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).