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.