Thursday morning the village was busy. There has been a large group staying at the lodge and in the village. They go out during the day and often even eat dinner out. This means they are only around in the early morning and late evening. I have only seen and spoken to them a few times, but I have been hearing them when they come back at night and when they wake up to leave in the mornings. I usually hide in my hut until they are gone, but this morning I came down to have coffee. Their group was leaving today for Zambia and wouldn’t be back so I wanted to wish them well and say goodbye to those of them that I had met.
I drank my coffee as they loaded up and then once they were gone I ate a bowl of oatmeal. Sai and I had a busy day of running errands planned so I wanted to make sure I ate! After breakfast I went and got ready for the day. Packing up my bag with money, my phone, notebook and all the other crap I carry around 🙂
Sai and I needed to go find a welder to make the swing set frame for us. The initial plan was to build it out of wood, but after further thought we decide on metal. The cost was reasonable and actually comparable to wood so we were still on budget. We took our regular walk and just before we reached Adziwa we got in a minibus. This being my third minibus ride I was feeling like a pro. I was almost laughing while we rode because the music in the bus was so loud and the way we all were swaying with the bumpy road it looked like all of us were dancing in our seats 🙂 I counted 23 of us in the bus…we were packed in! The ride was short though and we hopped out right in front of the welders shop. Sai had called ahead so the man knew what we wanted. It was just a matter of discussing it further and then coming to an agreement on the price. I told him I would give a deposit so he could start right away and then pay him the balance when it was done. We also needed to discus how we would get the frame from the shop to Adziwa once it was complete. The man and Sai both agreed that I could pay some of the workers to just carry it there. This should be fun to watch….we will see what happens.
We then we’re headed into the city to hire a big truck to take us to the place used tires are sold. The truck would then carry everything we bought and us back to Adziwa. We needed to buy around 20 tires for the playground. As we walked to catch the next minibus we saw two large trucks parked and waiting to be hired. Sai and I figured we could ask one of them if they wanted the job and save ourselves a ride into town. Lucky for us they were anxious for the work. For a moment I was a bit overwhelmed. As we approached the driver we ended up with quite a crowd around us. Everyone wanted to know what we wanted. I let Sai do the talking and just slowly backed myself out of the big circle of people. Once he had made an agreement we got into the truck. Sai explained that all of those men gathered around because they were looking for odd jobs. Many times when people rent a big truck like that, they will also need day laborers. It all made much more sense after hearing that. We arrived at the “tire market”. It looked like a huge market filled only with tires. Big ones, small ones, broken ones, new ones and on and on. Rows and rows of tires all chained together and all being sold by different people. I thought what I needed was simple, but as it turned out….it wasn’t. The tires were all mixed up. New tires mixed with old ones. What we wanted were old tires (cheap tires). The kicker was that we needed 16 that were all the same size and 5 that were a bit smaller but again “all the same size”. We had a bunch of men trying to talk all at once to us to find out and understand what we wanted. After about 10 min of Sai speaking in Chichewa I pulled out my phone. I pulled up a picture of the tire dome we are going to build. Soon all the men were crowed around me looking at the picture. Lots of “ohhhhhh!” started to come from the crowd. Eventually we had to scale down the designs size because we couldn’t find enough large tires. This was our plan B and I’m glad we came up with one! Soon tires were starting to be stacked in front of me for my approval and inspection.
On a side note I spoke to my husband last night and he asked what I had done today. My response was “I went to see a welder and then hired a 2 ton truck to take me to the tire yard” he laughed and shook his head 🙂 and said “sounds exactly like how you would have spent your day had you been at home”…lol…not quite!
Eventually we did get all the tires we needed. They aren’t perfect, but I know my next group is filled with really smart folks so they will work out how to use them 🙂 it will be a great challenge! I’m sure they will thank me later.
We climbed up into the truck and I payed the guys. Then it was bump bump all the way back to Adziwa. When we arrived everyone there looked confused seeing me pull up in a huge truck loaded with tires. Quickly everyone pitched in to help put the tires in a safe spot until the team arrives. Tovia was cracking me up as she was trying to roll the tires one by one in a line to get them to me so we wouldn’t have to carry them. Team work!!
I felt like we had accomplished a lot so Sai and I headed for home to have lunch. I started talking about a cheeseburger while we walked. (I must be feeling better) when we got back to the village I ordered a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich with chips and took it to my hut to eat.
The village is empty now (just me) so it’s super quiet during the day. I ate and wrote a bit and then took a nap! (Don’t judge me)
The reality of the empty village started to sink in. I got up and texted Jessica to confirm that I would be alone for the next few nights. I toldd her I wasn’t worried, I just wanted to mentally prepare myself. She responded by calling me and telling me her and and her mom had decided I should stay up in the lodge until Monday!! Wow!! How amazing!!! I’ve never packed up so quickly in my life! A hot shower and a fluffy bed were waiting for me at the top of the hill!! Oh did I mention a toilet that flushes!!! I hit the lottery! All kidding aside it will be a nice break before the next group arrives.
I came up to the lodge and had a long hot shower and put on clean clothes. I soaked up the wifi and called Patrick. Such a relaxing evening. I went to sleep around 8:30.
Having a great time and feeling as if we are accomplishing so much! The community learning center is really happening and the playground is ready to be built once the team arrives 🙂 hopefully things will continue to go well.