BOOM!

Things got started today. I got up at 4:45 and drove to the airport, where the computers on the entire right end of the airport, where my flight checkin was, and after frantic check in and GO GO GO, I got on to my 6:14a flight ok. I think it helped that all of the people for that flight were late checking in. I slept most of the flight to Denver, then drank a bunch of coffee at the airport and got on my flight to Las Vegas. On the flight I finished reading Crashing the Gate, the book that Kos and Jerome, another blogger wrote. Good stuff. I took a taxi to the Riviera where the convention is and where I’m staying, and fortunately despite their saying that check-in starts at 4pm, I was able to check in and go to my room around 11:30ish. After settling in, I went and registered for the the convention, where I got a badge and a bag of free stuff and info about the event. Markos (Kos) was walking around talking to people while I was doing so, a nice foreshadow to how you can really talk to anyone at this thing. I didn’t get a picture of it today, but I will tomorrow, funny, Air America is providing free wireless througout the convention area, but not in the rooms. There were probably 30 people sitting on the floor in the hall with their laptops out doing assorted internets stuff.

After that I went out to wander the strip a bit. It was pretty hot outside, but interesting to walk around and see everything. I’ll have to do it again at night, because I suspect it is a very different experience, but was still pretty cool. I was surprised at how even in the big famous poker casinos like the Bellagio, the poker rooms seemed pretty small. I guess I knew that slot machines were the thing, but it is crazy how much alll of the casinos are all about the slot machines. Huge huge rooms of every sort of slot machine everywhere. I saw one of Siegfried and Roy’s white tigers which was cool, and a bit other stuff as well. I walked a good way down the strip, and eventually got tired and turned around and headed back here to take a nap.

After grabbing some dinner, I headed back down to the convention area to the first big event, a kind of opening celebration thingy where there were a few speakers, including the person who organized the event, Tom Tomorrow, the political cartoonist, and Kos. Tom Tomorrow showed a bunch of his cartoons which were funny stuff. There was a lady who had a sign for ‘flying solo’ that was organizing and identifying people who had come to the event on their own, and I ended up hanging out with that group for most of the evening. Nice that someone was organizing such things. I met up with Randy, who we met a few weeks back at Drinking Liberally in Austin, and ended up spending a lot of the evening hanging around with him.

When the opening event was over, a bunch of people headed to the Hard Rock Cafe casino, where Wesley Clark was having a party/event. It was very much about him putting out feelers towards if he should run in 2008 or not, but overall was a pretty fun party. Probably the most entertaining thing that happened there was when I was standing around talking to a couple of the flying solo peoples, and right beyond us were Wesley Clark, and Joseph Wilson, of his wife just happened to be a cia operative fame. I probably could have stopped to talk to them, but really the person I wanted to say hi to was Hunter, one of the Daily Kos front page writers, who’s posts I have really liked. Not every day you are standing next to a former/future presidential candidate, Joseph Wilson who is crazy famous on his own, and the person you really want to talk to is the anonymous blogger guy over there. The former Wonkette was also at the party, as well as several newspaper writers, and a ton of regular convention attendees. Someone I was hanging around with said that they saw Maureen Dowd from the NYT at the opening event, will be interesting to see what she has to say about things or if she does in her column on Saturday.

Overall, everyone seems to be very friendly and pretty much anyone is willing to stop and talk to you, very cool stuff. Things get going for real tomorrow with a bunch of panels and such, and I should probably go to bed so I can get up and participate in such things. Amost 1am here, but being pacific time that really makes it almost 3am.

Photo Gallery.

11/7/05 Austin
I guess I stopped writing there. Chicago went smoothly. We got off the plane and walked down a very long hallway into the customs area. There they took a form about what I was bringing back into the country, and I was let through with no hassle. I waited at a baggage carousel nervous about time, and eventually collected my bags, which I brought up to immediately give back so they could be checked by DHS and get sent on to my Dallas flight. I was mostly glad that the Air Malawi folks had managed to get them through properly. Getting my boarding pass went quickly, and I got to the gate about 20 minutes early. After not too long I got on the plane for the flight home. It was pretty light, as most people were more interested in getting out of Texas and away from the Hurricane at that point. I met Mom and Dad at the airport and we headed back home. The street signs were crazy driving in the USA. I think I saw about a total of 10 street signs in all of Lilongwe, where as you could easily see 30 or more at almost any point driving in DFW. We got home and looked at all the stuff I brought back with me, and hooked up the computer to look at pictures on the TV. Was cool comparing the things we saw and places we went.
Sunday morning I headed home for Austin, long drive home from a long trip. Was nice to be back in my car, and eventually back at my house, but very fun, fascinating trip it was.

When the plane started boarding a huge long line the length of the waiting room formed, and didn’t seem to move for a long time. Eventually the crowd thinned and I got in line, and slowly made my way to the back of the 747. After pushing back from the gate they decided that they needed to adjust some of the cargo crates so they pulled back in and delayed take off by about ½ hour. Despite that the flight went well and we only landed about 10 minutes late.
It was dark for most of the flight so not much looking out windows to do, but when we got over the UK it was cool to see the lights of the cities. When actually over London we flew alongside the Thames for a bit and I could see all the places I had gone when there. We landed and taxied to the terminal which is the same one I left from, so did not have to change around. Again it was like being in a huge duty free mall, much more spacious than in Nairobi. Not quite as super high class feeling as the terminal I left for Johannesburg from, but still full of pretty ritzy shops. I had about 3 hours to go before my flight, and for whatever reason they do not seem to post gates till about an hour before flight time in Heathrow, so I did a fair bit of wandering around. I browsed a few shops and wrote for a bit. At one point I sat where I could see a bunch of different gates and a runway where I watched a bunch of planes take off. The comparison to the Malawi airport was crazy. From where I sat I could probably see 50 large jets, out of surely hundreds at the airport at the time. Sooo much bigger a place.
Eventually they announced the gate and I made my way over (to about the farthest away gate possible,) then sat and watched a bit of BBC news about hurricane Rita. Will be interesting to see what has happened with that when I get home, as it was just hitting as we boarded. This flight has been good so far. There was a bit of turbulence for 20 minutes or so early on, but once that passed it has been smooth flying ever since. Apparently the plane was scheduled to Chicago and then with a lot of passengers continuing on to Houston. That portion of the flight has been cancelled because of the hurricane, so not sure what delays flights might look like at this point in Chicago. I wouldn’t oppose a small delay at least, because as is I only have an hour and a half to make my connecting flight and that will include going through customs and getting a boarding pass from American Airlines. Hopefully that will go pretty quickly.

4:50am London time – Somewhere over France
Yesterday was my last day in Africa. I got up lateish, around 7:30 when Abbie was leaving to drop Thierry off at work. She was back pretty quickly and made pancakes for breakfast. After that we set out to go to the pharmacy to get the treatment medicine for Bilharzia, which you can get from swimming in Lake Malawi. Apparently for it to be present there has to be a combination of a steady human presence and a particular type of snail. Because of the relatively few people at any given time, Mumbo (only place I was really in water) is supposedly safe to swim at, but they thought it a good idea to get the treatment just in case, as it would be much cheaper to buy in Lilongwe. It was pretty cheap, only about 600k.
On the way home we made a final round of the stores for me, stopping at Shoprite to get a pancake turner, then at Foodworth when I remembered I hadn’t gotten a candy bar for Alonzo yet. When we got back home I burned copies of my cd’s of pictures of the trip for Abbie and she copied off all of her Africa pictures to my mp3 player in the free space. I finished up my packing and we had an early lunch of left over lasagna, then left to go pick up Thierry and go to the girl guides. They meet at their school, Mvunguti school in Area 25. The drive out to the school went pretty well with a couple of wrong turns, but for the most part we got directly there. Abbie’s directions included drive onto whatever road and then stop and ask for directions which are not the greatest, but in any case. We did stop one time and ask for help. First Abbie asked a lady walking down the street, who did not seem to understand English well enough. Next she asked a probably 9 year old kid, who knew where to go, and pointed us in the right direction. We drove a bit further, turning off onto a dirt road that led into the village, and eventually to the school. (6:30am, Heathrow).
The care was pretty quickly surrounded by kids when we parked (only car at the school) until who we learned was somewhat of a vice principal came out and dispersed everyone. Turns out we got there during a break period. The VP led us into an office that had the schedule on the wall, an equipment inventory that had the condition of all the various things, attendance counts, and other such things. She told us a little bit about the school (close to 2900 students) and the way classes are organized. The start/end times are staggered to make classrooms available, I think the sign said there were 15 total, and make room for all of the students.
After a few minutes the Girl Guides leader came in, then led us past the classrooms to a spot under a big tree where the girls had gathered. Thierry pointed out on the way by that the blackboards all had Coca-Cola logos on the bottom of them. The girls were all wearing their school uniforms. There is an official G. G. uniform, but we were told that since most of the girls are from poor families they cannot afford them. Instead they usually wear a scarf to indicate that they are members, though they were not wearing them at that point. As we walked up they were singing a welcome song to us, and it looked like they all remembered Abbie from the last time she was there. We were led to plastic chairs at the front facing the girls where they sat down on the ground. It was very dusty and 18 hours later my shoes are still a bit reddish brown from the dirt, but sitting on the chairs was very uncomfortable. I would much rather have sat on the ground with them.
After the welcome song, everyone sat down and the leader explained to us what all they do and try to accomplish in Girl Guides. She said one thing they particularly like is parading, and then they demonstrated for us. The girls all stood up and got in 4 lines, one of them came up to the front and faced the rest, functioning as a caller, leading the rest of the group. They sang several songs and marched/danced as they did so. It was fascinating to watch, and sounded excellent. Towards the end Abbie joined in to a dance-y like song with the leader lady.
The next thing was looking at craft projects that different groups were working on. The leader and Abbie walked around from group to group looking things over, and Abbie told jokes to get them to smile while she took picturs of the girls with their projects. Thierry and I were still up front at this point, actually throughout the whole time we were there. Next up Abbie was going to teach them one of her Girl Scout songs, the Brownie Smile song. They started out Abbie would sing a line and they would sing it back. First with one stanza, then building up to the whole stanza, then with the 2nd, finally the whole song. The group sang the whole song a couple of times, then the leaders had several girls come up and sing individually. For the most part they were pretty shy about this, but a couple of them seemed excited and did a good job of it.
This was pretty much the end of the meeting, and the leaders led us back to the office, promising Abbie that they would greet her with that song next week. In the office we signed a log for our visit, then one of the other leaders who lived close by invited us all over to her house for drinks before we headed off. There was still time before my flight, so we accepted, piled into the car (with two of the leaders) and drove essentially around a block to her house. We parked outside (pretty much on the road) and went through a gate (was inside a brick wall) and up to the house. Inside we sat around a coffee table and Wanda (volunteer leader who’s house we were at) got us all sodas. I was kind of glad Cokes were an option, because I wasn’t sure how we would handle it if something water based was the only choice, would have been very rude to decline, but at the same tiime, I do not want to be sick, especially with 26 hours on airplanes to look forward to. The house was nice, and I was kind of surprised to see a tv/vcr/playstation set up inside. Thierry had commented in the past that tv’s are exceedingly expensive to get in Malawi. As we talked, two of her (seven) kids wandered through, but did not stick around to talk at all. We talked about traveling, where we were all from, and a bit more about Girl Guides.
We finished up and I think due to a misunderstanding about our destination, the main leader asked if we could drop her off in Old Town where she was due to go to a meeting. We had intended to go straight to the airport from the GG meeting, and Abbie later said that she was about to say that when Thierry said that would be fine. We departed and made a somewhat hasty trip into town, and turned off onto a side street by the big mosque in Old Town and dropped her off. From here we got a bit turned around trying to get back out to the main street and ended up driving down a very crowded market street. There was one stretch where there was a long row of various small fish piled up in mounds of different types. As we went on, starting to worry about time, the road got more and more crowded, and eventually we reached a broken down mini-bus blocking the path and a swarm of people all around and we were pretty much at a dead-end. With the help of a few people around clearing a bit of a path, we were able to very slowly back up until we reached a spot where we could back in and turn around, then again very slowly work our way through the crowds out to the main street again.
It was getting a little late at this point (though 2:45ish, so still 2 hours or so early for my flight) so we made a somewhat frantic drive to the airport. Abbie was not pleased with some of Thierry’s passing decisions, but we made it ok with ample time to get checked in and ready to go. We headed into the airport and I went to the counter and checked in with only a little hassle. The counter issued boarding passes for LLW-Nairobi, Nairobi to Heathrow, and Heathrow to Chicago, though I supected (correctly) that the latter two would have to be replaced. They said I was over my baggage weight (36kg total) but I pretty easily argued that I should be allowed 32kg per bag, and she agreed. Next step was to pay my departure fee. Not quite sure how such a thing comes about, but to leave Lilongwe on an international flight you have to pay a departure fee of $30 in American dollars. There is an exchange booth next to where you pay the fee, but otherwise I imagine it is pretty inconvenient for people not from America who were not warned in advance to have that ready. When I paid the fee they put a sticker/stamp on my boarding pass, and I was good to go.
Abbie and I spent a few minutes looking around a few shops at the airport, and then we sat for a bit near the departure entry point. After not too long an airport staff person came along (when I was holding 4 passports, 2 diplomatic ids, a UN id, crazy pile of stuff) and told me I needed to go ahead and go to the gate area. I said goodbye’s to Abbie and Thierry, told them 10 weeks is not sooo long, and gave hugs all around, then headed up to check-in.
Up the stairs I had to go through 3 different steps of customs. First I filled out an exit card that asked what I was in the country for, and that sort of thing. When I gave that, my boarding pass, and passport to the first guy, he asked if I was taking any money out with me. I said that I had about 4000k, which I think was probably pretty low, but he thought that was ok I guess, and I went along to the next desk. There the guy wrote down the number of my departure tax sticker, and stamped it. [Not sure what the 3rd step was, unless I combined two for the first part in my head.]
(4:21 am CST/ 10:21am London time, just outside of London) After customs I waved to Abbie and Thierry again from the balcony, and headed to the gate. I had to go down a ramp and at the bottom was a security scan. There was the normal baggage scanner, but no metal detector, instead they would frisk you. They also had me open my carry on bag and went through it checking for anything problematic. Afterwards was another large waiting lounge area. Right after I sat down an airport staff guy came up and led me outside to point out my baggage. I guess it is an additional safety precaution, making passengers identify again before loading things onto the plane.
It was around 4pm at this point, with the flight scheduled to depart at 4:45p. Looking out at the airfield area there were only two Air Malawi planes, and also a couple of DHL planes. The Air Malawi planes looked small, nothing like a jet to fly on for a couple of hours. As it got closer to time to board, eventually a staff member came out and told us that our plane had not yet arrived from its previous flight, that it should be in around 5, and that as soon as it was unloaded we would be able to board. That was close to accurate, and around 5:30 we got on the bus that drove us out to the plane. Abbie and Thierry (along with many other people) were waiting on the airport balcony and waved goodbye, I was sad to be leaving them but not for too much longer. I got on the plane where they said to take whatever seat I wanted, grabbed a window seat, and pretty soon we were off. It was already mostly dark, and again I saw a lot of small fires outside the window.
The flight was pretty uneventful, served dinner and provided wine (like BA.) All of the announcements were done in both Chichewa and English which was pretty cool. There was a Malawian in the seat next to me, and next to him was an Evangelical type from Kentucky. Over the course of the flight he talked about his mission to the Malawian and eventually ended up signing him up for whatever his program was. I talked to him briefly as we were waiting to get off the plane in Nairobi, mostly about the hurricanes back in the US.
I did not get to see much of Nairobi as it was dark when we flew in, looked a lot like a city at night. The plane did not land at a gate, we went down stairs and then walked outside to a ramp that led into the airport. The airport seemed fairly narrow, and was full of duty free shops. I did not have a whole lot of time there as we had left Malawi about an hour late and also lost an hour to time zone changing. I got in a moderately long line to get my boarding pass changed, and for whatever reason it seemed to go exceedingly slow. After about ½ hour they issued my new passes, gave me a new luggage claim sticker, and sent me on my way. By this point they had already called for people on the flight to London to come to the gate, so I did not get a chance to go get my passport stamped. I did get to go to a money exchange counter and change a 20 into Kenyan money, so that was cool at least.
The plane loaded at gate 14. After taking your boarding pass and checking your passport, first thing here was to have your carry-on scanned again and to go through a metal detector. Immediately after this was another area where you had to do the exact same thing again. After going through this scan they were stopping random people to search their bags. They did this with mine and again I got to go through and have my bag riffled through, though the person who checked it was quite friendly. From here I got to another giant waiting room, stretched out the length of a couple of airport gates. (Actually boarded next to gate 11.)

Yesterday I got to do a bit more site-seeing type stuff around Lilongwe. We got up early and Thierry and I left the house around 7:30ish to go to a hiking place someone at the UN had found. On the way we stopped to drop off mail for Rina and Steiner that Thierry had picked up at the UN. We met Steiner getting ready to leave his house, which is right down the street from Abbie and Thierry’s place. We chatted for a minute about sick girls, Rina with malaria for 2 weeks plus now Abbie. Next thing we headed out for the UN where Thierry got directions on how to get to the place. After that we were off again, out the road towards Blantyre.
The road was pretty much as it had been before, though we did pass what looked like a pretty good sized wreck. Thierry warned me about looking, as they had seen a pretty gruesome wreck in Benin, but best I could tell there were not many people in or around the mini-bus, though it is possible they had already been taken away. When we turned off the main road towards the place, the road condition went downhill pretty quickly. There was some wind which I guess there had not been previous times we drove on dirt roads, but it kicked up dust devils and blew the dust from the roads everywhere. This road also was under construction, so there were huge dirt piles all along as well. We were driving on a small road beside the one being worked on, like the road back from Cape Maclear. It had giant potholes and frequently rocks sticking out throughout. Up a hill a bit we got to a village that had nicely made brick buildings throughout. After a wrong turn we found the place to park and start our hike.
Thierry and I coated ourselves in another round of bug spray and while doing so a black and white dog wandered up. Thierry said that that dog and another followed them around while they hiked the last time they were there. We did not see the other one, but sure enough he followed us up the trail and throughout the whole time we hiked. Climbing the hills/mountain was exhausting at first, but it was fun. Pretty quickly we stopped following the established trails and wandered towards wherever we wanted to go as we saw fit. Several times we passed locals who I think thought the two white boys wandering around must be crazy, especially so when we were headed back down and were half lost and nowhere near a trail. Our friend with us would usually follow behind, but he could be prompted to show us a good way to go occasionally, and was very good at finding the pat after Thierry and I had been off it for a long time. The view from up on top of the rocks was amazing, countryside broken up by farming plots, terraces up a hill, very pastoral, with the exception of a big cell phone tower. (Thierry said you get great reception there =). The hills/rock are all a part of the Rift Valley, very cool to hike around in crazy geology like that. As said before, the hike down was a bit of a mess, we were long from any path we recognized, and choosing the lest steep ways we could find. It was cool not knowing the ‘right’ way to go, while at the same time being able to see the village where we parked and knowing we would eventually find our way there. The dog I think did not approve of our choice of path a lot of the time, but he at least grudgingly followed along.
Close to getting back to the village we passed a very green depression that we guessed must be a watering hole in the rainy season. Passing it there was a giant tree with what looked like hundreds of little round balls hanging off of it. I think I got a few good pictures of it. Back at the car we walked to the side where there is a little curio shop/bakery next door where we go some sodas. The missing dog wandered up while we were there, looking like ‘where did you guys go without me?’ We tried to order cakes but the power was out so they were not able to prepare them. The shop had some nice things in it, but we didn’t buy anything this time.
We started back home down the same very dilapidated road and past the road under construction and Thierry and I started talking about his job, and all sorts of aid type jobs/programs in general. He thinks that with the way the UN system is set up, it is very hard to get good concrete results. As is they run most programs through the federal government, who can run things correctly or blow them off and use the money as they see fit. His thought is that the UN should try saying, ‘we are doing this program our way, and if you don’t like it, go ahead and kick us out of the country.’ The thought being that at least first the country would let them do whatever because of the trouble they would get from the international community for kicking them out. He pointed out that the road projects are often planned and run by donor countries, often as a way of providing jobs for white collar-ish workers who have training that is not needed in their home countries. This could mean engineers running road building projects, funded by a foreign country, where at least somewhat of the funding goes to pay that engineer. Hard to say that this is bad, as it both builds a needed road and provides jobs (the more labor like ones) in the local economy, but still weird when you realize it is often done for the home countries personal benefit.
Drive home I got a good picture of a shop off the dirt road with a Coca-Cola sign on it. I think I will submit it to Adbusters. Seems ridiculous how omni-present Coke is. When we got back into Lilongwe, we stopped by Foodworth to buy something to eat for lunch, and the ever needed bottles of water. It was funny going into the store completely head to toe filthy from hiking. We got back to the house and I washed 5 or 6 layers of dirt off my hands and ate my veggie pizza. Not too much after that. I fell asleep on the papasan chair, and Thierry went up to work for a few hours.
I woke up after a bit and Abbie had started making Lasagna. We were planning dinner with some UN people at 7p at the Indian restaurant, but Abbie wanted to make Lasagna as well, so we just figured on two dinners. I was still pretty gross from hiking so went to take a shower. I don’t remember the last time I was so dirty. My feet were covered in dirt that I had to scrub hard to get off, despite the fact that I had been wearing shoes and socks.
Abbie finished cooking and we at lasagna around 6pm. Good stuff it was. Pretty much as soon as we were done we started rounding up stuff getting ready to go to Delhi Darbar to meed the work people. Service there is usually somewhat slow they said, so we had time to digest a bit before 2nd dinner. The conversation with the UN crowd was fascinating again as it was at the party when I first arrived. Overall they are positive people who I think want to make the world better, but frustrated by what they are able to accomplish through the UN. Pretty much no one there gave the impression that things are being helped in the long run by their work, but there were a lot of ideas about what could be fixed, and how to actually help. They told Geeta (who has been in Malawi for 5 weeks now) that she must be doing things right because she is already being shushed in meetings. I was sitting in the middle of the table, so somewhat in between two conversations the whole time, but very interesting to go back and forth between the two. At one point Marcus asked what I do, a subject I had been quiet about, not because my job is bad, just seems kind of dull compared to all of these people in a foreign country working to save the world. Was kind of uplifting though that they seemed to think it is a satisfying job because in tech support we get tangible evidence of success, we can know that we helped people fix their problem, instead of in their jobs fighting immense bureaucracy to change things that even if they succeed, the results are not easily seen.
Food came and we all passed our dishes around and shared, at the end we all split the bill and set out home. Good people there. We went home and went to sleep for a couple of hours, then Thierry and I got the computer and headed out to go up to the office to talk to people on Skype. When we left the house, we got down to the gate and at first no guards came to let us out. One of them came after a few minutes, but they could not find the key. Thierry got out and helped look for a few minutes, I stayed in the car because I was pretty much asleep. After a few Thierry went to the house to get a flashlight. At the same time one of the guards made a torch and they walked around for a long time looking. Eventually they found things and let us out, a good 25 minutes after we got down to the gate. We got up to the office pretty quick after that, and I talked to Mom and Dad and Thierry to his parents. I think we were both pretty much sleeping, and after not too long we went back home and went to bed.

Yesterday started off a bit crazy. We woke up a bit lateish (7:30?) and were eating breakfast when Saam called and said he was coming over. He arrived with a pile of stuff that was something else. He had a bunch of movies for Abbie to watch, selected for being happy type films. After this he started pulling out piles of $100 bills, and tells Thierry that it is $14,000, and asks if he can bring it up and put it in the safe at the UN. Thierry counted it all out, put it in a cracker box, and said he would. Last thing he produced was his mother’s Iranian passport. For their trip they are going to Zambia on Saturday, and she needed to get a visa to enter the country. Saam had been dealing with the Zambian embassy trying to get it arranged, and he had an appointment set up for 11am to meet with the person in charge of visas, but was going to be out on the trip to Mvuu at that point. The embassy folks said that anyone with a diplomatic ID could go in his place, so he asked Thierry. We agreed to everything and Saam headed out. After a bit more around the house we were ready to head out as well.
Fist thing we headed back to Mars to get Abbie’s 2nd anti-malarial shot. This went pretty quickly, and from there we went to drop her off back at the house to get some sleep. It was getting close to 11, so Thierry and I headed up to the UN office which is nearby the Zambian embassy. Thierry dropped off the money and I logged into his computer to check email and such while he headed out to deal with the visa situation. He got back about 45 minutes later, unsuccessful with the visa request. Saam didn’t think it would work anyway, figured he would end up having to bribe customs, so oh well. We headed to the store and picked up some juice and gatorade type stuff for Abbie, then went back home.
After some cheese sandwiches for lunch, we headed out to drive through old town and finish up my souvenir shopping. We went into a grocery store that was pretty much 2 big rows floor to ceiling with stuff, in the Indian part of town. From there we went and drove down a market street that Thierry said was very much like it was in West Africa. There were a ton of people (though he said less than when Mom and Dad went there) walking at pretty hastily erected looking booths. The vendors were selling just about anything you could think of, electronics, cooked food, fresh food, clothes (sometimes hung up, sometimes in big old piles on the ground) all sorts of things. Tons of people. The booths were made of wood, branches, cardboard, grass, bamboo, pretty much whatever was available it looked like.
Next we went back to the place over by the Shoprite to finish up souvenir shopping. Was different than shopping with Abbie, but Thierry was also good. I ended up getting pretty good deals on everything though I paid 1100k for a drum similar to one Mom paid 500k for. The guy started out at 3800k, which seemed pretty ridiculously high. The shopping is really an experience though. You want to get the price as low as you can, the vendors don’t really care what they get, just that you give them some Kwatcha. They will quote you whatever they think you will pay, and it is then your job to say what you will pay. Abbie pretty much always made the people give a 2nd, lower price, then started bargaining from there. Thierry would produce a low number, throw it out there and was pretty ready to walk if they said no. Walking off is for the most part very effective, as it will frequently make people cave and give you the price you want. Not looking or seeming too attached is also important.
With our newly gained booty, Thierry and I went over to Shoprite for more shopping, then headed back home. It was around 4pm, and Thierry left to go up to work for an hour or so. I hung around with Abbie and after a bit their friend Geeta dropped by with flowers and some juice for Abbie. She is quite a character, and stayed and chatted about her job with the UN for a while, then eventually took off.
Not a lot we did for the rest of the evening, but it was nice hanging around talking to Abbie and Thierry. We drank some of the South African Shiraz I bought which was ok, not spectacular by any means.

Yesterday Thierry stuck his head in my room at 6am (which was the time we had intended to leave) to tell me that Abbie had been throwing up all night, and that he was going to take her in to the clinic. I fell asleep for another hour then got up and packed up my stuff. Around 8am Thierry came home and told me about Abbie’s trifecta, she had already had a sinus infection for the past few weeks, she got food poisoning from somewhere (we suspect breakfast on Mumbo) and to top things off, she has Malaria. We ate a bit of breakfast and got ready to go to the hospital place for a visit. Thierry had essentially been up all night, so he was off to a fun start for the day.
The Mars clinic was not too far a drive from their house. Not sure why it is called Mars, but was the closest 24 hour emergency spot around. When we got there Abbie was sleeping for the most part, but drifting awake a bit. She looked pretty awful, but 2 different diseases plus a night of food poisoning induced vomiting will do that to you I suppose. We left after not too long to go to the bank to get money. Thierry used the ATM to get Kwatcha, and from there we went to the money exchanging store to get more Kwatcha from dollars. Their rate was much higher than the bank (131k/$ as opposed to 117k/$) and we got another big stack of pretend Malawi money.
Not wanting to carry around a giant pile of cash, we went back to the clinic and put down the deposit for Abbie’s treatment, which was 25,000K. We visited a bit more, then set out on the next round of errands. First we went up to the UN so Thierry could print some letters for the bank. In order to change $’s in his account (which is paid in US$) to Kwatcha, or much more difficult, to withdraw $’s from the bank, he has to present letters on the UNDP letterhead formally requesting it. We went around and Thierry told the story of why we were still in town to a few friends, and we got things printed up and such. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation, but Thierry always ended the story with telling people to imagine the physics of throwing up through a mosquito net. Yuck.
We got to the bank and went in, and first off we went to get Andy’s souvenir, a jillion tiny worthless bills. This was much easier than expected. We just went up to the teller and gave him 1500k in 500’s, and he gave us brand new, banded, consecutively numbered stacks of 100 5’s and 100 10’s. Funny stuff. Next thing we went over to the foreign currency desk/counter and Thierry gave them his letters. That was pretty quick and we headed out. We got into the car and backed out into a small truck that was parked across the way. We stopped and got out to look at it and there was somewhat of a dent on the tailgate. Not terrible, but not great either. Several of the street vendors came over and started telling us that we shouldn’t just leave (which we weren’t) and one guy said he knew the owner of the truck and went inside the bank to find him. Thierry moved the car into a spot instead of in the middle of the aisle where he had left it, again causing a chorus of ‘you shouldn’t leaves’s’ despite me not being in the car at that point. After several minutes the guy still had not shown up and Thierry wanted to get back to the hospital, so he wrote down his phone #, insurance policy #, and license plate info, left it with the car, and we headed off.
We picked up sandwiches on the way back to the clinic, and once more went in to visit Abbie. She looked much better this time, though again still very sleepy throughout. Thierry started reading a book to us aloud, though he pretty quickly fell asleep as well. They were both asleep for about 45 min. before a nurse came in for a checkup. She checked Abbie’s pulse, temperature, blood pressure and other assorted stats, and then pulled out a pen which she used to write the things down on her hand.
Around this time the cell phone rang, and Macford, a Malawian who is an IT guy up at the UN was calling about the car wreck. Thierry talked to him, pretty upset, for a few minutes before the call was cut off. He went outside the room to call him back, and a few minutes later came in to say he had to go up to the UN to get things straightened out. Apparently the owner of the car was a friend of Macford, and contacted him because the phone # Thierry had left was wrong.
So once again Thierry and I set out for the UN to go meet with the owner of the car. We got there and went into a conference room where Macford was sitting with a man, the car owner, and a woman, who I think was the one driving the truck at the time. Tempers were pretty heated starting out, because he thought Thierry had simply fled the scene of a crime to avoid making payment or justice. Thierry countered that we had waited around but had to get back to his sick wife in the hospital, so just left his information. The two of them went back and forth a bit, Thierry pointing out that in the US where he was from he did what was proper, and the guy countering (truthfully) that we are in Malawi and he has to follow the local laws. He explained that the correct thing to do would have been to call the police and have them assess the damages, and file a report. From there the insurance company could arrange payment to get things fixed. When he mentioned the police, Thierry suggested that they were corrupt and that it was so they could get their cut, and he got really mad. Macford pointed out it was the wrong thing to say because the guy was a 14 year veteran of the police force.
From that point Thierry pretty well backed down and spent the next 20 minutes agreeing with the guy and telling him he would do whatever he wanted. When Thierry suggested he was willing to go to the police, the guy said he would tell them we thought they were corrupt, which Thierry managed to take without comment. Finally it was agreed that we would do all this, and Macford went to get it ok’d for him to come along with us. We all got up and moved out into the hall, where they guy counter offered (to his own deal?) to just go with us to a repair shop and in the interest of time get an estimate which Thierry could pay for. We again agreed, and when Macford returned, he, the guy, Thierry and I all piled into his car with the damaged truck following and we headed off to the repair place.
We got there after about a 10 minute drive and the boss guy came out and looked the truck over. The place was full of wrecked cars which they were fixing the frame and bodies of. After a few minutes taking notes, the guy went into an office to write up an estimate for us. More time goes by and he comes back out, says the repairs will be 32,000k, which is around $250.00. He then said unless several various things were pre-existing conditions, and after eliminating several of those, the price was down to 15000k, still a lot but also a lot more reasonable. Most of that price drop was for a cracked tail light cover that the driver girl argued was broken by us, but Thierry convinced everyone otherwise by subtly pointing out the dust in the crack on it. The price agreed on, the shop guy went back to the office to type it up. This was taking a long time so Macford went to see if he could just stamp the handwritten estimate instead. [Thierry had pointed out earlier in the trip that stamps make things official. Does not matter what really, but if it has a stamp on it, it must be an official document.] Thierry thinks Macford argued the price down when he went up there, because when the guy came back it was down to 10500k. We went up to the office to pay the charge, did so and that was pretty much that. (Thierry played the diplomat a bit throughout this process, he said he thought that between the two of us we would be able to cover the charges, but that he didn’t think he could by himself, somewhat of an attempt to keep the price from being estimated out of control, based on what they thought we could pay instead of how much it would cost to fix the damage.) Thierry again apologized to the guy and girl, and we got back in Macford’s car to go back to the UN. The owner guy stayed this time, so just Macford, Thierry and I were there.
On the drive back, Macford told Thierry that really he should have just driven off immediately, and it would have saved all of the trouble. Seems kinda bad, and Thierry I think was glad to have resolved things satisfactorily to all parties involved. After we got back to the UN and again turned back to Mars, Thierry said that the actual policy for bad accidents is to leave the scene of the crime and go immediately to the UN office and surrender yourself to them. At that point they will do whatever is necessary with the country, and will ensure you are not pulled out of your car and killed by an angry mob. Yikes.
We got back to Mars and told Abbie our story. She was much better at this point and was ready to go home. Thierry said she had to get that ok’d by the doctor the next time he came in, and we once again set out tog o home to clean up and get things ready for her. After some quick cleanup, we headed out, dropping by the Wilderness Safari office to check up on what they could do with our cancellation of the Zambia trip. There we ran into Sam who was in the process of trucking in piles of Kwatcha to pay for his wedding extravaganza. (They chartered a plane and are taking 16 people for several days to Mvuu, spending a couple of days at the other Kayak Africa island, then flying all over and spending a week seeing sights in Zambia.) He asked about Abbie and seemed very concerned. He said after making his payments he was heading over to see her, and said he would come with us.
Wilderness Safari was able to give us full credit to the lodge at south Luangwa for the 6 bed nights we would not be using, which is cool, and hopefully Abbie and Thierry will be able to use that when the Joffrains come in October. Next thing we headed over to Foodworths to pick up a few more supplies, then over to the UN to drop off the trash. Thierry brings his trash up to the office for disposal and it is not entirely clear what the UN does with it. Most other people they know have some sort of in house help who disposes of their trash, usually by burning it. There is no sort of city trash pickup, and burning is the common method of disposal, which makes for regularly smoke filled air.
Back to Mars for the last time for the day. We arrived and Susanne was there with her mother, trying to get a prescription for some sort of vital medicine. Soon after she came in and talked to Abbie for a bit, relayed about her time in the same room after she started taking the anti-malarial Larium and it made her crazy. The doctor came in and agreed to let us take Abbie home, and off we went to start checking out. While that was going on, Saam came in with Eva, anther UN type and gave Abbie some goodies and talked about his crazy day for a bit. Soon it was time to head out and we drove back home for the last time for the day. Not a lot went on after that point. Abbie went to bed pretty quickly. Thierry and I put on a movie on the computer and he quickly fell asleep. I watched it and then drifted off myself. Next morning I found out that apparently the guards had woken Abbie up, she got Thierry, and they said they had stopped some people who were trying to jump over the back fence.

Yesterday was mostly a day of travel. I woke up early and laid in bed for a bit, then Abbie showed up at my tent around 5am to tell me it was time to watch the sunrise over by her tent which was on the other side of the island. I slowly woke up and got dressed and walked over. Wind had picked up a bit over the night, and the water was choppy in the cove. The sunrise was amazing, took some pictures of it but they were just ok. We headed up to the main area for coffee, and after a few ran into one of the photographers, Jo from Belgium. He had asked the island staff to prepare the shower so that he could take pictures of it being filled. The camp’s shower is a large bucket with a nozzle on the bottom, and the staff fill it with hot water from the main island, then suspend it. As Jo only wanted pictures , the shower was ready with no one waiting, so I went ahead and used it. The open air and great view out the window combined with the hot water made it most relaxing. Abbie and Thierry went out in a kayak briefly when I was showering, and Klaus, the other photographer took pictures of them doing so.
The photographers were funny, using the good morning light they rushed around trying to get as many good pictures as possible in the time they had. As us and the South African couple were the only non-journalist types there, they wanted us for all they could for pictures. Klaus got some good ones of Abbie and Thierry by their tent in the hammock. He took their email addresses and said that he would send a few pictures after he finished touching them up.
I mostly did a lot of sitting around drinking coffee up until breakfast time. Breakfast we again all sat around the table and talked about our jobs and plans for trips. The catamaran was due in later that morning, so the four heading out on that were all pretty excited.
After we ate, Abbie, Thierry and I set off on one of the island trails to find the Zimbabwe cave. We got there pretty quickly and while it was not much of a cave (more a rock hanging over a space) the view from the top of it was nice. In search of more good views we headed down the back side of the island, and briefly ran into and walked with Jo. He set off to find another spot and we wanted to head back to camp, so we followed what we thought was the path back. Instead it turned out to be a different one that led to a small cove with a very nice each. We looked around there for a bit, and then managed to find our way back to camp again. Did not see much wildlife beyond lizards, but it was a nice walk.
Back at the tents it was time to pack our things, as the next group of people were due to arrive before long, and they needed to clean up. We packed and brought our things out to the main area, then sat a bit and talked to Klaus about his work as a photographer. He talked a lot about the transition from film to digital photography, and how he was lucky he had done so when he did, very interesting fellow. When our boat (small one back to the mainland) arrived, he walked down to the beach with us, and took a bunch more pictures.
We waited on the beach a bit as the crew loaded bags and extra kayaks to return on to the boat and while waiting for Jo to show up as he was also going back with us, the catamaran, Mufasa, sailed up and into the cove. They took some time to get straightened out and Dan from the island sent someone up to look for our missing boat mate. The catamaran was pretty impressive, supposedly took 29 days to move it here from South Africa where it was built. Some rich guy wanted to have his big old boat on Lake Malawi and somehow managed to transport it there. They started loading up equipment and baggage and our last passenger made his way down from the small island looking pretty terrible, and Dan told us he was sick, pretty evident when he went over to the side of the beach throwing up. (Turns out a portent of things to come . . .) After a few minutes he managed to come up onto the boat, laid down looking like he was dead, and then pretty much slept the rest of the ride back.
Riding on the boat was nice, very calm trip across, with a bit of waves, sound of the motor, and otherwise very scenic and calm. Sees kind of ridiculous the distance we kayaked there when covering it in the motor boat. When we arrived back at the dock, we unloaded, settled up our drinks bill from the island, and loaded up the car. From the time the boat pulled up there were souvenir vendors down on the beach holding up stuff to get us to buy it. There were 3 or 4 little shops outside the place on the road, and before leaving Abbie and I walked over to look. It was very much like the other shopping we had done, with the exception that there were probably 10 guys following us trying to sell things as well, which made it more haggling, and for more apologizing and saying no, not right now. I bought a cool wooden hippo and wandered up to Abbie who had negotiated a guy down to 500k a pair for wine cups without really wanting to buy them. I did, so I picked up 4 more. One guy tried to sell me coasters the whole time we were there, and I felt bad not buying them, but were not really what I wanted. He offered to trade me for my hat (tmbg cap) which I considered, but passed on in the end. He gave me such an angry/sad look as we got in the car and drove away.
Driving back home there were more of the same for the terrible roads. We got out of the miserable Cape Maclear road and onto a bit nicer dirt road for a while, and when we made the turn towards Salima, they were building a new road. It was still all dirt, but the parts we were able to drive on it were very smooth compared to the rest. It looked like it was being worked on all along the road, which we followed for many kilometers, trucks dumping, smoothing, watering the dirt, people pulling rocks out, all sorts of stuff. For a lot of it the road was closed, and we had to drive on a little road that ran alongside the big main road. This was more like the standard dirt roads we had been on. Lots of small villages to go through, ever present ads on buildings for Coke, also Colgate toothpaste, which is a funny combination.
Eventually we got into Salima and headed back into Lilongwe down the road Abbie and I drove the other day. I thought it looked much different for some reason, and even bet Abbie 200k that we were on a different road, but turns out I was wrong. We got back into Lilongwe without too much difficulty and made it home.
After unloading everything, Thierry wanted to go up to work for an hour or so, so he got cleaned up and we drove him up there. Abbie and I went to Foodworth to pick up supplies for the drive to Zambia. After that we had about 45 minutes before we were supposed to pick up Thierry, and we decided to go to the other store, Shoprite, to check out their hot sauce options. We went into a bookstore nearby where Abbie bought a Chechewa-English dictionary. Shoprite is a big grocery store, and we browsed a bit. Hot sauce was the same as the other place, and their coffee selection not as good, so I held off on the buying of stuff. We ran into Steiner, who brought 2 other car-less UN types to the store (hoping to earn access to their giant dvd library) and chatted with him for a bit. It was kind of odd, while we were talking to him some random girl walked up and shook my hand, seemed very random. Turns out she was one of the people with Steiner, but still kind of strange and random.
After Shoprite we had to go back to Foodworth so Abbie could get batteries for the camera. It is right next to the N, so not terrible to have to go there yet again. We went to pick up Thierry afterwards and spent a bit of time chatting with Andy on aim, then finally headed home for the evening.
At the house we set up Abbie’s computer and started picture backing up/card clearing, with a bit of looking as well. I finished mine and Abbie did hers, and Thierry headed back up to the UN to use some sort of undelete program on a memory card that was formatted accidentally, and he was able to recover most of it, so that was good. Abbie looked pretty wiped out and when Thierry got back she went to bed, and not too long after that I did as well.

Getting on towards the end of two very long days. Yesterday first, Sunday morning at Mvuu. We got up a little after 5am and got ready to go on the walking safari at 6. The full moon was still up, setting over the river. We got a few pictures of that, and headed up to have coffee and meet Angel, who was our guide for the tour. We talked to him briefly, then he went off to meet the other people going on the walk. Thierry spent a bit walking around by the two big baobab trees taking pictures of a baboon. (Seemed to be a theme when we would go up there, Thierry goes to take pictures of whatever exotic animal was around at the time.) After not too long we started out, walking out into the big area where our driving trip started. Rafael, the spotter from the drive the previous night was along with us and had a very big rifle with him. Angel gave us advice starting out about different things to do if we encountered any big game like elephants, most of which was to yield to the elephant in all ways and don’t do anything to scare it.
Starting out he pointed out a couple of different types of droppings, and moved on to what the different footprints we saw were. Surprisingly enough I thought the elephant prints were the best of these. Huge round spots, but they showed a lot of texture from the bottom of their feet. He carried a bird guide along with him and would identify the different birds along the way, of which there were many, and show people them in the book. Angel identified a very large number of them from memory. We did not see a lot of non flying types, but there were a decent number of baboons around and a few impala types as well. At one point there was a baboon sitting very high up in a tree, that we were told was there as a sentry, to watch out for problems for the rest of the group of them. We were also told that they do not treat any of the animals when they get sick, but the animals are good at eating trees/plants that have medicinal value for them. As we were wrapping things up, the other 2 groups we were with got pictures with our guides, so we went ahead and did so too, ended up with a nice picture of the group of us.
From there we headed directly to breakfast, which we got to a bit late because of the walk. We ate pretty quickly and then pretty much immediately headed out for the boat safari. Angel was our guide for this as well, which was good, as he seemed to have a good knowledge of everything in the area. [To the best of my knowledge the entire staff we dealt with at Mvuu were native Malawians.] Starting out we drifted (motored actually) down the river, where Angel pointed out a pump(ing station?) that they use to pump water to the rhino enclosure from the river. I believe they said they only have 8 total rhinos, a couple of which were born on site, the rest came from other parts of Africa in an attempt to stave off extinction. Our drive did not go through the rhino area, but one of our guides said they are seen only a few times a year, and that had we driven through there we would have had about a 0.1% chance of seeing one.
There are a lot of hippos in the river, pretty well throughout the area we covered, spread out into pods of usually 6-8ish, though a few of up to 20+. (Abbie told me that Dad said that they are actually called ‘gorps’ of hippos. . .) They are usually mostly submerged, with only the tops of their heads and sometimes a bit of their backs sticking up above the water. We saw some on higher ground (river bottom) that you could see more of, but mostly just the underwater types. They make a funny laughing sound, kind of grunt/chirp like, and it seemed that when one group started doing it, several would, so there was a whole chorus going on.
Next up we came to a bank with a big row of crocodiles out sunning on it. They were pretty crazy, looked ancient, and armor plated on top of that. We saw one or two swimming, but for the most part they were pretty stationary. They sit with their mouths closed or open, and it was kinda creepy to watch them slowly open their mouths and then just sit there ready to chomp. Angel told us of several ways that baby crocs can be killed (fish eagles, bigger crocs, few others,) and I asked if they have any predators after they grow up, and with the exception of humans the answer was no. Supposedly they can live up to 130 years so maybe some of the ones we saw actually were ancient. We stopped the boat and got pretty close to these.
From there we continued on down river, and saw a couple of fish eagles, which look like bald eagles with a slight bit more white on their necks. We also saw an assortment of other birds and the ever present hippos, when Angel spotted the first of the elephants. The first one we saw had walked up to the river and was drinking a bit. As we got closer, it moved closer into the water and started spraying water at us as a warning. We advanced a bit more and saw that there were actually 4 there, 3 big ones and a baby of 5-6 years. The other 3 were all eating from branches at the side of the river. I got (what I hope are) a lot of good pictures, and a decent video of the closest one spraying water at us. As the boat (which was off when we got close) drifted out of view, Angel started it back up and drove us back up several times so we could keep watching them, very cool.
After we left that bunch we continued down river and spent a long time watching another big group of elephants as well. Crazy animals they are. The guides told us that they eat for 18 hours a day, pretty much the whole time they are awake. Adolescence lasts for 25 years, and they often live into their 70s. I don’t think we could have stayed watching them for too long, but eventually we headed back up river.
We got close to several of the hippo pods and had one surface from underwater pretty close to our boat. They can hold their breath for 6 or 7 minutes we were told. Angel kept the boat close to the shore opposite the camp, and again we saw a lot more different kinds of birds. There were a few smallish monitor lizards (I haven’t seen a big one yet.)
When the trip was over, Abbie, Thierry and I headed back to our chalet to pack up. I walked past a warthog between the main building and the area we stayed in. We saw a few more varvets around. As we headed out, we went up and checked out, paid our fees and tipped the guides, and once again ended up in a boat with Angel to take us back across the river to where the car was. We loaded up in the boat and set across, and again spotted a group of elephants. There was one small one, 5-6ish, then we noticed another even smaller one, that Angel said was 1 year old or less, because it was still small enough to walk under its mother’s belly, very cute. Angel indulged us by hanging around the group for a few minutes, even though technically we were just leaving to drive off.
Soon after we landed and loaded up the car, and rolled out, leaving just about the most incredible, scenic place I have ever encountered. We drove out again through the dusty roads, through the village heading back to the main road. Crazy to go from exotic resort world back into extreme poverty. That said it was much more so that way at Cape Maclear, our next destination. The drive there was something else. The ok paved roads we had been driving on got more and more filled with large potholes, then we started getting to long sections where the pavement had been washed away, and it was just dirt and rocks. When we actually made the turn off for Cape Maclear I got my first taste of corrugated roads. (Which is what supposedly most of the road to Zambia is, I shall see tomorrow.) These are horizontal grooves across the road that are tolerable if you are at just the right speed (somewhere between 40 and 50 kph) but otherwise bounce you around something terrible. To make it better there were places with big ravines washed out of the road that we had to avoid, so the road really put up quite a fight against us. There were several fires along the side up in the hills, a few of which were quite big. On the road we saw sporadic baboons walking around. They looked scrawnier/less healthy than the ones at Mvuu, but still cool.
After going through a small village we arrived at the Kayak Africa base camp. We went inside and sat down and the staff girl checked us in, and told us about the options, one of which was to kayak out to the island instead of the regular 45 minute motor boat ride out. I went ahead and gave into the temptation, and decided to do it, and Abbie came along with me. Thierry rode the boat across and the people told us that the boat takes 45 min, and kayaking usually takes around an hour and a half to two hours. They said they would have lunch ready when we got there, so we went to set out. First thing they set us up with snorkeling gear to use on the island. Next we went down to the kayaks to learn the ropes . We got into life jackets, and as I was riding in back they adjusted the rudder control pedals to my legs, and we got into the water. We had a guide to accompany us across, and at first he said we did not need the water covers over our seats, but after both Abbie and I pouring water on ourselves right away, we went ahead and put them on. Kayaking is not the same as canoing it turns out. I had to work at it to get to where I could maintain a good rhythm paddling while making course adjustments with my feet, which I think was not helped by the rudder not being entirely straight/adjusted correctly. I noticed early on that turning right took very little pressure with my right foot and turning left took a much greater effort.
So we started off across a smallish bay towards another island (not Mumbo, our destination.) Once we reached it, we skirted along side until we rounded a bend where where there was another island far in the distance, which was where we were going. I brought my camera out with me, (in 2 ziplock bags) and at this point I took pictures looking back at the beach where we started, and of the island where we were going to off in the distance. Mostly just so that I wouldn’t have brought my camera out in a crazy boat risking getting it soaked and not have anything to show for it. Headed out a bit more into open water here, and the trip seemed like it would last forever. Out in the middle (seemingly) of the lake, the boat came back from the island and our guide swapped out as the first guy needed to go back to the mainland. We trudged along and Abbie started talking to the guide, and eventually started talking Malawian politics with him. He asked us about the Governator, saying he had seen him in some videos, funny. As we went along, there was an island pretty far off to the right that had a crevasse running down it, and I kept looking at it as a reference to how far we had moved, and it seemed like we would never get past that crevasse. We finally did, but it took a long time.
After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the island, which was pretty amazing. We landed on a nice sandy beach and were greeted by Thierry, and Dan (the island man), a staff member from Kayak Africa. It took us just over 2 hours to travel the 10 km to the island. We walked up a plank bridge/walkway to the small island adjoining Mumbo where the tents were, and I have to agree with Thierry and Abbie that it looked a lot like the game Myst. Unbelievable calm setting, quiet except for birds and the waves on the lake on the rocks.
Dan showed us to our tent, tents actually because there was one unbooked on the island that night and they gave me one for myself. There are 5 tents on the island, each looking out on an amazing view of one of the coves surrounding us. Inside each are 2 beds, sitting chairs, a small table, and a chest. Outside is a hammock, and an incredible view.
We unloaded and headed to the dining area for a good late lunch. I was pretty exhausted from the trip over so we took it pretty easy after doing that, doing a little lounging around the camp site. Thierry suggested that we go to the other side of the island to watch the sunset so we headed off on a path that rings the island. We had to rush a bit, but we found a great spot to watch from. Very peaceful to watch from the quiet, again only the sound of the water, no wind or anything.
We wanted to get back before dark so we followed the path around the island and saw some crazy things. There was a tree with seedpods that looked like a string of bandaids. Another tree, (actually we saw several,) was growing on top of a rock and had its roots wrapped around it. Very strange.
Back in camp we went to Abbie and Thierry’s tent and watched the full moon rise over the lake. It started deep red and brightened as it went, with a trail reflecting down over the lake. Dinner was next, and here we got to meet the other guests on the island for the night. There was a young couple from South Africa on a holiday, going on some sort of tour where they were to be picked up on a crazy catamaran at the island the next day. The other guests included a journalist and two photographers, the journalist and one of the photographers of which were going to write a story on that same catamaran trip around Lake Malawi. Dan sat with us as well, and the whole thing had a sort of bed and breakfasty feel to it (though not creepy =) Cool sitting and talking to all the other people there. As we finished it was very still and quiet. Any time the conversation died down the calm was encompassing. Slowly we all wore down and I passed on Dan’s offer of nighttime kayaking and headed off to bed. Incredible view, remarkable place, but it was amazing how different it was, not just from the reality of Africa outside, but even from how unlike the other somewhat luxury place we had started in the morning. Abbie and I took some pictures of the stars using long exposure time and my tripod. My pictures were not that good, but her camera could keep the lens open for 15 seconds, and she ended up with some great shots.