Malawi ...Warms the Heart

We left Iringa, Tanzania early morning a few days ago and arrived in Chitimba, Malawi after another 12 hour bus ride. It appears that somewhere between that time, I had lost my voice to a cough of some sort but with Dom (our cook) making me a potent lime juice/honey drink throughout one of the worst days, I was able to speak again! I seem to have lucked out with this tour group.. you never know when you travel with a tour group.. it's a crap shoot as to what staff or other travelers you'd get. Lucky me, we have a great guide in JT, a very skilled driver in Syrus who was able to maneuver us by a skin of the road during a malfunction of another trunk, Dom a cook who can cook his way to any woman's heart (or man) and then the group itself is of great people and similar ages- score!

 My first impression of Malawi are of the never ending roads that seem to carry on forever, like Lake Malawi that is 365 miles long. The people appear warmer and the land itself feels warmer. I prefer it much more than Tanzania already! Since I arrived in Tanzania some days ago, there has not been a day that there has been no power outage. Well, yesterday being the first one. In Chitimba, we woke up to two powerful storms coming from opposing directions at the same time-- it was pretty frightening. I was in my hut with the covers over my eyes not wanting to go outside because the dogs were going nuts. New friend, Aditija confirmed so as he said they tried to attack him! LOL.

Chitimba is a laid back village in the northern part of Malawi. San Franciscan and new friend, Brittany and I ventured off to a little village walk. We were escorted by kids named Hudson, Fantastic Steve, Patrick and a few of their friends. We visited a school and a witch doctor. The witch doctor charged $10 for a dance and $5 for a reading but to clear his head, he has to dance so we had to buy both services from him- funny right?! After escorting us, the kids brought us back to their shopping booths where we were urged to share our business .. meaning if we bought a bracelet from one of the kids... we'd have to buy from another.. sharing business. They were nice kids so I didn't mind.

Having said that, one thing I can go without is the constant haggling we get from people wanting you to buy things from them. This was especially in Tanzania. One cannot step outside the camp without collecting an entourage of local folks joining you on your path and while the kids are adorable.. you never know if they are curious about you or if they're awaiting for something to be given to them. Probably both.

Hanging out in Kande Beach for another day today and then we stop off in Lilongwe before crossing over to Zambia!