Saturday was a day of leaving parties. The first was at Chileweni. As you know I was reluctant to go, and add we got in the car I said that I felt like a fraud. What do I do? But it was a lovely event, small and well organised. The children were lovely and with playing with our donated frisbees and a fair amount of dancing it was full of smiles and laughter. The children were treated to chicken and chips from Kips and a fizzy drink too. They all sat in quiet and polite anticipation. They got more comfortable with us the longer we stayed and were keen to dance with us and hold hands. With speeches that highlighted how much they rightly value BigA and what he had done it was so much better than I had anticipated. A clear theme was 'don't forget us' and that means please keep giving us money. Which we will. I know that my reluctance to go was so much about feeling the hopelessness such poverty evokes in me. The privilege guilt that we haven't done more and those children have so little. I don't want to get used to it but I am capable of avoiding it too. Hard to do in Malawi.
As if to exacerbate that we then came home to get showered and dress for our second goodbye party. And looking at the wealth we have and all the things it's easy to take for granted we got ready. It was a wonderful evening, dodging time with the people we have become friends with over our 6 years. The atmosphere was fun and positive and I had so much fun. It felt a little like our wedding, moving from table to table, talking, laughing and of course drinking and a little bit of dancing.
The work week has been it's usual mix. I arranged a pedicure and manicure to make sure I am ready for the yr13 graduation celebrations. Some tough conversations and nice classes to balance it all.
It's a moment of real joy to see them all getting up and receiving their diplomas. The students always impress. SAIntS at its best.
A is almost finished, just one exam to go and I know she is super excited about it being over. Well she would be but sadly She's has been very poorly the last few days. She managed to get into her last physics exam but she felt dreadful. We did a COVID test yesterday and that was negative and so we did a malaria test, positive, we have started her on malaria medication. Running a temperature and feeling rotten. She really didn't want the malaria test. Not quite sure what we'll do about the last exam which is on Monday. Most people we know who have had it are rough for at least a week. Seems rather unfair that with just 3 weeks left she gets it. Poor thing. Now BigA and I can only really wait to see if we've been infected, I suspect she got it while at the last safari with her dad.
When she wasn't ill she's been planning the exit strategy for the cat. I know it's going to break her heart to leave him. She often says he and her friend Yu-wen are the only things she's going to miss.
BigA has still been busy trying to get our freight sorted and selling other stuff, some of it I didn't know we had! It's still here because the Malawi company who should have come and weighed it over a week ago are really quite rubbish.
BigA is going to bring me a cup of tea in a bit, I'm next to A doing my best to comfort her and get her to keep hydrated. She is sort of asleep.
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