A hectic week of moving, training, and retreating

I’ve had a bit of a hectic past week and a half.

It all started a couple weeks ago when things at home started going downhill in a hurry. People started acting strangely towards me, and one of the sisters started being downright mean. Long story short, I made the decision to move out at 10pm at night, and had moved out by 7am the next morning.

Part of the reason I moved out in such a hurry was the fact that I was soon going to be out of town for a week anyway with a couple of EWB related activities. In the evening of the day I moved out Thulasy and Nina, two of the girls I came to Southern Africa with. who are now based out of Zambia, were coming to Lilongwe. After I picked them up, we all got settled in to my old stomping grounds, St. Peter’s guest house.

Thulasy, Nina, Heather, and I – the 4 new EWB volunteers that arrived in Southern Africa in August – headed to Senga Bay on Sunday for our first quarter training. First quarter training is meant to be a time to allow us to reflect on our first few months of our placement, to develop a plan to focus the rest of our time on having maximum impact, to provide training on various professional development skills, and to give us time to relax, recharge, and have some fun together!

Our training was held at a lodge by the lake. It was quite a nice spot – a beach, a bar built over the lake, a nice restaurant, and tents with beds – what more could you possibly ask for?

Photo 1 – Most of our sessions were held in a pleasant covered area right by the beach.

Photo 2 – Ordering drinks at the bar from the lake . . . it took a few attempts (and some help from up above!)

Photo 3 – Group shot! Clockwise: Me, Thulasy, Levi (Director of Overseas sending – based out of Toronto but in Malawi and Zambia for a few weeks), Heather, Nina, and Dave.

After a few days of basking in the sun at the lake, we shipped out of Senga Bay, changing venues for our Quarterly retreat. Every few months the Southern Africa team, consisting of volunteers based out of Zambia and Malawi (there are 10 of us in total at present) get together for a long weekend of sharing, reflection, analysis, and good times. Some main goals of the retreat were to help transfer learning between volunteers, to create a future vision for EWB’s overseas work, and to build on knowledge of our sectors together as a team. Our days are spent in sessions on various things, but we did have one free afternoon for group fun times.

Our retreat was held at the Zomba plateau. Zomba was the capital of Malawi until the mid-1970s, and it is still a sizable, busy place. Overshadowing the town is the Zomba plateau. The Zomba plateau is divided into two halves by the Domasi Valley. The southern half has a road to the top, and is where we stayed at – get this – a trout farm, of all places!

The trout farm provided a surprisingly good venue; there were 3 lodges in which were exactly the number of beds we required. One of the lodges was essentially a log cabin and had a lovely view. It was bizarrely different from any place I’ve seen here so far – staying in the woods (with pine trees and all!) in a log cabin in 10 degree Celsius weather, we all felt like we were back in Canada!

Photo 4 – It was really quite chilly! Most of us spent the majority of the retreat wrapped up in blankets because we didn’t bring enough warm clothing! From Left to Right – Trevor, Thulasy, Levi (shirtless and basking in the African heat, of course, having just recently arrived from Canada), Danny, Me, Heather, Dave, Brett, Ka Hay, and Nina.

Photo 5 – It was quite damp while we were there, and for the first couple days there was an incredible amount of fog (and a bit of rain in the evening to go along with it!)

Photo 6 – A “cultural energizer.”

Photo 7 – I didn’t lie when I said we stayed at a trout farm! Here Nina and Heather – bundled up in blankets of course – are inspecting the trout farm ponds.

Photo 8 – Levi and Dave putting on a skit for us. Most of our sessions were held in that covered deck area in the background, which jutted out into a trout pond.

Photo 9 – Out on a morning walk we were happy to discover a big berry patch (though we later realized that berries could be found absolutely everywhere!). Strawberries, blackberries, and orange raspberries (my favourite!)– yum!

Photo 10 – Nina, Thulasy and I on the balcony of the main lodge

Photo 11 – On our first sunny day we decided to do a no-rain dance to keep the clouds away!

Photo 12 – On our free afternoon we went on a hike to a waterfall and to a lookout point. Much of the first part of our walk was done in the river – not the most efficient path possible, but it was fun!

Photo 13 – View from the top!