MALAWI!!!

Jeremy and I had no expectations for Malawi...we actually had no idea what we were scheduled to do. So, you can imagine our surprise when Moses, the night before entering, informed the group that Malawi was a "Shoppers Haven". I was ecstatic, Jeremy...not so much – lol :)


We crossed over into Malawi in the late afternoon of Day 34. Because we were leaving the Eastern region and heading into the Southern region, we gained an hour...yep, another hour to shop-shop-shop! Crossing over into thr Southern region also meant no more squat toilets and no more cold showers...or so we were told.


When we finally pulled up to our lake front camp-site at Kande Beach, everyone on the truck was glued to the windows. We had just passed shops upon shops of beautifully carved wood...and right outside the gates of our camp-site. I must have been the first one off of the truck as I was a girl on a mission. I knew that once our tent was set-up, we were free (neither Jeremy nor I had any chores to do that day). The sun was starting to set, so I grabbed Jeremy and our headlights and we headed to the shops. The others were not too far behind us. Just like any other souq or market shop, you hear the old familiar phrases, "Madam...come look for free...no charge" or another favourite, "Sir...I have made no sales today, be my first sale and it will bring us both good luck". Jeremy stumbled across a beautifully carved table that not only had checkers/chess game on it, but on the reverse side it had the Backgammon board. He was so pumped (Backgammon has become our new favourite game while in Africa) that he came running over to me to show me (and he thinks he is not a shopper). I was sold and I knew the two Malawi chairs I was looking at would be perfect as a trio. We briefly talked to the seller and told him we were very interested but wanted to come back early in the morning. He then told us that he had a Funeral to go to and would not be back at his store. We told him, sorry, tough loss and that we would have to buy from another seller. His story then changed and he said the funeral was very early in the morning and that there was a good chance it would be over before we departed. We casually started talking about prices and he, as expected, started his price at a extremely ridiculous offer of $350 for all three. We laughed at him and he then immediately dropped his price to $150. We told him it was too late to negotiate and we wanted to wait till the morning where we could get a good look in the natural light. He was very nervous about this and basically made us promise we would come back to him and his stall. It is so sad to see but all of the sellers compete against each other - they are very very ruthless!


After supper we headed to the bar for a quick drink. I phoned my family out at the lake as it was my brother Adam's 28th Birthday. It was an emotional time for me as it was the first year that I was not present to 'open up' the cabins for the lake season with my family. It was also a first time for Baby Jaxson and Nadia's mom, Delaney, to be introduced to the lake.


The next morning (Day 35) Jeremy and I were up and shopping by 6am as promised. We had asked about the funeral and he had said that he had already gone – it is one thing to lie, but a totally different thing to lie about death...and somehow, we took offence to this. We still dealt with our guy and we could not believe when he told us that he slept on it and was willing to offer us $450 for the one table and two chairs. We told him that the day before he started at $350 and that there was no way we were going to pay that price. He then proceeded to ask us what his lowest offer was to us (I guess they even get confused when they throw out such ridiculous prices). After some negotiating and much deliberation, we settled on $100US for the table and chairs and a set if salad spoons and coasters – trust me, this is a GREAT deal when you see how intricately carved the chairs are. He then asked if we had anything to donate to him and was especially eyeing up Jeremy's T-shirt that his cousin Shea had given him the past Christmas (created specifically for our travelling trip). Jeremy gave him his T-shirt and he immediately threw it on...everyone had a good chuckle when they saw this local wearing Jeremy's stinky and worn out shirt.


I continued to shop around and was in complete heaven. I purchased some beautiful wood work while Jeremy visited with the locals and helped locate the pieces for our chess and backgammon board. Jeremy had to then help prepare for breakfast as it was his day to cook. I waited in the long que to have our stuff packaged up in preparation for shipping. Surprisingly enough, we made it out of the camp-site on time, which is an impressive feat when you consider the amount of souvenirs that we had all purchased. When we were pulling away, we couldn't help but watch out the window our guy who was running alongside the truck with the, "I Love Canadian Accountants" t-shirt on.


Driving through the countryside was a beautiful experience. The lake was to the left of us and multiple people kept mistaking it for the ocean. Had we not known that Malawi was inland, we would have been one of those numb nuts who made fools of themselves (Jeremy and I are slowly improving our limited geographical knowledge – and trust us...we need all of the help we can get). One of the highlights on the drive was coming across four pigs 'thrown' on the back of a semi carrying a load. I use the word 'thrown' because there was nothing holding them in and they had absolutely no space to move...if they moved around, they would simply fall off. As a result of this, the semi was going very very slow. It took us some time before we were able to pass the semi and when we did, we were all glued to the left hand side of the truck. Actually, you would not believe the things we have seen while driving. It comes as no surprise that vehicle accidents are the number one killer in Africa. Just the other day, we came across a truck pulled over along the side of the road, its load of bails was scattered all across the highway – loads are not properly strapped down and speed is always a factor here in Africa. We also drove across a bridge that had everyone on the truck nervous, boys included. The structural members of the bridge were constructed out of steel (thank goodness), but the top deck was laid out with timber, which over time had rotted...and the river below was a fair distance away. Luckily, we made it across no problem but these are the little things that really make you appreciate the wonderful roads we have back at home and at no point in my life in Canada have I crossed a bridge fearing for my life.


On route to our next camp site we were informed that we would be passing through yet another market :) but prior to arriving at the market, we stopped in town to purchase our 'fancy dress' for our house boat. We were limited to one hour so we made a beeline for the start and hurried through all shops. There were a couple of items that caught our eye but we promised ourselves to look at all of the shops before we made any 'rash' decisions. Jeremy spotted this beautiful hand carved table that I immediately fell in love with. Unfortunately for us, it was already sold to a Over land truck driver who was stopping by the following day to pick it up. We informed him where we were staying (60 km away) and that if anything happened, we would buy it in a heart beat. Since we couldn't get our hands on the table, I was really wanting to buy this Fisherman that had caught my eye. I showed Jeremy and he agreed that he was pretty cool. The only thing that caused doubt in my mind was his weight...he was going to cost a fortune to ship home. In the end, we purchased him for what we thought was a fair deal to both parties. I was so excited that I hugged the carver and told him I would cherish it forever (seriously...he is so damn cool!). He was really touched and told me he was honoured that I appreciated his work. He then told me that because of this sale, he could feed his family. Can you imagine living day to day on so little income that making that one sale could mean the difference of being able to put food on your families table for supper that night - ??? Again, we are so lucky and fortunate to be living where we do and for Jeremy and I, it took us travelling across the world to realize this. Will we forget this when we get back, definitely not...travelling has opened our eyes and given us so much insight.


When we pulled into our camp-site, again, for the second night in a row, the sun was starting to set. We had quickly set up our tent in what little light we had left and then both went our separate ways. Jeremy was on cooking duty so he went to prepare supper while I literally headed to the washing up sink where I carried a garbage bag full of laundry. We had not done laundry since before the Gorilla trekking in Rwanda. Since we had left Rwanda, we had stayed at every camp-site for one night only which made it impossible to do laundry. Then, when the group went off to Zanzibar for the 4 days, we headed to Kili. So, you can imagine just how much laundry there was to do. I washed and scrubbed for a solid two hours, which coincidentally was perfect timing as when I finished, supper was just being served (Mexican night...yummy!). After supper, Jeremy took over for me (as I was on dish duty) and hung the clothes on our 200 foot line...the line was completely filled which gave everyone in our group quite the chuckle.


The following day (Day 36) Jeremy and I awoke bright and early to clouds and overcast (not ideal for our clothes). I had just said goodbye to the group of girls that had opted to go on a beach horse ride when Jeremy came running back to me grinning ear to ear. He informed me that he was heading out with 'the boys' to go and collect our pig for supper. As a treat, the group had decided to buy a pig and have a traditional pig roast for supper – this made all of the other overland groups in our camp-site very jealous of us. When the boys finally returned, 2 hours later, they were proudly carrying their pig on a stick. I was quite horrified to see it there but was even more horrified when I found out that Max, one of the young-ins in our group, had fatally stabbed the pig in the heart. I felt really bad for Becky, who was the only vegetarian in our group. I still could not seee Jeremy and I asked one of the guys where he was. Turns out, my little social butterfly was in town with the locals, learning how to play a new board game called boa. When he returned, he told me he had purchased a game which was being hand carved at the moment and would be finished that eveing (and again, I say he thinks he is not a shopper).


The remainder of the day was spent just chilling out. Jeremy tackled the job of washing our towels and our zip ups and I caught up on some reading and blog writing. Rhesa, Clair and Anna went into the village and all had their hair braided. This followed with all of the boys heading into town to get their hair 'twirled'. The locals apparently tried on Jeremy's hair too but sadly for him, it was just too short. Rhesa came back beaming with excitement as she was swarmed with the local kids. One of the ladies let her hold her three month old baby girl and Rhesa was sold...she wanted to keep her. The locals had a great sense of humour too as they then started calling her 'Madonna'- lol!


As I was relaxing on a hammock, Grace came over and informed me that there was a man with a table looking for me. I could not believe our luck, I raced across the camp-site and when I saw him, I went straight in for the hug. It turned out that the owner had informed the truck driver earlier that day how much we had wanted the table. The local truck driver graciously told him to give it to us and have a new one ready for him the following month when he would be passing through. And then...this amazing man hopped on the local bus with the table in arms and travelled 60 km (one way) to see us – we were so grateful and appreciative that we tipped him for his efforts.


Towards the end of the day, Jeremy and I cooled off by having a swim in the lake...and we made sure we did the 'Heisler Plunge' when entering! We joined in on a volley ball game and watched the sun set over the beach. When we all headed back to camp, we checked on the pig. Moses had been tenderly watching over it the entire day and believe it or not...the pig was ready to be eaten. We all gathered around the table like school children as Moses and Robert began to carve. The crackling (which is the skin of the pig and apparently very popular everywhere in the world besides Canada) was a huge hit and everyone was savagely munching on it as the grease spilled down their chin – kind of gross. Jeremy and I tried it and both of us were not that impressed with it...which was good for the others as they fought over our portions. Actually, the pig was not what I was expecting and I was quite disappointed. Jeremy would disagree with me on this one as he easily finished his massively sized portion given to him by Robert. Poor Becky stayed at the bar and chose not to partake in our festivities...I don't blame her. All in all, the pig was a great way to get the group together and celebrate our much too short time together in Malawi (I say short because I could have shopped for many more days on end!).


The following morning (Day 37) we packed up our still not dry laundry and jumped in the truck for yet anther long day of driving, where by the end of it, we would be in yet another new country called ZAMBIA!