16/6

This morning we had planned to visit a mission hospital in Koche – a visit arranged with the Christian Hospital Association of Malawi. But the sister in charge was off and not answering her phone. The guy from CHAM suggested we just turn up so we did. Sister Rosemary who was an Indian nun who had been in Malawi for 35 years gave us a wonderful tour of their very impressive hospital. It was well equipped thanks to generous donors from Spain. However it was still sad to see that if a child needed cpap then likely it was going to die as there was none available. John explained about our fish tank pump cpap we’d come up with back in Bangladesh and which John had since introduced in a Madagascar hospital. He promised to get some of these to them. Meg and Will came with us which was fantastic and we headed up to Lake Malawi National Park. Elsie and John wanted to see the old missionary graves of missionaries that had come there in the 1800’s and died there. They remembered the graves from many decades ago as small wooden crosses by the lake but it seems they have since made a memorial for them out of the flood zone. As we walked up to the site we saw a couple of big baboons gallop across a soccer field.

When we’d been looking initially we mistakenly went through the National park gate not realising there was a fee( no sign of course!). The guard chased after us on his push bike to tell us and then proceeded to make up a fee- we explained we’d made a mistake and needed to go back and wouldn’t pay so he kept asking “ok how much do you want to pay?” Not your usual National park entry procedure.

We then headed to a lakeside lodge for lunch with Meg and Will and I had some of the famous Lake Malawi fish which was delicious. We then had a swim in the beautiful crystal clear water. We relaxed by the lake and watched the fishermen start heading out and the sun set before heading home- it was magic.

17/6

Today was an exciting day for our hosts as they were running their second pop up cafe after several practice runs. This was the social enterprise that trained young people from the villages in how to work in and run a cafe and the funds generated would fund the community development and ministry work.

The plan had been to run it from a beautiful riverside location where they also ran an early childhood centre and daycare but Cyclone Freddy that hit Malawi some months ago had flooded it and the river still hadn’t gone down so the cafe was under water. Not deterred, they had continued the training and doing practice pop- ups and were now running it out of their house compound under a beautiful big fig tree. The childhood centre was running in an outside yard. We had visited it yesterday and seen the amazing work they were doing with the kids. 4 year olds doing site words and reading and two year olds learning to count!

Anyway we helped a little with the cafe set up and then I took some nice pictures that they could use for promotions. Then we sat back and enjoyed being customers to support the cafe and provide feedback. The team did a fantastic job and were very professional. It could have been a cafe anywhere and the coffee and snacks were fantastic. The idea is to appeal to the cashed up expat community and NGO workers who are apparently the richest people in town. Sadly, workers from a very prominent NGO that I won’t name – when asked to come along to the cafe for free coffee as a promotional foray- asked to be paid to come and drink the coffee! Needless to say they didn’t get their coffee.

What makes the whole thing more amazing is that these guys and girls were waiting on tables, making barista coffee and serving cakes having mostly come from villages where they’d never had a house with power or running water and had never seen a fridge or a coffee! They were taken to the town as part of their training to go to a cafe and the video of them getting in an elevator for the first time is so precious and just a little funny. They took photos of themselves with an office chair because they said it cost more than their house!They did such a fantastic job and Meg and Will have done a great job training them. It is a great initiative and John made a commitment to fund the repairs of the cafe which hopefully helps them along.

As the cafe wound down Meg took me to the local market and shopping for chitenge which is the local colourful printed cloths they wrap like a sarong and carry babies in. I’m going to make a shirt for the boys out of a nice bright piece.

Everyone was friendly and prices reasonable and no sense that they were trying to rip us off. Meg introduced me to her ‘fruit and veg stall lady’ at the market. When I asked her for a photo with Meg she spent the next five minutes preening, adjusting her hair, wiping her face etc then took off her apron and struck a pose. Women here take great pride in their appearance and really are beautiful and glamorous amongst all the dust.

Meg then wanted to drive me out briefly to Tim and Mel’s lake house where a lot of the missionary ladies from around the area were having a retreat.

On the way we were stopped at one of the many police road blocks. Mostly they seemed very disinterested in foreigners ( known here as azungus) and just waved us through. At the most they’d ask for our licence and then wish us a good trip. Today they just wanted a licence check but one small problem – Meg wasn’t carrying her licence! Meg smiled sweetly and explained she had one but not on her, even asked if she could show it at a police station tomorrow but no go. He kept saying “ as of now” you cannot drive, “as of now” she must drive, “as of now” you will pay a fine- blah blah. I was waiting for the request of a ‘gift’ of USD but was pleasantly surprised to see he was offering a receipt and the teller gave the same price to Meg as the policeman had. I had pulled my licence out hoping all us white ladies looked the same to them but I’m guessing the fact that it came out of my purse was a giveaway…

So I guess I was driving!

We did wonder what might have happened if I didn’t have my licence on me!? And lucky I had some currency on me!

When Meg was paying the fine the other policeman then proceeded to give me a dressing down as to how I could let my friend drive without a licence!? And got a big lecture on what a lesson I would have learned now.

As we arrived the ladies were just heading out to walk up the nearby hill. They have a ritual where you pick up a rock and carry it up the mountain and place it on the pile as a symbol of something in your life you are going to hand over to God and leave there.

The view from the top was incredible, across villages and Lake Malawi on one side and vast plains of towering Baoboab trees on the other.

It was so peaceful and beautiful and we watched one of the most magic sunsets I’ve ever seen.

It was great to meet those ladies even if only briefly. They had come from all over the world to work and serve in Malawi in all different spheres- rangers, teachers, development workers, baristas and nurses- there was even a nurse from Mozambique who had come across the border.

I was able to talk to the nurse and provide some up to date advice based on our research visit on how to manage the severe cerebral malaria she was seeing. Most of these ladies had been there for many years and even raised families there.

The walk to and from the mountain was great – it was through a little village and these gorgeous kids followed us around looking in wonder. I think the ladies were a bit bamboozled as I, a new visitor, picked out various herbs and veges growing in the bush as we walked along, that they didn’t know and explained their nutrition and uses. I had to explain that I live in the tropics too and grow a lot of those things myself back home and in Kowanyama.

When we got back we saw that Elsie and John weren’t up to going out so Meg and Will took me out to a little local place where we tried the National staple sisema which is a very fine maize flour pounded and pounded into a sticky paste like a thick mashed potato. It was served with veges and tiny fish in tomatoes. It was delicious and a great little atmosphere.

18/6

Had our last Brekky with Meg and Will and said Happy Birthday to Elsie who was having her 84th birthday today. It was a sad goodbye as we’d had such a special time with this lovely couple and all the others. It would have been great to stay longer. Hit the road then to make sure we had time to drive back to Blantyre to catch our plane. After a few hours I was getting good at this Malawi driving, dodging people walking with loads on their heads and bicycles pushing loads of charcoal and sugar cane up hills, zigzagging between pot holes. But it wasn’t really that bad and I’d recommend driving in Malawi. I was still keen to give John the last little bit in the bigger city as it was closer to the crazy Sydney driving that he had more experience with and then I could navigate. We made it with time to grab some lunch, fuel up and hand in our rental car and check in. That experience wasn’t so smooth and we ended up waiting hours in the airport first for checkin then for the connecting plane to arrive, then for the power to come back on… but we got there in the end.