Day 26 Mbamba Village and Lake Malawi

Saturday January 8^th.

Awoke to John frantically trying to get the zipper open on the tent. He was being violently ill. Not sure what happened to him, but it laid him out for the day.

After that and a leisurely breakfast of eggs and sausage, fourteen of us went on a village tour. The entrance to the village is through a gate at the back of our campground. As soon as we went through that gate we were surrounded by a ground of young men who all wanted to be our tour guides and to, of course, sell us some thing.

My escort was 'Gift'. As eve took our tour he told me lots of pieces of information about his town and country while asking me lots of questions about me. We saw the houses of the village, which are made mostly of brick, that they make, but still have a thached roof. We went into one of the houses and saw the living conditions, which are very basic, cramped, no electricity, no running water or toilets. We saw lots of children and they followed us around or posed for us.

After seeing the small village we walked about a kilometre to the main village. Along the way we saw their fields of cassava. When we got there we saw a school and a hospital. Unfortunately it was Saturday and school was out. But the teachers were there and some of the kids followed us. The primary class housed up to 130 students! I went around a corner and found a teacher working in a small office where there was lots of information about how and what to teach. One teacher made a pitch to us to donate and help support the school.

Then to the hospital where we only saw a maternity room with one mother and a newborn. The doctor there made a similar pitch.

Then they led us back to the small village where we had a typical lunch of cassava, catfish, rice and veggies. That was the end of the tour and we headed back.

Ed and I sat around the camp talking to John for a bit. Then Richard and I rented a canoe and some snorkeling equipment and paddled out about a kilometre to the island off shore. There we snorkeled about for about an hour. The water temperature was great. This is Lake Malawi and full of African cichlids – the same ones that Tom and I used to keep in our aquariums in the early eighties. It was really cool to see them in their natural environment.

While we were there we watched a group of young men fishing. Each one was on his own mokoro and casting a net into the water, while talking to all his friends. Really a great moment. Unfortunately I couldn't take my camera because I didn't want to get it wet.

Late in the afternoon I went for a walk along the beach and watched and photographed the locals swimming, bathing and playing.

For dinner we had a roast piglet, cooked for us by one of the locals. It had been on the spit in camp all day.

Later in the evening I sat down by the beach in the dark and watched a thunderstorm out over the lake. It had already knocked out the power to our camp. Then I hung out in a hammock until I started to drift off, so I headed to bed. It was nice to have some quiet by myself time.