Mzungus in Mzuzu

We've crossed the border into Malawi and are currently parked up on the shores of Lake Malawi, also known as The Lake of Stars, at Kande Beach, about one third of the way down the lake. We're at a beautiful campsite right on the water and are here for 2 nights, which means no packing up the tent at 6am today! AWESOME.





T.I.A. is fast becoming the trip motto: "This Is Africa". It's the excuse people give when things don't exactly go according to plan. Anyone who's travelled to less-developed countries before will know  what this means, and the only way to deal with it is to just roll with the punches. Take our border crossing: a quick check-in check-out turned into a hour of faffing with paperwork (our paperwork was exemplary, for the record), then a few kms into Malawi we were stopped at a police checkpoint (read: a bunch of guys in semi-official looking uniforms and a hi-viz vest sitting under a tree holding a bamboo pole across the road) and weren't allowed to pass through until Steve, our Kenyan driver, made a call and Hendrik (our South African tour leader) handed over a wad of cash. Frustrating to say the least, taking into account we'd had a 4am wakeup call to hit the road at 6. But we were all entertained by a pig that decided to cruise in and eat the grass in front of the police check point…

Anyway, Malawi is nothing like what I'd expected. It's surprisingly green and lush, lots of crops and farming activity. The main crops are maize, cassava, bananas and mangoes. Well, mangoes aren't actually farmed, they grow like wildfire and there are mango trees everywhere. We're actually camped under a big mango tree and foraged for breakfast this morning  :) The people are delightful, everyone is  really friendly and they greet you with a big smile everywhere you go.

 

We stopped at a place called Mzuzu on the way to Kande Beach to stock up on groceries and change money. Steve and Hendrik had to visit an official-looking office to fight some crime and said we had a good hour here, so I decided to pop into a local salon and get my hair braided :) The poor ladies had never touched mzungu (white person) hair before and looked at me and whispered to each other for a good few minutes before getting started. But it looks great and I think I'm earning some points with the locals with my new hairdo, plus it's extremely practical: nice & cool, out of my face, no washing/brushing required!

 

On the outskirts of Mzuzu we made an express stop at a local market. Hendrik had given us a very serious mission: on our full day on Kande Beach we would have a feast op epic proportions including a pig-on-a-spit, which of course calls for us to get dressed  up in our best. The twist: everyone pulls a name out of a hat and has to buy a party outfit for that person at the local market with a budget of USD$3 and a time limit of 20 minutes… the challenge was on!  It felt like an episode of The Amazing Race, ducking through stalls and piles of clothes, dried fish, bbq meats, everything and anything. All the clothing is 2nd hand and some of it is just atrocious, so the dress up party is going to be very interesting. I got a beautiful 3-piece outfit for one of the girls, can't wait to see her in it! Stay tuned for party photos!

x ML