Its February and we are about halfway through our little adventure abroad. Sasha has a bag of new underwear saying “Do not Open until February 1st” on the advice of others, as good underwear is difficult to find abroad and new underwear makes all the difference. This is an exciting milestone, but we are also realizing how short our time is. We’re starting to think more of what we will do when we are back. Ryan is getting visibly more excited by the day to go back to work and be reunited with his beloved excel spreadsheets. Instead of clearing things up for Sasha the trip has opened up so so many more ways to live her life and make some money. The art has taken a backseat, while so many others jostle for front.
We could live abroad and run a place like mango drift, spend days greeting guests and growing food. The people there now have a 12 year old and the wife has a huge camera. We could run instead a place more like Joys in Mzuzu- the wife runs the hostel and the husband is a biologist who drinks with guests each night and runs a scuba diving internship keeping track of the lake. She could work for the UN- debating with people from all over the world or in Healthcare with her new x-ray knowledge. Or work for an NGO doing something similar, and helping people somehow in a more official capacity. Or perhaps in Tourism, and bring people to see the beautiful Africa. Or do more with Science education and the Pacific Science center. Or find a good stable job in an office like property management, and be able to do everything else on the side. Ryan loves construction and is pretty sure that wherever she ends up going there will be some sort of construction to manage nearby.
Our phones keep filling with photos of the kittens, who are getting better at walking. They continuously sway side to side, and often fall on their face, but it is always extremely cute.
On Tuesday, Sasha decided to risk a glass of unfiltered water, and spent the night throwing up. The next day when she left early from school to go back to sleep (around 9am- a very early day) everyone suggested going to the hospital. We cancelled plans with someone, who told us to go to the hospital. Later, the one who runs our house came by and told us to go to the hospital as it was probably Malaria. Sasha promised to go if it was still bad tomorrow and people just shook their heads. Yes its free, but its super awkward. The line is long, and they put us at the very front infront of far sicker people. It was also mostly gone by the next day. We stopped by the hospital administrators house to pick something up who said you can’t even get a positive Malaria test for at least 2 days anyways, especially if you’re taking anti-malarial pills. It seems like the fear of malaria here is so great that any one who feels even just a little sick gets malaria medication as soon as they can. From what we have heard it is a truly awful experience.
The hairdresser, Mercy invited us to her place. We walked with her past Cassidy’s Chalet (remember- pronounced cha-LET) to the place with an orange boat. We’d heard rumors about an old unreasonable man who lived here. Someone was allegedly rude to him on the Ilala and now he hated everyone on Likoma, and let no one use his beach. According to Davenport (the old priest from the east coast) a quite nice family lived here, who may let us use the beach.
Turns out it was all true, and Mercy lived there too! The house was huge, with knicknacks that would put any English grandma to shame. There was also a huge fan spreading a refreshing breeze. We met her cousin John, who was educated in a big city and referred to the island as Alcatraz. He had a very negative opinion of most things, but we had an interesting conversation and learned a lot about the island and some of the behind the scenes happenings. This guy and his family seemed to have their fingers in all the pies of Likoma. The Grandpa did indeed have an unfortunate event on the Ilala, something to do with not getting the level of service he was expecting. He is also doing his best to stop the Ilala dock from being made. Turns out they are putting it right over the water input for the whole island. Right now very little filtering must be done to the water, but once the ferry is there, and it dumps everything into the lake and the water will need far more treatment.
The grandpa was also on the board of education for our school. Months ago, they all met and we were told to come too. We met all 15 or so of them, said hellos and left. We asked how the rest of the meeting went later, and they said fine except it ended early because someone had a heartattack. Turns out that was his grandpa.
They also promised we could use the beach as long as we asked first and they were there to supervise. We’ll call it a win!
One of the most difficult parts of teaching has been trying to figure out what the students already know and what they have never heard of before. To prepare for class, he asked the math teacher if the students could graph. Mr Nkhokota assured him that they could and we even discussed the way they had been taught. With a sense of confidence Ryan went into his valuable double period and gave a brief review of how to graph a line. The students faces were blank and they did not respond when I asked if they understood. This was common so Ryan continued on with the lesson “Solving linear equations by graphing”. The class dutifully copied down notes and with about 20 minutes to go in the class it became apparent that no one had any idea about anything to do with a graph and were completely lost. Ryan quickly threw together a lesson on the spot which made them even more confused and wasted the double period. This has happened before with negative numbers. It seems like every now and then we stumble into a giant hole in their knowledge that can take several class periods to reteach and puts us way behind in the class.
On Thursday morning, Sasha was lead teacher. She gave the sermon, ending on a strong “We do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard” and was complemented on the clarity and simplicity of it. Our sermons are always around 30 seconds of pre-written speeches we find online that morning, while the average teacher has a 5-10 minute ramble. That day was club day so we announced what we would do origami and make fortune tellers. Students laughed hard when they saw it. Then it was announced since there was a game Saturday we would instead all be going to sports. Sasha usually attends the girls netball, but this time she meandered to the boys volleyball and football.
She watched volleyball and halfway through even served it. It was quite a good serve for not doing so in years, although it did go out of bounds. A student, Alfred, who no longer takes Chemistry watched with her. They talked about the fortune teller- apparently each Malawian knows how to make it, but it is used as an egg holder. She learned his father was trusted by the previous couple that lived here to bring them anything. “Yes, he is quite liked by white people like you”. Alfreds job prospects? He will drive a motorcycle as a taxi, or be a welder which are both pretty good jobs. She lent him a USB stick (with Avatar and Howls moving castle) which he’ll bring back with a Nigerian movie and a few others. Nigerian movies are somewhat popular, though quite predictable and we want to learn what all the rage is about!
One other guest stayed at the Mothers Union, a man who is the Construction Manager that is working on the solar panel project that will bring renewable power to the island starting in June of this year. (if things stay on schedule). With every guest its like having a new roommate, and its often awkward. He moved out a few days ago to stay somewhere more permanent and cheaper, but is also staying until July. He gave us a tour of the construction site so far. They were just pouring the solar panel foundations and putting up walls for the battery building, but it was cool to see the people at work and to pour over the plans for the construction. The solar panels themselves have been delayed over fears of the Coronavirus since they are being made and shipped from china. It is amazing how interconnected the world is even on this little island far away from literally anything else. He, like John, seems to feel a little trapped on Likoma. We wonder if the reason we don’t feel so trapped is that we chose fully to be here, or that we just like beaches a lot more.
We finally found a better way to filter our water more efficiently (see picture). Now we can just turn on the faucet and the bottles will fill!
After several attempts at trying to communicate and convince Christina that we didn’t want dinner tonight we finally got an opportunity to cook for ourselves and made pizza. Even Dunford and his sister liked it. He said “It was too tasty”. The couple that visited brought us some Mozzarella cheese (It was odd to ask favors from people you have never met, but we got over it) as well as a bag full of carrots and peppers, which has greatly enhanced every meal. Sasha followed Cassidy’s footsteps and bought dough from people making bread. This time was much easier, as the lady that spoke great English was back. They included some flour as well, which was extremely helpful. We mashed tomatoes and cooked them for an hour or so, with some garlic. We are practically chefs now.
We had a game on Saturday- our first home game! St. Peters beat Likoma Secondary in every single sport. Volleyball, Football, and Netball. It is always nice to see our students in everyday dress. Its their one time to show off their outfits so many get very… extra. They keep combs in hair, wear fake chains, bright skinny jeans, big jackets, the works. Each student at the other school did wear their uniforms, and on Tuesday during morning announcements (there was none Monday- it was raining too hard) they were told from here on they will wear full school uniform to which everyone laughed at.
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