Last week, Finn and I decided it was time to get out of town and we headed to the lake, as it is the thing to do here. The drive took about 2 hours and was BEAUTIFUL! Once out of the city, the landscape is impossibly green this time of year; we were both baffled by the scenery. We arrived in Senga Bay, close to the small town of Salima. We stayed at a cute hostel that was right on the lake for $10! While there, we stumbled across an HIV/AIDS organization that we had heard of called Nyumba ya Thanzi, meaning House of Health. We knew it was somewhere in the area, but had no idea it was only a 5 minute walk from our hostel! We found it with the help of 2 local guys, one of which was named Giraffe. I thought he was kidding when I met him, because he is rather tall and giraffe-like, but as we walked everyone kept saying, “Hey, Giraffe!” Whaddya know.
We introduced ourselves and were warmly welcomed with looks of recognition, “OH yes, we have heard of you!” After a 20 minute talk with 2 health workers, they were both totally enthused about participating and giving their story. “We are ready anytime!” How cool!! So, after an evening of swimming, reading, and getting to know the 1 other guest at the hostel we headed back the next morning.
That night I unfortunately came down with some illness, I don’t know what it was, but it only lasted for 48 hours. Fever, headache, all that jazz, I felt pretty rotten. However, we were set to record the very first narrative the first day I was sick so I had to suck it up and go out. The woman was so helpful and polite and a great person to start with. I don’t want to give away too much (must save some for the album!) but both Finn and I get the vibe that she will be of great help throughout this process. She even invited us over to her house to teach us how to make nsima, the staple dish in Malawi.
When the weekend rolled around and we thought it was time to go on a hike. Finn, our housemate Sam, and our friends Amanda and Jackie all loaded into our car (Toyota Spacio- look it up. Totally soccer mom, but great for lugging people and equipment) and headed out early to Dedza Mountain, about 2 hours away. It was a little cloudy, but we figured that it would burn off. After about an hour or so we reached a point of really steep ascent. Half way up we noticed we had seen no other hikers on the trail but did see a lot of Malawians carrying wood on their heads coming down the mountain. Hmmm…. Curious. Only when we took the time to turn around did we figure out why: there was a massive black cloud heading our way pretty rapidly. Then we heard thunder. Our split second decision to forgo the summit and head down turned out to be in our favor as the heavy rain started right when we were in a safer place. And when I say rain, I mean the type of rain where I wrung water out of my UNDERPANTS 3 hours later. It was really fun and also exciting- a race with mother-nature! So, safe and happy in the car we started to drive home. Approximately 30 seconds into the drive our alarm system malfunctioned somehow and went BALLISTIC. Here we are, a group of 5 soaken-wet white kids completely stuck in the middle of a muddy road in rural Malawi. The car shut down and wouldn’t even go into neutral. We attracted a crowd of onlookers who offered to stare, but not to help. It was quite comical and after about 20 minutes of phone calls to the previous owner we figured out how to turn OFF the alarm and in turn start the car.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! …… ……………whew.
Back in Lilongwe a few hours later the girls headed to an African dance class set up by some ex-pats at a random studio near one of our favorite restaurants. Jackie, our new friend, and I weren’t too impressed with the class and agreed to have our own personal dance class afterwards as she was in a Malian dance group in college. DAMN, SHE CAN DANCE. We had so much fun back at her place cutting it up, shakin it to Kenyan and Tanzanian music she has in her collection. Finn and I finally made it home around 10:30- our biggest day yet!
Needless to say, after 2 + hours of hiking and 2 + hours of dancing (where you’re constantly in a squat position), the next morning I WAS SO SORE!!!!!! Holy smokes. My quads haven’t burned that bad since the first time I went to the gym with Shane Zeigler (for those who know him, you know what this can entail). So, I thought that going to the local Hash would work it the soreness. What exactly is Hash? I don’t really know, but I know it involves a big group of people running and then drinking alcohol. Google it or something. Well, I participated in the running part to “work out my soreness”. Genius idea. (I could barely walk that night). However, I did make a new friend on my run, a man who I would guess is in his 60’s. After at least 20 minutes of running through gorgeous cornfields and random streets at a pretty quick pace with a pack of 15 ex-pats, I was getting a little tired. But this man would not let me give up. He was the best coach ever, giving me pointers on my stride. I put aside my embarrassment in having this old guy totally beast me in running and was just grateful to have a cheerleader. I will definitely be going back. (PS to those who know how I can’t run worth a damn, I am totally getting better. In Cape Town I made a new record for myself- 36 minutes! Without slowing down once! Hot dog)
A few days later Jackie, Amanda, another friend Rose and myself all agreed it was time for a good ol’ fashioned all American all girl sleepover. We went to Rose’s cousin’s house where she is staying and made tacos (or rather, they made tacos as I Skyped….. oops) then watched “When Harry Met Sally”. The only piece missing was a pillow fight, but by 1 am we were too tired (WAY PAST MY BEDTIME).
The next day we recorded our second narrative. We met a group of people who are all HIV/AIDS Peer Educators at a local hospital. Out of the 12 people in the meeting, all of them agreed to give a narrative! We were thrilled. We only had time to do one yesterday (the rest are all scheduled for next week) with the help of a translator. I can't say much, but it was really incredible.
Coming up this week:
A performance at the American ambassador’s house to celebrate Black History Month. Finn, Peter Mawanga and myself will be performing some tunes… I’ll be sure to give the full story.
Wishing I could play in the snow but also so glad to be here,
Kaitlin
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