We had another day long bus ride leaving Zambia to get to Malawi- thank goodness we didn't need a visa for Malawi (because we needed them for pretty much everywhere else we went and that was such a bummer use of money) BUT it was well worth the cash. Anyways Malawi is roughly the size of New York [not very big at all] but has about twice the population of Botswana so when I say this place was full- it was full. There were people everywhere. We pulled up to this bus station in Lilongwe, which is the capital (side note: bus stations I have grown to have a love hate relationship with, they are always just a little bit overwhelming after being on a bus for the entire day and generally you stick out like a sore thumb so you have people hassling you from the second you step off the bus until you get to your next destination but they are a real taste of the people and the culture and I love that). Anyways we got to our backpackers lodge, set up our tent and started asking people questions because I heard that there were opportunities to volunteer at this specific place and this was one of my "must haves" for the trip- I was determined to have us do some sort of humanitarian work. Found out about a little lodge that was in a super remote village and could only be accessed by boat and had tons of volunteer opportunities so we decided that would be a really cool place to spend some time, but we wanted to spend a little bit of time in the capital first. That night we met some locals at our backpackers and spent the night playing pool with them. They also taught us how to play African version of Mancalla- its called Bow and it is super fun.
The next morning we went to a craft market which was actually really fun and overwhelming. We show up and almost every single craft person came over trying to show us their stands and their paintings and their bracelets and figurines and fabrics and all sorts of other random nic-nacks. I was set on buying a pretty wood bowl and a bag/purse and so I went on a hunt and actually I really hate arguing prices with people. I really just want them to give me an honest price but of course I am a "muzungu" (the word for white people in Malawi) and so I get "muzungu prices" which are about double what everyone else is paying so we argued and bartered back and forth for a long time and I was suprised to find that I was actually pretty good at it. I ended up in the end with my bowl, my bag, three really pretty paintings, a serving spoon and fork, two bracelets and a necklace. Success!
Then we went grocery shopping and got our food for the next few days- it was pretty standard for the entire trip... porridge for breakfast in the morning, tuna sandwiches with cucumber, tomato and if we were lucky avocado and some combination of rice/pasta/beans/mince for dinner. Not much variation except for a lot of Milky Lane and ice cream stops along the way. Then it started to pour rain and we couldn't figure out how to get back to our hostel without getting soaked--> so we got soaked until we found these three local guys that were walking under a tarp and they let us join them (we looked almost like a chinese new year dragon walking up the street in Lilongwe) and it was quite effective except for the mud that was splattered all over our legs. Anyways, we spent the night again playing pool with the same set of locals as the night before and playing with the two cutest dogs I had ever seen.
Oh also all of our bags got completely infested with ants at some point during this trip and we had to completely clear out our stuff. Claire and Audrey had like baby ant sacs in theirs (luckily I didn't) but we all had them crawling in and out of all of our food and clothes. I do not particularly enjoy ants.
The next morning: Wouldn't ya know it- we got on another bus up to our next destination: Nkhata Bay right next to Lake Malawi.
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