Yesterday, our last day at the Polytechnic, Mr. Mafuta taught us a new Chichewa phrase: zikomo kwambiri, muzigona kutali ndimoto. He told us it’s a traditional parting phrase used when you don’t have the words any more to express how grateful you are. Literally, it means “you must sleep far from the fire.” It originates from the practice of using a fire to keep warm during the colder months, which unfortunately causes many accidents. When parting with someone, if you say this phrase, you’re telling them not to sleep too close to the fire, so that they don’t get hurt. It has evolved to mean that you’re telling them not to get hurt because you don’t know what you’d do without them, that they are the cause of a lot of joy in your life.
We found it a very fitting phrase for our last day at the Polytechnic. We expressed the sentiment as we hugged our Poly interns goodbye for the last time (for now), and as we said our goodbyes to the Poly faculty we have been working so closely with. The past ten weeks have been filled with incredible experiences shared with wonderful people in this beautiful country, which makes leaving that much harder.
As is common with all endings, we’ve done a lot of reflecting about the past two months. Our days have been filled with hard work, laughter, and plenty of new lessons, all encouraged by the projects we’ve been working to complete.
We’ve been lucky to spend time working on something we all are so passionate about, which has been a privilege I hadn’t yet experienced. The motivation that grows from being so invested in these projects has fueled us all to finish more than we imagined possible when we first began on June 1, and we are excited to see these projects move to the next step.
However we’ve been even luckier to have gotten to work with such great people along the way. Everyone involved in this process has been inspiring, encouraging, and welcoming, making Blantyre feel like a home I’ve lived in for much longer than these 10 short weeks. So until next time, to all those with Rice who advised us and helped make this possible, to our supervisors at the Poly who helped us along the way (especially Dr. Gamula, Mr. Chadza, Mr. Vweza, and Mr. Mafuta), to those around Blantyre who made us smile every day (Linksone the Banana Man, Henry the Honey Man, Lucia & Aida the security guards, and all those at the cafeteria), to the new BME students we’ve had so much fun getting to know over the past week and see them beginning their time at Poly as we end ours, to Karen, Tanya, Charles, Christina, Francis, Andrew, Emily, and Catherine: zikomo kwambiri, muzigona kutali ndimoto.
