Nora Martin

It is with a heavy heart that I report that we are cutting short our time here in Malawi and coming home, as of March 24. It has not been an easy decision, either for us or for our sending organization, The Presbyterian Church in Canada.

The facts are obvious. There is a pandemic, and we are in a country with a very poor health care system. What there is, is likely to be quickly burdened with Malawians who need it, and there is likely not going to be the option of flying out to South Africa, as we normally would in a medical emergency. Added into the mix is the fact that the government of Canada is telling Canadians to come home while we still can. All these factors have figured in our decision.

So we begin the painful process of what feels like a premature good bye. Our good friend and head of Friends of Prison, Hastings, already knows we are leaving, and he will talk with the prison authorities to let them know. We have been advised not to talk about leaving until the authorities have had the chance to make the announcement in their own way.

On Thursday evening Blair and Vivian Bertrand hosted a little get-together for the people we have been most involved with. Blair has been quite concerned that our leaving be as good for us as possible, under the circumstances, and so has organized this little event. We much appreciate the Bertrand’s who have been so generous with their time and energy on our behalf, ever since before we came here. We will miss them sorely when we leave here.

It was a lovely time! We had a good visit and a delicious meal, including lemon meringue pie! It was amazing. And it was such a blessing to meet with them one more time. They included Hastings, Rammy, the wonderful man who drove us to the prison and home for a month or more, and Lyca, another of the Friends who has befriended me. We call each other sister. Hamilton was also there. He is in charge of the Ndirandi Social Club. It was a gathering of remarkable and dedicated people. It is humbling to be accepted as part of such a group.

On Friday Lyca showed up at the prison school. She asked the guard to take some pictures so she would have them to remember us by. I was a little nervous that she was going to divulge our plans, but she stepped skillfully around that and got the pictures she wanted. She promptly shared them with us, and I hope to share some of them with you.

I managed to finish the prayer shawls I was making for the women at Mulanje prison! I was so pleased, although I didn’t get a baby afghan done for the little one. I included a cloth shawl of mine for him, so I hope that will be okay. And my final project here in Malawi is a prayer shawl for Fatima, our once-a-week housekeeper. I had to tell her on Thursday that we are leaving. We were both very sad, and of course she has the added concern of a drop in income. But she said some very kind things about us, and I tried to tell her how much I will miss her. I hope she will be okay.

While we are sad to be leaving, it does feel like the right thing. We look forward to connecting with some of you in person at some point. We’ll continue our blogs for a while, as we re-enter our home country.

Stay well, all of you. Please pray for us and think of us as we go through this painful process of goodbyes. Thanks for following our adventures in Malawi.