Expecting Something Unexpected

Our goal was to beat the four blog posts so we could be doing better than last trip. That obviously didn’t work out as planned, but we are going to get this last one in as we sit in Chileka Airport, which is about the size of the airport in SLO (like two rooms), for 3 hours.

This week did not go as we originally planned, which we have now come to expect. We started off the weekend, as Torrey said, in Mulanje.

We stayed at the Kara O’Mula Country Lodge with our driver, Thompson.

Forgot to mention we were woken up by monkeys
jumping on our roof the first morning 

We also got to hike to the waterfall! We were escorted by our guide, John, who sprinted after our minibus up two pretty steep hills so that we would choose him. He showed us the spot to jump off the rocks into the water.

This is John. (We also saw Geoffrey again, our guide last September.
He was too obnoxious to be chosen again).

We wanted to tour the tea plantations in the area (what Mulanje is most famous for) but they were too busy to host tours, as it is their peak season for harvesting tea. Instead, we got real pizza (they had a brick oven!!) and learned about some of the well known peaks and landmarks in the area. There we learned that there is this meteorite that is supposed to bring you good luck on your travels. It has a name that I can’t remember that Thompson translated to mean toolshed (not sure if its correct but we like it).

The story behind the meteorite is that this rock was in the road and these workers moved it to get it out of the way. That night everything flooded and when they returned the rock was back in the same location. They moved it again and it came back. Finally, they decided to crush the rock and the next day it was back. That’s my terrible rendition of the story I can’t completely remember without our book. When you get to the meteorite, you are supposed to walk around it three times, tapping it with a small rock that is perched in a crevice on the meteorite. If you do this when traveling north, it will bring you safe travels. It doesn’t work if you’re travelling south. If you happen to involuntarily whistle, something unexpected will happen to you. (We read this in Philip Briggs’ Bradts Malawi Guide Book, to avoid any plagiarism accusations).

Brian decided to test our luck and walk around the rock three times backwards while voluntarily whistling. (He wanted our tires to blow out on the ride home or something). Torrey went next and did it the correct way and then Thompson and I followed. I guess some unexpected this followed suit this week but who knows if that’s related.

I also forgot to mention that we passed the meteorite on the first try and had to drive back like 15 minutes. This picture of it on the side of the road hopefully helps explain why.

It was very small and not very noticeable, like even when
we were right next to it we were very unsure that we were
in the right location. (It was confirmed for sure by a man in
a minibus who yelled something in chichewa and gestured in a
circle motion to explain what we already knew to do)

The next day, we were invited to celebrate with Molly, the owner of Kameza Lodge (where we have been staying), and her family. She first took us to church at the oldest building in Blantyre. Torrey and I wore dresses made of chitenjes!

We then returned back to the lodge to prepare for the day of celebration. Molly’s entire family meaning her six children and their spouses, their thirteen children, plus her brother and some of her great nieces and nephews. We joined them for a Christmas lunch and lots of dancing! We made a lot of new friends and enjoyed the company of her family on this holiday, which was really nice because all three of us were missing our own families for the second year in a row. We finished the night off exhausted but ready to head to the community in the morning.

Originally, Tuesday was supposed to be our last day in the community. But we received results from Polytechnic, stating that the borehole had coliform bacteria in it. At first we were confused by the results, especially after the drillers results that said that there was 0 coliform and streptococci bacteria. We took another sample of the borehole and had it tested and these results confirmed that it did have high levels of bacteria in it. We were frustrated that we had received such inaccurate results from the driller and contacted Steve to see how to move forward. Unable to communicate this to the community without our translator, we prepared a conversation to explain this to the committee first thing when we arrived Tuesday morning. We told them that they could not drink the water until it was treated and planned to arrive the next day with chlorine for a very short time to sanitize the borehole.

With that plan in place, we enjoyed our last full day with the committee and the kids in the community.

Wednesday morning, we arrived with chlorine powder and calculations to determine how much was necessary for the well. With the research we did the night before, and help from Steve, we figured out how much to dilute the chlorine and the proper procedure used to clean the water. The community members who live close by learned that it would not be usable for the next couple of days and all filled buckets, which we confirmed would not be used for cooking, drinking, or washing their dishes.

We then got started mixing the chlorine and pouring it into the borehole. We quickly learned after pouring in only half of the first of sixteen buckets, that pumping did not help the already high level of water, and that we would need to wait until the water level dropped. It also didn’t help that we had come to do this treatment after an entire night of rain.

We reached out to Steve and he directed us to the government. We safely wrapped up the borehole after waiting a few hours and seeing no reduction in the water level at all and headed to the Blantyre district council office to discuss our options.

We informed them that we were leaving the following day and did not have time to wait for the water level to drop to insert the correct amount of chlorine. They told us that they are happy to take over but would need the help of the contractor and his agreement to follow their standards (which they did not currently have without having a direct contract with him).

We arranged a meeting for this morning and luckily got everyone into the office. There we agreed that the driller would complete the sanitation of the well (which was in his original contract) under the supervision of the government! We were super nervous going into the meeting, but think that we came out with the best possible solution.

Hopefully we can post an update on the sanitation progress which will be starting on Tuesday. We’re getting ready to board! Can’t wait to see you all back in the US!

Sydney

Title creds to Brian