While during the week we all work very hard to achieve our goals and make strides on our projects, the weekends are a great time for relaxing. This weekend in particular was very special! Some of you back home might be thinking “Independence Day” is July 4th, but here in Malawi we celebrate on July 6th! It just so happens that Malawi gained independence from England 2 days and 188 years after the US. In America there were fireworks to blast the fact we’ve been our own country for 241 years. Meanwhile, here in Malawi there is a huge gathering in the stadium with a speech from the President, this year to recognize 53 years of being independent! Although the rest of the country took Thursday off of work, we decided as a group to do our holiday in a slightly unconventional way. We convinced our mentors to allow us to switch Thursday and Friday. Therefore we came to work on Thursday and managed to get a long weekend! This allowed us to seize the opportunity to visit Lake Malawi.
We drove up to Cape Maclear on Friday morning and spent Friday and Saturday nights in Malambe camp. While there was some controversy over the accommodations when we arrived, in the end I think everyone was happy to be right on the beach even if the straw huts were basic in the way of luxury. We managed to catch both of the beautiful sunsets right from our little stretch of beach. Saturday was our adventurous day where we had the opportunity to take a boat out to Thumbi Island and go snorkeling! Everyone had a chance to at least stick their googles in the water and see all of the amazing fish swarming around the bits of bread our guide threw in. Erik and I got a bit of swimming in and swam from our rocky snorkeling outcrop to a little beach further on the island (the boat took everyone there only minutes later). Naod and I tried to help Webster and Vin perfect their swimming technique (looks like my years of swimming was good for something). We had a great time laying on the beach, swimming, doing some acro yoga, saying hello to our Irish friends who are also staying at Kabula, and talking with another American about his time in the Peace Corp (he was concluding 2 years in Mozambique with a vacation with family). Then we headed back towards our cozy beach home, stopping on the way to feed Eagles! It was incredible to watch them dive out of the sky to come swoop up the fish our guides threw to them.
In the evenings we had a braai (equivalent to a BBQ) where Webster AKA our “Braai Master” did a great job of cooking lots of chicken and beef. After eating, we talked to some of the local kids who were constantly playing on the beach, running into our pictures, taking selfies, playing soccer (football) with us, dancing, wrestling, or head standing around us and asked if we could borrow their canoes. However, these were not your typical plastic bodied boats with two seats. These canoes were entirely made out of wood and did not have enough space carved out to sit down. Instead you were supposed to put your legs into the crevice and sit on the outside of the body of the canoe. There was only a few kids who could speak English, so Kelvin and Webster just talked to them in Chichewa. After a bit of chaos and confusion (from my point of view) I got into the front of one of these boats (without a paddle because there were not enough) and my captain (who couldn’t have been much older than 12) paddled me out towards the sunset. The photo below is one that Serena captured from our beach of the sun going down behind Thumbi island and me and my new friend in our traditional Malawian canoe.
