So a few days ago I told you about my beloved Weekend Walking group I started on Sundays. In that post I eluded to my other walking group, the Walkie Talkies. This post is devoted to them!
The Walkie Talkies have been around a long time. The group walks rain or shine at 8 AM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There are 30-40 women (+2 brave men!) who walk on a regular basis. We are an incredibly diverse bunch, hailing from places as exotic as Azerbaijan, the UK, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Spain, India, Guyana, Brazil, Portugal and Germany. In fact, I was one of only a few Americans, which was a nice change-up.
Over the course of the last year the members of this group have become some of my closest friends. They are a diverse, vibrant group of people who never failed to make me laugh. It was such a gift getting to know each one of them personally.
As the name implies, we did about as much talking as we did walking. Of course there was breakfast/coffee after each walk. But we also had our fair share of birthday parties, cooking classes, walkie talkie + events (where you bring your family along) and goodbye parties. Speaking of goodbye parties, the Walkie Talkies threw me a doozy of a party yesterday. Little did I know what they had in store for me…
It started out innocently enough with food & drinks. But then about an hour and a half in we were told to gather round for some games. This was the first I had heard of games, so I was a bit suspicious of course. The first game was very basic – gather 30 to 4o people around and get them to keep a volleyball up for 20 hits without it touching the ground (spoiler: we weren’t successful). Nick and I were then asked to come forward for a special role in the next game. I should mention at this point that large crowds of people + being the center of attention are two of Nick’s least favorite things so I was pretty sure he was not going to be happy with me for getting him into this scenario. Oops.
2 teams were formed. Lines were made. Instructions were handed out. Each team was to create their best version of a mummy (still not sure how that relates to India, but I just rolled with it!). The caveat was that no person could do more than 3 wraps around the “mummy”.
As you might imagine, it was freaking hilarious. Being an extroverted Minnesotan who grew up in the Miller house, I have no problem with intimate games with strangers in front of large crowds (I am Janet Miller’s daughter, after all). I was having a blast and when I glanced over at Nick I was surprised to see that he seemed to be too! I am pleased to report that Team Sarah won – do you think I deserved the win?? :)
I would have been perfectly content wrapping up the games portion of the event at that point but our host had something even more torturous in mind. In this game everyone was asked to hold hands facing each other (kind of like you were going to do the game London Bridges). So everyone stood in a line, faced their partner and held hands. Nick was then told to go down to one end of the line and I was on the other. At this point I was pretty sure that everyone was going to lift up their arms and I would have to run through. But nope. I wasn’t going to be that lucky. The host announced that I was going to “fly” to Nick in Mumbai by climbing up on top of the arms and being tossed down to him. In case you were wondering, YES, I was freaking out a little. This did not seem like it would end well. But my 70 year old Argentinian hostess was just so damn convincing; she has this over-the-top energy and I just haven’t figured out to say no to her yet…. so up I went against my better judgment.
I highly recommend watching the video HERE if you haven’t seen it yet. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that I’m mainly focused on keeping my clothes on! I considered it a major win that I a.) didn’t flash anyone and b.) didn’t injure myself!
Then, just as I was catching my breath I get called up to receive a beautiful scrapbook that had been hand-crafted just for me!
In it was page after page of photos of all my favorite walkie talkies plus beautiful goodbye messages from each one of them. I was so blown away by the effort and thoughtfulness that had obviously been put into this gift. It will be something I treasure forever – a great reminder of these marvelous 2 years in Malawi.
To all my Walkies – Keep being your wacky, joyful, fun-loving selves! Never stop taking care of each other and marking special occasions as only you know how. Expats need fill-in family and I’m pretty sure you’re about the best Malawi family a girl (or guy!) could hope for. Thank you for welcoming me so whole-heartedly and instantly making me feel like I was a part of the tribe. You will forever be in my heart! xoxo
