Sunday, November 22nd - Salima, Malawi

It's 6 a.m. and I'm sitting on the deck of our chalet high above Lake Malawi.  The water is calm and many of the fishing boats are out although there are still aa lot on shore - or maybe already back on shore.  Two men are walking through the shallows with fish nets attached to their feet.  They are either after very small fish or perhaps trying to dig up some clams or some other animal that settles into the sand in shallow areas.  They made it to the shore and joined each other and now they are walking slowly into the net area.  I can't see them picking anything up but they seem to be checking out something.

Two big birds are flying back and forth fixing their nest in the tree beside us.  They have made dozens of trips and don't seem like they are any where finished yet.  The nests, two of them, are already huge - at least four feet across - and strategically placed between sturdy branches in a very big tree on the side of the hill below a rock face overlooking the lake.  It is a very nice location to raise a family.

It is so calm and peaceful at the moment even though there is a lot of activity down by the water.  The two young fishermen in the lagoon area have tried another location.  There are fishermen around their boats, most of which are dugout canoes., which are so narrow I would barely be able to get a single leg in the centre.  Apparently they sit on top and put one or two feet into the hole and then of course put the fish in the hole as well.  

It's now 7 and a lot of the canoes have come back.  There is a lot of talk and activity down on the beach but I can't see what fish they might have caught.  Certainly some of the onew se saw last night would not even fit in the hole of these canoes.  

We had breakfast on the patio in the shade and breeze outside the restaurant.  It was very good and we lingered for quite a while talking to a group of doctors and nurses who were just leaving after about two weeks of working at a nearby clinic.  Most were from Florida but one was from Toronto who we were mainly talking to him.

After breakfast we went down to the beach area - and I do mean down.  It's quite a ways down from our chalet to the reception/restaurant/pool area and then quite a ways below that to the beach.  I'm definitely getting some stair exercises just going back and forth, which I try to minimize as you might imagine.  There was no one else aroundour area so we sat in the shade and read for several hours. Lynn then went for a walk up and down the beach in each direction but it seemed way too hot for me so I stayed in the shade.

The baboons or monkeys - some call them by each name or both so it's hard to know - entertained us for quite a while.  They were fun to watch, especially the little ones.  They were all just playing but it was obvious that lessons were being learned.   A couple of the little ones were trying to jump from the sand up to some of the low branches of a tree.  Sometimes they'd make it but sometimes they would miss and just fall back into the sand.  Sometimes they'd catch the branch and it would swing back up quickly and they'd jump off.  Sometimes the older ones would immediately chase them off the branch.  Three of the older ones were playing with a table.  One would get on top and walk slowly around trying to see the two beneath.  Then one of the lower ones would suddenly jump up to to the top and the first one would quickly jump off.  It was like a game of tag and king of the castle combined.  Eventually they knocked the table over and then they hid behind it and tried to catch the others coming around.  When they eventually had it totally upside down the game stopped long enough for them to feast on whatever little critters had been making the underside of the table home.   There was a lot of chasing up and down rocks and trees and buildings and then jumping into trees and swinging from branches.  One of the little guys  tried to join in but he struggled with most of their moves and ended up having to find alternate routes or methods to follow them - but he eventually got there.  The mom has an even smaller baby who rides around on her belly as she ambles around.  And dad sits high up in a tree and grunts deep throaty warnings if anyone gets too close.

That was the fun side of having them around.  The bad side is that you have to keep all your doors closed because they can get in your room.  That means it can get hot int he rooms.  You also can't have any food anywhere around or they'll come after it.  Even the restaurant has problems as I found out at lunch when one of the big guys suddenly came charging at me.  One of the restaurant staff luckily saw him coming and yelled at him at the last minute otherwise all of my lunch would have been gone.  As it was he only got about half of it.  Lynn was sitting with her back to him as he ran up and then he just reached past her as the staff member yelled and tried to get rid of him.  The whole thing really scared her because it was so sudden.  I sort of saw him coming but the suddenness of it was still very surprising.  We went inside to finish our lunch and left them all outside feasting on half my lunch.  The young ones just come right up and sit on the table and chairs and make themselves at home.  When we got back to our chalet later we discovered that they had been up on our balcony and had ripped a magazine that we had left there to shreds.  Lesson learned: do not leave anything outside on the patio.

We spent some time in the heat of the afternoon up on our balcony where there was a lovely breeze blowing and half of the balcony is in the shade.  The wind has picked up and the water is rougher now.  There are some people out in boats - mainly self powered but we did hear one motor boat earlier - and there are a few people in swimming.  The bach is really nice and this is a tourist resort but there don't seem to be any tourists around other than us.  The beach would of course be better for swimming if the fishermen weren't right out front with their boats and cleaning the fish right there and throwing what they don't want back into the water.   Otherwise it is a beautiful place.

We walked past a number of children on the beach and they were all very friendly.  Most were with adult females although a couple were with adult males.  The children were being typical children splashing in the water and playing in the sand.  The only difference was that Canadian children might play with plastic buckets and shovels while these kids were playing with very sharp dangerous hoes and other tools.  It seemed strange and dangerous to us but they were perfectly okay with it.  I said maybe it was preparation for the field work they were going to have to do in a year or two.  Some of them would know how to use the tool and the others would know to stay out of their way.  On a more positive note, two of the children actually had life jackets on!

Lake Malawi is huge.  It's obviously not as big as some of the Great Lakes but it is huge none the less.  We can't really see the other side except in one place where there are mountains on the far side.  We can't see them clearly but we can see their outline.  We can also see one island quite a ways out.   The water is very clean and even from up on our balcony you can see right to the bottom.  It is also very shallow where we are too so you have to walk a lon way to get wet.   And the water is very, very warm.  The temperature is probably in the high 30's and I bet the water is right there as well.  You really don't notice a difference when you get in and out of the water.

We went for an afternoon walk along the beach and went in for a swim.  Then we came back up to the pool area and had another dip.  After that we went to the patio bar that overlooks the lake and had a drink while we watched the soccer games going on down on the beach.  These were obviously league games or very important games, not just a group gathering at the last moment.  The field was simply marked out in the sand.   There were team uniforms or should I say team shirts - blue vs. yellow in one game and yellow vs. white in the other.  I'm not sure the shorts were all the same and most if not all of them were barefoot.  When they had a short break they would run to the lake and jump in for a minute.   But they were good.  Despite the heat they were running all the time and they seemed to be having a great time.

After that we went to our room to change for dinner and spent some time out on our wonderful cool deck.  Then we went down to the restaurant for dinner, which was a repeat of last night since it was so good,  Back at our chalet we did a bit more work and then it was time for bed.  9 p.m. seems to be our new bed time.  It's cooler in the chalet tonight so hopefully we will get a better night's sleep.

Saturday, November 21st - Lilongwe to Salima, Malawi

This morning was to be another morning to sleep in but I didn't.  The neighbour had his TV or radio blaring about 4 a.m. and by 5 a.m. it was so loud I could clearly hear every word.  I was not impressed, especially after I had been awake half the night ensuring some of my pictures were uploading to Google Drive.  It was a slow process but I did manage to get a few uploaded and then deleted from my iPad so I can move more pictures from my camera to the iPad.

Our first stop in Salima was a fish farm and I thought they were raising and releasing fish into Lake Malawi and that's what we were going to see.  However, they take little fish from all parts of Lake Malawi - very tiny to maybe 6 inches in size - and sell them for fish tanks around the world.  Some were a bright florescent blue in the sunlight but most of the other colours were not so spectacular.  There were orange, yellow, black, white and blue shades and of course with all kinds of stripes and neat designs but nothing fancy like angel fish or other tropical ones you see in fish tanks.  These were just more the normal gold fish variety.  There are six dive teams in the lake and the fish arrive every week.  They then get quarantined / disinfected for a period of three days and most are gone within a week.  And there were thousands of them.  There were indoor glass tanks and concrete tanks and there were outdoor concrete tanks so it took quite a while to get through the whole place.  The young guy doing the talk obviously liked his job and knew his fish but we really weren't all that interested in their official names.  We were more interested in just getting out of the heat and back into the shade or a moving car with a breeze to cool us off.

Our next stop just a few kilometres away was a crocodile farm.  Again it wasn't quite what we were expecting, which was a few rescued or injured crocodiles.  This place actually farms crocodiles.  They raise them to sell for their skin and for meat.  They have over 20,000 of them (they don't actually know how many) in various enclosures according to age, including 3,000 babies in one enclosure.   It was a hot day and they were just packed together in the shady spots or in the water in each enclosure.  It was sad to see so many together but our guide kept telling us it was fine.  When we asked how they moved them from one enclosure to the next as they got bigger, she just said they shock them until they faint and then move them.  It took us a while to realize that "shock them" meant electrical shock.  We weren't too impressed with that part either.  Some of the enclosures have the large crocs with one male and several females.  As soon as the females lay their eggs, the staff go in and steal them away and put them in another spot.  Each female lays 70-80 eggs so they obviously have several females to get up to the 3,000 babies.  They have their own facilities to slaughter, skin and cut the meat.  We didn't visit that part of the facility.  Although it was nice to see so many crocs up close - and we were really close - overall it was a pretty disgusting place and we were happy to leave.

Our next stop was our last one at the lodge we would be staying at for two nights.  It looked great and we could see we were right on the lake so we were impressed.  Going to our room was a big of a challenge - at least for me.  It was the farthest chalet and up a lot of uneven stairs going up the hillside above the lake.  The view was spectacular when we got there and the place was large enough to sleep six so we had lots of room.  Our patio was very large and had two comfortable chairs and a table.  There was a double bed up in the loft and four single beds on the main floor.  The loft woud have been a nice alternative for one of us but the stairs were so seep and rickety that neither of us wanted to risk them on a trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  So the two of us slept downstairs but still quite separate because of all the space.  And we each had another single bed to pile our suitcases and junk on.  

We opened up our windows and put down the mosquito nets before we went for lunch.  There were a number of salamanders or whatever they are called in Malawo around the room but they seemed pretty harmless and we hoped they were taking care of any bugs that might enter.  Then we went down to lunch and both had wonderful pasta dishes - mine with chicken and Lynn's with vegetables and I have to say that her vegetables looked fantastic.  It was a very relaxing lunch and the best part was that we were on our own to enjoy the place for the rest of the day and all day Sunday before continuing our journey on Monday morning.

By the time we finished lunch it was going on 4 p.m. so we went for a walk along the beach.  The water is so warm it is amazing.  You don't feel a temperature change at all when you walk into the water and the air temperature is probably in the high 30's.  We went in for one dip at the far end of our walk.  It was refreshing but not in the same way as a cooler lake would be.

There were many fishermen and boats along the shore.  This is obviously a major fishing centre for the local village which is just beyond the resort.  There are a couple of old small motor boats around but most of the boats are hollowed out wooden canoes that someone must paddle.  These canoes are very unique and much like native Canadian dugout canoes.  They are just a tree trunk with the inside hollowed out.  The difference is that these canoes have only a narrow opening at the top, unlike the Canadian version which  has a larger hole at the top.  The idea with these is that the person sits on top of the boat and just puts his feet into the hole.  And as fish are caught, they too go into the hole.  

We passed some fishermen cleaning their fish.  A lot of them were catfish, including one huge one that was 3-4 feet in length.  The locals cut the fish into sections and throw them on the sand and gut them right on the beach, which wasn't too thrilling but it works for them so what can you do. There were some locals out swimming as well but not very many for the size of the beach and the fact that it was a hot Saturday afternoon.  No other white folks appeared during our walk.  

We got back to the resort and sat in a swing seat for a while as the sun started to go behind the nearby hill.  Then we decided we should go up before it got too dark because we didn't have our flashlights with us.  We walked up the stairs to the reception/restaurant area and then on up more stairs to our room.  We are right at the end of the complex so it is quite a hike to get there.  We changed and then went down to dinner.  We had ordered chombo, rice and vegetables and it was fantastic.  We could have had a whole chombo but we decided we'd go for a fillet instead and that was definitely the right choice.  

At some point in the evening the power went out but the generator kicked in pretty soon.  The only problem with that was that they only had a single line running off the generator and that line didn't reach as far as our chalet.  So after dinner we made it to our chalet okay but found it very dark and hot when we got there.  We turned on the fan and tried to air the place out while we sat on the deck where there was a beautiful breeze blowing.  Eventually however, we did have to go back inside to our beds and it was a very, very hot night - hot and muggy so you were always sweating.  It was not nice temperature wise but we did eventually get to sleep, and we did so to the sound of the waves lapping on shore and the wind blowing through the trees.  

Friday, November 20th - Lilongwe, Malawi

My plans to sleep in were thwarted by all the noise around my room.  I think my room is right in front of the staff area and some of them were up and talking pretty early in the morning.  And of course the sun was up by 5 a.m. so the room was light.  That meant that I was wide awake and finally got up around 5:30.  I guess the moral of the story is that I just have to go to bed early every night.

It also didn't help that someone came into the compound around 2:30 and the gate is locked so he had to honk for a while to wake up the guard and then the guard had to open the gate, which is a noisy process and then close it.  Then he had to run back to the area behind my room and pound on the door and call out to wake up the receptionist as this isn't exactly a 24-hour service.  Then the person who arrived had to talk loudly on his cell phone for quite a while and I think he might have been just down the hall from me.  I eventually got back to sleep but then woke up around 4 a.m. and someone had their TV blaring.  This seems like a very sturdy building but the doors and windows aren't exactly air tight and the place is definitely not sound proof.

Lynn was up early too so she went for her run.  I worked on some finances as we are wrapping up the Malawi work portion and have to get our finances in to Canadian Humanitarian.  Once she came back we had breakfast and then started the day's tour of Lilongwe.

Our first stop was the Lilongwe Wildlife Sanctuary.   One of the gentlemen who is staying at the hotel, Robinson, said he would give us a lift since he was heading that way so we readily accepted.  It was going to be another hot day so a ride part way was good.  Robinson is a young equipment salesman from Tanzania and he is really friendly.  He has a company car and the first night when we were commenting on the restaurant having no wine, he simply went out and bought us some.  We kept trying to repay him but he wasn't interested in that or even a beer.  He was just happy to help out.

Another one of the men here is a current MP and he was in court first thing this morning trying to get an injunction to stop the President of the country from appointing a certain person as a Supreme Court Judge or something similar.  The MPs apparently have a committee that does the interviewing and selection and the President is just supposed to approve their decision and make the appointment.  This time, however, he picked someone else - the third candidate I believe - so the MPs took it to the courts to decide and they won.  He was quite happy and talkative at breakfast.  After talking to him for a while and explaining what we were doing in Malawi, he really wanted us to go to the north of the country and visit the secondary schools in his area.  We had to tell him, "maybe next time."  He also commented on our new Prime Minister and said that he knew his father, Pierre, well so I guess he's been in politics for a long time.  He wanted to know if the son was as charismatic as the father.

Another young lady is here for four months.  She is originally from Vancouver Island but now lives in Baltimore and goes to John Hopkins University doing a Masters in Public Health.  She is doing a work term here with World Vision working on capacity building in the health care area.  And another gentleman is a doctor who is working on HIV and malaria measures on a grant from some organization.  We commented when we were out walking today that there are some interesting people staying in this hotel and we never found that in some of the other hotels where we stayed.  We decided the extra cost for nicer hotel also meant that you got more interesting patrons.  And I guess I should mention that the hotel, the Area 3 Hotel, is owned by a former Minister of Finance back in the 80's.  He is a really interesting person too and a great host.

Okay, back to our day.  We were dropped off at the Wildlife Sanctuary entrance and went in and paid our fees for a tour.  We thought we were just going to walk around on our own but it seems you have to pay a guide and go on a tour instead.  I should also mention that the Rapid Response Team was sitting at the park entrance when we went in and when we came out.  We decided that was just in case one of the lions got loose and they had to get everyone out of the area in a hurry, but of course we were just joking.  

The tour was only about 50 minutes long and you really didn't need a guide, except perhaps to help you find some of the animals.  The signs were there to tell you what you needed to know and to identify what you should be seeing.  However, most of what you could see was not around to be seen and when they were being seen the guide was forcing us to move along so he could complete his tour.  For example, we would have watched the baboons a lot longer as they were putting on a really good show.  We had no idea what they were trying to accomplish and it looked like a little one might get eaten or hurt by some of the big ones but it seemed to end well.  The poor little guy was right at the top of the tree balancing on what seemed to be just a thin little twig.  There were three really big baboons that had been chasing him around and now they had him cornered  on this tree top.  One was in the same tree below him and the other two were in neighbouring trees to prevent him from jumping to them so he seemed doomed.  However, after a few minutes they let him climb down.  The guide said they were probably just teaching him a lesson and that may well be, but to us human observers he looked like he was doomed.  

The heat was a bit too much for most of the animals.  The lions, Bella and Simba, were in their house staying cool. The serval cat was lounging in the shade and his colours blended in completely with the surrounding ground.  Some of the monkeys were hiding in the trees and the underbrush, as were the crocodiles.  Other monkeys were just not to be found.  The owls were out but we never would have seen them on our own because they were so well camouflaged.  The python was cooling off in the inside of old tire according tot he guide but I can't say that I actually ever saw him.  A few duikers or little antelope were around but not many.   

All of these animals were rescued from one place or another: circus, private owner, etc.  They have large fenced areas to roam and play in here but they can never be released into the wild.  I think some monkeys have been but they are the only ones.  And the animals are sterilized so there won't be a sudden increase in numbers at any point.  Right now there are about 200 animals in total.

After the tour we went for a walk further down the path.  It was beside the river/stream and very nice but we really didn't like the "beware of crocodile" signs along the way.  When we asked later they said there was only one and she was waiting for the rains to come so she could lay her eggs and then head off down the river.  The entrance area includes a play area, picnic area, restaurant, bar and gift shop.  This whole section is very green and lush and looks beautiful.  Where the animals are kept, the area is more dry and definitely not very green.  The trees are some kind that many years ago they thought would be good here.  It grows quickly so that's a plus.  However, it's very dry and has few leave so it doesn't provide any shade.  It also takes a lot of water and nutrients out of the soil so nothing else can grow around it.  they would like to get rid of all these trees but there are thousands of them.  And besides, in order to get rid of them you have to get rid of all the roots and that is virtually impossible.  If you cut it down or cut off a branch, it just keeps growing anyway so it really is a strange tree.

After a brief water break, we walked downtown to the bank.  We needed to get cash for our trip so we had to make withdrawals at the ban and fill our back pack with about 2 million kwacha in 1,000 kwacha notes.  The money system here is so strange.  Why they don't just print bigger bills is beyond me.

From there we went to lunch and then we went to a copy shop where we had them scan our receipts for the trips and put them on a USB so we can e-mail them back to Canadian Humanitarian.  And finally we walked back to the hotel.  It was another hot day so the walk was definitely a hot one.  For the rest of the afternoon we sat in our air conditioned rooms and did other work for a while and washed clothes.  Eventually we moved to the patio to continue working and got a router that we can use in our rooms for tonight.  That will be nice if we can get some pictures uploaded to the cloud because the old iPad is full again and I can't get any more pictures on it.

About 8 we had dinner, another fabulous meal of fish, potatoes and vegetables.  We tried to do a uploads and backups but it wasn't working well so eventually we quit and went to bed.

Thursday, November 19th - Mchinji to Lilongwe, Malawi

We were up early again this morning and packed and down for breakfast at 6:30 and departure at 7:15.  This was our last high school and the last day of our official Canadian Humanitarian trip.

We drove for about 40 minutes and then Aaron decided we had to turn around because we must have missed the road.  We had indeed but it wasn't too far back, and it was easy to miss because their sign was knocked down and we never would have noticed it.  Luckily the school was just off the road about a quarter mile so we weren't more than five minutes late - not that time seems to matter much here.  We started at 8 a.m. each day but sometimes people didn't show up until 9 as they "thought we meant Malawian time".

Gandali Community Secondary School has 11 teachers and 350 full-time day students.  In the afternoon they have an additional 300 students in the "open" program.  I now realize that the "open" programs are not necessarily for adults.  They are for secondary school students who didn't have high enough grades to get into one of the full-time secondary school programs.  The curriculum is the same and the teachers are the same but the time frame is shorter so I'm not exactly sure how it works.  The teachers don't get paid any more if there is both a regular and open program at their school.  At Gandali, instead of working 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. for just one program they now work until 6 p.m. to cover the second program.   At 6 p.m. it gets dark so they can't go much beyond that point.

Gandali was definitely the poorest school that we visited.  The area and the setting looked familiar, including the water well and pump right near the school.  The buildings looked the same but inside it was different.  The form one classroom (grade 9) was the most notable difference as it had no furniture and the students were sitting on the floor.  There were also two classrooms that were used at times and we used one of them for our presentation.  It was definitely open air with just stick/reed walls about 5 feet up and a thatched roof.  There were narrow benches in it and a lot of broken chairs.  Some better chairs had been brought out for us to sit on and it was quite lovely sitting near the door with the breeze blowing through.  There were chickens roaming freely through our classroom and a pig wandered past the door at one point, followed later by a heard of goats.  The presentation went well though and I think the school will start an entrepreneurship club at some point.  I also think some of the teachers will likely start their own small businesses.  We had five teachers attend this session.

After the presentation we drove back to the main highway and stopped at a small restaurant for lunch - chicken and pumpkin leaves and nsima this time as they had no rice.  I don't eat the nsima and don't particularly like their pumpkin leaves so it was a pretty light lunch so we then went to the store and bought some snacks to eat in the car.  We then drove to Lilongwe with just one stop at another school so Lynn and I could use the bathroom.  It was just an outdoor drop toilet so not that pleasant.  However, the one for teachers at the school was the same so no luxury there at all.

The drive was beautiful again.  In the background there were occassional mountains or hills.  There were trees throughout the landscape but mainly it was flat to rolling land.  At times the land is very dry and sometimes it looks like great farm land.  In many place the land is already plowed and ready to plant as soon as the rain arrives.  In a few places planting was already done and small shoots were appearing.  We had that one afternoon rain shower on Monday but nothing more so most of the farmers are still waiting.  Blantyre, on the other hand, had a heavy rain and wind storm that caused flooding and a lot of damage.  That water is expected to flow quickly to Chikwawa and cause flooding there so they have warned people there to leave the low areas.  Chikwawa was where we were in the first week and it was exceedingly dry so it's hard to believe it might soon be flooded.  

We drove past a lot of small villages and towns - many of which are just large extended families living in one location.  The homes are sometimes brick and sometimes mud/straw.  Most have thatched roofs but some have tin.  In many cases the roofs are in very poor condition and almost non existent.  I guess this is okay during the dry season but it won't provide much protection when the rains come.  As usual there was lots of pedestrian traffic along the highway and in the towns.  The Malawians seem to walk continually - well, except for in the afternoons when they do a lot of sitting around in the shade relaxing.  But I guess that's allowable if you walk for miles to get to school or work or your fields and then back again.

We arrived in Lilongwe about 3 p.m. and checked into our hotel. I relaxed for a while.  Lynn went for a walk to check out the area.  She has way more energy and likes the heat a lot more than I do.  Today was about 33 degrees and the next week is to be higher.  By then we should be at the lake though so we'll have a really nice way to cool down.  Our hotel has a lovely shaded seating area with a yard behind so a nice place to relax and work.   We had dinner at the hotel - fish and boiled potatoes and vegetables and it was really great.  Who knew that plain old potatoes could taste so good?  We did some computer work as we finally had good internet connections and then I was off to bed early.

Wednesday, November 18th - Mchinji, Malawi

I was up early this morning, I think because of too much thinking about money.  I showered and got dressed and at 6 a.m. I walked over to the office and took some laundry as they apparently have very cheap laundry rates.  When I asked her about the laundry rates she hesitated and said she didn't know the rates.  And it was a strange hesitation, like "I don't know what to charge you now that room rates have been increased for you."  I then said I'd like to pay for my room and pulled out the 35,500 kwacha for the posted rates.  She looked at me and said she had instructions from Aaron that he would pay for all three rooms and she was not to take money from us.  I said I was just budgeting my money and wanted to know how much I would owe him.  I pointed at the chart and did the calculation for the 35,500 kwacha.  She then gave the same line as the manager last night, "the rates have changed and we just haven't reprinted the sheet with the new rates."  After some discussion about the rate increase and my displeasure with it, I picked up my four pieces of laundry and left saying that I would do my own.  Then I went back to my room, did my laundry, and fumed for a while before going down to breakfast.  

After breakfast we started off to Bua Community Secondary School just a few minutes away.  The head teacher was a lovely lady who was on time and welcomed us and had her staff - just about all of them! - join us for the presentation.  Before we started we had a quick tour around the campus and stopped in each of the four grades.   The students are packed into their classrooms with no space between them - desks 9 rows deep and 4 rows wide with 3-4 students at each one and no room to spare.  Again they stood up immediately when we entered the room and greeted with "good afternoon, sir" or madam depending on who addressed them first.  In two of the four rooms the teacher had already gone to the hall for our presentation and yet the students stayed there quietly working on their assigned work.  They are definitely a well disciplined group.  A couple of students were standing at the entry gate when we drove in.  Apparently if you arrive late you do not get to come to school at all that day so they were just hanging around looking very forlorn.  Although this seemed strange to us, they had tried other forms of punishment but this one seemed to have the most lasting affect on the students.

Our presentation went well.  As usual it was very quiet at first but eventually they started talking a bit more.  Because the head teacher had decided that they all should attend, not all of them were really pleased to be there.  They probably had classes and marking they would rather be doing but for the most part they paid attention to what we were saying and they had some good comments.  They all agree that Malawians don't make enough money to save anything so starting a business with money they have saved is almost impossible.  And they all agree that borrowing from a bank is impossible because of the high interest rates.  So our main job was just trying to get them to think about all the aspect of a potential business before starting it, and then starting small and growing gradually into what they really want to do.  There wasn't much else we could say.

The school has 17 teachers and 386 students in the full-tim program.  There are also 324 students who study in the afternoon - mainly adults and drpouts.  They do not teach Business Studies and they do not have an entrepreneurship course.  However, the head teacher agrees that entrepreneurship is what is needed in the area.  Mchinji is a border town with Zambia and there is a lot of trade going both ways.  There is also a lot of traffic and a great opportunity for small businesses in the area.   Only two of the teachers have/had a small business - one in used clothing and one in baked goods.   A couple of teachers were away and people had to come and go from time to time so we presented to a group of about 12 people with the numbers fluctuating from 10 to 14 as the presentation went on.

After the school we drove to the border crossing just to see what was happening.  We didn't get too close but we could still see some of the transactions.  Two trucks on the side of the road with one facing in each direction and men on each flatbed throwing bags from one truck to another.  It was a shipment of maize that was from Malawi and driven to the border.  Once transferred to the other truck it would go to Zambia.  And there were several such business transactions going on.  There were even bicycles going back and forth loaded with big bags of maize or many cans of gasoline.  It was interesting to watch for a while but with the sun beating down on the car it was also hot so we took our leave.  Also there were a lot of young ladies walking around and not dressed the traditional Malawian way, if you get my drift.  I guess with all the truckers and traders around, it was a profitable place to be re the sex trade.  We hear that the truckers have a bad reputation everywhere in the country for being drunkards and spreading HIV.  Here at the border I guess the ladies come to them.  

We headed back to our hotel maybe 10-12 kilometres away in Mchinji.  Aaron had to stop at the bank to do something so while we waited Lynn and I decided this was probably the best time to talk about money with him.  We pay him 25,000 kwacha (about $45 US each night for a hotel so for the four nights here we had given him 100,000 kwacha.  HIs room only cost 8,500 per night so 34,000 in total.  So we told him he could pay for our rooms for all four nights instead of paying it back.  In total it was a bit more than 100,000 in total - maybe 110,000 - but there had been a lot of other nights where the cost of his room wasn't as high as we had given him.  He was not impressed but finally agreed to do so.  He's still arguing for more gas money but we're not likely to give that to him.  We each give him $25 US per day and we've been on the same tank of gas now for five days.  And because five days ago was our "long" drive, we had to pay directly for the gas that day.  So we paid for the gas for those five days plus gave him $50 US per day for transportation and he still wants more.  It's an interesting conversation each time and the tension in the air is quite nerve racking at times.  Luckily we only have one more day to get through and, since we are all professionals, no one attending the presentations would ever sense anything was wrong.

During the heat of the afternoon we rested in our rooms - even had air conditioning for a while but it went out about 4 p.m.  Lynn and I went for a walk shortly thereafter.  Our original intention was to go to the internet cafe so we could actually get on line.  However, with the power out that was not going to happen so we just kept walking.  What we normally see of a town is just what is right along the highway - the small businesses and the people selling things on the side of the road and all the people going in every direction.  Where we went was back behind the highway businesses and we found more businesses but slightly different.  One street we named bicycle alley because when you turned the corner what you saw were bicycle tires hanging at the front of every shop.  Down that street we also found different businesses and Lynn bought some cloth from one of them.  It was white with a black design of giraffes on it and very nice.  

We continued walking past some sports fields, one clearly for girls and one for boys although we didn't see a school attached to each of them so it might have just been the schedule for the day.  We passed several homes and some of them were very neat with plants around them so someone has a flare for plants.  There were lots of people out walking.  Some would look at us with a look of, "who are you and what are you doing here?" but most were happy to say, "hello, how are you?" and carry on a brief conversation.  Some asked where we were from and of course some of them, the children, wanted money which we didn't give them.  Everyone seems friendly and you feel very safe wandering the streets.  Now I'm calling them streets but in fact they are just dirt paths and very, very dusty.  Mainly they are for pedestrians but occasionally a bike, motorcycle or car goes past.  Sometimes even some goats go by but we didn't see any cows on our walk.  Oh, we did see one big bull though and he was not tired up or fenced in so I guess he was a friendly bull.

After about an hour we were back at the hotel but there was a beautiful sunset so we had to stay outside a bit longer to enjoy the view.  After a quick shower we went down to dinner and chicken and rice and pumpkin leaves yet again.  You think we'd get tired of it but when it's the only decent choice it tastes pretty good.  Oh yea, I should mention that we decided not to have the usual lunch at the restaurant today.  We went next door to the shop at the gas station and bought some yogurt and some whole wheat bread and went back to the hotel to have peanut butter sandwiches as we already had peanut butter on hand just in case.  As boring as it may sound it was actually delicious.

I didn't last long after dinner and was probably in bed and sound asleep by 9 p.m.  This waking up between 5 and 6 every day is taking its toll on me.  I definitely need a few long sleeps with no interruptions.  Hopefully our two nights in Lilongwe will allow me to do this before we start our tour.  We are sharing a room on the tour and I never sleep as well in those situations.  I'm not sure why but it seems more difficult.   However, this particular night, I was sleeping shortly after 9 and it was wonderful.

Tuesday, November 17th - Mchinji, Malawi

I had a great night's sleep.  I can't say it was because of my new air conditioned room because we had no power again.  However, the weather was definitely cooler after the rain storm and the room was very comfortable.  It was also very dark so I slept very well for a full 8 hours!  

This morning after breakfast we went to Mkanda Community Secondary which is about 40 km away.  As a community school it does not have residences and most of the students come from the local community.  We just learned this distinction the other day.  Some are District schools and they have residences and some are Government schools and they too have residences.  The community schools are the easiest to get into and the government schools are the hardest.  The government supports them all and the curriculum is the same but they are on different standards.  

The head master at this school is the person who leads the Entrepreneurship Club.  He is very interesting and interested.  Three other students joined him for the presentation, which we did in his office, so it was a very nice informal setting with a nice breeze coming in the window.  They do not teach any business courses at the school but they did start the entrepreneurship club right after our students visited them back in May/June.  The head master was very happy to have us return with more ideas of what he should do with the 20+ students in the club and I think the workbook and what we talked about will give him lots to do.  There are 12 teachers at the school for 281 students.

From there we went to a nearby elementary school where Aaron and the two of us were greeted warmly in two classrooms.  The younger children crowded around us at a safe distance as soon as we arrived - very curious but not quite sure about the white strangers who were visiting their school.  As we entered each of the two classrooms the students all stood and greeted Aaron with a loud "Good afternoon, sir.  How are you?"  He answered and asked how they were and they all replied "Fine, sir, thank you, sir."  I'm not sure how much English they understood but they certainly all knew their lines for this kind of situation.  He gave them all a pencil and they were quite happy with that.  He just had a bag of used pencils of all different colours.  I wasn't sure exactly where the white pencil was going to be used but someone took it happily.  The two classrooms we visited were grade 8 and grade 7 and both were full.  There were desks three across the room and five deep and each one had 3 students at it.  The one classroom also had four students sitting on the floor right at the front.  The students were all smiles and certainly looked happy.  I'm not sure if that was happy to be at school or happy to have a break from their studies because we were visiting.  The whole visit seemed rather contrived to me, as if he wanted us to see what a great guy he was and handing out some used pencils to some students would do that.  He even made them hold up their pencils for a photo which seemed even stranger since he was supposedly the donor so wasn't taking the picture to prove to the donor that the pencils got delivered.

We also stopped at a clinic while he did some big transactions.  Again, I think we were supposed to be impressed with what he was doing.  However, in this case, he never did tell us exactly what he was doing so it was hard to be impressed.  We just tried to stay cool in the shade while we waited.  Then he gave his brother a ride from there to his home and never bothered to introduce us or anything so we rode in silence.  It was a strange situation.

That's when we drove another 12 kilometres on a very bumpy, badly torn-up dirt road to go visit Aaron's father and family on the family farm.  There wasn't much traffic other than pedestrians and bicycles so we could use whatever part of the road we wished, which was a good thing.  At one point we were just following a path through a ploughed field but eventually we made it.  The farm is quite large and they plant maize, peanuts, peas, potatoes, beans, tobacco and probably some other crops that I am missing.  They also have banana and mango trees that I saw and probably others.  There were also chickens and goats and cows around.  I didn't see any equipment of any kind so I'm sure everything is done manually.  Every day we see men and women in the fields with their hoe-like implement working up the ground, and I assume it is the same here.  The family appears to be self sufficient and also takes crops to Lilongwe to market.  To get any other groceries they would have to walk or take one of the bicycles to the nearest town.  The children of various ages all have to walk or bike to school as well.

The father is 80+ years of age but very fit and healthy.  There are five brothers and one sister on the farm and a couple of other households as well - perhaps older grandchildren.  There are certainly a lot of people around.  We were there in the afternoon which is obviously rest time as everyone just seemed to be sitting in the shade.  One man was making a reed mat but the others just seemed to be sitting around doing nothing.  There were several ladies sitting in the one area and lots of little children around them.  However, they didn't speak English and we cant speak Chichewa so communication was a problem.  Aaron was with his father and brothers so not there to help us at the time.  The young children were afraid of us strange creatures, which wasn't surprising, and tried to hide or cried when we got too close.  The adults all thought that was pretty funny.  

We had lunch with the father in his home - a very solid home (brick? cement?) with strong walls, glass windows, working doors and a corrugated steel roof.  The main room was very large with comfortable chairs around the outside of the room.  The walls were bare.  The floor was cement and there was a large reed mat on the floor.  That's where the serving dishes were placed and we each helped ourselves to the chicken, rice and pumpkin leaves.  Of course we all had to wash in the basin first - another very African custom which is most civilized.  After the main course we had some mangos, another variety that we hadn't yet tasted.  My preference is still for the bigger avocado pear variety - strange name but it works - as they are so firm and tasty and easy to eat.  The smaller ones are perhaps juicier but they are also messier.

I should also mention that they have well water here.  The river is not far from the homestead and is at the edge of the property.  Despite that, the well is quite deep - 60 feet I think.  They have to pump it by hand to fill a tank that they have set on a stand about six feet high.  Then it runs by gravity only through a filter Aaron bought in Australia into another tank set on a lower stand.  The filter works really well and the water is supposedly clean and pure.  We didn't try drinking any of it but we did eat the mangos and vegetables that had been washed in it.

Now to continue with the strange day, Aaron continually told us how he bought the property, he built the home for his father, he bought the water pump and filter, he provided all the seed for them and he had to tell them exactly what to do.  The whole day was just a bit too much.  And to top it off, after we saw Aaron talking secretly with the hotel owner, our room rates just suddenly more than doubled.  The rate for my room is 8,500 kwacha as posted in the office but now supposedly the rate is 20,000 kwacha.  And this is not the first time this has happened on this trip.  We are of the firm believe that we are being ripped off big time but we have not been able to prove it.  Aaron's budget called for $45 US rooms each night.  Every time we get one that translates into less than that, suddenly the rates go up, and we firmly believe there's some backroom negotiation going on.  Things may really blow up tomorrow over these issues so the rest of the trip could be interesting.

Anyway, we got back to the hotel to both electricity and water which was a treat.  I took a shower and did some blogging.  Aaron ran some errands and washed the vehicle.  Lynn went for a walk.  By the time they got back there was no water again, and before we went for dinner at 6 we had no power again.  It's definitely an interesting situation.  We've decided we should go into the generator business.  If not selling them we could always service them or just deliver fuel to keep them running all the time.  Apparently this is only an issue during the dry season and right now is the end of the dry season and the water level in the river that produces hydro electricity is very low.

Dinner was once again chicken and rice but this time we got some real cooked vegetables, not just pumpkin leaves.  You know things are desperate when you get excited to see vegetables on your plate!  After dinner we sat around for a while and then it was bed time.  Only two more schools on each of the next two days and then we are free to do some touring!!!

Monday, November 16th - Mchinji, Malawi

Well, it was a long hot night and I was awake often tossing and turning and trying to get cool, but I did manage to get some sleep.  I was definitely asleep when my alarm went off at 6 a.m.  In fact I hit the snooze button twice in an attempt to get a bit more sleep.

Water is a problem here in general so last night we had none except for what is kept in the big buckets in each bathroom.  This morning I thought we still didn't have any because I could get nothing from my bathroom sink sockets.  I decided to try the shower just in case though and it did indeed have water.  It was squirting in all directions, especially at the sink and toilet, but there was a bit going straight down.  I actually shut it off again until it was just a slow single drip and that's what I ended up showering in.  It worked fine and the rest of the room stayed drier.  The bathroom is a unique one.  As you enter there are two steps down into a lower area for the shower and then a step up to the toilet area.  The sink is between the two.  There are no shower curtains and since the water from the shower seems to go in any direction, everything gets wet.  You quickly learn to keep your toilet paper and anything else you don't want to get wet up high on the window sill.  I'm not complaining though.  It was just nice to get a shower of any kind.

We had breakfast in the dining room and everyone just gets the same thing - one fried egg (hard and cold), two pieces of dry bread, french fries and coleslaw.  The last we can't eat because we don't know if it was washed thoroughly in bottled water.  The chips are not normal for breakfast.  The other two are okay but pretty boring.  I had tea as well and we brought some mangos with us so they were the best part of the meal.

After breakfast we were off to Mchinji Secondary School.  We met briefly with one teacher who was greeting us and holding down the fort until the head master returned from trying to sort out water problems at the school.  Then we met with a dozen teachers out under a beautiful shade tree with a lovely breeze to keep us cool.  At one point there was a very strong wind gust that sent everything flying, especially the dust.     Other than that the temperature was lovely.

The session, especially at the start, was pretty quiet with not much participation by the teachers but eventually some of them did start to speak up - especially when Aaron shares his story about how much he spends on airtime, which seems to be a very common and big expense.  They always need it and always buy it when they are running out but they never stop to think about how much in total they are spending.  We likened it to having a cappuccino or two each day and how much that costs per month or year.  Once they understand his story they seem to understand a bit more about what we are trying to tell them re budgeting and saving money (or not).

After our presentation we went back to the hotel.  I luckily got to switch rooms so I now have an air conditioner.  Now I just have to hope that the electricity stays on long enough for me to enjoy it.  We went for lunch at the hotel restaurant where we will eat most of our meals.  The choices are limited.  We had chicken and rice and vegetables last night.  For lunch we had beef and vegetables and rice.  Tonight might be chicken again unless they come to another alternative.  And the vegetables that go with them are definitely not my favourites.  Pumpkin leaves are big here, served osrt of like spinach but with other things aded in like onion and tomatoes and peanut butter.  Lynn loves it but it's just not working for me.  

After lunch I spent most of the afternoon in my room.  As expected the power was out but the room didn't feel too hot at the start.  After a while it seemed quite hot.  Then we had a rain shower/storm and everything cooled off nicely but remained quite humid.  You would have thought it was a real torrential downpour given the noise but the tin roofs definitely amplify the sound.  That is not to say that it wasn't raining hard because it really was.  And Im sure every farmer in the area was cheering and hoping that planting would begin soon.

We had dinner at the hotel - chicken and rice for me - and then I had another quiet evening blogging and resting.  The air was certainly cooler after the rain and it felt like a totally different day.  The security guard at the hotel was running around in rain gear that looked really hot and heavy but to the locals this is very cool weather.  To us it is quite comfortable and I was still sitting around in a sleeveless top until I headed to my room for the night.

The power was off and on throughout dinner and the generator was working some times and not others.  Carrying a flashlight everywhere you go is certainly a good idea.  They have trenches all around the place so you really have to watch where you are walking to ensue you don't fall into an unexpected hole.  Yesterday they seemed strange to us but now, after an afternoon and evening of rain that was often quite heavy, we understand their purpose.  The parking lot and area around the rooms is totally dry right now, which was quite unexpected after so much rain.  The drainage system certainly works well and does its job.  We should stay dry if more rains do arrive.

Sunday, November 15th - Lilongwe to Mchinji, Malawi

This morning I was once again awake at 5 a.m. as the sun came up and in my window.  I tried to get back to sleep but finally gave up, did some stretching, had my shower and went over for breakfast.  It was already another hot day but at least there was a strong breeze blowing to cool things off.  

After breakfast we all checked our internet before leaving the hotel as we weren't sure how much internet we would get in our next location.  Then about 8:30 we left for our quick driving tour of Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi.  Our first drive by was the Parliament Buildings.  This complex has a fancy entrance at the roadside and then another one quite a bit further back.  The area in between is an open area for events when needed.  The parliament buildings themselves are much further back.  From the front view they look quite low - almost one story with a copper dome shape at one point.  From the back though they look like they are 3 or 4 storeys high and the dome is quite impressive.  Apparently it is in the shape and colour of a traditional lid for a cooking pot and the logic is that anything that comes out of parliament should involve time and hard work (be well cooked) and be good for the people when it comes out.  

This parliament complex is quite new and was built by the Chinese.  I don't remember the exact date but it was in the 21st century.  The capital city used to be Zomba but the first president of Malawi after independence decided the capital should be more central in the country and he chose Lilongwe and decided to move everything to that city.  It was quite a move and he did not see it all finished.  Parliament during his time still met in Zomba but he identified and bought the land where it currently sits and where State House currently is located.  We drove past State House, the home of the President, but could not go in for obvious reasons.  This place is huge and there was enough room for the second President to live and to hold parliament until the new building was completed.

Between State House and parliament is an entire complex of large homes that were built simply for visiting dignitaries.  It looks very nice but sits empty most of the time, which seems like a bit of a waste but the government doesn't seem to care about that. I'm sure Justin and his family and his entourage will all be very comfortable there when and if he comes to visit.

Dr. H Kamuzu Banda was the president from 1974 to 1994, if I remember correctly.  He was in power for 30 years I know for sure, and he died in 1997 just shortly after losing and election by less than 1% (50.? to 49.?).  He was an American educated professor with a 40-year career in the states and the UK before returning to Malawi when it got independence.  The current president also has the same background so they are very well educated individuals with lots of world experience.  Anyway, Banda who died in 1997, was elected President.  The people were so impressed with him and the economy was doing so well that they then made him President for life.  Although he did great things for the country like building a great road system and schools and other infrastructure, he did become a bit of a dictator in his later years.  The people then decided they needed to have elections and because he was so old and such a dictator he narrowly lost the election and was forced out of office.

The new president was definitely not as well educated but he was good.  However he died in office.  A woman was then appointed president but she was apparently not well liked and didn't do so well.  On the next election, the current president was elected and he is the brother of the second president but very well educated.  It's all a very interesting story and I'm definitely not doing it justice.   Aaron, the Malawian volunteer who is with us on our trip, is an assistant deputy minister with the Museums branch and he has all the information we might need.

A few years after the first president died, the people realized that, although he might have turned into a dictator in later years, he did do a lot for the country.  Beside the Parliament Building there is a monument and mausoleum in his honour.  It is a very nice structure with the monument above and the mausoleum below.  There are four pillars around the structure as he called the four pillars for Malawians to live by: Loyalty, Obedience, Unity and Discipline.  Because of his approach to country unity Malawi never experienced problems between the various ethnic communities, which is amazing in Africa, and people have all intermarried and all is well.

From there we went to Capital Hill and drove around all the government buildings.  There are dozens of large multi-storey buildings on the complex and they are all identical.  More are being built and still in the same design.  Eventually all government employees will be working in the same area.  Most are up there now but some are in rented facilities in Lilongwe.  The "Hill" really is a hill and it looks over the Parliament Building and the rest of the city.

Then we went by their new National Stadium which is almost complete but still under construction.  It will hold 35,000 people and it looks quite impressive.   From there we went to a shopping centre because Aaron needed to to to a Western Union store.  It turned out not to be open - as expected on a Sunday - but the tourist info beside it was open.  When we asked what we should see in Lilongwe he named all of the places we had just been to and then the Nature Sanctuary which we were planning to visit next Friday when we were back in town.  So we figured we'd had a pretty good tour.  We also asked about hotels and that began a long search.

We went to a couple of hotels that were in our price range and could hardly wait to get out of the rooms we were viewing.  Most of them were really old and small.  Many were disgustingly dirty and all of them were really hot.  Some of them don't even have toilet seats and that is a definite must for Lynn and me.  We were looking for something in the $40-45 range and we had options from $30 to well over $100.  We did see one with huge rooms that looked really great until you discovered that the bathroom was down the hall.  We narrowed it down to two - one slightly out of town but very cheap and by the same people we stayed with in Blantyre and one right downtown that was much more expensive but closer to things.  Then as we were about to head out to Mchinji we stopped at one more and it seemed even better - sort of between the other two for location and for price and cleaner, brighter and bigger than both of them so that's where we're planning to be.

We finally left Lilongwe and started our journey to Mchinji.  The drive took about 1.5 hours and the road was good all the way.  We are really impressed with the Malawi road system as it is so totally different than other African countries like Ethiopia and Kenya.  You can actually travel in comfort here and don't have to worry about the roads.  The countryside is very flat in this area but you can still see the mountains off in the distance.  There are trees around - not big ones but trees all the same.  There were some newly planted tobacco fields along the way but we didn't see much else.  The fields are plowed and waiting for the rainy season to start  before planting begins.  At one point we saw some water on the road and in surrounding fields.  It looked like at least one area had some recent rain.  We no longer see a lot of mangos along the side of the road but more potatoes, onions and tomatoes.

We went through many small towns and villages all with lots of people on the side of the road.  There weren't as many sellers out but rather more people in groups leisurely enjoying their Sunday afternoon.  As we got closer to Mchinji there were several towns in a row with big crowds around a soccer pitch (football to them).  Obviously Sunday is the big day for the community teams to be playing soccer.  It was fun to see how many people were out cheering the teams on.  The route still had some cows and goats along the way just to slow the motor vehicle traffic down a bit.  We even had one pig crossing.  

Eventually we made it to Mchingi and checked into our hotel.  It wasn't all that great but it's the best we could get.  Lynn got the one room with air conditioning and a fridge.  I may be joining her in the middle of the night if my room doesn't cool down.  I have a fan in my room but it doesn't do much good when the room is so hot to start with.  It should be an interesting night.

I spent most of the evening outside as there was a beautiful breeze blowing.  It was absolutely lovely and cool.  We had dinner at the restaurant.  By then the power was out but the generator was on so dinner could still be prepared, which was a good thing.  I shouldn't have been hungry though as one of our last stops in Lilongwe was for lunch at a local shopping mall and I had a whole pizza.  

After dinner I sat outside a bit longer blogging and enjoying the breeze.  There is no internet at the hotel and we couldn't get our hot spot to work so blogging was about all I could do.  At about 9:30 I decided to go to bed and call it a night - hoping that it wouldn't be too hot and I would get to sleep.  Well, the first thing I had to do was put down my mosquito net.  That part was easy until I discovered the rather large spider on my ceiling.  As everyone else I knew was in bed I figured I had to deal with it but I couldn't reach it about the bed with the mosquito net on it.  I went out into the hotel compound to see if I could see anything useful and found a broom.  With that I could get close enough to the spider to scare him a bit.  He stayed on the ceiling but I kept moving him toward the far wall away from the bed, then down the wall.  Once he was on the floor he wasn't that far from the door so he got swept outside.  He just moved so fast that I couldn't kill him so out into the centre courtyard he went.  Hopefully he won't be back.  After that I got ready for bed, crawled under my mosquito net and worked a bit longer before finally trying to get to sleep.  As just a note to the mosquito net topic, we really haven't seen any at all.  It is so hot and dry that there is literally no place for them to survive so they really haven't been a problem.  

Saturday, November 14th - Blantyre to Lilongwe, Malawi

We were awake early at our little apartment.  Lynn went for her morning run and I relaxed and did some blogging and finances.  The apartment faces east so it was really hot on that side of the apartment so we couldn't enjoy too much fresh air until the sun rose a bit higher in the sky.  We had had some laundry done at Annie's so we now got to repack clean clothes which was a lovely thing.  Lynn repacked her clothes so her winter stuff is all in one suitcase and she doesn't have to keep taking it in every night.  I'm glad I left a lot of my stuff in Ethiopia to picked up when I get back there.

We had a quick breakfast at the apartment.  I found some crackers from the last airline flight and Lynn had bought some peanut butter sp tjat was actia;;u a treat for us.  Then we had a mango and some banana and a pineapple to complete the meal.  The pineapple was definitely not as sweet as the one we had in the restaurant at the lodge on the mountain side.  That was probably the sweetest pineapple I have ever tasted so we were really looking forward to this Malawian pineapple but ended up a bit disappointed.  The bananas were small ones but very nice.  The mango was huge and green and what they call an avocado pear, which I find very confusing but it is green and shaped like a pear and it does look like the really big avocados you can get in Florida so the name did make sense in some ways.  It seemed totally hard on the outside so we weren't sure it was ripe but indeed it was and it was delicious - much easier to cut and eat than the little magos that we've been devouring about three at a time each meal.

The shuttle bus came about 9:30 and we went downtown to print some more workbooks for next week's presentations.  Then we went to the original Annie's Lodge (where we were supposed to be staying) to have our free breakfast.  We lingered in the restaurant for a while watching TV.  That was the morning after the attacks in Paris so this was the first we were hearing of them.  Eventually we moved out into the garden and sat around a table with an umbrella for shade and did some more computer work.  We were to be picked up at 1:00 p.m. so we only had a couple of hours to kills and it was a pretty nice place to do so.  

Our ride didn't arrive until 2:00 but we were all ready to go so we were very quickly on our way to Lilongwe, which we had been told was a 4.5 hour drive allowing for a .5 break at the half-way point.  Lynn and I had already said we did not enjoy the night driving so we definitely wanted to avoid that so we were cutting it close.  In fact we didn't get to Lilongwe until about 7:30 p.m. and we had no half hour stop.  We did stop a couple of times for cold water and snacks because we were so hot but all the stops were pretty quick.  I guess Aaron just doesn't drive as fast as we had an hour of dusk and an hour of night time driving.

Once again we were impressed with the roads.  They are well made and very smooth to ride on.  Very seldom do you hit a bump or hole, unlike other countries in Africa.  There was not a lot of traffic so it was a very enjoyable trip - at least for the first part of it.  We went through many small towns and villages all full of people going about their weekend business.  There were piles of mangos all along the side of the road at the beginning.  Later on, closer to Mozambique there were potatoes and after that there were onions and tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables. 

For one stretch of about 80 kilometers, the highway is the border between Malawi and Mozambique.   Technically as we drove north to Lilongwe, Malawi was on our right and Mozambique on our left.  However, the people from both countries are mixed up on both sides.  During the war in Mozambique millions of refugees crossed into Malawi and many of them stayed.  On the Mozambique side, no one is farming the land right around the border so the Malawians do it.  So this stretch of road is sort of a mix of both countries although there are official border crossings on the Mozambique side.  It seems to work but I get the feeling that the Malawians blame the other folks for a lot of their problems and I"m sure that thought goes the other way as well.  

Driving at night is such a challenge.  There are always people walking on both sides of the road.  Then there are bicycles which are carrying people or other loads - sometimes very long or wide loads - to contend with.  And of course you have the animals as well.  At dusk they are heading back home and if they decide to cross the road they don't' exactly look both ways before doing so.  They just go.  Then you also have to factor in the other drivers and sometimes they are worse than anything.  Lynn and  I definitely would have preferred travelling during daylight to avoid all of this at night.  Besdies, we don't get to see the sights along the way and we are tourists!

We ate our lunch as we went along.  Since breakfast was so late we really didn't need much so a few cookies, some pop and water seemed to work fine.  However, once we got to Lilongwe we went to a little strip mall and had a great dinner outside at a chicken place and it was much appreciated by all of us.  The pizza place right beside it also looked like it would have been a good choice.

We drove through parts of Lilongwe but really didn't get to see much because it was so late and so dark.  A part of the city was also without power so that didn't help things at all.  It's a good thing we have time for a bit of a tour tomorrow before we continue on our journey.

We had to go slightly out of town for the lodge we are staying at.  Once there it took a while to find a suitable room because Lynn and I were holding out for rooms with toilet seats, which obviously aren't a common thing.  Many of the hotels are run by males and I just don't think they see such things as important.  Eventually we did settle on a couple of small, hot rooms.  My fan worked well though and it was quiet so that was good.  We went to the patio bar for a cold drink and to check the internet, which didn't work,, so just visited for a while.  Then we went to our individual beds to hopefully get a good night's sleep.  I didn't do too bad but it was a restless sleep to say the least.

One thing I haven't been able to work into a regular conversation is nsima.  While we eat rice or chips, the regulars order nsima.  It is made with white corn flour and water.  We watched it being made at Aaron's house over an open fire.  They keep adding flour as they stir and eventually it looks like very thick mashed potatoes.  The locals take some of this with their fingers and then use it to pick up their meat and vegetables.  It's not a bad taste but it's not something I would order for a meal.  They eat a lot of it - usually well over half their plate is full of it.  In Kenya they had a similar fod but it was made from the cassava root, not corn.