The next morning, we awoke early to a sudden FWUMP of rain. We both jumped up and closed all the windows and put on our raincoats. We explored the new landscape being made in the roads, and admired the durability of the missionaries creations. Most towns and places in Malawi do not have drainage- you simply dig a canal around your area and hope you are not low ground. The towns in Likoma had been designed by missionaries around 1900, and they put drainage everywhere in the town and especially around the cathedral.
And then the bugs came to distract us from losing both our friends at once. Small insects with wings the length of a knuckle took to the air in force once the rain slowed. During class that day, a beautiful grasshopper the size of a fist sat in the front of the Form 2 classroom. Ryan told Sasha about it as he walked out of math and she walked into Chemistry. It was a fun day introducing acids and bases, she found lemon juice, vinegar, and milk of magnesia for the students to try. The reactions were priceless but halfway through Sasha heard a large crunch from under her foot, and then pained shrieking. Then there was this grasshopper writhing on the ground. The students all got up to see while one of them grabbed a broom to sweep it out. After class, Ryan grabbed it and brought it home to the cat, who cheerfully ate the whole thing minus the wings. That night, bugs were everywhere. A large black one the size of a thumb crept out to stand in the middle of the floor. Its mandibles looked very fierce. Ryan stomped it with a loud CRACK and the cat refused to eat it.
Cassidy, on the mainland, sent a photo of these odd red balls of fluff promising they would soon be in Likoma. Sasha showed a photo to the Biology teacher, who said their already here. There are many on his walk to class but he does not know the name. The next day, he brought a pair in a plastic box. They are fascinating- just a tiny red pom pom with legs sticking out. With some googling we learn they are rain bugs, or red velvet bugs depending on where you are from. And again, they are neither insect or spider! They eat termites, and so we put them in one of the many termite holes in the walls. Turns out they do not eat adult termites.
We were preparing to learn recipes and try them out for Thanksgiving and introduce it to some teachers, when we learned that the Diocese was not going to be able to get our visas in time and we must leave the country. Our visas expire on the 4th and so we must hurry out- no time to prepare a feast. So we had pasta with 3 small pieces of steak for Thanksgiving, and then splurged on opening a pasta sauce. We shared a can of peaches for dessert.
The next day we went to teach our classes as usual, and Sasha planned to grab a truck and visit Ulisa bay to finish up the painting of the pots. Over lunch, one of the form 4 students came to say hello. She has come to chat before, but this time she was straight from the hospital. She told me about her boyfriend who was in the army, and how he loved her so much and encouraged her to work hard in school. She tried on some sunglasses and took some photos. She sat in the hammock and we listened to music.
She complained about the medication from the hospital, and how it gave her rashes on her skin. The rashes did look painful, and seemed to bother her so when she asked for a shower I said yes and showed her how to work it. She stripped to her underwear with me still there, but the shower did seem to help. When she was done we went back up to school where lunch was being served. One of the teachers talked about how Martha has gone a little crazy in the past, taking her shirt off and running around in a way that suggested there was one incident years ago.
The truck came to take Sasha to Ulisa bay, and Martha decided she wanted to come to. They argued for a bit but Martha was an adult, and it was after school hours. So we headed off in an exciting bouncy ride to Ulisa, and meet Chris to decorate pots. He is a tall red headed man in his late 60s married to a beautiful woman from the capital who is only the second person we have seen here rock an afro. He walks us through the glaze process, and then leaves us to sit in the adjoining office. We paint happily but slowly Martha seemed to be thinking in circles. Saying she was hungry, but refusing to eat saying she needed her boyfriend. We got halfway through when she started scratching at her skin and took her shirt off in the middle of the pottery studio. She urgently starting asking for help from the doctor, and then lunged at Chris begging for help. “Look around you! It’s a pottery studio. He is not a doctor.” Chris sat stunned at this tall girl reaching for him and repeated again he is not a doctor. This seems to calm her down, and we decide it may be time to finish with the pots. Luckily a delivery man is headed back to town, and so we hitched a ride with him.
Once we got back, Martha lead us to the hospital. Apparently, she has her own room there. Her room is locked. The doctor has gone home. We ask around and the only response is “Really? It shouldn’t be locked”. We go back up to the school, and there is someone who can contact her brother. Martha is getting agitated again, pulling Sasha back to the hammock. She says to send the brother to find her there, and Martha sits again in the hammock while Ryan types. She listens to music, and the kids start coming by. Sasha tells them to go, which they never listen to. Martha says to have them stay, and so we have a small dance party as the sun begins to set. She starts complaining of her skin again, and Sasha grabs the small spray bottle we have which seems to help but she still begins to take her shirt off. Sasha tells Ryan to make the kids leave and ends up waving a stick at them which they just laugh at. The brother comes by, he is a slight man that seems very used to this. Some of her friends come by, and she seems to be doing better but then half lunges from the hammock. We catch her and find cushions to put underneath, though she snaps back too and hides back in the hammock blasting the calm music. She keeps calling “Sasha help me” and refusing to go home, and so we decide to go inside so they can distract her. Our cooks and the watchman come by to watch, and she charges topless into our house and into the bedroom. Her brother is very polite and will not follow, but we invite him inside and he enters our room to chat. Shortly a large man arrives and follows with a chitenje (piece of colorful cloth). All is quiet for a bit and they open the door, to Martha with the chitenje tied tightly around her chest screaming to be left alone and that she is not crazy. As soon as she leaves our cook runs through the door and lock it to prevent her from coming back in – very little empathy there. She is pulled into the night yelling for help, for Sasha, and that she is not crazy.
We do not see her the next day, and her brother came around to look for her. The Chichewa teacher came in with broken glasses, Martha had been near her house and they talked. When she said Martha should go home, Martha grabbed her glasses and broke them. We learned today she has been taken to the mental hospital on the mainland. At the start of the year there was a staff meeting, where the teachers asked to be informed on the student’s health issues. We were told we would not be. Perhaps more could have been avoided if we knew the extent of her illness, but then again perhaps not.
While Sasha was off in Ulisa bay, Ryan had study circles for life skills. Many students had already left, and as he began writing definitions and notes on the board even more left so there were around 10 students. Ryan closed the door, and then pulled out his collection of ties. “who here can tie a tie?” a few raised there hand, but when they came to the front could not. The class started to get noisy, so students who had left tried to come back in. Ryan said too bad you left! And now each of those students has tied a tie.
On Friday Ryan was assigned to teach study circles. Just what the students wanted another hour with Ryan on a Friday afternoon! Ryan came in ready to review plurals and was immediately met with an intense screaming match in progress between half the class. He was able to get them to calm down and take a seat eventually and learned that someone had stolen another student’s notebook. The class started to get rowdy again and in the middle of the chaos a form 4 student comes in and says that all the students are to go home because the rains are coming. Ryan talks to another teacher outside who does not know anything about the students going home early so he headed back to class to sort out the notebook situation and maybe possibly even teach some English. Another teacher does eventually come by to say that the students should leave, but first everyone’s backpacks must be checked. 15 minutes later, the students have left, we have not found the missing notebook, its raining and no one learned any English. TGIF! Saturday we spent prepping for our quickly approaching departure and went to our first school dance, or disco as it is referred to here. It was quite amusing to see all of our drunk students on the dance floor in a strange combination of fantastic dance moves and the undercurrent of awkwardness that is present at any high school dance round the world. With every song, someone would start a fairly complicated dance and people would follow. Each student was a great dancer, and took delight in our less great dancing skills.
Ticket to Anywhere 