Bicycles and a Bird ;)

The drive home from Liwonde was another adventure for all of us. After taking the boat across the river to meet our bus I was able to surprise everyone with a Malawian bicycle taxi ride. We all had our own bike and driver. Everyone hopped on the back of their bike and off we went along the dirt road. Everyone seemed to really enjoy seeing the area this way. A bit different than being on a bus for sure. We ended our ride at a local village and were able to get a tour and learn about the community. After that we got back onto the bus and headed back down the road. As I said the last hour of the ride into the park is on a dirt road therefore the first hour after leaving the park is on a dirt road. We were all ready to get back to the village so that we could rest up and be ready for Monday morning at the school. Once we had finally bumped our way to the end of the dirt road it was smooth sailing home…so we thought….
After about 15 min. of driving on the main highway SMACK! A bird (maybe a chicken) hit the windshield. This startled me, but seemed to have no effect on the driver whatsoever. About 1 min. later the bus began making a very strange noise…this had no effect on me, but seemed to startle the driver (go figure). He began looking at me with a face that I knew meant something wasn’t right. It was about that time that he pulled the bus over along side of the road. We were officially in the town of “the middle of nowhere”. The thought was that the bird (or chicken) was now stuck under the bus. Everyone assumed the driver would get out and look under the bus. Not in Malawi 😉 Between the driver and passenger seat there is a big hatch. The driver opened the hatch and I held it so that it wouldn’t  close on him. All the passengers were quiet in the back  and watching. They all later told me they thought an injured bird was going to fly out as the hatch opened. Since that wasn’t the case we now had to investigate what the issue was. The driver popped his head out and said “the belt is broken, we’ve lost the adjuster” and my response was “how important is that?” I later found out that the passengers on the bus found this exchange quite funny and had even been snapping pictures of myself and driver as we tried to work this thing out. My question wasn’t answered and instead the driver quickly got on his phone and began calling his boss. I got off the bus and called Scott. In the end I was told Scott could send a bus and a repair man and that it would be about three hours….so now I had to deliver this news to the 13 happy passengers.
I stood along side the bus and delivered the news. To my surprise everyone took this well. They weren’t happy, but I didn’t hear any complaints. The driver was still on his phone when I climbed back into my seat. He then (with rubber belts in hand) said “these are no long important, we are fine to drive”. We all had a cheer of joy and off we went down the road. Turns out those belts were for the buses air conditioner so things worked out just great. We made home 3 hours early! Or at least we avoided 3 hours on the side of the road in the middle of rural Malawi.
Upon arriving back to our “home” we all were keen to shower and unpack and just relax. Before long we had all gathered to listen to some music and have some cold drinks before dinner. During dinner the band played for us and some of the volunteers purchases CDs. This made the band so happy that they decided to stay and play even after our meal.
Since it was Sunday I wanted to check in with everyone and have a debrief of their first week in Malawi. We sat around and all talked about the highs and lows of the week. I think it was great for us to connect this way and really hear what others were feeling. Turns out many of the volunteers were struggling with the same things and had been effected deeply by the same experiences. We ended the meeting and I offered to play a game for those who wanted to stay up. About 5 of us stayed up and played a game until it got so late that we couldn’t keep our eyes open. We stayed up until 10:30!! Since we have been getting up at 6 each morning we all get so tired early. More soon. We are on the downhill side of this trip and I can see the volunteers beginning to feel a bit sad. I’m sure we will enjoy the last few days though! So much is still planned 😉

Erin