June 25th- We've finally made it to our home away from home!

Today we spent the day driving from Lilongwe to Zomba. It would take all day because we would be stopping at multiple tourist stops and villages. Driving through Malawi is one of my favorite things, I could do it all day long and just look at the never ending land, drive by the villages and pass through the markets! So I was really looking forward to the drive.

I actually sat in the back of the van and 3 of the 4 advisors were close to me so it was really great to talk with them as we drove through Malawi because they knew so much and I learned a lot from their comments as we drove through the different scenery. They were our personal tour guides! The bus is to big so they don’t announce things, you have to sit close to them to be able to hear and ask questions. This is Dr. Kellys 21st time coming to Malawi and one year she even went 5 times! This is Liz’s 4th year and Jennifer’s 3rd year to Malawi.

We heard a sirens and Charles pulled over as the police drove by. Dr. Kelly said that in all of her years of visiting Malawi she has never seen a police drive by with lights and sirens. Charles said it was the President of Malawi passing us!!! Apparently the political party that supported him isn’t a fan of him because he didn’t continue the corrupt system so he must have a lot of security.

Dr. Kelly told us that the tall white flags in the villages represent a doctor. The village doctors use witch craft for medicine! We actually saw two white flags on our drive. Dr. Kelly also said that she has only ever seen 2 women ride bicycles in Malawi. It is something only men do.

One of the girls on this trip was talking and she told everyone on the bus that she didn’t like to wave at the kids from the windows because she thought it made us better then them (I don’t remember her exact words but something along those lines) and I felt like I have listened to a lot of information and different points of view. I have seriously considered every comment I get regarding going to Africa and I try very hard to be aware of my actions and comments out of respect for the culture. So I understand her point of view, after months of preparing for Africa and listening to these comments I often found myself very lost. After hearing her say she didn’t agree with waving to the kids, for the first time I was 100% confident that I disagreed with her and I told her that if waving at a child makes them smile, then I will continue to wave at them and I don’t think anything is wrong with that. Dr. Kelly nodded her head and patted me on the thigh after I said that. Another advisor also said that we want them to know we are friendly people and waving is nothing more then a friendly gesture. I guess I was right, I would find out how I really felt about these issues once I got here.

Charles is The Malawi Institute of Education driver. He drives professors and business people from Zomba to Lilongwe all the time. He lives in Zomba but comes to Lilongwe to drive us. So he knows the roads very well and takes good care of us. He knows where to slow down if there are bumbs and he knows exactly how long it will take. Charles also stops at little villages along the roads because he knows where the good deals are that he can’t get back in Zomba. We actually stopped twice because Charles wanted to pick up potatoes one time and another time he wanted oranges. When we stopped to get potatoes the children all come up to see us. Brian (a student from NC A & T) got a Kwacha coin and gave it to a boy from the window. He was thrilled!!!

Our first stop was Dedza Pottery. I’m not exactly sure of the background but my understanding is that a man from the Peace Corp caught the village how to make the pottery so they could start their own business and become self sufficient. We ate lunch at a little café next door and they had amazing American food and we assume its from the Peace Corp man teaching them since its such a tourist attraction. Pretty cool! The Dedza Pottery is very successful and it’s even online. There were quite a few other tourists there so people really do come from all over the world for this place. It wasn’t exactly what I had expected. It’s basically 3 rooms and a whole bunch of random, semi organized pottery. You have to dig and look for what you want. Its attempted to be organized by pots, plates, mugs etc. These type of stores drive me insane. I like to look at all my options and I like to know there is plenty to choose from. If someone grabbed the zebra plate, chances are that was the only one. I have enough decision making problems to begin with so this was just a very stressful store for me. Needless to say it took me hours to decide and find what I wanted. I was one of the last one outs. But they did have some amazing pottery! The website does not do justice, way beyond that! I saw where they make the pottery and hand paint it. It’s quite a business they have! You can pay by credit card and have it shipped if you would like. The catch is the package usually doesn’t arrive until the fall and I didn’t want to wait that long. So I’m going to try to take mine back with me.

Next I walked over the café and had a very yummy grilled cheese sandwich. We are the biggest thing in town and we definitely sell people out when we come. The poor waiter was running around trying to serve everyone! The café was beautiful- they had outdoor seating and a beautiful flower garden. The whole group was ahead of the indecisive people who were running behind, so they had already moved onto the next stop. We just walked down the street to a unique, environmental art shop where they make paper out of trash and even out of elephant dung. My mom calls it the poop paper place. ha The dung is difficult to make because he has to go to the national park to get the dung. He knew we were coming and he was preparing for us but he hadn’t finished everything yet and wasn’t ready. We literally bought his entire store. There was probably 3 things left, no joke. He did a demonstration but an entire group of us were too late and we missed it. Dr. Kelly showed us the process. And then we got to shop. The village kids came out and we played with them for a few minutes. Adorable! I video taped the explanation of how its made so that will help explain it. The man who owns it makes the paper and does the painting, but the wife makes dolls and other family members contribute as well. Unfortunately since I was one of the last people in the shop, everything was picked over. I was really bummed but I picked up the last stuff I could find. And a couple people finished him off and got the rest. Nothing left in the store. But that is great for him!! We gave him enough business to last for months and he was thrilled to have us.

Our van was full of our luggage so when Krista was playing with the children outside the Art Shop she saw her luggage on the outside so she managed to open her suitcase and pull out a world globe to give them! Always carry little things to give to them because they will love it!

That took up the majority of the day so next we continued to drive on down. We stopped at a market in Lizulu. Apparently Wednesday is their big market day. Each day they have a little market, but once a week markets usually have their “market day”. This market was actually on the border of Mozambique and Malawi. The road we drive on is the border so the left side of the road was Malawi and the right was Mozambique. It was impressive and I’m surprised we were allowed out of the van. Sometime it can be dangerous. Charles got some oranges and we wondered around in groups. They sold everything: medicine in plastic bags, tomatoes, oranges, cabbage, green beans, cauliflower, onions, shoes, watches, fabric, clothes and many more items. They didn’t bother us too much and they respected our space. For the most part they just let us walk around and pretend to “blend in” haha. We started off taking pictures but the girls said Charles told them it was a big no no. I think you can get arrested so we quickly put our cameras away. I managed to get a couple illegal shots! I don’t remember if I was on the Mozambique side or the Malawi side but one young man walked up to me with a bouquet of onions and said “ I want you to be my girlfriend.” Haha Most of them didn’t know English so I was surprised he knew that much.


Our final stop was at a village along the road. It was very a beautiful village and was simply an opportunity to interact with the kids and take pictures not on a moving bus. Slowly the kids started trickling up the mountain to come play with us. The little ones were scared but once they saw the older kids come closer then they came too. The layer of dirt on the children is unbelievable. Dr. Kelly says children that dirty probably don’t even go to school. School is not required; if you are needed in your village then your parents will probably keep you home. Only the smart children who are doing well in school are typically kept in school. If they don’t have shoes on or a significant amount of clothing on during this time of year, then you know they literally are wearing everything they own. I saw quite a few people with coats on in Lilongwe because this is their winter and if they own coats or shoes, they will be wearing them now because they think its so cold. Dr. Kelly said chances are if they don’t have shoes then they don’t have a blanket either and they are sleeping on the cement floor at night. And let me tell you, it gets very cold at night.

I took some video of the children dances and playing with us by the bus. I had hoped to get typical behavior on my video I am sure that will not happen. We bring so much attention and the children start showing off for us. They wave and give thumbs up. So the video has lots of children doing that. They probably don’t typically do this, only when they see white people. But I love to see them laugh and giggle. As we were leaving the bus some of the girls who were dancing with us were expecting money so they were getting angry we didn’t give them “dollar”. The advisors said we will be asked for that our entire trip and they the kids learn it from each other. Coins are okay but its best to give them little things you might have. One boy in Dedza asked for a pen, so it was obvious he went to school and spoke English. Heidi gave him a pen!!

A group saw the price of gas and converted it to our money, it turned out to be about $5.40 a gallon. Yikes! There are tons of gas stations all over the place. As we drove by the markets I asked how much they sell and Dr. Kelly said the majority of the food gets wasted. Everyone tells the same thing and not very many people buy because they have their own crops. I couldn’t believe the food was wasted but this is not a hungry time for them so most villages are not starving. The hunger time could last as long as 3 months and is usually around Christmas time when they are waiting for their crops to grow but have run out of their previous crops.

Almost every single village has a soccer field. Most fields we drove by had children playing on the field. I asked if it was heard of to move out of your village or even start a new village. Uncommon but possible. Only if you were getting married and move with your husband or had another reason to leave. In order to leave you would have to have permission from the village chief. A chief is responsible for several villages and you have to ask permission from him to come to the village and/or leave. The chief is a heritage chief and you are born to the position. A very popular carving is the “chief chair” that the village chief sits in. You always come back to your original village to be buried. Funerals are a big deal and always an excuse to miss work.

There are 3 different regions in Malawi; southern, central and northern. We saw the central part in Lilongwe but as we drove to Zomba we noticed the terrain change and it was becoming the southern area. It was like night and day; completely different. Lots more mountains, (Annies lodge is on a mountain) and so many more trees. We saw a handful of baobab trees which are only grown in Southern Malawi. They didn’t have any leaves on them during this time of year but they were unique so we could point them out!

It was very important that we made it to Annie’s Lodge by 5:30pm. It starts to get very dark and by 6pm its pitch black. It is very dangerous to drive after dark because there are no street lamps. We anticipated the drive taking a long time but Charles got us there right before 5pm. I didn’t realize how high up Annie’s lodge is compared to the town. It’s will be quite a hike! Annie’s Lodge is gorgeous! It’s basically a resort, there are multiple separate buildings scattered up the mountain. The flower gardens surround the buildings and walkways.

We pulled up to the lodge and we had quite a pleasant surprise! Annie’s son is very attractive with a British accent. Apparently Annie married a man from London and had Peter. He was raised in London for 20 years. He is completely white and I would never guess that his mother is Malawian. I’m not sure when Annie’s Lodge was started but he lives here with his wife and 4 kids and helps run the business with his mom. The advisors didn’t tell us about him because they wanted to leave something to surprise us with! It was really funny because even the advisors have a crush on him. They said we would think they were dirty old women if they told us about him. ha Dr. Kelly claims she has the best picture of him!!! They want to make a calendar out of him! Haha There is some juicy gossip about Peter that we learned later that night. Apparently at the goodbye party last year he brought his wife and girlfriend to the party. They knew about each other and were completely fine. This type of behavior is typical old Malawian behavior. The advisors told us the gossip but we have to be very careful not to talk about it in front of the workers at the lodge. For a successful business it is looked down upon because Annie is very embarrassed and it’s a hush hush topic. Annie is also a former member of parliament. Annie is divorced to Peters father. Its great, a group of 17 girls needed some good gossip to talk about! He is very helpful and takes good care of us. They do extra special things for our group! Peter is planning a Jazz night, movie night and even brings us little maps and snacks. He knows we are drooling over him!

The 3 advisors that have been on this trip before got off the trip and greeted everyone! They remembered everyones name and were so happy to see their friends. Jennifer/Dr. Jones said that last year they brought a bicycle in town ( about $80) and gave it to one of the workers at Annie’s Lodge because he had to walk over the huge mountain everyday to come to work. Jennifer said that he was very fragile and she was concerned he wouldn’t be back this year but was really excited to see him when she got off the bus!! He is still very thankful for the bike and said he sometimes lets his two kids drive the bike across the mountain to school. They are in secondary school- it’s a big deal to make it that far so he is very proud.

The workers at the lodge took all of our luggage to our rooms and we were excited to have our own room for more than two nights! Six of us are on the lower end of the mountain and Peter said we can move up the mountain with the rest of the group over the weekend after other guests leave. We had briefly spent a couple minutes in our room just chatting and the power went out! Of course it was pitch black and our luggage was everywhere so we couldn’t find our flashlights. Between the 3 of us we got our flashlights and headed up to the main area to see what everyone was up to. We couldn’t find anyone. We were looking around and found Dr. Kelly sitting by herself at the bar! We joined her and Peter said 1st drinks were on him. One of the popular beers here is about $1 and is called Kuche Kuche! We were enjoying sitting at the bar talking with Dr. Kelly asking her a lot of questions about the lodge, Zomba and telling her how impressed we are with Annies Lodge. It is way beyond our expectations! Another advisor, Liz walked up and I said we are “getting an education at the bar” and she said that it’s called graduate school! Haha We talked about what an amazing trip this is and Liz said she quickly learned that anything PKelly is involved in would be something cool. Finally everyone came out since the power was out and we all met at the bar. If the power had not gone out, we would have stayed in our rooms. The evening was beautiful and everyone was loving life! It was the perfect build up by starting at Ethiopia then upgrading to Korea Gardens and our final destination was paradise! The workers were glad to see us and welcomed us to Malawi! We are a big deal here that’s for sure.

We sat outside for dinner and Krista, Amber and I sat by Dr. Kelly. The prices at Annie’s Lodge have gone up 200-300 kwacha. All of us are a little nervous about running out of money. The meals are completely safe and well cooked. Its all food we would eat, sometimes it’s a little altered but for the most part is very common. Grilled Cheese, spaghetti, chicken dishes etc. Food tax in Malawi is 17.5%. They warned us that dinner is very slow and will take hours.

Dr. Kelly told us VT is applying for a research grant in Ethiopia. Apparently everyone was really scared staying at the Ethiopian hotel. Krista and I thought parts were sketchy but never had second guesses and went to sleep fine. We even opened the windows in the morning and everything. I guess our red flags didn’t go off because we weren’t scared. I feel comfortable traveling in such a large group.

Dr. Kelly told us that monkeys and baboons sometimes come down from the mountains and the workers have to shoe them away or else they will eat our food and/or bit us. Yikes! But I really want to see a monkey!

We briefly talked about the school system and Dr. Kelly says 50% of the kids probably aren’t in school because its not required by the government. They are needed to do work in the villages.

Dr. Kelly also explained the electricity situation in Malawi. They have a rolling blackout to preserve energy. We got a little slip of paper that lists the hours we will not have electricity in the next 4 days. It’s basically every morning anytime between 5:30-12pm. It’s very common. As we were leaving dinner with our flashlights we felt like we were at Girl Scout camp. Thankfully the power was on when we got to our room. It’s VERY cold at night.

Each hotel room has provided mosquito nets and each night I intend on putting it on but I keep forgetting. It’s not something I’m used to. Krista isn’t worried about it and Dr. Kelly said you don’t need it this time of year.

We spent the rest of the night trying to figure out the Internet. The VT girls are very concerned about it. We also wanted to tell our parents we were safe after a 4-hour drive through Malawi. Thankfully Annie’s Lodge has updated their Internet service and they now offer 24 hours for $20 that you can purchase online. The only catch is you need the Internet to purchase the 24 hours. So we bought 30-minute cards for 200 Kwacha and used it to purchase the 24 hours. We can use the 24 hours a little bit at a time and just log on and off. So it’s a great deal. However tonight we couldn’t figure it out because the cards weren’t working. We continued to write down about our day and decided we would have to wait until tomorrow until we figured it out.

We spent the night chatting in our rooms. It was a lot of fun and considering we didn’t know everyone before the trip, the VT girls are getting really close. I love it! We have all kinds of jokes and enjoy laughing at each other. We scare ourselves by convincing each other that we have staff infections! BTW, medical update… everyone’s doing just great. Every once in a while someone gets a mini tummy ache but nothing serious. The food we are eating is very similar to what we are used to. If we are going someplace that serves traditional Malawian food, Dr. Kelly warns us to bring some snacks.

A lot of the advisor's brought whistles for safety and that was one thing I didn’t think of. I wish I had taken a Polaroid camera. I brought disposable cameras to develop and give to the kids in our classroom, but we are meeting so many children in the villages as we drive by and their favorite things is to get their picture taken and look at it. I would love to be able to give them a picture of themselves. It’s bulky to carry around but it would be worth it. The kids would cherish the pictures.