It Was Worth It - Written by Johnny

One of the best parts of living in Africa for me is the interesting people you get to meet. Missionaries and aid workers from all over the world live in Malawi, and the blend of unique personalities and experiences is really amazing. I have spent many hours listening to crazy stories from some of these "expats" (expatriates), and the time is definitely well spent. But what I enjoy much more than that is hanging out with the children of these missionaries.

There is a great group of teens here who share a lot in common with us. Not only are they all sincere Christians, but they are also all homeschooled like us. Since so many expatriates homeschool here, this has led to a gathering that we simply call "Homeschooolers." We meet on the first Friday of every month for a meal, games, sports, fellowship, and just chatting. Contrary to what you would expect from the name, however, there is absolutely no school involved, and it is just a day of fun, with the occasional learning experience or field trip thrown in.

We always have a great time, and it's something we look forward to from month to month. For the past two months everyone had been busy though, so Homeschoolers had been canceled. This month it was decided we would do it again, however. Like always, it was a great experience, but as it turned out, it was one that would leave me and Chris limping for the next few days.

This Homeschoolers the plan was to meet at a picnic area on top of the nearby Zomba Plateau (aka Zomba Mountain). There is a road running up the side of the mountain, so that makes it easily accessible by car for most people. We had just one problem: our car wasn't working. As Chris mentioned in the last post, we were having mechanical trouble with it, and couldn't get it running. (It's up and working now, but it wasn't on Friday).

Ok, so it seemed we needed to have a Plan B. Friends offered to give us a lift, but me and Chris opted to bike up the mountain, and a friend of ours named Brody decided to join us. The bike ride up is pretty brutal (about 12 kilometers of constant uphill) but it was something we had done twice before, and we felt fairly confident we could do it again. Biking up Zomba Mountain provides 3 benefits: The first is having a cool and unforgettable experience. The second is the amazing views you get all along the way up, and that alone would be worth it. Last but not least is the bragging rights you get from saying you have done it. It's pretty funny seeing people faces when they hear you have biked (or run) all the up. Alright, I don't actually brag about that, but it's worth biking up all the same.

Friday morning came, and it immediately became apparent that Homeschoolers would not be on the Plateau. A heavy fog set in, and it was also drizzling. Thankfully our friends the Beatons (the same family who had been Chris' proctor) volunteered to have it hosted at their house, and we were thankful to them for having opened their house to everyone at the last minute. So much for biking up the mountain, though.

Brody had arrived here anyway, so we decided we would bike with him to the new Homeschoolers location. It had stopped drizzling, so we wouldn't have to bike in the rain. It's only between 4 and 5 kilometers to the Beaton's house, so compared to biking up a mountain it seemed pretty easy, right?

We wheeled our bikes out of the garage; Chris had a flat tire so he pumped that up really quickly and then we set off. About a kilometer from the house we realized Chris' tire had gone flat again. We hadn't brought the pump with us, so we just decided to take turns running with the bike until we got there. That worked. For a while anyhow. Then the rubber part of the tire started coming off of the rim. Not good. Carrying the bike was the next step, so we proceeded with that method. We weren't very far from our destination at that point though, so thankfully we didn't have to continue like that for long.

It took us about 35 minutes to travel 4 kilometers, a trip which included another flat tire and a lot of running uphill for whichever one of us was taking a turn pushing that bike. Despite that though, we were still the first people to arrive. Ah well, everyone here is on "African Time", after all. We were all very glad of one thing though: we didn't have to bike up an entire mountain!

After a few people had arrived we decided to play a game of football (soccer, for those in North America). Only four teens were able to make it to that Homeschoolers, so we enlisted as many younger kids as we could and then started playing. Football is one of our staple sports at Homeschoolers, and we have played countless hours of it.

Me and Chris were on different teams for the first match, and I think you probably all know what sibling rivalries can be like. At one point in the game the ball rolled to a place directly between us. We both went for it. Crash! I think we were both expecting the other person to stop at the last moment, but we didn't. It was certainly not our brightest moment, and it was a few minutes before either of us could stand up straight without wincing. Our legs got pretty banged up by that little crash.

A while later we were all called to lunch, and I have to say I was pretty glad to sit down after our "bike ride," almost 2 hours of football, and that crash. I hadn't scored a single goal during those two hours, which was a bit of a bummer. My joke was that I had about as many assists as we had scored goals. Just not my day I guess.

After lunch we played football for a while longer, and I finally managed to score a goal! I comforted myself that at least I had gotten one... When we got bored with football we switched to "British Bulldogs" or Sharks and Minnows as it is known in North America.

After close to an hour of that we changed games again to Man Hunt (it is also known as Wolf, and a few other names). It was another running game... We played that for a while, until we got bored. Around that time most of the families left, and since we couldn't bike home we would need to get a lift. The other teens still had time to spare however, so me and Chris decided to run back later.

We played some more football after that, then switched to handball. Finally I was in my element, and I managed to score several really good goals. It was a relief after my long streak of misses in football! I was quite glad I had gotten a chance to slightly redeem my honor. After about an hour of this me and Chris said our goodbyes and that we needed to run back home. Ok, so we might as well have said limping. We ran a few kilometers and then switched to a walk. There was literally no way we could have gotten anything more out of our legs.

When we finally collapsed onto the couch at home it was a huge relief. The next two days I was still hobbling around. Sure, it was brutal, but I had blast, and would do it again in a heartbeat! It was worth it!

Our group of friends at a gathering last year
(Chris is second from left at the top,
I'm second from left at the bottom)