Today was our last day in Chilimani. Having traveled last year on assessment and with such a successful culmination of the two boreholes of this trip, it was an especially bittersweet moment for me. We had a goodbye meeting (pictured) with the water committee and the Village Implementation Committee, and it was pointed out that neither Jordan nor I would be returning next year, bringing on a surge of emotion that I was not prepared for. We said our final, heartfelt goodbyes to our friends and packed into the cars and drove away, waving to the children amidst calls of “Azungu!” (“white people!”).
This brought us back to the farm pretty early and we spent the time stuffing all of our dusty clothes, chitenges, and garden hoes into our bags for the journey home. With that (mostly) done, some of us took a sugar cane break and pretended we were real Malawians who could tear the juicy nectar from the hardened exterior of the cane. We passed the time by coming up with ideas for our EWB-Malawi trading card game that includes characters such as electricity-wielding Trudi (a volunteer instructor for Sakata-region teachers), fire-fighting Kim (or as her card says, The Notorious KLB), and Bute (a 14 year old bulldog) whose only powers are to nap and beg.
Tomorrow morning, we head to Blantyre to finish up business and then it’s homeward bound for this EWB team! Another very successful trip in the books!
Tionana,
Becca