We are back in the capitol of Malawi, in Lilongwe. There is a small campsite on the property of a youth hostel. We are together with a few backpackers and one other camper.
It rained most of the time here. Luckily there was a nice covered patio where we spent most of our time. Having travelled with barely any toys, the children are getting very creative in their play. In this picture they played "distance popping". All you need is two empty juice cartons with a loosely placed plastic lid and a whole lot of whacking power ;)
We played lots of games, read books, and cooked meals with whatever we could find in the shops.
At night, we enjoyed watching the geckos eat the flies that would be attracted by the light.
Our last morning here was bitter sweet. Myron and I took the bedding out of the tents and we took them down for the very last time. We are saying goodbye to sleeping in our little tents and the nomadic life we lived. We are on to new adventures!
The last two nights in Malawi we spent in a cabin. We arrived on a Tuesday and emptied out the whole truck. On Wednesday we returned the truck to the rental company. The rest of the day we sorted out our delayed flight of the next day and we sorted through all our belongings and donated all the things we did not need anymore; We had totes, a bucket, mugs, camping gear, cleaning supplies, and food. We asked a manager if it could be distributed among the poorest staff. We had to sign a form where everything we donated was listed, so that no one would doubt whether it was stolen by the staff or not... They told us it would go to the housekeeping and restaurant staff. Malawi's minimum wage is MK 687.70 per day, that's $0.90 CAD... €0.61.....
We arrived at the airport on Thursday morning only to find our flight to be delayed for an unknown amount of time?! We had a flight to Nairobi, Kenya, then on to Entebbe, Uganda. The latter we moved from the afternoon to the evening as we had gotten notice of an hour delay of our first flight. The layover time became too short and therefore we moved the second leg of our trip.
Once at the airport we noticed EVERY clock in the building showed a different time. When we asked what was going on, the security girl rolled her eyes and told us the president, Lazarus Chakwera, was going to Qatar. A presidential flight means the whole airport (one terminal, one runway) is shut down and no one is supposed to know the exact time of his departure?!
In the end our flight was slightly delayed and we could have made our layover... now we had a few hours in Kenya at Nairobi Airport.
We have been blessed with a beautiful time here in Malawi. Most of the people in this country are struggling every single day to make ends meet... and yet, they have the strength to go on and they believe in a better future. We have met so many lovely people who taught us so much about their lives and were so eager to learn from us. We really hope we can return one day to spend more time here.
A few days after we had left, tropical storm Freddy tore through the southern part of the country... another blow to the already fragile community :(
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