11 June 2008: End of MST
Posted By Sika on June 13, 2008
I had forgotten what cold season is like. Not the cold itself; that I remember, but the way in which it is cold. Any place where there is an absence of direct sunlight it is f-ing freezing. This morning we were a little worried about our toes falling off from sudden onset of frostbite. I actually pulled out my knee-high socks to wear under my jeans and still thought I might have to donate a digit to the winter gods. But winter here isn’t at all the same as at home. Today Edith asked us how it is possible that in Dedza, where it is f-ing cold* (the coldest area in Malawi) we are more sunburned as a group than she has seen us in the last year (year! Seriously, can you believe it?).
The answer is that at the cloud cover burns off everyday at about mid-morning. After several hours of huddling around Nalgenes filled with warm water or layering anything of a vaguely fabric nature that can be scavenged from pretty much any source, the sun feels like life itself. So we bask. And bask. And by the time we can feel our fingers and toeses and noses, we’ve also burnt them (So then we throw all our various scraps of fabric over our faces so that we can stay in the sun for an extra 15 minutes). Out of the direct sun, we go numb again, so we stay in the sun. Apparently we are mostly too stupid to remember our sunscreen—although in the morning, when I’m covering up every bit of skin that isn’t my face or my hands and contemplating covering those, sunscreen hardly seems necessary.
This afternoon Edith was nice enough to let us get on with our session about what to expect at COS conference so that about half of us plus Erin’s brother Johnny could head up the mountain behind the College of Forestry at around half 4 and get to the top before sunset. It was the first (and probably last) time I went all the way to the tippy top, about which I was pretty excited. The view from the top was amazing, especially watching the red sun melt into the horizon. As we were standing, watching the setting of the sun, we heard a small plane flying awfully close to our mountain. But we couldn’t see it. And then suddenly a huge, gorgeous hawk soared just above our heads, dropping down as soon as it passed us to coast on the wind in the sky below.
It was one of those wonderful surprise moments where I didn’t have time to grab my camera to document it, so I had to just experience it.
I scarfed down the little bit of dinner I was in the mood to eat so I could be first back to the hostel for a loverly hot hot shower. Linda agrees with me that a hot shower on a cold evening in Dedza is one of the best sensations in the world. Well, until you turn off the water. We adopted Ali, a first year education volunteer who came to give us many helpful tips about teaching, into the soon-to-be-second-year-health family. Then we held many votes about which movie we were going to watch using m speakers, Mike’s computer, and PC’s projector. In the end, we decided on 3:10 to Yuma, which was a surprisingly affecting movie. Erin also made brownies from the brownie mix Johnny brought her, which we were quite happy to eat. Becky cried at the end of the movie. And so, basically, ends MST. Technically, we have sessions tomorrow, but Erin and I are hoping that we can leave early enough that our friend Sarah can pick us up at the tarmac and give us a lift home. And anyway, the main point of MST, at least to us, is that we get to all be together again for a few days. The next time will be the last time, so we’re making the most of the time we’ve got.
*Those may not have been her exact words.
**Close of Service conference, April 2009: the next time we will all be together
Really neat pictures!
-Sarah