Day 23: empty butterfly, footy, Kumbu's dinner

Friday 29th:

Gregor and I were supposed to join everyone on the truck for the bricks run but got left behind.

Luke was in a bit of a state lying by the pool table- he's going to have a fun car journey this afternoon!



After lunch AJ and I said goodbye to the Hampton boys and Caroline left, which I admit was quite sad. It feels quite empty here now cause all the volunteers I know have all left and no one is in either dorm room apart from me. At least I get to choose the best bunk bed!


The empty deck outside the boys dorm, i should've taken a before and after photo with all their masses of clutter! 

AJ took me to a local footy match to distract us both from everyone leaving cause she gets quite attached to everyone who stays at Butterfly. It must be so hard for her to make friends with the volunteers here and see so many people come and go.
  The spectators

Got invited over to Kumbu's house with Sam, Meg & Kyle which was also a nice distraction. The two American boys Aaron & Jack turned up much later - just in time for food! Dinner was all cooked on a little coal stove and we helped prepare veggies and potatoes while Kumbu's friend Dao gutted and cooked the fish: Butterfish & Catfish. It was all delicious! (Yes, for those of you who know I hate fishy food- this was really flakey, meaty fish so I actually liked it). I left after dinner because the lack of sleep, having practically done an all nighter, was kicking in and I wasn't feeling great. I was getting directions off Kyle and Meg (because I was fine with the 20/30 min walk if I had directions), but Kumbu drove me back in his truck cause he said it was too dark and I was by myself.

Flopped into bed around 9pm

Day 22: Hampton boys' leaving party

Thursday 28th:

We chilled in the morning and then had a big leaving party for the Hampton boys in the evening, starting with AJ's famous quiz night. 
We never actually made it out to Bayview in town but we had our own party on the deck and a few of us stayed up to see the sunrise.

 Luke & Chef Thanks
Dave, Luke, Winston, Stanley
Winston
Caroline
Ali, Tom, Winston, Stanley
 Stanley being Stanley
 Chef Friday & I
 Stanley... again!
 Nawww... Ali & Luke
 The boys stole my phone... again. This is one of many!
 
 Theo

At night you can see a line of lights out on the lake of all the fisherman at night. 
Staying up on the deck, plus the reflection of the moon on the water and all the thousands of stars, was magical.

Then as the sun started to rise it was like a kids colouring book. I took a picture every 5 minutes of the sunrise so I have a nice little progression of pics. Best night so far with the best company!

It got to about 7am and we waved goodbye to Hector, Isaac and Wesley with their 3 canoes, starting their big 120km trip up to Livingstonia. Hopefully I'll see them in a week when they get back, if not I'll assume they're at the bottom of the lake or some local village kidnapped them! 

Boat trip, canoe hunt, burning bricks

Day 18, 19, 20, 21:

Haven't had a chance to post much in the last few days cause of lack of wifi.

Sunday 24th:

Went on a day boat trip with a few of the volunteers, AJ, her two adorable kids (Thoko & Ezmeqie), Caroline, Luke, Gregor, Tom, Theo, Ali, Meg, Kyle and Sam.

We did some rock jumping, frisbee, beach volleyball and had a BBQ. One of my best days here so far
 
 

Monday 25th:

In the morning I looked after the basket ladies while kids read to me. Theo and I played with Toko on the rocks of the lake and she made 'leaf soup' for us... She's 3, with the cheekiest, cutest smile I've ever seen. But she knows it...!

  

Tuesday 26th:

One of the basket ladies finished her basket... First one done!!!

Went up to the school at around 11 and watched some local musicians performing for the kids. They all got up and danced which was cute.

I then explained to them the whole story of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat with them (with the help of one of their teachers translating for the kids who's English wasn't as good). Hopefully tomorrow we'll start on scenes or learning a song.

Met a a kiwi guy called Isaac who'd been out visiting his sister who was volunteering, but she'd gone home and he was staying on to travel for a bit on his bicycle.

He decided to join Hector and Wesley on their big trip 120km up the lake in Malawian canoe, up to near Livingstonia. They invited me too but I still have to finish off my time volunteering here and I was ready to leave with so many of my projects unfinished.

I went into town with Hector and Isaac to meet one of the locals called McDonald who they are trying to buy two canoes off... it was unsuccessful. 

We then wandered up and down the beach and also next to Aqua Africa to ask loads of locals if they know anyone who wants to sell their canoe. Again... unsuccessful. 

We had a beer on some old abandoned balcony area and saw the sunset. We also saw quite a vicious fight that had just broken out between two guys who jumped out of nowhere and rolled around on the sand wrestling and throwing big punches at each other. Hector and Isaac ran down onto the beach with some locals to break it up, but I stayed well away! 

Got back to catch the end of the musicians who were playing for everyone, then we all had a BBQ on the beach/deck that the boys had organised which was great.
 Tom, Jackson and I 

 Jackson the best barman in the world
His first ever selfie :')

Wednesday 27th:

Looked after the basket ladies in the morning while the school kids (attempted to) read to me.

After lunch at Aqua Africa  I went on the truck with the boys to shovel sand to take to the new school AJ is building. Once we'd done that we stayed at the site in the evening, watching them 'cook' the bricks in a furnace type construction.... with few beers and some Malawi gin of course!

Day 17: Trip to town

23rd July:

A local guy sat next to me and opened up his little old laptop, only to reveal that his screensaver was a picture of him and me- I'd only met him for a grand total of about a minute! I was in hysterics!

 Local coming to sell wood to the kitchen at Butterfly

Walked into town to try the ATM again, and was greeted by nearly everyone I walked past. And it still amazes me how much these women can carry and balance on their heads. On the way home I bumped into Kingfisher and Happy Coconut- you can never walk into town without seeing people you know cause it's so small, plus everyone you walk past says hello.

I also met two girls called Esther and Faith, who followed me back to Butterfly to sell some limes to the kitchen staff. The younger girl was carrying the sack on her head and the older girl walked ahead. I thought was a bit weird that she wasn't helping, especially after I offered to help the girls carry the limes and realised how heavy they actually were!

After a swim in the lake back at Butterfly I attempted to have a shower, but there was no water, only drips :(

Day 16: trip to town & clubbing

22nd July:

Chatted with Alex, one of the locals who has 15 brothers and 6 sisters!! I spent a good few minutes trying to explain that chilli wasn't the same as ketchup. It was not successful...

I met Laurence, a traveller from the backpackers next door who walked to town with me to do a few errands. The ATM didn't work so I didn't have any money to top up my local SIM card- pretty unsuccessful trip until I went to the police station. I asked them to make a report about the money that was stolen from my backpack in my dorm and then said it would cost $50  (yet it was 20p for locals!) and they needed to start a full investigation and come to Butterfly tomorrow morning! Wow the police are actually effective here! But maybe a little too much, seeing as I just needed a written report for my insurance claim which would have taken about 2 mins to write!

We all had a big BBQ on the beach for dinner, then went out to a bar/club crawl in town which was great fun. Although we did fear for our lives when we were driven back to butterfly by a random drunk stranger!



4 of the 5 Hampton boys, back after the night out at Bayview

Day 13, 14 & 15

19th July:

Basket weaving women in the morning again. AJ sent some of her little school kids to come and practice reading for me, which was really cute. In the afternoon I took Youth Club cause no one else turned up to run it. They were absolutely hyper and took a lot of shouting at the top of my voice and clapping 3 times to get their attention, and even then there were still a few groups of kids talking.

  Judith, another of the HIV group, aka my basket ladies

20th July:

The basket weavers came in the morning as usual, and some of the school kids came to read for me. Had a swim in the lake before bootcamp (the exercise group). There was a power cut in the evening just before I was going to have a shower. So I ended up having rather a cold shower in complete pitch black which was ... interesting...! Later at dinner Caroline told me she'd seen a spider the size of her hand on the shower wall, which would have been centimetres away from where I was standing! Movie after dinner- Superbad

I then had a good long chat in the bar with Franklin: Isaac and Winston's older brother.

21st July:

Reading with the children, able readers paired up with kids who couldn't read at all, which was interesting to see which learning methods work for people who cannot even say "the".

Fell on some rocks on the way to see the Lion King show and got myself some juicy bruises- waheyy!

Went to the permaculture club at Mkondezi School in the afternoon then got back and everyone carried a load of big heavy rocks one by one up to the top of the hill.

Found out there are two guys who are called "Chicken Pizza" in Nkhata Bay!

Had a few drinks in the Butterfly bar then headed off to the local club/bar called Bayview.. Drove home with us all riding on the top of an open truck.

Day 12: Basket drama

18th July:

Basket weaving women in the morning, which was rather eventful... Kate (the basket maker who's overseeing the women) came for the first time since I've been here. She started off by saying how disappointed she was that the women had been complaining about not progressing. But this is their third week of lessons and they haven't actually started the baskets yet, they are still learning the weaving pattern on their wooden frames, so if I were them I'd be grumpy too! Then Kate claims she's not being paid enough - but it's nearly £50 which is a fortune out here! She said she was sacrificing so much of her time to teach these women, but this is the first time I've seen her here and she did not teach them anything, she just came and made a fuss, drank the tea and left after an hour, when she turned up two hours late!! So I brought AJ to have a discussion with her about money and progress and it didn't solve much, apart from the deadline to teach the women how to weave baskets by the end of the week- which I highly unlikely but at least it gives her a kick up the bum!

The weavers left a lot later (around 4pm, cause they started so late).

George, one of the HIV group learning to weave baby baskets.

Had quite a chilled afternoon sketching and sunbathing.

Played pool with the Hampton guys after dinner and on the last game it was me vs Ali & Theo and I actually won- absolute fluke but I'm allowed to be smug about that one! Then Mikey (local drunkard/ pothead) came along to the bar and walked over to me... I spent the rest of the night trying to avoid his advances! Haha!

Day 11: Stephen's church trip

17th July:

Woke up before my 6:45 alarm cause the monkeys were having a fight on our roof which sounded more like a stampede. Went to reception to order breakfast but it hadn't opened yet- I had to leave by 7:30 and food usually takes ages to come :/

I asked Stephen (the elderly man who asked me to go to this church apostle meeting) how long it would be, having heard some services last 8 hours, and he said it was only an hour! Phewww!!

Walked to the sermon with good ol' Stephen, but stopped off at his very simple house and was invited in for tea and Malawian cake with his family. They didn't have a table, so we sat on the floor on a bamboo type mat. Apart for the mat and a string hanging as a washing line, the room was completely empty.

We carried on walking to the church through the fields and hills and on the way bumped into Jackson the barman!

We arrived at the church a bit late and I got told to sit just inside the church door at the front, when most of the congregation was standing outside because the church was full. 

The service was incredibly formal with amazing choral singing, but the whole thing was in Chichewa so I didn't understand a word! At the end I was picked out and welcomed by the 'apostle' in front of the whole congregation, simply because I was the only white person. At the end I had to shake all of their hands one by one and then on the way out everyone wanted to take photos with me. The young man playing the keyboard which was on the organ setting started chatting with me and then asked for my email because he wanted to get a piano scholarship to a music college in London.

Stephen bought me a coke at the People's supermarket while walking me back, which was very sweet. But I had to drink the whole thing then and there just outside the supermarket, I couldn't take it with me and drink on the walk home...? Bit odd.

After lunch at butterfly Rosie invited me to learn how to make the woven bracelets you find at the market stalls here. One of the stall owners called Alex came and gave us a lesson which was great and I made two of my own bracelets/anklets. In payment for his lesson we bought some of the stuff he sells at his stall for tuppence!

 Dan, Rosie's husband, legend.

As soon as I went downstairs to the bar area a guy called Yamajami Jamali came over and started saying he wanted my number and he wanted to chat with me because he liked me etc. After avoiding it for ages I eventually gave in and gave him my local Malawian number (which I never use anyway) and I've already got two missed calls from him... Uh oh :/ The cost of being polite! When I next see him I'll tell him a straight no.

After dinner I said goodbye to the World Race group of Americans who were leaving at 4am the next morning. Very sad to see them go :( but I'm learning that it's part of the backpacking life- people come and go all the time and you can't get attached.