We stopped by briefly at the Save the Children office here in Mangochi. After a few introductions, notably with my PDA Team Leader Francis Mabeti, Lloyd Msiska, the Information Technology (IT) manager, and Amy Richmond, the Sponsorship Program Manager.
Francis is the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) manager (I will describe what M&E is about later) and he and I will work together closely. Lloyd not only keeps the computer systems operational, but he also manages the transportation logistics. Amy is who I would describe as being responsible for the Mangochi Sub-Office.
Since we had been traveling for most all day, I was then taken to my lodgings during my work here. Now, I never know what kind of place I will be staying, which makes it interesting. It can be simply a guest house, hotel, or with a staff member at their private residence (my preference). I usually do not ask questions about my accommodations, but I just leave it up to the CO. They know best how to provide secure accommodations in the context of the area. All of my expenses while in country are paid for by the Westport It group of Save the Children, but the biggest issue for me is not to cause unnecessary effort or indirect expense to the CO. By this, I mean, I try to stay close to the office in order to minimize the logistics of picking me up each morning.
So, I began to be a bit disappointed in after an hour travel north we still had not reached my lodging. Later, it was explained that, as in Liliongwe, there was a huge gap between types of lodging in Mangochi. We soon turned off of the paved road onto a dirt road and arrive at the Nkopola Lodge after but a mile.
Well, was I wrong. It was beautiful. The Lodge is located right on the southwest shores of Lake Mangochi. The staff courteously greeted me and I was taken to my small room, somewhat of a small cottage with the back facing the white sandy beach of the lake. I unpacked and plugged in all of my PDA's to make sure that they had a full charge for tomorrows training session.
The next morning dawned on a stunning sight out my back sliding glass door. This was one of the beautiful places that I had been to. I called up room service and asked for my breakfast to be delivered to my room. When the young man arrived with my breakfast, I asked that he walk through and place it on the table outside so I could view the lake while dining. As I sat down, I saw that it was so beautiful that I turned to go inside and grab my PDA to take a picture. Within the few seconds time span, two monkeys took position on a low wall separating me from the adjacent room not more than four feet away. I had no idea that there were monkeys here, and they just showed up out of nowhere!
Well, these two uninvited simian breakfast guests were inching towards my breakfast even as I drew back to the table with PDA camera in hand. They removed themselves back along the wall to watch me dine. The moment that I finished and walked inside closing the glass doors, they, and two others pounced on the table and lifted the plates to lick off the contents - all without knocking over a glass or disturbing a utensil.
On the next few mornings, I began to notice that the monkeys would scurry across the cottage roof tops in parallel to the movements of the room service delivery persons. In this way, I knew when my meal was about to be delivered - when they paused on my roof. Sure enough, a knock at the door and everyone was ready to eat!
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