I am not sure if it was the full moon or the moon on the following night. It appeared over the lake shortly after the sun had made its daily descent. At first glance it seemed like a light from a large boat with a strong beam streaking across the lake, except that the one large craft on the lake (The Ilala ferry) was not due for several days. No other boats are present along the tranquil lake except for the small serene canoes. A bright red light shone across the dark waters like a traffic signal reflects upon rain slick streets. We have never seen a moon so big and red like the colour of a majestic sunset only the sun had long ago disappeared. We both stared in amazement as this big crimson globe cast an ever larger reflection over the rippling black lake, lighting up the sky in an eerie magenta as it made its slow climb toward the midnight sky. The moon stayed this deep red colour for several hours even as it reached the top of the sky. Magical....
The next morning was when all the fun began. A local character named "Happy Coconut", who for the past several weeks seemed like a jovial fun loving character who we had crossed paths with on an almost daily basis here and around town. But on this particular morning he had somehow made his way down to the reception area of Butterfly with about 6 or 7 Malawian policemen in rapid pursuit. The police were able to finally tackle "Happy" in nothing but his birthday suit. They immediately tried to cover his naked body and escorted him off to jail. The reason the police were after him in the first place was that he had allegedly hit one of the shop owners in town. It is our understanding that this is not the first incident with "Happy coconut" and the local authorities. He has had several "outbreaks" over the past several months but the problem is that he is sick and does have a violent temper when not medicated. Unfortunately the nearest hospital equipped to help him is in Mzuzu some 45km away. Apparently Happy Coconut has spent a number of visits at the Mzuzu mental hospital. It has been rumoured that in his own charming way he has persuaded the doctors and nurses that if fact he is alright and does not spend more than a night or two inside. Sure enough the very next night as Jeff was walking back from filling his water bottle a more agitated "Happy Coconut" appeared suddenly begging for a cigarette. Jeff made the mistake in engaging him, telling him that he did not smoke and that smoking was a bad habit and a scrooge to try and quit. This last comment seemed to set "Happy" off. Happy became very upset yelling that the whole smoking issue was a European/American plan to keep the black man down. Jeff was a bit taken back as Happy moved closer in a menacing fashion, mind you Happy is no slouch standing over 6 feet tall with broad shoulders and probably not an ounce of body fat. Jeff tried to step back a few steps as Happy continued his explicative filled rant. In his calmest voice Jeff told Happy that while he did not agree with what Happy was spewing he could empathize. Jeff was finally able to break free and return to his bungalow and Happy walked off still shouting obscenties.When we went down to the dining area, sure enough there sat "Happy" with a scowl on his face and a small knife in his hand. He seemed to be randomly shouting at anyone who happened to look his way and continued ranting if anyone answered his obscure comments. Finally a night-watchman was able to coax happy away from the knife and got him to leave the premises. Though not quietly.
The very next night while we sat at the communal table we were visited by George the gentleman who has done the translating for us during the special needs group. We both think the world of this man and he had been doing a great job not only translating for us and the kids but he was charged with rounding up the kids from their various villages which in itself is quite a task, that takes several hours each time. Monday at special needs he was acting quite strange, several times refusing to translate for us. At one point Alice had finally had enough with him when he had said that it was not necessary to translate that all the kids understood english.When George approached that night he had a strange blank look on his face. He did not immediately respond to our questions and eventually got up and walked toward the back of the compound without saying a word. The next morning while we were in town running a few errands George had reappeared back at Butterfly this time he was not as calm. While sitting at the community table in front of newly arrived guests he suddenly started to take his shoes off and throw them toward the lakeshore. Alice who happened to be walking by at the time tried to calm George down but to no avail, she knew what he was about to do next. Sure enough George started to take all of his clothes off and began running around stark naked playing with his privates in front of the now gathering crowd. Alice and Opahuel were able to coax him to one of the communal toilets and were able to lock him in there with his pile of clothes. They patiently waited as he slowly put his clothes back on, before they reluctantly let him back outside. When we finally returned from town we dropped our groceries in our bungalow and we could hear what sounded like the blaring of talk radio. It continued for quite a while so Jeff went down to the bar to ask Kwame if he could turn the radio down a bit. When Jeff arrived at the bar he found George staring at the wall screaming in animated fashion various obscenities both in English and Tonga. George did not respond as Jeff repeatedly called his name and he finally slowed his ranting down and Jeff was able to say hello but that was about it. Unfortunately, mental health in Western countries gets pushed aside and here in Africa it is basically non-existent, there really is no answer. George was finally escorted out by the police some 3 hours after the staff had called 911 even though the police station is only about a 12 minute walk away from butterfly space. The very next day, something even more frightening happened. As Erika was returning from her umpteenth visit to the loo, out of the corner of her eye she saw a man start to stumble and then fall down a 20 foot embankment hitting several trees on his descent. At first she thought that maybe the guy was just drunk (not uncommon) but then it dawned on her that the look of panic the guy had was not normal. She rushed down with several others to the landing spot and saw immediately the guy was convulsing from seizures. As the guy lay face down amongst the rocks people quickly were able to find a mattress and blanket to try and make the guy comfortable. Back at home when something like this happens we would immediately be on the phone calling 911 waiting the arrival of the ambulance. Here in Malawian there really are not emergency responders. (Remember the police that took 3 hours to show up?) We have seen a vehicle that roams about town looking much like an ambulance. It has ambulance stencilled on its side and is equipped with a siren and red light even. We were told that even though this car looks like it is ambulance it is used more as a transport for the hierarchy of the hospital getting them to and from work as opposed to actually functioning as transport for seriously sick or injured people. Only in Africa......while we were waiting by this poor boys side a feeling of utter helplessness overcame both of us. There was absolutely nothing we could do as suddenly the boy was overcome by yet another seizure, shaking violently and eventually vomiting a pool by his side. After this last seizure that seemed to last more than 15 minutes we both decided that this poor lad needed to get to the hospital somehow. We finally found someone who actually had credits on their phone and rang up a taxi. The taxi took over 1/2 hour to make the short distance and eventually we were able to load the guy into the car and before leaving the driver demanded the full fare (1000 kwacha) about $7.00 which does not seem like much but is more than a full weeks wages for most Malawians. The harsh reality is that even though it took more than 3 hours for us to get him to the hospital we knew that he would probably not get very good medical care...........
Prologue: We found out that the gentleman did make it to the hospital and they were able to keep him overnight. They gave him some sort of medicine and also diagnosed the boy with Malaria which they concluded may have set off his seizures. The problem here in Southern Africa is that most things are diagnosed as Malaria no matter the actual affliction but that is another story........
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