FUN IN THE AFRICAN SUN

R & R Con’t: by Linda Davies

Sunday May 3rd, 2009


Following our stop at the Hippo Lodge we headed north in the Land Rover, packed cheek by jowl, for the long ride to Cape MacClear. Some strange signs on the way included: “Pack ‘n Go” Funeral Parlour, God Help Us Beauty Salon, Fresh Bakery….Everything but Bread, Hip Hop Bottle Shop Razamataz Exclusive, Uncle Charlos Booze Den, Pearly Gates Funeral Parlour, Froggy’s Restaurant, Hiccup Café, Coffin Workshop, Gecko Lounge, Ass of God Church (no room on the sign for Assembly so they shortened it!).

What a fabulous weekend with some more team bonding………spirited games of euchre, a boat ride on Lake Malawi (this lake is bigger than Lake Ontario), shopping trips into the local fishing village, sunsets that only Africa produces, moon rises over the glistening water and some lounging by the pool.

The boat ride took us to an island where iridescent blue fish would collect around our ankles for feeding. Our guide would whistle to the two resident eagles, Tom and Jerry, and they would dive to retrieve the small fish he would throw to them. In the distance, on the far shore, we could see the mountains of Mozambique.

On our walks through the village shopping, we discovered an amazing talent of one of our group. None us will consider purchasing anything now without the assistance of Kris Knoepfli’s negotiating skills. Many of us ordered specially carved key chains. 78 all together in fact. Only 3 mistakes.
Libby’s son in law is now “Gerg” instead of Greg. My son, Bryce, is now “Bryoe” and Ruth-Lynn and Neil’s daughter is now Vanesse. For some reason, this struck all of us as very funny.

Anne and Gordon were at a conference in Blantyre for the weekend and we missed them.

We had a very touching experience which I will try to describe. Team 1 had on4 boys and they asked if I would deliver 4 backpacks to them. I asked on the beach for the boys by name and in short order the message got to them and they presented themselves at the gate. Ruth-Lynn and I (Libby acted as photographer) did a little presentation ceremony and you could not have seen larger grins on 4 Malawian faces. Only the picture can show you how happy they were.

One funny thing I have to tell you. You can drink alcohol anywhere in Malawi. At this lodge, we brought our own wine, plunked ourselves down in the bar, opened our wine and then asked the bartender for chilled glasses. Crazy eh? Can you imagine this happening in Canada?

After a wonderful weekend we left Lake Malawi refreshed and ready for another week’s work. We returned to Zomba looking a little more African than when we left. Even the men on the team were adorned with the locally made bracelets and necklaces.