Malawi + Tanzania

Malawi can be summed up in 2 words: Lake Malawi.  We spent 3 nights on Lake Malawi and it was just stunning!

For starters, it doesn't feel like you're on a lake.  It's so big and there are small waves crashing on the beach.  It's easy to think that you are at the ocean.  If that isn't enough, the sun rises right over the lake.  A bunch of us planned to wake up to do yoga on the beach one morning, but I wanted some quiet meditation time before they got there.  I woke up at 5:30 am (not so abnormal for this trip), poked my head out of the tent and saw the sun just peaking up.  I grabbed my camera and got a beautiful picture of the sun coming up as a mikoro paddled past.  I then meditated and did yoga as the run rose.  Everyone else joined me about 30-40 min later.  The next day others caught on and I wasn't alone at 5:30 am, but it was still surreal.

Later that morning (9:00am) a bunch of us rented a boat to take us to a little island in the lake. From the back of the island we still couldn't see land in the distance. The boat may have needed some bailing on the way there, but on the way back the water was welcomed.  The guys who took us to the island caught some small fish and kept them in the boat.  They swam around as we went back.  The island was so peaceful.  It was all rocks and trees.  It took 5 min to reach the other side, but that was because we had to climb over all the rocks.  We went for a swim.  The water was soooo blue and the perfect temperature.  It took us about 20 min to get out of the water cause the rocks were super slippery...but we got some good laughs.  Now we're all convinced that we have worms but the 4 doctors on our trip say that we will live and we'll all be home in time to get properly checked out. (They swam with us.)

That afternoon, I went to visit an orphanage.  It wasn't really an orphanage, but the Judith, the local woman who runs the facility, didn't know what else to call it.  The 6 orphans that lived with her, she legally adopted.  The other 70 kids she helps are all from the community and have either 1 or 2 parents or grandparents raising them, but can't afford to feed them.  She provides them with food (porridge made from Cassava, not very nutritious but better than an empty belly).  She also teachers them English.  The other women who helped start this group were all in a literacy group together.  Those women are still volunteers.  The children were adorable and jumping all over us.  They showed us how they could count, say the days and months and sing some songs in English.  We then taught them the Hokey Pokey.  It was really sad when we saw their library.  It consisted of a few colouring books and action heroes.  I may have my new Christmas/Chanukah project idea!  

That was the last very exciting day to report for a while.  We did a lot of driving after that and stopped in a few small towns.  We went to some local markets as well.  Malawi has the best carvings and paintings that I've seen so far!  I wish I would have waited til I got there to buy more.  

During one of  these long drives, we crossed in to Tanzania (locals pronounce it Tan-zan-ia).  I learned that the country got it's name by uniting Tazanika and Zanzibar and adding IA at the end for "Independent Association".  We got to Dar es Salam last night and at 5:00 am this morning we were on our way to Zanzibar.  That meant we were up at 4:15 am!  (That would classify as one of our top 3 early mornings.)  We toured around Stonetown.  Tomorrow we head to the North Coast for some snorkeling...yay!