After we came back from Zambia things kind of slowed down for a couple of days and there isn't really much to say, except that we were cold (because of a sudden change in the weather) and tiered after the trip.
But as soon as the weekend came, interesting things started to happend, and the first was a visit to Liwonde National Park together with Mr. Chilambo. Cruising with a speed boat through crocodile infested waters, almost hitting a huge hippo in the head (really!), spotting the usual animals (unfortunately no big predators) and close encounters with nosey monkeys sitting on the tables of the dining area of the camp, were only some of the ingrediences. It was quite allright.
Most Malawians are small-holders and are living in villages, so in order to really understand what Malawians are all about, we decided to go and see for our selves. We became Malawians for one day. Dr. MacJessie arranged for us to go to a far-off village, not interrupted by city life, and led us to meet the chief himself. The chief "gave" us a family to stay with, and we put our chitenges on and got ready to learn. We carried water on our head, harvested and pounded maize, roasted ground nuts, plucked chickens, cooked nsima, carried babies on our back, -and, boy(!), did they laugh at us! Of course it was all good-spirited and we were happy to entertain them, as they were happy to open their homes to us. It was quite an experience and not one likely to be forgotten easily.
Otherwise, we have all gotten a membership card of the great "swimming pool society" at Sir Harry Johnston Primary school, and we have spend some hours there, swimming or reading. We have also discovered the beautiful bothanical garden, and we went up there to study, but was, on the same day, disturbed in our reading by a wedding celebration and the making of a music video (- yeah, they do play the same song over and over and over again...). We were not particulary fond of the large instect population either, but enjoyed watching daring monkeys trying to impress the ladies of their kind and of course the various and brightly coloured flowers.
On the social part, we have been fortunate enough to meet quite a lot of interesting people, and we have all had several interviews for our projects. We have met some of the former "Exchange for Development"-students, and on saturday Mr. Steven Carr (writer and agricultural specialist), Mr. John Wilson (advisor in fishing development), Mr. Kamodzi and Dr. MacJessie-Mbewe (our coordinators) came over for home-made apple cake and interesting anecdotes of Malawian life now and before. I most also mention that our friends from the theological college finally got back from their holiday, and the place is suddenly more lively and welcoming.
But only two days later, it was our time to go on holiday. Next destination: Mozambique!
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