Camping, day 11: Having Fun in Zomba

Day 11 - Tuesday 28 May
Zomba, Malawi

This was our last day in Zomba, and we were enjoying not having to rush away to our next destination too quickly!

David took this photo of me buying fresh fruit on the street

Ketzia pretending to make tea like Mommy :)

We arranged to get together with Sangwani's family again, to see them one more time while we were in Zomba.  Sangwani was in Blantyre (1 hour away) for the morning doing a job, but he said it was no problem to come back and meet us at lunch.  In the meantime, we wanted to give the children a chance to run and play together, so around 9am we picked up Betty, Mado, Siphiwe, and Keziah in town and went to the Zomba Botanical Gardens!

The Botanical Gardens were a great place for the kids to run, play, and climb around while we strolled through.

Ketzia had no fear!

 

sleepy girl with no morning nap, again

don't you just love 2-3 year olds in group photos??

We walked around in the Botanical Gardens until about 10:30, when we drove to a restaurant in town called Domino.  The reason we picked this particular restaurant is because it sported a playground, which made it an appealing spot for parents with young, energetic children!  Our family had actually visited Domino the night before for dinner, to scout it out, and then arranged to take Sangwani and his family out for lunch there.  While we were waiting for food, and for Sangwani to arrive from Blantyre, the kids enjoyed the playground.

I'm SURE this playground equipment would be condemned by Health & Safety in the USA or the UK, it was old and metal and had sharp corners and broken pieces, but the kids sure had fun on it!

Ketzia's first time on a 'big kid' swing!

time for food - the kids unanimously requested chicken and chips, and the adults had pizza

Poor Sangwani, who was trying to get back from Blantyre in time to join us for lunch, ended up on a very slow minibus and was very delayed.  We saved him some food, and thankfully he came in time that we were able to spend a little bit of time with him as well as his family.  :)

It was really nice to get to spend some extra time with their family.  Usually our visits to students are way too short!

saying goodbye

We returned to camp in time to let the kids have a late nap that afternoon.  That evening was our last meal at Casa Rossa.  We had a very tasty dinner - the kids had bolognaise, David had saltimbocca (chicken wrapped in bacon), and I had beef filet!  We sat on the terrace watching the sunset while we ate.  :)  It was a great way to end a great extended weekend in Zomba.

Camping, day 10: Zomba Plateau

Day 10 - Zomba, Malawi
Visiting the Zomba Plateau

One of the highlights of Zomba is the Zomba Plateau, a mountain ridge with spectacular views across the valley.

Today (Monday the 27th) we headed out not very long after breakfast to drive up to the Plateau and see the view.  We had looked at the map and it looked pretty straight forward, so we headed up the mountain.   

Where we were staying at Casa Rossa was already part way up the mountain road, so it was very convenient.  There was a nice paved road all the way up the mountain, with fantastic views across the valley as you went further and further up.   

the view as you went up

Then at the top you reach the Sunbird Kuchawa lodge – the most expensive place to stay in Zomba, right at the edge of the Plateau.   

 We stopped at the Lodge to see if we could buy a map because it wasn’t clear right away which direction we need to go to get to the viewpoints.  Right away we were approached by a man who said, ‘You need a guide. Everyone who visits the Plateau gets a guide. I am a guide, I can help you.’  David being the very self-sufficient person that he is, :) was convinced that we could go just using the mental copy of the map in his head, so he told the man no, no, no, not interested, we think we’ll be fine, we’re just going to go ourselves… blah blah blah.  We got a copy of the map which wasn’t very good, but at least it was a map.  Someone told David that the roads around the perimeter of the Plateau were paved.  So after more than 20 minutes of David looking at all the maps ('to make sure we knew where we were going') we finally set off… without a guide.  

Immediately, by the first turn, we were very unsure of where we were going.  The map simply wasn’t detailed enough, and ALL the roads, apart from the main paved road to the Lodge entrance, were DIRT and they were all unmarked!!  So we turned right around the headed straight back to the Lodge, where we hired Moses, the guy who had introduced himself to us, as our guide.  :)  We figured out by the end of the morning two helpful bits of information - firstly, most people who visit the Plateau do so on foot (hiking 4-6 hours to the various viewpoints - obviously not an option for us with two very small tots), and secondly, everyone takes a guide, whether walking or in a vehicle!

Moses sat in the front passenger seat, I moved into the back with the kids, and we went along, bumping along these horrible dirt roads. And thus started an entire morning of unexpected 4x4 driving...

part of what the road/track looked like (and this wasn't even a bad portion of road)

 First we drove to the nearest viewpoint, ‘Queen's View.'  It took quite a while to bump up the mountainside.  The road was dirt mixed with rocks so it was not a smooth ride, to say the least!

 The view from the top WAS amazing, but it wasn’t spectacular.  There was simply too much dust and haze in the air to see as far as we had hoped.  On a good clear day, you can see as far as Mozambique, and many other things.  But not today.  When we stopped, Ketzia was asleep so we left her in the car.

Moses, our guide, is standing on my right

 Then we went to ‘Emperor's View’ another viewpoint which was not very far away.  Ketzia woke up so both kids got out with us.

Leaving the two main view points, on the way back along the Plateau circuit, Moses directed us to stop at the side of the road and we walked down to a pretty waterfall.

what David did - take nice photos

 

what Mommy did - wrestled children away from the edge

what Elijah did - get as close as possible without actually falling in

 Then Moses suggested that some people like to visit 'Chingwe's Hole' which was on the other side of the Plateau.  It is a very strange hole in the mountain, hundreds of meters deep, and there is also another good viewpoint from there.  He said that he had confidence that our truck, being 4x4, would be able to get there just fine.  That should have clued us in, but we honestly didn't realize the distance we would have to drive!  It was decided that we would make Chingwe's Hole our last stop.  So off we went...

the Queen's and Emperor's Views are on the bottom right of the circle, and Chingwe's Hole is on the upper left of the circle... shows how much driving we had to do on narrow, rutted, tracks in the middle of nowhere!

 As we lurched and bumped along the horrifically bad track and got further and further away from any vestige of life (the lodge and the ranger station receded far into the distance), I was trying to quell my inner discomfort about the situation... 

do you see that tiny ribbon of brown? that is the track we followed

It ended up taking 45 minutes of lurching and bumping and grinding and willing our truck to please keep going and not get stuck!  The track was just a nightmare.  I was desperately trying to brace myself because I kept being flung against the side of the truck - I ended up having to sit crossways across the seat, with my bottom against the door handle and my right arm hooked around the driver seat headrest, to try to get some leverage!

At some point I thought, 'This was a huge mistake.  I'm going to end up having a miscarriage because I was stupid and went along on this crazy ride.  No pregnant woman should be doing what I am doing!'  I wanted desperately to turn around and go back, but there was no place to turn around!  (David told me later that he was also having second thoughts but because there was no way to go but forward, we just forged ahead.)  I was really, really worried.  I was feeling more and more awful by the moment, feeling muscles pulling in my abdomen from the force of the truck jolting and straining along the mountainside, feeling unable to properly cushion my body from the rough ride... it was horrible.  I honestly thought I'd made the biggest mistake of my life.  So, please take note: if you are pregnant, don't bother visiting the Zomba Plateau!  The view is actually not worth the risk and the ride!

At last we finally reached Chingwe's Hole.  By this point it was almost 11am and we had been bouncing and jolting around the Plateau for 2 hours already!

this is Chingwe's Hole... you actually could hardly see anything, because it is so deep, dark, and overgrown!

I practically fell out of the truck, thankful to have a break from the terrible bouncing and jolting for a few moments.  Elijah was asleep so we left him in the car!

at least there was a nice view!

There were men at every viewpoint with little stalls, selling small cut gemstones and dried flowers.

Then it was time to head back down the mountain.  Thankfully I found that it was not nearly as painful going down as going up - because we weren't straining against gravity.  :)  David found it challenging driving conditions, though!

We had to stop part-way for Elijah to have a toilet break...

We dropped Moses back at Sunbird Kuchawa lodge, paused long enough to look at the gifts and souvenirs he had for sale (we bought a birthday present for Elijah, and a wooden platter with elephants carved for handles), and then headed back to our camp for lunch.  It was noon!

the wonderful paved road back down the mountain :)

On the way down the mountain, we bought fresh raspberries and fresh strawberries from men selling fruit on the side of the road.  That was part of our lunch, and breakfast the next day!  It was a real treat!

back at camp - having peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and fresh berries

 After eating a quick lunch, I went straight to bed and lay down for 45 minutes, trying to help my body recover from the battering it had experienced.  Thankfully it was apparent that nothing was wrong with Baby, for which we were very, very thankful.  Knowing now how bad the roads are, I would never do it again while pregnant!  Thankfully the only lasting ill effects I had from the day's events was that my right arm and shoulder were so badly bruised from hanging on for dear life, that I literally couldn't move my shoulder for 3 days!

Camping, days 8-9: Zomba, Malawi (visit to a student's church - 9)

Day 8 – Saturday 25 May 2013

Travel from Nanchengwa Lodge to Zomba, Malawi

 

After 5 nights of rest and relaxation on the shore of Lake Malawi, we packed up camp on the morning of Saturday the 25th.  We were able to hit the road in a timely manner, by 9:45, heading south to the town of Zomba.  

It was a smooth drive.  It was interesting to see the obvious prevalence of Islam in this part of the country, the southern shore of Lake Malawi.  We saw mosques every 500 meters on some stretches of the road south!  There were Islamic schools and teacher training centers everywhere.

It took us about 3 1/2 hours and we arrived in Zomba around 12:30. Zomba is a large town, with the distinction of being Malawi's University town. We set up camp at a bed and breakfast called Casa Rossa which is located up the mountain, on the road leading to the top of the Zomba Plateau.  Casa Rossa is a new guesthouse in Zomba - only been open about a year - run by a friendly Italian couple.  They have a public restaurant as well, specializing in homemade Italian cuisine.  Mmmm.  A great place to stay!  :)

you can see us eating breakfast on the terrace in this photo

The camping area was terraced out of the hillside and was well equipped, with good toilet facilities, hot showers, big sinks for washing up, and even an electrical socket at each camping pitch!

a view of our camp at Casa Rossa

 The first thing we did when we arrived was eat our packed lunch (peanut butter and jam sandwiches) sitting on the ground in the camping area.  Then we unloaded everything and set up our tent.  It was a relaxing afternoon so we were able to just enjoy our surroundings.  Being located up on the road to the Plateau meant that we were removed from the hustle and bustle of the town streets below, and we had a gorgeous view from the terrace.

 The Casa Rossa restaurant does good business!  We went up to the restaurant for an early dinner.  David had ravioli and I had tortellini, and the children had chicken nuggets and chips.  It was delicious.  As usual, the kids went to bed early.  On our camping trip we found that it was a good schedule to eat dinner earlier than normal (so that we were done eating and cleaning up before it was completely dark) and then move into the tent, to avoid mosquitoes.  Often we would let the kids watch a DVD on their portable DVD player, sitting on Elijah's airbed.  It was a good way to wind down at the end of each day of playing hard outside!  

After the kids were asleep I went back up to the restaurant, finding that the dinner portion was so small that I was still very hungry.  :)   The woes of being a pregnant woman.  I ordered a 'snack' of onion soup and panzerotti (like mini calzones) with a side of chips.  Probably sounds like an odd combination, but at the time I thought the soup would warm me up and the panzerotti would fill me up!  It was cold at night up on the mountainside.

Having reached Zomba successfully, the only difficulty now was contacting Sangwani, the student whose church we would be visiting the following day.  We had his phone number, but our phone calls and text messages (from Zambian phones) weren't going through, although our phones indicated that we had service.  Sangwani tried to phone us before we left Nanchengwa, but David's phone battery died before we were able to receive his call.  So here we were in Zomba, but we had no idea where the church was or what time the service would start the next day!  We just had to trust that Sangwani would find some way to reach us before it was too late.  :)

Day 9- Sunday 26 May 2013

Zomba, Malawi -- visit to a student's church (9)

On Sunday morning we woke up to the reality that we still had not been successfully contacted by Sangwani.  David was supposed to be preaching at his church in Zomba, but we still had no idea where the church was located or what time the service would start!  

So we had our usual morning routine of feeding the children, showers, getting ready for church and hoped that he would contact us soon.  It was really nice to find out that any guests of Casa Rossa, even campers, were offered a complimentary 'tea and toast' breakfast in the restaurant each morning (you could pay to get eggs or something else if you wanted a bigger breakfast).  The coffee was fantastic and we enjoyed having free toast and hot drinks each morning with our bowls of cereal from the campsite.  :)

 We were finally able to reach Sangwani around 8am, and were told that the church service would start at 10am, and given directions to the church.

the back view of the church - they are in the process of building and are meeting in the partially completed office area

Sangwani is a member of the Reformed Baptist congregation in Zomba, and they support him as a student for the ministry.

Sangwani translated for David during the sermon

 I really enjoyed the service, which was simple and reverent, as we have found most of the Reformed Baptist churches to be.  One thing I noticed was that even the young children were joining in singing the hymns - from the book!  That is something you will never find in the poor village churches in Eastern Province.  You hardly ever see a church with any hymnbooks, but even the ones that do have a few books, most people can't read well enough to use them.  You could definitely see the difference, that the education available in Zomba is much better than in our local area.

Elijah and Ketzia did very well during the service, until part way through the sermon when I had to take Elijah out so that he could use the toilet...  Then he didn't want to go back into the church service because he knew he would have to sit still!  He threw such a fit, kicking and howling, that eventually I strapped him into his car seat so that he would calm down, and sat in the car with the kids until the sermon ended. What can you do?  :)  Sometimes, as a mom, you feel like you can never win!  Even if the kids are doing well in church, a simple toilet run can turn into an absolute rebellion!

 

a view of the inside of the church, taken afterwards while people were chatting

After church ended I was so pleased to see that people stayed around chatting - again something you don't really see that often.  Usually people leave pretty quickly, but the fellowship here was good and the congregation was friendly.  David spent a while talking to the men of the church - the pastor, the assistant pastor, and others.

After church Sangwani's wife Betty told me that they were planning to have us to their house for lunch, so we all squished into our 5-seater truck.  Betty's youngest sister Madalitso (called Mado by the family) who lives with them, sat in the front passenger seat.  We took out Ketzia's car seat and she sat on my lap, Elijah sat in his car seat, Betty held 2 1/2 yr old Keziah on her lap, and Siphiwe (5 years old) shared the seat with her mom.  It was tight, but we managed and thankfully they only live a few miles up the road!  Sangwani took the bicycle and arrived at home only a few minutes after we did.

Sangwani and David by the front of the church

 

and again around the back of the church

Sangwani, Betty, Mado, and the girls live in a small house with two bedrooms, a small storage room, and a living room.  Unlike many of the students' homes we've visited, they have electricity, so Betty has an oven and cooker and a refrigerator in the living room.  They welcomed us in, and while Betty and Mado finished preparing the food, the kids had a GREAT time playing together. 

Elijah and Siphiwe chase each other around the front garden

the little girls who share a name visiting together :) - Keziah and Ketzia!

ready to eat lunch together

Betty served us a delicious meal of rice and potatoes cooked with tomatoes and eggs.  It was tasty!

 

We really enjoyed the chance to visit with Sangwani and Betty during this afternoon together, chatting with them about life and culture and all sorts of different things. While Sangwani is our student, we have a different relationship with him -- because he is also our teacher!  Sangwani tutors us in Chichewa language lessons weekly during each term, and we are very thankful for his generosity in giving his time and energy to help us learn.  He has been in our home a lot and we have been greatly blessed by our Christian fellowship with him.  

Keziah, Betty, Mado, Siphiwe, and Sangwani in front of their home

 It was good to get to observe him and his family together in their home.  Think about it! they don't get to be together very often - only twice a year at best during the term holidays!  Sangwani's studies have taken him away from the family for the better part of 3 years now and they are looking forward to his graduation in October, Lord willing.

We visited with them until nearly 3pm, and then headed back to our campsite.  But first we arranged to see them again before we would leave Zomba later in the week!  This wasn't just a weekend visit; we decided to stay a couple of extra days in Zomba since we had traveled so far to see Sangwani and his family...