in, and there was some great singing. After church I went to a youth forum group with a friend, and loved the meeting, it was good fellowship and I loved the more casual atmosphere this week. Later in the evening, 3 friends (Fiona, Divina, and Matt) and I decided to go for a hike to Kalanguru, a mountain which is a little ways away, the trip takes about 3 hours walking, and usually is done by driving there and then climbing the mountain (more of a big hill actually) and then driving back, or walking with a guide....we did neither. We decided just to go for it at about 4pm, ended up walking through a couple of fields, on small foot paths through trees (Matt climbed one), which we hoped were in the general direction of the mountain. Every now and then we caught a glimpse of the mountain, which gave us a good boost of confidence, though most of the time, we weren’t convinced we were getting any closer even though we were walking at quite a pace. The sun sets here at about 6, and once it starts to set, about 4:45pm, it starts going down rather fast. BUT, despite us not really knowing where it was, or having a real path to get there, we made it, climbed Kalanguru, saw a beautiful sunset, and climbed back down, and ended up in a completely different place than we started from, lol. So we started walking again, kind of guessing, kind of knowing the general direction....and it kept getting darker and darker...but eventually, after turning around once and catching glimpse of the cell phone tower lights in Embangweni, we found a man who was heading in the same direction, and led us the rest of the way. Lucky for us because it was pitch black (no moon either) at the time! And it was only 6:30pm. Malawians can walk in complete darkness and know where they are going, we all had flash lights. The power was off all day at the guest house, but the second we stepped onto the porch, the lights came on! (angelic singing taking place) And at 6:45pm we sat down for a hot dinner, completely on schedule. How worried we were (I was maybe) about getting lost by the end, and how nice of an adventure it was! Happy end of the weekend : )

Monday: played games at the office all day, left off early, absolutely nothing to do tomorrow, sigh...back to being bored!