Tuesday morning Liz was scheduled to leave. She is heading to Ghana to visit the village she lived in when she was in the Peace Corps. She was sad to leave Malawi, but excited for her next adventure. We had breakfast with Jess and before long it was time for her to say her goodbyes to the village staff. The car had arrived and I would join her to the airport. Things at the airport have changed and people who are not passengers are no longer allowed to enter the checkin area. That didn’t stop me though 🙂 I went in with her and got her all checked in. After that though I couldn’t go any farther without a ticket. We said goodbye and away she went! I had to tell the man at the door that I had left something in my car when he asked why I was leaving a “passenger only area..” I went up on the other side of the airport to see if her plane had arrived yet. It hadn’t so I checked some emails and waited a bit: the weather was nice and sitting up on the deck overlooking the jetway was nice. Eventually I decided to leave with the driver and head back to the village. She sent me a text letting me know she had boarded so I knew all was well.
I met Sai back in the village and together we walked to Adziwa to pay the monthly salaries and to give the food money to Tovia. Over the last few days Tovia had presented me with a new budget for food since the cost of some things has gone up. Took me a while to make heads or tails of things, but I think I have figured out that since the rate of exchange has also gone up our budget shouldn’t need to change. We also have had to employe one more person to act as a night watchmen. He will watch the Community Learning Center and playground for us.
I went to check on the progress of the community learning center and found things going fine. James (manager at Adziwa) and I had some things to work out and it didn’t go so well. I think in the end we understood each other so at least that is positive. Sometimes we disagree but at the end of the day we both want the same things.
Tuesday night I was invited up to the lodge to have dinner at Guy and Maureen’s house. Jess and her brother would be there as well as two other people who were visiting. It was a lovely dinner and nice to have company since my crew has all gone home. I went to bed really early and didn’t even notice I had until I woke up wide awake at 1:30am! I was able to fall back asleep but it took some time. Things are quiet here now but I have lots to organize before the next group arrives on Monday. I’m keeping busy and thinking about the volunteers who now have reached home 🙁 hope they take good care of themselves as they transition back to “regular life”.