Now that we are in the tail-end of our service, our Eastern LIFE/RAP ’15 intake decided to jettison on a group get-away to Mfuwe for a few days. It’s hard to express the types of relationships we all share with one another: in essence, we are family. We have been through two years of struggles together that no one else will share with us. And we all happen to like one another very much, which has resulted in our intake being one of the closest I’ve experienced throughout my service (though most are very close).
Brent and Bonnie were waiting for us in Mfuwe (having taken their host family on a holiday a few days before). Melissa, Shu, Jonathan and I piled into Reuben’s taxi and headed out in the morning, followed by Caroline, Nick, Brian, and Catherine. We stayed at Marula’s in their dorm room for three nights.
Luckily, Mfuwe valley wasn’t scorching hot this visit (though it was still quite hot). The water level was pretty high due to the high level of rains in the past few months and we didn’t see much of anything throughout our stay (though we could hear the hippos in the water below).
Most of our trip consisted of everyone grouped in or around the pool, multiple games of spades, and delicious food. The first night, after a nice swim, we gathered in the communal kitchen to prepare cheeseburgers, coleslaw, and mac and cheese (mmmhhmmm). Jay—our adopted child—finally made it around dusk. Jay is an education volunteer in the intake below us, but we’ve essentially adopted him (as well as a few others) as part of our intake and we welcomed him to join us for the week. After labouring over cooking for a few hours, we all collapsed into bed.
In the morning, Nick, Carrot, Shu, Brent, and Jay went on the early drive, while the rest of us stayed behind to relax and cook up some breakfast. I joined Melissa, Jonathan, and Brian near the river, enjoying a cup of coffee, and watching the monkeys above. Bonnie quickly put breakfast together (eggs and potato hash) and it was perfectly timed for the return of the rest of the group. They all came in exclaiming about seeing wild dogs in the early morning. It is my dream to see wild dogs and I haven’t been able to catch a glimpse of them yet. But, I knew right away they were lying—no wild dogs for them, either! Shortly after breakfast, we drew names from a hat to make spades teams for a cutthroat spades tournament. Jonathan and I were paired up and our first match was against Shu and Jay. After beating our opponents, we all jumped in the pool.
Brent and Brian started a competition over who could hold their breath for the most lengths of the pool. Naturally, Brent won, due to his 6’8” frame and surfer-dude, water polo, swimming background. But the competition continued throughout the trip, resulting in Brian trying to meditate himself into holding his breath for another minute.
In the evening, Nick and Carrot jumped onto another safari, while the rest of us stayed behind. We taxied over to Flatdogs—a nearby resort that had opened their doors that day. On the way, we saw two ginormous hippos, and one elephant butt. We also debated the catastrophe that was unfolding back at the prov house. Our beloved(ish) house cat, Patches, was officially ousted from the house. It is Peace Corps policy that no pets are allowed in the prov houses due to allergies and different opinions on pets. This rule was enforced about 2 years ago: just before we came to country. However, Patches was given a pass because she is old and we concluded that she would soon die (no one actually knows her age—she could be like 8, but is probably more like 16). Apparently, some grieved person reported her to Lusaka and they are now insisting that she go. Naturally, we were OUTRAGED. How could we kick Patches out of the house!? She is our mascot. Our heart. Plus, she will literally die in the outside world. She won’t deign to eat a mouse, or a bird. She’ll kill them, sure, but she won’t eat ‘em. Not to mention that the wild cats and dogs around will soon turn her into a meaty-meal. Plus, she’s old! Most of our dinner was spend discussing the Patches situation and deciding to change our COS party theme to “SAVE PATCHES”.
Mel, Brian, Jonny, and I split a four way meal: nachos, chilli con carne, lamb meatballs, and the club sandwich, with a mojito for me on the side. It. Was. Amazing. If you ever need a suggestion of where to eat in Mfuwe: choose Flatdogs. My. God.
The next day, we spent lounging by the poolside while Nick serenaded us all with Zac Brown Band’s entire playlist. Brent went on a tirade about corruption, Jonathan and I continued to demolish at Spades (aside from losing one game to Brian and Brent), and we cooked a delicious meal of homemade pizzas (thankful for Jay’s pizza dough expertise) and funfetti cake for dessert. Jay gave us all a very heartfelt speech and we all enjoyed our last evening in Mfuwe, celebrating us!
On our final morning, Brent, Brian, Jonny, and I had a re-match, in which Jonny and I won. That meant we still had one more match to go. Unfortunately, we had to leave, so we’d take up the game the next morning. Once back in Chipata, Jonny and Brian ran to town to get our new “SAVE PATCHES” shirts printed, and we all got ready for our COS party that evening.
The turnout for our party was pretty good: a lot of PCVs were in town for a recent nutrition workshop, so we were able to celebrate with a lot of the province. The party was most notable for our vigil of our loving cat, Patches. We all lit candles, told a short story about why we will (or wont) miss Patches, and passed the flame down. The Zambians in attendance definitely thought we were nuts—and we even had a few people convinced that Patches had actually died! Today, she is still at the provincial house, but will shortly be moving to live with Shu in town until we can find her a more permanent home where she will die.
Giraffes and Wild Tea 