Malawi: Days 25-30

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Malawi.. the warm heart of Africa. Malawi is said to be getting better all the time, as their government is changing.  Their last president ruled like a king, making all sorts of strange rules, like no men entering the country were allowed to have long hair (having border officials actual cut off ponytails), and the banning of Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia" after a bad breakup. Though the new government is corrupt, education is on the rise and the people's heart is ever strong.

Our new group consisted of the same three guides (Piet, Nel and Dzingy) and Patrica (swiss from the last group), Marianne + Meret (Danish),Russel (brit), Richard + Vicky (Brit),  Roosh (Kenyan/Australian) and the rest aussie: Scott, Phil, Andrew, Ingrid, Katie, Sharon, Amy, and Alyssa.

Border crossing at the Zambian/Malawi border reveiled to us some of the difficulties in international visa relations.  The Malawi government was pretty stern about our 1 Swiss friend and while let her into the country insisted that we head straight to Lilongwe (capitol) to get her a visa.  Luckily we were headed there anyway to stock up on liquor for a suprise birthday bash to be thrown for Phil (Dr. Phil) in a few days. This was our first interaction with the locals, who were some of the best people we had met in Africa.  The second the truck pulled up in town we were surrounded by locals trying to peddle their craft, but it was different than previous experiences, as these locals were anxious to start up a conversation, make some jokes, then try for the sale.  It was new tactic, but their humour and good english made it welcomed. 

We haggled with the local boys as Patricia spent the entire stop at the visa office, an office, with no computers, only stacks of visa application, and a separate payment office. For 4 hours Patricia ran back and forth from office to payment line to photo booth, and finally got her a visa and we got on our way. As a side note, it was a gamble to get her a visa.  For instance, Americans as also required to purchase a visa for entry but half the time the border gaurds forget to check the list, assuming some nationalities are ok to cross.  If the visa was purchased at home it would have cost $70, in the country it cost $50, but was a hassel. 

Lossing a lot of time, we all agreed to power onto the famous Kande Beach on Lake Malawi, driving through the dark arriving at 9:30pm.  Since we were well stocked we turned the truck into a dance party fixing the headlamps on inside roof for a disco effect and putting on some dance music.  We arrived in good "spirits" just in time to watch a lighting storm over the lake.

This being the start of the rainy season we took precautions to make a trench around the tent and went to sleep hoping for no leaks.  It's very hard to sleep thinking their is water around your sleep mat, cause it doesn't just rain, it pours saturating everything!

The morning like gave view to beautiful Lake Malawi, a fresh waster lake that looks more like a sea, as it has waves and seems to go on forever.  There are no motor boats allowed, which makes the water feel very clean (though we were warned not to drink it). It's bordered by Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi.  The campsite we stayed at had a wide beach and an island off in the water.  Nel, Wendy, Andrew, Marrianne and I(tovah) took the leap to swim out to it.  It was WAY farther than we had anticsapated, but made it envenuately to discover 10-30 meter rocks you can jump off.  I opted for the 10 meter rock, while Wendy took the high road on the 20 meter.  We got to meet some of the local boys who swim out there for "fun." 

The local boys are from the village right outside of the campsite.  Their big trend is to change their names to Julius Caesar, Peter Pan, Batman, Donald Duck, Fabulous, you name it. While their aim to is get you to purchase their painting, carvings, or trade your cloths the humour and enthusiam they bring to the bargaining table really makes it worth it.  It might be a scam, but it works. I got invited to go fishing and come for drumming on the beach.  It was the first time that I did not feel sketched out about going with a local person alone.  I even went to Donald Duck's house to meet his brother and check out some of his art. Donald ended up painting dancing men on my ruf-sack for a pair of shoes (ones that had been left in the truck by the last group) and about $5.

We spent three nights at Kande Beach, one of which was Phil's birthday bash.  Everyone was given a trash bag, which they had to cut or tape to make a fancy dress out of. This made for an interesting array of attire, combined with the "punch" (whop) the evening turned into a rain dance party on the pinnic tables at the Africa shaped bar. Yes, every campsite we have been to has had a bar.  Wendy became a mad foosballer with Nel and everyone made a ripple slooshing to the music in their black trash bags.

As you can imagine the next morning's village walk proved to be challenging, yet allerting.  Struggling through the walk, each of us tourist were paired up with one of the local boys to see the village, their water pump- as you can't drink the lake water- (donated by the Canadian government), the local clinic and the local school.  The local clinic made me appreciate American health care significately, as there is 1 nurse for the 190 patients and the closest "proper" hospital was 70 kms away.  The local school educates the 4000 children from the local villages with an estimated cost of $50/year for each child, which many of their family's can not afford.  There is electricity in only 1 room of the school.  If anyone wants to send clothing, books, paper, pens, pencils, anything:
Winley Zimba, Deputy Headteacher
Kande FP School
P.O. Box 7
Kande, Nkhata-Bay, Malawi
winleyzimba@yahoo.com.uk
Please contact the headteacher via email for any financial donations. It would cost about $2000 to put electricity in all the class rooms. One of the guys in our group went to visit another village to see if he could fix their water pump.  Between the 17 of us we raised the $50 to fix it.  It's amazing how far our money can go there to help.

That night we ate a local village dinner on mats prepared by one of the local boy's grandmothers.  After dinner was dancing with the local kids who can really move, we were highly embarased by our lack of groove.  The night ended with us teaching them the hooky-pooky, mainly beacause it was the only song we all knew the words to.

Leaving Kande beach was hard, especially because of the new friends we'd made and the lovely hammocks I had found to enjoy.  The breeze from the lake would be missed, but we were anxious to get a move on to Tanzania.

One last stop in Malawi was at this old market palce where in addition to selling common need products there is a used american clothing section, with old 80's prom dresses and moo-moos. I'm assuming this is where all the Salvation Army rejects go.  We all decided to go in for secret santa picking names, agreeing to purchase a fancy dress for our planned x-mas party to come later. The price limit was 500 Kwacha about $3.50.  I'm not sure what was more fun the haggling for a bargain or the outfit selection, but we all did very well, some even excessoring.

The drive to the Tazanian border was decorated by the Great Continental Rift, rolling hills all green with a great drop off into the Lake Malawi.  The drive gave view to many children on the side of the road waving and small road markets with mangos, bananas, dried lake fish and baskets.