Educate Malawi, Inc.

August 22
I just re-read what I wrote on the 21st of August, I must have been tired - whew...that was crazy! First, I want to say that I am aware that there are many people have experienced much worse travel experiences than we did...but for us, it was difficult! Our journey on the 21st started when we left Peter's Lodge at 5:45 a.m. and started the 3 mile walk to the bus depot. We arrived there at about 6:30 and it didn't take long to find a bus that was willing to take us to Cape Maclear...the price was easy to negotiate, we were willing to pay what they offered since it was less than we had budgeted for; we bypassed the bartering so early in the morning. That ride was pretty distressing; the bus driver drove like a bullet. It wouldn't be so bad, but on these roads, there are pedestrians and bicycles on both sides of the road with no shoulder and 2 lanes of traffic with cars and trucks all travelling at rather fast rates of speed. There were several times that we looked at each other and then just looked at the floor and prayed...I'm happy to report that we arrived at the bus stop where we switched buses in about 2 and a half to 3 hours. We got on the next bus which took only about 20 minutes to fill with passengers and we were able to continue on our way. That ride was pretty uneventful except for the girl sitting next to me throwing up into a plastic bag under her chitenja (scarf). We were getting off the bus at the turnoff we were told to get off, then the people on the bus convinced us to go to the next stop that it would be quicker to get our connecting ride to Cape Maclear. I don't know if it was quicker or not; we didn't leave that town for about an hour and a half or so. We had to barter for that ride and made out good; but we were in one vehicle for about 20 minutes before they decided to start loading people in another vehicle, so we switced. The bus proceeded to drive up and down the street many times to load more and more people in. I felt like the clown bus, except going in the opposite direction; just when you thought more people or items couldn't fit, you were wrong and they somehow did!!! There were people sitting on top of each other, buckets and packages and bags of grains loaded in and on top of the vehicle. It was really getting annoying and tiresome...we were only about 30 minutes from our final destination and we couldn't seem to get there. You might wonder why we didn't want to walk? It was about 1:00, and very little shade and a mostly dirt road...we hadn't eaten but a biscuit at 5:30 a.m. and had both our days packs and bag packs. We are somewhat adventurous, but still quite 'American' when it comes right down to it and would rather ride in a vehicle than walk for a couple hours...even if that means waiting an hour for the ride to leave! There was a little bit of breath-holding and praying during that short ride, but it was mostly just dusty and loud and the road was not smooth and the bus sounded like it might vibrate to pieces, but somehow that didn't worry us too much!
We found our lodge, checked in, set up our tent, ate some food and did a little sightseeing in the village; mostly to just move our legs and not be in a sitting position for a while.
I was surprised to look at my watch and it was 5:30 p.m., and I thought for sure it was closer to 9...I didn't know how I could stay up to a reasonable hour to go to sleep. We didn't stay up too late, too tired and decided it would be better to be rested so we could enjoy our full day in Cape Maclear. We had a pretty restful evening and pretty good night's sleep. I was awake at 3:15 a.m. to go to the bathroom and really didn't sleep much after that, but think I was rested enough.
We got up about 6:00; other campers started to stir and move about before that, but we felt no need to get up that early. Had a nice hot shower; I believe the water is all heated with solar energy, but not sure. We decided to go for a walk around the village early and 'sight see' a little bit (I wanted to show Stephen some of the sights I knew in the village from my previous trip here). While we were walking, we ran into some men who I had met before, here, so we stopped and chatted with them. We proceeded down the road and ran into someone else I knew, and chatted with him. It was nice to see some of the familiar faces from last visit. We stopped at the place I stayed from the last visit because I wanted to see one of the cooks who we had met before; we were able to see him and talk with him a little. It made me happy to see him and hear that he is doing well. We saw 2 of the dogs that Shannon and I befriended from that last trip, and one of them continued walking with Stephen and I through the village. One of the other dogs that we knew is not alive anymore; he bit someone and I think he was probably 'put to sleep' as a result. The relationship with villagers and the dogs here is not quite the same as at home. They run more free through the village, and there is a lot of tension between them; I have seen the children throw rocks at the dogs as they walk by, unprovoked. So it seems as though it goes both ways; the dogs bite the people, people throw rocks, dogs are scared, people are scared, they hurt each other....
We continued walking through the village for a bit, hoping to see some baboons/monkeys that I had seen last time near the National Park, but we did not see any. We saw a lot of goats, more than I remember seeing before; got a great picture of a goat in a tree, and two others trying to get in there also!!
We came back for breakfast at our lodge around 9:00; banana pancakes and coffee. The pancakes are like crepes wrapped around a banana and the coffee was pressed...it was so good, we ordered a second pot after we ate and drank it while we read our books and sat under an umbrella looking out over the water. It was a beautiful couple hours!!
We just finished reading through the letters we collected from the children at the school; they were interesting and fun to read. A couple of them talked about the poverty they experience and the hunger they experience, but they also talked a lot about games they like to play, music that they like and subjects they like in school. There was also several who talked about their religion and belief in God and how they feel that that helps them in their lives.