Winding it up and Lake Malawi...

Tuesday morning was more relaxed, except I decided I was sick of my crazy, no blow-dryer hair and decided to get the braiding done. Oh my gosh! How do they ever get little kids to sit still for that? It hurts like hell. It took about an hour, and I swear I was doing Lamaze breathing. She did a really good job, but I probably won't ever do that again not only because of the pain, but because I don't have that much hair to spare and she pulled out a lot. Live and learn.

African do.

The result of Besa's pain inflicting skills.

We finished taking inventory of our meds, had a lunch of leftovers and loaded up our stuff. It was hard to say good bye to James and Timeyo. They have been so much help. On our way to Lake Malawi, we stopped at a refugee camp run by Jesuit Relief Services. There are refugees from Sudan, the Congo, Somalia and other nations that are experiencing violent internal strife. At this camp, they have organized activities to help the residents earn income. There is a group of women who weave crafts out of fiber that they dye, and make beads out of paper for jewelry. UMOJA crafts is the name of their group. We each purchased several beautiful items.

Fiber woven good from the UMOJA co-op at Jesuit Relief Services.

Then we went to the market in Lilongwe, but is was chaotic and stressful, so we only stayed a very short while. We headed off to Lake Malawi for some relaxation and to critically evaluate our team's experience. The weather and the view were beautiful. Of course, the mosquitos were bad.

Our view of Lake Malawi at sunset.

I cannot imagine driving in Malawi. Not only do they drive on the left-hand side of the road like the British, there are bicycles and foot traffic impinging on the two lane pavement, not to mention goats, chickens, cattle and the occasional dog. Sitting in the back seat watching the road as Ray drove was slightly hair-raising. He did a good job, but it was like watching one of those driving video games my kids use to play. Only we didn't hit anything (thank goodness) or crash and get to start over.

I've noticed that there is always the smell of something burning. Trash is burned rather than collected in most areas. The fields are also burned rather than weeded to begin preparing them for planting. And, I hesitate to share this, but they sometimes burn the grass to flush out the mice. The mice are caught, skewered, and cooked several at a time on the stick and then sold roadside as snacks. These are what I call “Malawi sausages” because the first time I saw them I didn't notice the nose or tail. But I digress. They also cook on woodfires, so at dusk there is a lot of smoke in the air.

During our debriefing after breakfast on Wednesday morning, we shopped at the market. I was finally able to buy only the items I wanted, and not buy because someone was begging me to. We went to every one of 37 stalls, asked the prices of the items we were interested in and wrote them down. Then we sat in the car, compared, decided what we wanted and went back only to those stalls and made our purchases after a little haggling. Grace hates haggling. We purchased some beautiful wood carvings and gifts. They all knew we looked at their wares, and I think that was fair. I think they thought it was fair, as well.

We had a late lunch and then tried to tour the Malawi Mango processing plant nearby, but arrived too near closing time. The plant, which is run by the government, provides free mango seeds to farmers and agrees to buy their fruit for processing and exportation. Pretty cool.

Psyching myself up for the journey home. Will write a post once I'm home and have had time to reflect.