Marvelous Malawi

We left Zanzibar on a very interesting overnight ferry ride. Our '1st class' accomodation was mats laid out in the cargo hold area! Ended up being an ok ride though and we got to mainland Tanzania by early morning. Got back on the truck for a long day's drive to Malawi. We stayed at 2 beach campsites on Lake Malawi, both really nice. The lake is huge and full of all kinds of fish. A lot of freshwater fish sold for aquariums come from the lake here. I decided to get some exercise and climb a mountain to visit Livingstonia - a small village started by David Livingstone and missionaries in the 1800s. 3 other people were crazy enough to go with me. It was a very long, steep trek, but fun and the views were outstanding. Got to a really beautiful waterful at the top. Well, we thought it was the top, then our guide pointed up to another hill and showed us where Livingstonia was. WE treked on, as we wanted to see the museum. When we reached it, we were greeted by a nice gentleman that said 'You must be exhausted from your journey, welcome, but there is a meeting going on & the museum's closed'! We took a much needed rest on the grass, ate our lunch and stopped by the one craft shop. I bought a photo album made from recycled paper & elephant dung. Coming back down the mountain was almost as hard as going up as there was alot of loose rocks. We were surprised how steep it was and that we had actually made it up that morning. In all - with a few long rest stops, we were gone 9 1/2 hours. A beer sure tasted good when we got to the bar. One of the best parts of the trek was meeting children along the way. We would hear them yell hello before we would see them. Than they'd come running to meet us. The people we met in Malawi were the friendliest I've ever seen anywhere. It's one of the 5 poorest countries in the world. Primary school is free, but many children don't have paper or pens to do their work. I have a few addresses of schools, ect. if anyone is interested in helping them out. It was amazing to see all these beautiful, bright children eager to learn, asking for pens.

The next day, we moved on to Kande Beach. It took us much longer than expected, as a semi carrying fuel had jack-knifed on the road and blocked traffic both ways. A few really crazy people drove their small vehicles around it, but that was terrifying to watch. There was barely enough room and it was a long drop down a ravine if they didn't make it. Luckily they all made it, but one was a close call. We ended up being stranded on the road for 3 1/2 hours, but wasn't so bad. Some people played cards, I took a couple of frisbees back to play with a group from a local bus. After palying for awhile, I left the frisbees with them to play with. They brought them back, got a soccer ball, than came back for cards later. We had lunch while there and soon after they got the truck cleared. We made it to our campsite just before dark.

I opted to share a bungalow on the beach with Natalie. Nice to have a bed for 3 nights. We had a tour of the village by the chief's son. The chief's house is the only one in the village that has electricity. The government built a good road to his house too, but he doens't have a car. He rules over 400,000 people in his tribe - only about 5,000 in the village we were at. Good thing there are buses! Did a night dive that night. First dive at night and it was great. Beautiful full moon, but didn't come out until we were back at the beach. That dinner, we played some silly games at our camp. Our team came in 2nd - out of 3, but I won my part. Beat Jacko, our driver, at downing a beer! They were a bit shocked how fast I could do it, but had practice from my Windjammer days! After that a few of us joined the local guys at the beach for some bongo drumming. I had tried to learn to play in the afternoon, but wasn't reall good at it. Guess having several glasses of punch improved my beat, because they told me I was the best Muzungu (white tourist) player they had ever seen. I stayed and played quite a long time as it was a blast! Fun picking up their beats.

Our last night there we had dinner at a local house. 2 guys cooked for us and we ate on straw mats outside their house. Great pumpkin soup. followed by rice and beans. After dinner a large group of children cam to sing and dance for us. We all had a turn dancing with them and had to sing just a bit too - just our names and where we were from. It was a really fun evening. So much laughing and having a great time.

Had to get up really early to nice morning for a long drive. Stay tuned for more!

Linda

The last night at Kane beach we had dinner at a house in the village. 2 guys cooked for us and we sat on mats outside to eat. Very good pumpkin soup, followed by rice and beans. Then a group of children came to sing for us and dance. We all had turns dancing with them too and had to sing just a bit - our name and where we were from. Really fun time.