We have reached home safely and everyone is tired from the long flights. We got picked up by Louis and Debbie. Thank goodness for the minivans. The girls went straight to get their baths while I have to manage to make something for everyone to eat and really not looking forward to the many loads of laundry that has to be done.

A great trip has come to an end. Au revoir.

August 1st

Wow, our last full day in Malawi. I cannot believe the month has come to an end so quickly. The first program of the day is to go to Lumbadzi village to distribute the blankets. Thanks to Karlene M and Jeannine F, together we were able to donate 30 blankets. Also thanks to Alex and Ann Q, we also donated crayons and pencils that we brought from Canada. These items were really appreciated, as Malawi is at the end of winter, it is a welcome warmth since Malawi’s winter at night can go as low as 4 degrees Celsius.

We all then went to Patrick house for a farewell get together. We ate and danced and visited one last time with family. As usual a goodtime was had by all. Thanks to cousin Phides, her friends; Patrick’s wife and sister Margret for all the great work in organizing the food. A special surprise tonight was a birthday cake for me that was secretly planned and believe me, I had no clue, thanks Paul and it the cake was so yummy. Everyone enjoyed themselves. It’s been definitely a great trip and went by so fast. Tomorrow we leave for home and are expected to be home after 10am on Sunday August 3rd,.
Thanks be to God for the many blessings he has bestowed on us. This has been a lifetime trip and a very memorable one. To our Malawian family and friends, thank you for your Hospitality. We will miss you. For our family and friends at home, we hope to see you soon. God Bless.


July 31st

Paul and Doris have finally found a room in the crossroads hotel and are moving over before we go to Mchinji. The funny thing is, because they do not have family rooms, they have given each family 2 executive deluxe rooms for the price of a standard family room. So we are living well these last 2 days before going home. Doris and Andrea have decided they are not joining us on this trip.

Patrick as usual is driving us there. We picked up Father Hamelin and the trip there went very well.
When we arrived in Kachebere, the view of the seminary is wonderful as it was built partly half way on Kakulu mountain. Father Hamelin is a perfect host, we all are listening to him as the stories he tells us about the building of Kachebere is just fascinating. Uncle Edourd Camire, actually known as brother Paul Camire in Malawi, is the Founder, the Planner and the builder of Kachebere Major Seminary. Kachebere major Seminary is his legacy. (May his soul rest in eternal peace). Uncle Paul came to Malawi as a missionary with the White Fathers around 1941. Years later, dad followed. Uncle Paul lived over 48 years of his life here at the seminary. Apparently when he showed his plans of the building in the planning stage, he was told the building would not stand and last long, but now over 50years the original building looks great and even survived a small earthquake. There are no other building like this in the area. We met people who also knew Uncle Paul. Brother Hamelin and others told us of how Uncle Paul and the workers started from scratch, they even made the bricks themselves, and the roof bricks too. We walked around to see the room he used to sleep in, the workshop where he spent endless hours and still stands; the machines he used, some over 50 years old and are still working. The garage, the Mill, the orchards(something dear to him as he came from a farming background), the gardens, the mini farm of pigs, cows, goats and chicken and now they even have fish ponds. This place is the most self sufficient place I have ever seen. You name it, it can be found on the property.
I wish to thank Father Hamelin for spending this special day with us, it was magical, fascinating and a day of discovery, a memorable day indeed. Uncle Paul was very modest in his accomplishments and Kachebere is truly a beautiful reflection of his hard work and truly his LEGACY. We are all so glad to have seen and walked around this place. Father Hamelin, thanks and bless you for this beautiful occasion. We tremendously enjoyed it.


July 30th

First of all, forgot to mention that when we left Doris and Paul in Capetown when we were in South Africa, they went a little crazy after we left them. Actually they decided to climb Lions Head. It is so high up that if you could actually see it in real life, I wonder if you could do what they did. By the way, they have a video of it too. It is so scary. They climbed so high but apparently the view below of Capetown city was magnificent. Noah and Andrea joined them too.

We had to wake up really early today for the trip to Lilongwe from Blantyre. We are taking an
executive coach to Lilongwe at 7am. The bus was in very good condition and very comfortable.
When we arrived in Lilongwe, Patrick was there to greet us with a minibus. He drove us to our hotels,
remember separate as there was no room in hotels. We stayed at Crossroads and Paul and Doris stayed at Capital Hotel. After we dropped everyone else, I went to drop off Ashley’s friend package at World Vision. Then Patrick, Phides and I went to look for bales of blankets to donate. We must have walked around a lot because I was so tired until we found some. I managed to convince the owner to take us back to Patrick home as the bale was way too large. Special thanks to Karlene M and Jeannine F, together we were able to donate 30 blankets to children.

As we knew that time is coming to a close for our vacation, we arranged our visit for the next day to Mchinji to see Uncle Edourd’s legacy. Father Hamelin, whom we knew when we were in Malawi before coming to Canada and who knew Uncle Edourd very well, graciously volunteered to give us a special tour of Kachebere Seminary. We will meet him tomorrow and leave Lilongwe together for the trip. I am looking forward to this trip.

July 29th

We finally managed to find some hotel rooms in Lilongwe but unfortunately, separate ones, no hotel has rooms. So we will take what we found until we get to Lilongwe.

The kids decided they don’t want to do any touring today. However, we needed to go out to book our Bus trip to Lilongwe. They have big buses like the Voyageur buses that go to Lilongwe a 5 drive from Blantyre for about $25 Canadian dollars, not a bad deal. So we left them under Ashley’s care.

We walked to the bus station and prebook our seats as you save money by prebooking. After that we just walked around the streets of Blantyre. Doris and Paul went back to the hotel so that the kids can swim. It was a bit cool but they swam anyways.

The bus leaves at 7am so tomorrow we have to get up extra early as the hotel shuttle will bring us to the bus depot at 6:15am. The kids truly hates the idea but there’s no choice. We need to get back to Lilongwe as that’s where we will depart Malawi from in just a few days.

July 28th

We decided to do last minute Johannesburg tour to the Lion Park as we haven’t yet seen any Lions in Africa. So after we checked out from our hotel, we decided to stop over for a 2 hour visit at the Lion Park to see Lions. The girls were happy and had a chance to finally pet some cubs. As it wasn’t feeding time, they couldn’t feed the cubs. Lions looked so lazy, apparently they had just been fed. So they will just spend next day just sleeping and lazing around.

We met up with Doris and Paul at the airport. The kids were finally happy to see their cousins. The flight to Malawi took about 2 hours and half. We got picked up by the hotel Shuttle service. We called a few hotels in Lilongwe to book our final 4 days but to our surprise, every hotel was booked solid. As we didn’t have a room we decided to stay in Blantyre another day.

July 27th

All the roads near our hotel are blocked and stands are elected. Apparently, it is the Formula One Race Exhibition. You could hear the thunder of race cars from our room.

We all are so tired and lazy today. No one but Len wants to do anything. We ate breakfast and came back to our room and lazed around. Len went out to watch the exhibit, walked around the nearby malls. Came back twice and we were still not ready. We had wanted to go to a Lion Park but now it is too late. Sorry girls, no Lion cub feeding.

Finally, at around 2:30pm, we emerged from our room looking for lunch and met up with Len. We walked passed the exhibition and went to the Village Walk, a small mall in Sandton City and had lunch. By the time we walked back to our hotel, the exhibition was over. They were lots of people everywhere. We saw people at the top of our hotel roof, a nine floor hotel. The girls wanted to go up there but as the show was over, we didn’t bother. We went to our room and just relaxed some more. Paul and Doris have called and are now back in Johannesburg and decided to check in at a hotel near the airport. Our hotel is 34KMs away. We will see them tomorrow at the airport as we head back to Malawi together with Air Malawi(probably another chartered plane) in the afternoon. We land at Chileka Airport early in the evening. We will sleep over in Blantyre before heading back to Lilongwe, a 4 hour drive by bus. The trip is really going by fast.
July 26th

Happy Birthday to me. We booked a full day tour of Sun city and Pilanesberg National Park in North West Province; a 2.5 hours drive from Johannesburg. We originally had wanted to spend a night at the Palace of the Lost City in Sun City but quickly gave up the idea of spending a lot of money for one night only accommodation. We opted instead of a game drive through Pilanesberg, the fourth largest game park in South Africa. This park traverses the floor of an ancient and now extinct volcano. We will then spend another 3 hours at Sun City Resort Complex whose grounds borders on the Pilanesberg National Park, a popular game-viewing destination.

Finally! Animals in the their natural surroundings! It was so interesting, eyes wide open, always on the lookout! Whoever saw something would alert others of that they saw and which direction. Thankfully our tour guide knew what to look for as we missed most and he spotted most. If we saw something interesting we would stop and watch. We saw elephants so close it was frightening. At one point, we watched them block the road right in front of us. Scary. We saw Zebras, Giraffes, Rhino, Buffalo, Hippos, Gnus, Crocodiles, Warthogs, Antelopes(deer), Monkeys, Wilderbeasts and a Fox. We saw 3 out of 5 “BIG 5”.We did not spot any Leopards or Lions. These look too much like their surrounding. We have been told it‘s luck of the draw which animals you see as they are wondering about all over the park which covers an area of 50,000 hectares. Spotting animals in these terrains sometimes required good eye sight, many looked like
rocks; as some could hardly be seen in the tall grass that covered or camouflaged them. Very interesting indeed. No one wanted it to end; we could have drove though this park all day.
We then left the park and headed over to Sun City Resort Complex. The resort is a man made overly artificial Theme Park. Described as “The Las Vegas of South Africa, the largest adult entertainment centers in the world, with casinos, golf, live shows and the architectural wonder of the Lost City. The vast resort complex is one of South Africa’s top attraction for gambling, entertainment and opulence, a luxury theme park.” No money was spared in it’s design. Kids are not left out here either. Small ones can be babysat. Lots of things for kids of all ages to do. It has the largest kids arcade games I have ever seen. Ashley, Grace and Marie had a blast after we had lunch. I gave them each 40 tokens. I even joined them in some of the these kids games. Len and I passed on the adult games and the Casino, we didn’t even go to see it. We then had to leave for Johannesburg; a 2.5 hour drive back to our hotel.

Meanwhile, we got a phone call from Doris and Paul that they were driving themselves to Sun City and planned to stay at a hotel outside the resort. As they reached late, we did not get to meet.
Back at the hotel we had supper at the hotels restaurant. Got ice cream sundaes and brought them in our room where I was given my birthday present and card. They secretly bought me a T-Shirt at the Lost City in Sun City. We were all so tired and the girls fell asleep and we followed soon after.

July 25th

Happy Birthday Andrea! We hope you are having fun and a great day in Capetown. Hopefully mommy has given you a present you wanted from Malawi from us.

Johannesburg feels different from Capetown. The city has what looks like smog hanging over it. You can’t really take clear pictures of the city line.

This morning, our tour guide helped us move to our next hotel, Garden Court Southern Sun Hotel in Sandton City across from Nelson Mandela Square mall.

We then started our tour and drove past Nelson Mandela Houghton home, then through Johannesburg city centre. The office buildings are modern, felt like Ottawa Bank street area. We then drove through the rough part of town where even locals avoid going there.

We then drove to Soweto. We drove through different areas in Soweto. Soweto township is orderly with the majority of small houses, has some big ones and a few pockets of informal settlements here and there. It is not a slum as some people might believe (might seem so in some places where the squatters are however). We visited one of the informal settlements to experience the Soweto township lifestyle. Houses there are made of anything people could find, the majority with metal scrap materials. The house we visited had a kitchen and 2 bedrooms in an area of 12 by 20 feet. Most of the residents are waiting for government housing we were told.

We then drove past Winnie Mandela’s home, stopped at Hector Peterson Museum, an innocent youth that was killed by police during apartheid days. We then stopped at Mandela’s family museum but were not able to visit it as it was closed for renovations. Further down the road, we drove past Desmond Tutu’s Soweto’s home.

We then headed over to Gold Reef City. Gold Reef City is built around a working gold mine and has a Theme Park. Across from it is the newly built Apartheid Museum. The girls were in Heaven. One entrance fee covered all the rides they could go on and as many times as they wanted - too bad not enough time. Must say they avoided most of the rides. I was only brave enough to join them on the Ferris wheel and the small train that goes though the park. As time of is getting short, the girls did not want to leave the park and go to Apartheid Museum across; so Len and I left them in park under strict rules. Len and I hurried through the Apartheid Museum in one hour; a place you could easily spend 4 hours. Very interesting and disturbing at the same time. Human nature! An Epic saga it was indeed.
We then met up with the girls at the Theme Park. As usual they did not want to leave. We only had to left because it was time agreed by our tour guide to take us back to the Hotel. What an amazing day!

July 24th

We left Capetown for Johannesburg on our favorite South African domestic Budget airline, Mango Airline. As we did not pre-book any hotel rooms, we had a difficult time finding one. So we booked a one night at an apartment hotel called Sandton Suites and the next 3 days at Garden Court Hotel in Sandton City. The suite was a self catering type of accommodation, actually nice, 2 separate bedrooms with ensuites, separate living room, dining room and kitchen. It was fully equipped. As we only had a night here, we took advantage of the laundry facilities and despite the machines being slow, we managed to do 3 loads. Wash and dry. It was the first time we didn’t have to pay to wash our clothes. Everyone wished we could stay there some more, as it had a more at home feel. We walked to a nearby shopping centre, ate supper at Nandos and bought some groceries for breakfast items for the next day. We then booked a full day tour of Johannesburg city for the following day.

July 23rd

Today pretty much we were all tired from yesterday. After breakfast, the girls weren’t interested in going out. Paul, Doris, Noah and Andrea went their separate ways. Ashley slept, Grace and Marie watched TV; Len and I ventured out and walked to Capetown city centre. Len and I explored the centre and eventually found ourselves in Grand Central mall and the Green Market Square shopping area. At Green Market square there were many arts and crafts items. Met quite a few fellow Malawians and practiced my Chichewa while trying to get a few bargains.

When we got back to the hotel, the girls were now interested in going out. We went back to Capetown Waterfront. As it was later in the day, we decided not to go to the Aquarium as the girls had wanted. We walked around the Waterfront and observed the most amazing African sunset. Ashley stood transfixed as she watched the sun set. We soon followed and watched it with amazement.

We then walked some more and run into Paul, Doris, Andrea and Noah, first time since breakfast this morning. We soon parted again as they had already had supper. Ashley couldn’t resist the sight of Kentucky Fried Chicken so I joined her while she had Popcorn Chicken, fries and chocolate fudge Sunday. Grace and Marie had Pizza while Len had chicken burger from a different restaurant.

Paul, Doris, Noah and Andrea loves Capetown so much that they have decided to stay longer . We are off to Johannesburg tomorrow. We plan to check out Sun City where Paul and Doris are planning to join us before going back to Malawi on Monday from Johannesburg.

Time is going so fast now. So many places and things to do, so little time.
We give thanks to God for keeping us safe and allowing us to experience his creations. Words cannot describe the things we have seen and experienced, the people we have met and the wonder of how beautiful and different the African landscape is. Truly an amazing and magical once in a lifetime experience. Thanks be to God.


July 22nd

Wow! We are totally in a different world now. Capetown is so big and so modern. After Malawi, it looks even more modern, I would say it is even more modern than Ottawa. It doesn’t even feel like we are in Africa. It is cooler than Malawi though, at night we are using the heat in our hotel room. The Minibuses are so comfortable and the roads so smooth. Everyone is smitten with Capetown. I want to live here now and so does everyone. Doris told us a story about her friend’s sister who came to Capetown to visit and never left. We all can understand why. My suspicions is it going to be difficult to leave.
Today we booked a full day tour of Capetowns peninsula. We started the tour early at 9:15am. Drove through the road along the Atlantic Ocean through Sea Point, Clifton, Camps Bay, Twelve Apostles and had a stopover at Hout Bay. From there we went to the World Heritage Site at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden where we spent 1 hour on the garden grounds. We then headed over to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. We took the road through Muizenberg, St. James, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek and Simon’s town. Very scenic route. We stopped over at Boulders to see the Penguins. Along the road we saw people surfing in the Atlantic Ocean, we saw Baboons, Guinea fowls and Ostriches. Paul claims he saw a whale too. By the time we reached Cape Point, everyone was so hungry. We ate a late lunch at a restaurant called Two Oceans Restaurant at Cape Point. At the restaurant, Len ordered Ostrich and we all tried it. It tastes like beef, suprising, even Ashley tried it. After lunch we went up to the Cape Point Light House where we did Graffiti (see pictures). At Cape Point is where the 2 oceans of Atlantic and the Indian Ocean meet. To get to the lighthouse, you can either hike up or take a car train called Flying Dutchman Funicular. We all took the train car but Paul and Doris hiked up. After that we headed down to Cape of Good Hope, the most south westerly point in Africa. We then headed back to Capetown for our final destination, Table Mountain. As usual, I closed my eyes when going up these type of mountain roads. Once we got up, you could see Capetown city below. Amazing! As time was short, we didn’t get out of the minibus as the Cable Cars are not currently running (in Service).

Once we got back to the hotel, we were all itching for more of Cape town. So we took the Hotel Shuttle to V&A Waterfront. We had supper at the City Grill restaurant. We ordered the usual foods while Len choose Oxtail stew and Doris and Andrea ate crocodile meat.(see picture). Apparently it was yummy, white meat and a little chewy. We are all getting adventurous with our food choices but I think I will pass. We then shopped and walked about the Waterfront. A very nice place and a bit busy, a truly tourist place.


July 21st

On the July 21st we left Malawi from Blantyre at Chileka airport for Johannesburg, South Africa with Air Malawi. To our surprise, the plane was chartered and not Air Malawi plane. Anyways, we landed safely at Johannesburg and proceeded through to Capetown with a local budget airline called MANGO airline. We arrived late in the evening. We checked in at Southern Sun Waterfront hotel in Capetown centre. From what we could see at night, Capetown is big. We have booked a whole day tour tomorrow with City Hopper shuttle service. We are all tired now. Tomorrow awaits.

July 20th
Happy Birthday Noah!
Today we traveled to Mulanje to see Malawi’s tallest mountain. At it’s highest peak, it is 3,000metres above see level, the highest point in central Africa. We took a scenic route, Tea plantations lining the road from Limbe to Mulanje. It looked very green. As it was a cloudy day, the clouds covered the mountain so were were not able to see all of Mulanje mountain. But being there you can imagine the height of the mountain. We made a short stopover at Likhubula forestry office at a base of mount Mulanje and had a small picnic lunch and headed back to Limbe. We made a stopover at Game Haven Sanctuary, an animal sanctuary to see some animals but we only saw some Antelopes, Wilder east and Zebra. Not for very long as the animals runaway. It has been very difficult to see animals other than monkeys in Malawi. That’s been quite a disappointment.
We ate supper at the Game Haven and celebrated Noah’s birthday with a cake.

We are heading to South Africa tomorrow. We will be there for a week.
July 19th
Kuchawe Inn views on top of Zomba Plateau did not disappoint. Just can’t find a proper way to describe the views and don’t have a good quality camera to capture the depth of these views. The gardens are immaculate and the views fantastic as usual. There is plenty of things to see on Zomba plateau but we are pushed for time again. We need to go to the bank as banks close early on Saturdays. We have seen so many monkeys on this property, so close you could shake their hands and one monkey store Patrick’s camera bag which was later recovered.
Father Hamelin and Patrick’s friend Hende joined us for the breakfast. While Patrick enjoyed his visit with his friend, we had a memorable visit with Father Hamelin. Recalling old memories going way back to 1971 when he first visited us with uncle Edourd (brother Paul as he is known here). It was great to hear stories that he remembered on those visits and stories about Uncle Paul. We reminisced the good old days. He is absolutely wonderful and it is quite a pleasure to see him again. He told us about how uncle Paul was the designer, builder and founder of Kachebere seminary. Very interesting to hear how Uncle Paul even made the bricks of the building from scratch. He has volunteered to meet us in Lilongwe and join us for the trip to Mchinji to see the Kachebere Major Seminary (a testament to my Uncle’s work in Malawi where he lived for almost 50 years doing missionary work with the White Fathers of Africa (Pere’s Blancs). He lived there in Kachebere for 48 years. I can’t wait for the visit.

We had to leave Kuchawe Inn for the bank stopover and got there at 11:45am..sorry the bank is closed we were told. I begged the security guard outside who let me talk to the security guard inside and begged to talk to the bank manager. The bank is closed he said and the manager is busy. As this was Saturday and we were running out of Malawian cash, it would make for a miserable 2 days with no money. So I begged some more telling him we have no money and have children who are hungry and that we would be stranded with no gas in our minibus, he relented and the manager came to let us in…phew! All is well, with money in our pockets, we headed towards Blantyre.
As we approached the last house we lived in, in Mapanga, we were so unsure as the landscape seemed so different to us. STOP! Paul and I said in unison, it’s here, this is it. We stopped on the roadside and the house now has a high fence you could not see in. We approached and asked if the owner would let us in, as we told stories of how we used to live there. To our surprise, the property is now a Nail factory! Those that are used in construction. We were let in on the grounds. Looked so different unlike what we remembered. The shell of the house looked the same to me, so we took a few pictures and asked how we could get to the hillside mountain not far from the property. Len, Doris, Paul, Noah, Andrea and Ashley ventured out and hiked up the top of the mountain while the rest of us waited for them. I am sure for Paul it brought out a lot of old memories when we used to climb that mountain. Those that went talked about how it was so great we missed out.

We then headed towards Limbe where we used to go to school and had lived before. Yep, in the olden days, we walked to school for 7km…we measured it…now Len believes us.(only did this for about 2 years). As with everything in Malawi, everything seems to be fenced in and you could hardly see the buildings. Paul saw his school, St. Kizito from the car, we did not stop. We however stopped at our church nearby, Limbe catholic church where with luck there were choirs from different areas singing outside on the church steps for fundraising. I walked down to see my old school, St Maria Gorretti. The school is so old now, and to one side are the new school buildings they are putting up. We then drove to see the last school I attended, Our Lady of Wisdom, seems the same to me. We then went towards Limbe to see our old house behind the Shire Highlands hotel. Even that house is fenced in, I looked over the fence and tried to take a picture. The fences are made with bricks so not much chance of people seeing inside the properties unless the gate is open. Yellow seems to be the “in” colour…both of our old homes are now yellow. We then drove through the Limbe town for old times sake, the town looks old, a little run down but much the same way with a few new buildings scattered here and there.

We proceeded to Blantyre and checked in at Hotel Victoria. We then split us as Doris and Paul and Noah walked to checked out the market scene while the rest us just drove about in Blantyre streets. As this was Saturday, everything closes early so there was not much to see. Tomorrow we are heading to see Mulanje mountain and the tea plantations of Thyolo, with luck at time we might even go to a game sanctuary to see some animals.

July 18th
Woke up to what looked liked Heaven on Earth, especially after yesterdays tiring ride here. Serene lake, mountain background and golden sand beach. I honestly I have never seen this side of Malawi before and it is truly amazing to discover all these places. We need another month of holiday. Witnessed some fishermen going to fish on their canoes. This has been the most serene I have seen lake Malawi. As we wanted to stopover in Liwonde to try once again to go to a game reserve; we left soon after breakfast and headed over to Zomba, our destination for the day. On this route we saw a lot of large Baobab trees lining the road for miles. We bought and enjoyed some of these fruits, papayas, guavas, custard apples, bananas, tamarind (Bwemba), “Masau” and of course the Baobab fruit, it’s called “malambe” in Malawi. Checkout BBC news dated July 17th on this, apparently the Baobab fruit is now declared a super fruit, with it’s anti-oxidant properties…upon reading that we bought extra!!!
In Mangochi, we made unscheduled stopover at Club Makokola. It happened to be at lunch time so we decided to eat lunch there as it was buffet style. Food was fantastic. This place was so amazing. Beautiful Malawian landscape; flowers so brilliant, lake so sparkly you could easily think you were in the Caribbean, mountains on the other side reminded you that this was Africa. How can it look so wonderful in the middle of Malawian winter? We all wished we had time to stay there a little more. However, our reservations were made in Zomba for the night so we started back on the road. Due to more construction on the road; the stopover at Liwonde Game Reserve was cancelled as we did not want to travel in the night. At around 5pm we reached Zomba town and headed up the steep inclines up to Kuchawe Inn, a hotel at the top of Zomba Plateau which is at 1800 meters above sea level. Breath taking as everyone enjoyed the views once more as I closed my eyes again. We reached the top as the sun finished setting. So we are looking forward to more splendid views tomorrow morning (this time, my eyes wide open; I can‘t stand driving up these places, I am happy once I get there and I am afraid when we have to get back down). It is cold up here; however a BONUS! Fireplace in our rooms. Must go to sleep now, can’t wait until tomorrow! We are also meeting Abambo Hamelin for breakfast as we reached Zomba late in the afternoon. Looking forward to seeing him.

July 17th

Malawi is on fire! - NOT. It seems like everywhere you look there’s a fire burning in the bush. We haven’t seen a fire truck insight. Mind you the fires we have seen are only on the roadside and in the mountains. You see smoke in a lot of places. Today we traveled from Lilongwe to Cape Maclear via Dedza. It is supposed to take 3 hours but we painfully took 7 hours to get there because of road construction and rough detour roads. Before you feel sorry for us, we enjoyed tremendously about 3 hours of the driving from Golomoti turnoff near Dedza. It was literally breathtaking! I had to close my eyes plenty times. Steep bends and sharp curves on two way traffic road in what looked like a single lane road. However, the views were amazing, spectacular, picturesque and exhilarating! Probably the best views we have seen that’s far. Very panoramic and out of this world! You could see clearly very far distances.

We got to Cape Maclear on Lake Malawi at around 7pm. It gets dark at 6pm in Malawi so we had absolutely no idea what the area looks like as there was hardly any light…total darkness except for the infrequent cars that passed us. At one point we sang all kinds of songs in the minibus - the highlight “Kumbaya my Lord”.

We checked in at Chembe Lodge at the edge of the lake, ate supper and quickly went to bed.

P/s. We met Doris’s brother at the lake. Actually it was a guy that looked like Doris’s brother and Andrea called him her uncle.

July 16th/08

Today was a chill out day in Lilongwe. We went to Nandos again as everyone loves it there. We also went to capital city centre and finalized our trip to South Africa. We are going there for a week. It was an otherwise easy day travelling wise. The kids enjoyed some ice cream.

July 15th/08

Ashley and I spent a very interesting day with Rosemary. Visited her school then her village where we where greeted with heart felt dances, and drumming. A truly memorable day. Everyone else stayed behind and had a very lazy day. Len and Paul ventured out to town while Doris and the children enjoyed the cold pool.

July 14th

A lot has happened since I last wrote. To make a long story short, internet access has been elusive and very difficult to find, just like trying to find lions and elephants in the Nkotakota game reserve. We traveled towards North of Malawi and just got back to Lilongwe today; INTERNET, yipee! We all are well.

However, today was an interesting day, we had an overnight stopover in Nkhotakota at Nkotakota Pottery & Lodge along side Lake Malawi. Yes, we painted some pottery of our own choosing, Noah made something from scratch and Paul and Len decided to sit this one out. The food was fantastic, especially the freshly caught “CHAMBO” fish…I personally had 2 large servings in one sitting. Ashley insists on eating same things over and over, chicken and chips, spaghetti or Pizza (quite not like the ones she is used to, but she is not starving, plenty of other food choices).

We decided to take a detour and go to the Nkhotakota Game Reserve. We were assigned 2 escorts and a game Warden with a loaded semi-automatic gun (scary), incase any Lions or Elephants approached. What we did not know was that this was a walking safari….we thought we would just drive thru the game reserve…wrong! We walked in the bush so thick you couldn’t see a lion right in front of you…the first 10 minutes were scary and after that we were too busy trying to find anything, any animal..so that we can take pictures. The other unknown fact was where we were going or how far from the base camp we were, we all mindlessly followed the guards….remember, one had a loaded gun. We walked for about 3 hours in this rugged terrain, the only highlight, some water falls, one black snake and about 3 crocodiles…No Lion, No ELEPHANT! What a disappointment. I must say, we saw plenty elephant footprints and dung some so fresh we were sure we would see the elephants.We are now in Lilongwe for the next couple days and heading towards the South of Malawi by Wednesday.

Tomorrow, Ashley and I are being picked up to see Sylvie’s and Ashley’s sponsored child in Malawi while the rest of the gang stays behind to unwind and checkout the pool.


Other highlights

July 8th

Traveled to Mzuzu and checked in at a lodge called MONI Lodge. The drive is very scenic, a feast for the eyes, mountains, very green forest, Mzuzu has the largest Pine trees we have ever seen and plenty of it.

July 9th/ July 10th
We went to the village in the district of Mzimba, the village name is called Moses Hara in Mpherembe. Pictures to follow. It was nice to see some uncles and their families and the relatives. We visited Mom’s grave, was sad but necessary. The road to the village is not yet paved, and the color of the soil is sort of orange red. We and our luggage were covered with it. It is really interesting to see the different soil colours of Malawi. (Doris and Andrea weren’t the only red heads just on this part of the trip..ha..ha..ha…)
I have never before noticed that even our village lies high up in these mountains of North of Malawi, splendid views as far as the eye can see, no picture can do it justice. This has been a very cherished dream come true to see more of Malawi than we have ever seen. We are still rusty at speaking the local language .
Spent the next 2 nights in Mzuzu at the same Moni Lodge.

July 11th

We traveled towards North of Malawi with the intention of visiting Livingstonia. This is how it was described : “Livingstonia is without a doubt one of the most scenic places in all of central Africa. The vertiginous views from the edge of this historical town plummet doLivingstone Mountains in Tanzania. It is quite breathtaking. With imagination and on clear day you can see distances far enough to see the curvature of the earth”…..with description, we were smitten. However, it was not to be, we could not find a 4x4 to take us up the 15km to the top as no ordinary car can do.
However, the road from Mzuzu to Chitimba, near Livingstonia, is out of this world, high in the mountains with steep bends and absolutely amazing views of the land and eventually of Lake Malawi. We went as far north as Sangilo. We turned back a few kilometers and checked in at a Back packers lodge called CHITIMBA Beach lodge in Chombe Bay, very interesting place. There was almost every nationality you could think of that night. The white sand beach was large and beautiful. The kids all loved this place and wanted to stay some more. Where else can you see a steep mountain on one side and the lake all in one eye sight! The kids swear Lake Malawi is an Ocean! You cannot see where it ends which makes it difficult for them to believe.

July 12th
We left Chitimba heading back towards Lilongwe. However, we decided to take the scenic route alongside Lake Malawi. The one that passes through Nkata Bay - Nkhotakota via Salima to Lilongwe. We slept in Nkhata Bay at Njaya Lodge, high up on the mountain at the edge on lake Malawi below. You can imagine the roads going to these places.

July 13th
We left Nkhata Bay in the morning. Slept in Nkhotakota as described earlier at the beginning of this post and headed back to Lilongwe on the 14th. As usual, Malawi did not let us down with it’s majestic views of its land. Hills and Mountains to one side and palm and Baobab trees on the Lake side. What majestic views!

July 7th, 2008
We have reached Malawi safely. The trip was very long and tiring especially for the children. No lost luggage. Everyone is finally getting back to normal. The weather is actually nicer than we thought, very warm during the day, mostly around 25 but sometimes up to 28 degrees and gets chilly at night and really chilly in the morning that you need a lot of blankets, or if we had a heater, it would definitely be turned on.

The day we arrived was hectic, on the way here Marie and Grace started to have some breakouts that we thought were some sort of mosquito bite, we first noticed them while in Washington airport. When we reached Addis, there were some more, by the time we reached Malawi the rash covered the body. We took them straight to the doctor the day we arrived only to find out they are allergic to the Anti-Malaria pills we are all taking. So now we are treating that with Calamine lotion, anti-histamines and some pills prescribed by the doctor. We had to buy a different Anti-Malaria medicine for them. What a way to start the trip. As you can imagine, because of this, they are now camera shy. Ashley, Noah and Andrea are not affected and continue on the same Anti-Malaria pills. Luckily there are not many mosquitoes around, too cold at night.

On the bright side, we were greeted with so much fanfare the day we arrived. After the unscheduled trip to the doctor, we were driven to cousin Patrick’s house to eat. There was a whole spread of food to suit every taste, from typical North American food to real Malawian food. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the children actually have been asking to go to Patrick’s house for dinner ever since. So far we have gone there twice in 3 days. We have eaten many varieties of Malawian foods so far, Nsima, Therere (okra), kale with peanuts, Kalaloo (bonogwe), cassava, spiced rice, chambo (a type of fish), both free range chicken and commercial ones….free range tastes different but nicer I think. We have eaten many fresh fruits, large papayas, pineapples , tangerines, bananas especially the little ones (different from regular bananas, are starchy and very sweet) and everyone’s favorite, sugarcanes. Noah can live on this alone..ha..ha.

We stayed at Cakes lodge only for 2 days, mainly because we did not receive the rooms we were promised at check-in and we ended up with smaller ones, so we were very cramped. After spending an afternoon of checking other lodges which were close to fully booked to accommodate us, we have checked in a rather modern American style hotel. So we are not necessarily roughing it. The hotel has every amenity imaginable. The kids are enjoying the pool and also we have access to the internet in our room, hence time to post something to the blog.

Cousin Patrick has been so helpful we would be so lost without him. We are so lucky and grateful to have him. And he is also been driving us everywhere, and what a good driver he is. Malawian minibuses are everywhere and looks so hectic to us.

We have a full calendar of events of things to do, places to see, we want to experience most of what Malawi has to offer but it has been even nicer to see that the people of Malawi are still as friendly and nice as we remember it. Malawi will forever remain and rightly called “THE WARM HEART of AFRICA”.
Zikomo kwambiri (Thank you very much).

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