Day 29: school kids, town trip, youth club, dinner at AJ's, beach bonfire

4th August:

Hector (Denyer) and Isaac left this morning, another sad goodbye.

On the path on my way up to the school I managed to trip up the rocks yet again...! The kids read to me as usual and then we had Joseph rehearsals. They seem to be really keen on it which is very rewarding seeing my enthusiasm mirrored.

After lunch I walked into town, got some money out, topped up my local SIM and bought a few things from Peoples (the local Malawian supermarket), including some sweets to give the kids tomorrow for my last day with them. I still find it funny how the locals get so surprised when I reply in Tonga (the local language) instead of in English. But it's also a shame because it means that not many other travellers bother to learn even the basics of the language.

I came back just in time for Youth Club at 3pm and played loads of games with them. I suggested British bulldog (but I just called it bulldog so they wouldn't associate it with "mzungu"- white people), but they didn't seem keen on the idea. But then the loved the idea when I rephrased it and said: we're playing a game- Ezmequie and Matthews are lions in the middle, and you are Impala and have to reach the other side without getting eaten. Then we changed it to foxes and rabbits and then leopards, etc. We also played rather a good few rounds of wink murder- they actually understood the concept and played it correctly for once! I spent nearly the whole of youth club with Priscilla either on my shoulders or piggybacking her.

I had a bath in the lake before heading over to AJ's for dinner with Meg and Kyle. I brought over some nice chocolates with me cause I didn't know what was the right thing to bring, and I wasn't gonna bring a bottle of wine. We had a good ol spag bol which was hearty and homely. Ez's rabbit had been eaten by a dog earlier that day so she was in tears most of the night, and little Thoko was passed out on some cushions on the floor. It was a lovely chilled evening.

 The rabbit a week or two earlier...
 Ezmequie (Ez the monkey)

I walked back to Butterfly to find the two Belgian guys having a big bonfire on the beach as it was one guy's last night. People passed round the guitar and sang songs, and later I was asked to sing a few songs again.