April 1, 2008
Tomorrow is Steve and Mary Ellen’s last full day here already. We are planning to go down to Mzuzu with them, but we are still trying to arrange the transport – typical. We called 2 days ago, and the Registrar told us he would be up yesterday and we should talk to him then – except that he was supposed to be here in the morning (for a meeting we didn’t learn we were supposed to be attending until the principal called to say it was postponed because the registrar hadn’t arrived at 3pm), and we had invited him for lunch, but when we called him to confirm that he was coming around 11:30, he said he had been delayed and hadn’t left Mzuzu yet (3 hours away). This is typical behavior for the Registrar and the College of Education people and we are getting pretty frustrated with them.
They called at 5pm to tell us that we were supposed to be at this meeting which has been postponed until tomorrow about their budget for next year (they never actually finished or got approval for this year’s budget ). The meeting was a surprise to us, and we understood that the Vice Chancellor had requested more people be included in a budget meeting, so we’re not sure if this is supposed to replace that meeting or prepare for it,. Actually we know nothing about the purpose, agenda, length, or attendees at this meeting and didn’t even learn it was happening or that we were supposed to attend until the call saying it was delayed. I guess you can tell I’m frustrated.
Things are a bit chaotic again at the Colleges also. When we arrived back up here, we could hear some noise coming from up by the Technological College, and thought it was a party or something. The next day we learned that the College had sent home it’s students. While we were gone, the students started to complain about some food and entertainment issues, and went from complaining to showing up at the Principals house at 2 in the morning and shouting insults using obscene and abusive language. An apology was requested the next day, but instead there were rumors circulating that the angry students were planning some kind of property destruction. So the administration called the police and told the students that, except for about 15 who were sitting for exams, the college was closing and they were being sent home, to prevent the possibility of the kind of property that students at another school in Malawi caused recently.
The principal of that College is one of our favorites to work with, so we were really sad and upset to learn of the way he was treated.
April 2, 2008
What a sad and bad day this is. We went to the budget meeting where, at the first break, the Registrar made the announcement that our Norwegian friends Bruce and Karin, who have been here for 2 years of a 3 year commitment, are being released and “not invited” to return. The reason given was a story that made no sense about not having some certificate needed by immigration, but since they are the ones that told us what needed to be done at immigration, and have had no trouble extending their visas ever, the story doesn’t hold water. Unfortunately, we know from the way the administration handled the issue with the student who we feel was wrongly dismissed, that they tend to trump things up and then lay a smoke screen to cover the truth,
We know that the administration at this very conservative Presbyterian college has been displeased with their outspokenness about some of the problems they have seen(aren’t colleges supposed to teach people to ask question and think independently?), and with the fact that they smoke and have an occasional drink in the privacy of their homes, and Karin (horrors!) wears pants to teach in – worst of all, they don’t go to church. While I’m sure this is not the whole reason they were asked not to come back, I’m equally sure that their failure to “tow the line” was irksome to the leaders of the institution, who take a very rigid and dictatorial approach as we have mentioned before. I’m sure we will never know the whole story here as the administration has only fed us the line about the immigration “problem”, and held to their story even after we challenged it. Since Bruce and Karin consistently behave in a more “Christian” manner than a lot of Christians I have met, especially the ones here in administration, this is the kind of behavior that can give Christianity a bad name.
No matter that the college has no money and will now need to replace and pay for 2 teachers to cover their courses for next year, along with either paying someone to keep the outdated, donated computers and other equipment working, or learning to go back to life without them next year as they will stop working without Bruce to maintain them. I could go on about all the other good things Bruce and Karin have done, for free out of their generosity and care for the students and people here, and I could rant a bit about my concern for the people they have provided with jobs here who will lose those jobs, and the impact this will have on the rest of the faculty and community, but it will just upset me more. This is just one more bad, self-destructive, short sighted, rigid decision made by the college of education administration, and it is going to be difficult to function and work well with them when we have lost so much respect for them, and trust in them. Fortunately, there are 4 other colleges in the University, and we can spend more time with them, and distance ourselves from the unhealthy behavior of the leadership at this college.
About 5 minutes after we returned home from this awful meeting, just as we sat down for lunch, I got a call from my dear friend at home who has been “step mom/step parent” of our two cats while we are gone, telling me that one of our kitties had died. My sweet Candy was somewhere between 18 and 20 years old, as I got her from a shelter who picked her up as a stray, so we are unsure of her exact age. The shelter had named her, and I am sure they picked the name Candy because of her cotton candy fur, and sweet as candy disposition.
She has been unable to jump up on furniture for a couple of years due to some arthritis in her hips, but that hadn’t kept her from enjoying life up to now, still playing on occasion, and really enjoying sleeping near a heat vent at my friends house, or the radiator at our house. John said he had never known another animal, cat or dog that liked having her ears rubbed as much as she did, her eyes would close and she would lean all her weight into your hand, purr, and just bliss out. She was one of the most mellow and “zen like” creatures I have ever known, never getting too excited about anything, and seeming to take life as it came, finding fun in a piece of dust on the floor, or whatever else came in her path (I used to call her the “Queen of Fun” cause she could find fun anywhere with anything), or curling up for a nice nap in the sunshine. When she wanted some attention she would come and ask with her little squawk, or by rubbing on you until you couldn’t ignore her. I learned a lot about how to live life from her.
It went very quickly with just 3 days since she fell over and then started to have trouble controlling her bowel and bladder, until Elizabeth found her in the middle of the floor of her kitchen looking disoriented after coming home from work on Tuesday. The vet couldn’t pinpoint exactly the cause, but it almost sounds to me like she might have had a little stroke. Before we left, there was a blood test result that indicated the possibility that there could be a cancer growing somewhere, and while there had not been any symptoms, who knows. The vet told my friend Elizabeth that she could keep her for a few days and do a battery of unpleasant sounding tests, and after talking with her for a bit gave Elizabeth a few minutes alone with Candy. Elizabeth told Candy she had to tell her what to do, and she laid her head in Elizabeth’s hand and closed her eyes. One of the other things I thought was so sweet about Candy was that she would always come and want to be held if her tummy was upset from a hairball or something – I always knew when she didn’t feel good because she wanted comforting. She would have been miserable all alone in the hospital for those tests when she wasn’t feeling good, let alone the prolonging of her suffering, so Elizabeth made the right decision with Candy’s help.
It is so disorienting to be so far from home, and not having seen Candy for 3 months now. It is hard to register that she is gone, and won’t be coming to the door to greet us anymore when we come home, or come up and squawk to ask for rubs. She was such a good friend, and I will miss her terribly. John and I have been reminiscing about her, and I had brought pictures of both cats, so have been looking at her. It’s been fun telling John about her before he met her when she was younger, but he remembers when she would jump up on the bed every night before her hips started to get bad.
One of our neighbors happened to stop by after we got the news and found John and I crying on our patio, and I could only tell them that a friend at home had died. Smelton, our cook and helper came out to see why we had left all food on the plates and gone out to the patio and I told him the same thing. He was so sweet and sat on the porch silently after saying how sorry he was about the bad news. He said calls from home should only bring good news, so you know that all those that you care about are OK, and then just shook and lowered his head and looked so sad for us. Malawians don’t keep pets, so it seemed easier to say a friend had died, knowing they’d understand that, and I knew it was true as she was a good friend.
It was a horrible day, and I’ll be glad when it is over.
April 3, 2008
We are in Mzuzu, and I’ll send this tomorrow. Bruce and Karin were in Mzuzu when all this happened and were given the news by phone after requesting multiple times to know what was happening, so it was good to see them when they got back, although we only had a short time since we were riding down in the same car they rode up in. They are doing well, and looking at the bright side, knowing that this will all turn out for the best, and still trying to figure out what they can do for the institution before they leave. They are gracious and generous people, and we will miss them terribly. Our Malawian neighbor Titus, who is also a teacher at the University, nearly started to cry when he heard the news from them today. I know there’ll be a lot of unhappy people when this news gets around, including many of their students who loved them
John and I are still reminiscing about Candy and tearing up when we think about her, but I am so grateful that she had such a good long life, and short bad time at the end – and especially that she had such loving care from my friend Elizabeth.
We had a farewell dinner for Steve and Mary Ellen tonight at the Indian restaurant, and that will be a loss too, but they are very much hoping and planning to come back if they can get leaves from their jobs. It’ll probably be this fall for 3 months as they don’t think they can get more time than that. It is another loss for us, but they made some good friends even in such a short time, and we really hope that they will be able to come back. I think it will be easier for us to go when the time comes, knowing that they are coming back to see some of the people we have grown to care about.
I’m attaching a picture of a suspension bridge that is a ways down the highway from us, spanning a river that is pretty scary looking right now during the rainy season – partly because I love the photo, but also because I feel a little like we are on a “bridge over troubled waters” right now. It’s good to know that “this too shall pass.” The internet is horribly slow today, so I'll post the photo later.
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