Beginnings of Goodbye

On Sunday, we woke to find out that the Peace Corps have been pulled from all communities, worldwide. Before today, it was only China and a handful of countries nearby that were rumored to pull soon. But this was everyone. Our Peace Corps counterparts had 24 hours to pack and leave, with no chance to say a proper goodbye. Our friend in Vanuatu had 12 hours before a helicopter came to pick her up. She loved her place so much she was taking a third year, but she had no chance for a goodbye. Another friend in Vanuatu had only 6 hours. Throughout this trip, the Peace Corps had been something of a weather vane. this was not a good sign that they thought things were bad enough to evacuate everyone for the first time ever. We began to consider leaving as well. As a government organization, PC is always extremely careful, more than we need to be but this was a big blow.

Being on a small island has some downsides. One of which, is that we are very isolated and it can be hard to determine what is going on in the rest of the country. One of the benefits, however, is that everyone knows everyone and everyone is very friendly and talkative. We heard the telltale sound of plane motors fill the peaceful Likoma air and rushed down to the airport. This was one of the first planes we had heard come in since the rainy season had started. The pilots, Mike and Mike, had come from the Lilongwe airport and we were able to chat with them about the conditions in South Africa and the rest of Malawi. They were unconcerned with the whole issue, which was a little surprising given that their business relies on wealthy people coming to visit. They said they would do their best to come to the birthday party we had planned for that Saturday. There were some extra precautions being taken at the airport in Lilongwe, but so far no meaningful restrictions on travel. That reassured us a bit, maybe Peace Corps was overreacting. 

On Tuesday, it was Sasha’s Birthday. Ryan came into her mosquito net and woke her with one of the cute little kittens and suggested a morning walk. We walked to the top of a nearby hill. We found a cat that was likely Spot’s father, a larger version of our only male kitten. He enjoyed getting under our feet as we walked, we had to keep throwing him into the bushes to make any progress. We looked at the beautiful view, with everything green and the fishing boats returning. Ryan, who hadnt slept very well the past few nights because of the continuous news alerts about Caronavirus spreading, turned to Sasha and gave her the worst birthday gift either of us has ever received, and hopefully ever will. “I think we have to go home, Canada is calling everyone home and many countries have started closing their borders”. We agreed and we began preparations to get home.

We told the headteacher, who took it well but seemed a little confused as the virus would be over by March 27^th. He sent us the video of a man from a prominent church in Lilongwe making the prophecy too prove it. “Modern medicine did not bring this, and so it cannot cure it. It will leave as quickly as it came.” We agreed that if it did manage to vanish by then, we would be back on the next plane and be here for the start of term three. It was somewhat distressing that the March 27th narrative seemed to be gaining a lot of traction as we heard it from several other people over the next few days. Hope is good, but sometimes it is better to think things through and face the facts. Perhaps many are somewhat numb to diseases, as Ebola was a huge scare that never came, and Malaria is so casually cured.

We began to inform the teachers, who were equally surprised. At the time, there had only been a handful of cases in South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya. Nowhere near Malawi. We planned a birthday/going away party for that Friday instead with all our friends and colleagues. later that day, a man came up to us in the market and introduced himself as the Headteacher from Wisdom Academy. This was full of the students who could not afford our school, or who had dropped out for one reason or another. The school had around 50 students, and fees were only K18,000 a term instead of our K51,000. We explained we would be leaving on Saturday and would not be able to teach. He explained that Corona will not come to Malawi because they have so much faith in god. We asked about everyone else that did too, but he patiently described how no one believed in God as much as the Malawians. All the same, we accepted to come and visit his school on Thursday.

On Wednesday we realized that in all of our time on the island we had never visited the famed Kaya Mawa (meaning “Maybe Tomorrow”). We decided that we had said “maybe tomorrow” enough and packed a bag to make the trek over to visit. We arrived and were greeted by a friendly electrician who offered to show us around. Many of the rooms were undergoing repairs in preparation for the busy season starting in April. We visited every room and were very impressed by the way the buildings were built into nature. Many were built with one wall made of a giant boulder and there were showers that had become a part of the trees over the years. After our tour, we walked a few hundred meters down the way to visit the creator of Kaya Mawa himself and say our goodbyes to Andrew. He was mostly his usual jovial self, and poured us a Shanty. He had just finished building a beautiful new lodge and planned to have the grand opening in early April. All of his international guests had canceled. He is very worried about the death rate of Malawi, thinking it will be as high as 10-15% because so many suffer from HIV/AIDS. “Maybe this will be the push I need to quit smoking” as he pulls another cigarette from his new bar. We collected bread and went snorkeling one last time in his beautiful waters. The colorful fish swarmed and explored all around us as the sun began to set. As we were leaving he offered to come any time and stay as long as we bought our own food. The three of us rode away on the back of his motorbike. We made it only halfway up a steep hill, so Ryan jumped off and raced us to the top. Andrew tried to speed off without him but Ryan jumped back on in the last second. He dropped us off at the crossroads, and we peacefully wandered our way home.

When Thursday came, we had a lot of extra stuff that we had planned to use or eat over the next few months, that now needed to sell or give away. We made a goodie bag of some of these items and challenged the students to answer questions in exchange for prizes. It was an odd assortment of items. Some students got cockroach spray, some got lights, others got a jar of peanut butter. George, the student Ryan had busted for fighting in class, somehow ended up with a hammer. By far the best reactions were to the canned goods. Norah got a can of peaches which disappeared when another student went to the bathroom. He came back with a sharp curve hacked into the top of the jar. Everyone was confused by the contents. they asked what it was and how they were supposed to eat it. After Ryan explained it they ended up being far more interested in the syrup and left the peaches alone. 

Next on the Docket was to take Bruno up on his offer to tour the Police department. We met him along the road and walked to the group of buildings someone thought would be best placed on top of a big hill. A little bushwhacking later we made it up and saw the jail cells and offices of the Likoma Police department. He didnt let us see inside though. It was a smart collection of buildings with an excellent view, and just two jail cells.

We headed back to the school and finished talking with our students (they were perfecting the tongue twister about “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck…”) and we prepared to leave for Wisdom Academy. Natasha, his niece, and our guide, was very patient. We gave her a soda to wait with while we quickly packed. We had planned to find it ourselves, but the path was very narrow and winding and through many backyards. We would not have found it without asking a lot of people a lot of questions. We finally made it to a very cute house with steps made from smashed tile. Charles, the wisdom academy headteacher greeted us. We sipped coffee and he explained how he built this school earlier that year. There were two neat yellow buildings, with two rooms each. “Wisdom Academy, In God we trust” written on the side. And yes, he got that idea from US currency. Each room had a blackboard and some sort of bench or stools. A few had wide wooden chairs that had come from his home. Between them, a 3 wall hovel stood made of grass and found wood. Chalk on the short table labeled it “Staff lounge”. He asked us to send new volunteers to him to help teach at the school. It did seem that they needed us more than St. Peters did.

Once we had seen everything, Natasha showed us to the way out. We walked by her family who were busy braiding hair. Her neighbor wanted us to take a photo with her baby. We made our way through more backyards and cornfields, greeting everyone as we went.

She led us out near the airport, and we headed on to Chiponde beach. Allegedly, the most beautiful beach on the island! On it, Ian the Englishmen and his American wife were building a new lodge. He had found the place 27 years ago as a young hippy, and had been thinking about coming back that entire time. We got very close to the beach, but hit a dead end. An old lady sat cutting branches. We approached and asked her the way to Chiponde. She did not speak English, but knew that word. She shouted at someone and eventually gave up and staggered upright when they did not appear. She shuffled to the side of the house, beckoning us to follow. We pulled out some very nice chocolates that we brought from Australia, and as she waved us on we gave her a few to apologize for bothering her. She took a bite and a very confused but happy expression crossed her face. “Very sweet!”, but then a woman with a string of children appeared and saw the sweeties. They walked us the rest of the way to the beach- we were indeed quite close. Sasha gave up handing out the chocolates and just gave them the bag. We always dislike giving candy to children and setting that precedence but they probably aren’t seeing any more azungu for a long, long time.

Three men working on the site greeted us, and started to show us around. Giddian was the lead, then Christopher, and a landscaper. They all came from the Chiponde village, and were very excited to be working here, although none had experience with this sort of thing. They had all traveled far and come back to Malawi, and their English was fantastic. The chalets were one room, with a roof you can sit and look to the beach on. Giddian took sneaky photos of us, and Ian eventually appeared from the side. “Id offer you a beer but I have only one!” he said as he cracked his one beer and began to sip it. We took our second motorbike ride home and prepped for our last full Likoma day.

Friday we found out that the afternoon classes had been canceled so Ryan decided it was time to get a Malawian haircut that he had been putting off. In Mbabma he found the barber that had approached them a few months ago and sat down for a quick clip. 45 min later he left K2,000 lighter and with nearly the worst haircut possible (there were no actual bald spots). Immediately afterward, we had a meeting with the headteacher and Patrick who thanked us for our help and presented us with a chitenje with a map of Likoma and a tailored shirt and dress. They were wonderful gifts and will help us remember this wonderful island.