Parents 1

Ok,

I lied. Here is the post I promised.

Then my parents showed up. My dad has actually been to Malawi before (if you note earlier blog posts). Guess he just loved the 8^th poorest country in the world so much, he HAD to come back. They arrived and got the Lilongwe scoop for two days. First I took them to their lovely hotel on the outskirts of town: Kumbali Lodge. It is set in a picturesque farm looking south out of Lilongwe over the kopjes: giant granite monoliths popping out of the Rift Valley like great grey thumbs. A beautiful green paradise on the edge of the dustbowl of Lilongwe; it is adjacent to where Madonna adopted two of her children from and where she stays when she is on charitable ventures in Malawi or introducing her children to their homeland. I was eager to keep them from getting too much rest however, so I took my parents within three hours of their arrival to a Black Missionaries concert (the preeminent band in Malawi) at Mungo Park (A construction site turned into a concert venue). The band plays upbeat reggae music and has a large following here in Malawi spearheaded by some hardcore Rastafarians and lovers of the “peace herb.” My parents were a little overwhelmed and the oldest white people there by the difference in my and their ages. Highlights included a drunken man kissing my father’s hand and my mom’s bewildered pointing at the wafting marijuana clouds.

The next day I gave them a Lilongwe tour in brief. I showed them around the city: taking them to my favorite restaurants and places of labor. We also took a day trip with CARE International 45 minutes outside of town to an irrigation and nutrition project they were funding and directing. It was a wonderful morning of touring a traditional rural Malawian community complete with demonstrations of the techniques being taught by NGOs here. The afternoon was spent shopping and taking my friends in town out for dinner and drinks.

Then we took a full day drive to Livingstonia: the community on the edge of a plateau. It took most of the day to get there and then when we arrived at the bottom of the plateau, we were met by a truck to take us up. A little disoriented by the long trip and definitely still jetlagged, we piled into the truck and started the 45 minute bumpy adventure up the side of a winding cliffside road. At about ¾ of the way, we ran into a car that had broken down and stopped to help. It was at this particular moment that my mother turned and noticed that the back of the truck was open and all our luggage gone. We had forgotten to lock the back of the truck and because of the bumpy nature of the ride, the bags had gone wandering. Just two minutes later as freaking-out started to set in, another big jeep came up the road behind us filled to the brim with people and luckily, our bags. Except 1. So we started back down the hill until we got to a little village where we figure the lost bag might have landed. In fine fashion, a local home had taken the bag into their house “to protect it” including a very nice camera, iPad and some other nice items. With a handsome reward, the bag was returned and we continued on our voyage.

Livingstonia, as I may have described it before, is a beautiful church community complete with college, beautiful church and stunning waterfalls dropping hundreds of feet. So for my father’s birthday we enjoyed a hike into town, went to see the waterfalls and made it back for a lunchtime Banana and Strawberry Birthday Cake.

The next morning we made the bumpy trip back to the bottom of the plateau (this time with all our bags) on our way to Nkhata Bay. It threw my parents a little when we got to the bottom of the hill and I didn’t have a taxi waiting for them. But as I had anticipated, with a couple of questions, I was able to procure a taxi to take us the three hours to the lake. Granted, at the last minute, a third man jumped into the back of the sedan with my mother and I because the driver didn’t know the way to Nkhata Bay (there aren’t that many roads here) and needed assistance. We got there safe and sound though, and proceeded to relax by the stunning lake for two days.  

Part Two tomorrow.

Foxy