Days away from a new millennium, Chris Taylor and Jan Farringdon were on Chikele Beach, a quiet cove near Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi. The couple, teachers from Brighton, were travelling around Malawi before starting at an international school in Mozambique.
“Our plan was to spend a couple of years working and travelling abroad before we started a family,” says Chris, who was 31 at the time. No strangers to east Africa, the couple had spent the previous summer travelling through Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but it was Malawi they fell in love with. “The people are so warm and kind. As soon as we arrived, we knew we wanted to do something for the community in Nkhata Bay, maybe work with the local school. We even talked about living there,” says Jan.
But that day on the beach, it seemed fate had other plans. “I was 13 and selling my postcards on the beach when I first met Jan and Chris,” recalls Christopher Chapema, now aged 28. “They were very nice, friendly and humble people. They bought a few postcards, and they offered to let me use their paints.”
“Christopher approached us selling these beautiful, handpainted postcards,” says Chris. “A gentle, sweet-natured boy, he sat down and we got talking. The next day he came over to the backpackers’ lodge with a pile of hand-torn cards, and we spent it painting postcards together, chatting.”
Christopher lived with his grandmother and younger sister. It was a time when HIV and Aids were rife in Malawi, and his parents and older brother and sister had died of what he called “bad blood”. He was about to finish primary school, the end of free education, and tentatively asked if Chris and Jan would support him through secondary school. “We had a wonderful relationship in a very short period of time,” remembers Christopher.
Despite only knowing each other for a few days, the trio had formed a real connection. “He was such a lovely boy, we just felt for him. He’d lost both his parents and was trying to raise money selling these postcards to support his grandmother and his sister, and also to put himself through school,” says Jan.
Over the next few days, the couple visited his home, a sparse, bamboo hut on the outskirts of the village, and met his grandmother and headteacher. They travelled up the coast to mull his proposal over, but in their minds the decision was made. “We already wanted to do something here, so when we met Christopher, it just felt like the right thing at the right time,” Jan says. When he was waiting for them on the jetty as they returned, the couple knew they’d made the right decision.
“I couldn’t believe it when they said yes,” says Christopher. “It was the first time I had asked anyone for help like that. They were so calm and so lovely.”
Before they left they arranged to send the school £50 a month for Christopher. But while they were in Mozambique, Jan contracted malaria and then got pregnant. After a year of teaching in Africa, they moved back home with their daughter Eshe. “A lot changed for us, but never our commitment to Christopher,” says Chris. “Initially, it was about getting him through school. We thought he’d be OK after that because he has his family. But when his gran died and then his sister, we knew we were in it for the long haul.”
Over the years their relationship developed by air mail. “We kept in touch with him through regular letters, and then by email and phone. We’d send him parcels of toiletries, T-shirts and trainers, as well as things like Harry Potter books,” says Jan. “He calls us Mum and Dad, and when our children came along, Eshe, 14, Jini-Rose, nine, and Mac, six, he calls them his sisters and brother. They speak on the phone every week, he’s just part of the family. He’s the big brother.”
There was a brief time when the couple could see Christopher’s attitude changing and he started behaving like a teenager. “He was asking for things like Nike trainers and a mobile phone, so we thought that Chris should probably have the safe sex talk with him, by letter, which we sent along with a few boxes of condoms,” grins Jan.
Christopher finished high school, but the support didn’t end there. “We felt so connected to him, although culturally we’re worlds apart,” says Chris. “His experience from 13 onwards, losing his family, he’s had to grow up incredibly quickly. He had no choice but to be resilient. For the past 15 years we’ve been his family – we’re who he depends on, and we love him.”
The couple bought him driving lessons and put him through catering college in Lilongwe, and when the jobs dried up they helped him get a passport so he could work in Cape Town, where he still lives. “Jan and Chris have never stopped being by my side,” says Christopher. “They’ve supported me financially and emotionally, and welcomed me into their family. I feel so blessed. After the sadness of losing my family, I feel that everything is now on my side and I’ve started to hope that my future will be bright too.”
Chris and Jan have talked about building a house for Christopher for several years. “While we wanted to have him over here, we felt that in the long term he wouldn’t want to stay and build a life in the UK,” says Jan, “and the money it would cost would go so much further in Malawi. With children coming along, and work, sadly we haven’t been able to afford to visit Christopher either. But the kids are older and for the first time we’re in a position financially to do this.”
Christopher’s grandmother left him a small plot of land in Nkhata Bay. “We thought that if we could help him build a house on his land and get him some work or training … he could move back home,” she says.
However, building a house in Africa takes a lot of planning – not least to raise the £10,000-plus needed to fund the project. The couple have set up a Crowdfunder page (https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/christophers-house-1) and are raising money through charity events.
Flights are booked for next summer, and the family will spend five weeks in Nkhata Bay building the house. They’ve rallied support from HOPEmalawiUK, a charity that sets up community projects, and Paul Norrish from Njaya Lodge, where they stayed in 1999, whose hostel first inspired the couple. “They’ve suggested that Christopher’s house could be used as accommodation for visiting NGOs and volunteers,” says Jan.
“The kids are very excited about meeting their big brother, and all of us can’t wait to be involved in the actual building of the house,” says Chris. “In hindsight, if we knew where we’d be now, 15 years ago we might have tried to do something different – adopt him more formally perhaps,” says Jan. “It’s going to be a very emotional time for all of us. He’s a big part of our family, and now we’re finally building him a home.”
Christopher is moving back to Malawi to prepare for the build. “Our journey over the past 14 years has been super and genuine,” he says fondly. “Jan and Chris love and care about me and I’m proud to call them my mum and dad.”