A Worldly Tuesday to Everyone,
I have just returned from a fantastic weekend trip to Likoma Island and then a long journey to the south where I saw where the land for the new sugar plantation that I am getting involved in. It has been a lot of travel, but I will not spare you any of the gory details. After my visit to the Ilovo Sugar Estate last week, I once again boarded the vaunted Ilala ferry at Nkhotakota to take it to Likoma. In fact that journey wasn't too bad (seriously): 3AM wakeup, transferring dinghies midlake to reach the ferry (this was super precarious). 14 hours on the ferry, a jump into the shallows to wade into shore with luggage in hand and then a 45 minute hike over the island to my retreat for the weekend. But it was worth it.
Likoma is an emerald in the vast Lake Malawi blue expanse. The rising hills are dotted with impossibly enormous baobob trees, hypnotizing stretches of savannah grassland all surrounded by jarringly blue waters and tropical mini-islands. The particular beach where I stayed, Mango Drift, is isolated far from the "town" on the island and the sand meets the fresh water rolling onto it like whipped cream meeting an artificial movie-theater slushie: the whites and blues are starker than the American flag. Anyways, I had a very enjoyable St. Patty's weekend with two likable brits travelling Southern Africa on sabbatical, an incredibly bitter 80 year old woman backpacking around her 42nd african country and 133rd in the world. She threw away these amazing props by being really racist, noting the "arrogant walk" and "loud jungle music" of the Malawian people. And became so bitter that she slept in the dorms, instead of paying the $12 for her own beachside villa. I also had some friends from Lilongwe and it was a helluva fun weekend. Likoma also has one of the largest Cathedrals in Africa (you are not misreading). And I was invited for a church service and then to the chief's house for lunch. It was all unforgettable.
I also got to scuba-dive in some of the best conditions I've ever seen. We went down 60 feet and saw ancient rock carvings, 6 foot catfish and the whole scene is like swimming in a home aquarium (because of the freshwater and aquatic life): bright yellows, reds, oranges and the mouth-breeding fish, eels and crabs. Phenomenal.
The trip back, was a bit rougher. After waking at 5AM to catch the ferry back, it ended up taking nearly 22 hours to get back to shore: arriving at 2AM in Nkhotakota. Then, like a true idiot, I disobeyed a cardinal rule and walked through the middle of the night, in the middle of Africa, to get to the main road and wait for a bus to take me to Salima to get picked up en-route to the South and a date with my sugar buddies. Note to all: walking at night in Africa, alone and with something of value is usually robbery 101. I walked maybe 3 miles with my heavy backpack, before I heard the noises behind me and turned around to see something shuffle into the bushes. I sprinted to a resthouse that was about half a mile away and finally made it, turning my flashlight to see, not robbers, but a rather large hyena. Nkhotakota is adjacent to a huge wildlife reserve. Lessons: I'm a lucky idiot. Could've been a lion, a robber or Lord Voldemort.
Got down to the south for two days of exploring the land that the new sugar plantation is going to be on. The land is also next to an elephant sanctuary, so as we walked around and they explained where everything was going to be planned out, we saw elephants in the distance, tromping around. Spent the nights watching my "colleagues" get significantly intoxicated and teeter off, singing the "Rainbow Connection," their favorite song from my vast ipod collection.
Finally, when I returned to Lilongwe yesterday I was greeted by a true riot. This was caused by the arrest of the old president's son, who was staging some sort of secret political meeting. When we got back into town, I first saw the president's convoy of hummers, landcruisers etc, go flying by (He was taking refuge by the lake apparently, as things calm down) Following the noise, and fancying a cup of tea, I took a seat on a balcony cafe and watched from a safe distance, the central market of Lilongwe tear itself apart for an hour complete with fires and TWO gunshots. The gunshots were actually from the military who were brought in to quell the unrest. A lot of work has been suspended today, and there are police and military everywhere.
From the land where nobody seems to work for the weekend,
Steven
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