Today marked our last full day in the villages, and it brought many new—and surprising—adventures. We began the day with a monumental accomplishment: we were on time (and not just Malawi Time) for the first day this trip! We spent the morning meeting with the Village Implementation Committee and EWB Committee in Chilimani and were able to learn a lot about the community and the structure of the government. To close out the meeting, we signed the Partnership Agreement, a formal contract sealing the partnership between EWB-UD and Chilimani, so its now official!
We travelled to Zomba for lunch to celebrate our fantastic driver Joe’s birthday at Steers! After lunch, we headed to the VIP soccer final. While we had heard many things about the game from community members, none of the chats could prepare us for the experience! We arrived to the game to see a field surrounded by over one thousand people piled on the sidelines, in the trees, and on roofs of buildings. We were channeled to a bamboo hut on the front sideline, where there were chairs waiting for us. They even had us run out on the field and greet all the teams, and Becca got to start the game by kicking off the ball. It quickly became very clear that we were the guests of honor for the game—and nobody had warned us.
During half time, we put on our dancing shoes and went to town. Hundreds of people quickly swarmed us and we were surrounded. Things got crazy really fast, so we pulled some tricks and formed a conga line to get back to our chairs. Apparently the chief of a nearby village liked our dancing so much that he sent food over to our seats to enjoy during the game. The children at the game regarded us as celebrities and hundreds of the surrounded us for the entirety of the game—some were entirely too close and stroking Emma’s and Becca’s legs. We picked sides for the game, and unfortunately, Emma’s and my team lost, but the closing of the game resulted in more dancing, which we all enjoyed.
After the hectic game, we enjoyed returning to the farm for some solitude. In a shocking turn of events, the kitchen prepared spaghetti for dinner! We too advantage of the power outer to lay out in the grass and looked at the stars. It was so dark, you could see the Milky Way and many shooting stars! It was a terrific way to end the night. Tionana Mawa.
~Jordan, Malawi Project Manager