Home, sweet home!

Finally! We are in Zomba, in a little brick house at the foot of the Zomba Plateau. And it's nothing like I've imagined. I thought we were staying in the city centre, -we are some 20 minutes walk away. I thought we were living in the second floor of an appartment close to the uni, - we are in an one-level house and it takes about 15 minutes to walk to campus. But I like it:)

The city used to be the capital of Malawi (up to mid-1970s) , and as far as I can tell, it has got its' share of wealth (It's even a golf course some 300 meters away from where we live, - can you imagine me as a golfer?). Our house is in the end of a cafeteria in a theological college for boys. Which means that, despite the heat, strutting around in our bikinies is not an option (don't know if it would have been anyway..). The house is just one of many one-level brick buildings centered around a courtyard with hens, roosters and turkies making themselves busy looking for worms among the flowers. 3o meters from my bedroom there's a chappel in which the students sing beautifully at morning and night mass. And every night we go to sleep to the sound of all of Zombas dogs barking and howling at each other, - somewhat different from the traffic sounds in Trondheim! Around 4 o'clock in the morning the mosque start its' melodious chanting, but most of the time I hear it just as a background tune in a half-awake dream. 6 o'clock the sun is rising, and since the roosters see it as their duty to alert us, the getting-up part of the day is getting dangerously close. And early mornings means early nights as well.

Yesterday we went mountain hiking on the Zomba plateau (at the altitude of Galdhopiggen). We started out on a path leading stright into the jungle, with grass reaching over our heads on each side and small plants grasping after our feet at the ground (it was plants, wasn't it?). Somewhere in the shades monkies, hyenas and leopards where lurking at us. That is at least what our guide told us. We didn't last long on the jungle path. After the first encounter with a snake, we were scared off, and continued on a lumber jack road surronded by pine trees. Looking at the hill crested landscape, we could just as well have been in Norway. Well, allmost. It is at least a good place to go if we feel homesick. Reaching to the top the view was fantastic. We had our lunch at Queens' View, which has gotten it's name from the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1957, and we were told that on good days one could see all the way to Mozambique. Even though the weather was not quite as good as it could have been, we had a great day, and are definately going back!