Alive and well in Harare

The trip between Blantyre and Harare. What a ride. There's a nice story behind it as well. We asked at least 5 people the company, location, time and cost for the bus ride and they all said Zupco, in the station, 7:00 AM every morning and 3000 Malawi Kwacha (around $20). We woke up on the 18th, also our 3rd wedding anniversary, quite ready to take the Zupco bus. Walking out of Doogle's and down the dirt road we saw Munorurama, the bus line we initially inquired at but was told wouldn't run, with a sign saying that it was heading to Harare. It parked on the side of the road as we came up with all our stuff and we pleasantly discovered that the Zupco (an inferior company and less comfortable ride) cancelled the trip for Tuesday and that Munorurama had suddenly decided to go to Harare instead of Johannesburg. We hopped on, grabbed our favourite seats near the front, and we were off. Same price at the same time, but on a much more comfortable bus and at much higher speeds. Thank God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. And the path had a few turns in the road on the way, but metaphorically, it was straight and fast.
Here are Andrea's recent reflections on Africa;
Africa is crammed with heaven. And every common bush, and minibus a fire with God. But only she who sees takes off her shoes. The rest sit around and worry about their wallets.
Well, our feet are dirty, and although I've instinctively brought my right hand to my back pocket a few too many times this trip, I feel like we've learned something truly beautiful on this trip, something we'll never forget or forfeit for cheaper things. And tomorrow morning, we go home. We'll see you all soon enough.

Michael (Andrea is playing Dutch Blitz in the next room and is doing quite well)

Hah.

The Plateau

We began walking up the plateau at around 8:30 Saturday morning only to be welcomed by a huge rainstorm once we had walked a couple kms up. Fortunately, there was a very sweet lady named Chisomo who saw us under a tree just as it had started and decided to pick us up. As it was another 5 km to the top we were more than happy to catch a lift. It ended at Malawi's top-end hotel called the Sunbird. At around a $100 a night it is way beyond our price range but we were more than happy to have some tea and read our books in the restaurant while we waited for the rain to stop. We then hiked back down to the Trout Farm which runs for about $12 a night for a nice room. It really was a trout farm in the middle of paradise. The running water and beautiful gardens made for a wonderful stay. They didn't have a restaurant there but we did meet a couple of dutch student doctors who were more than happy to have dinner with us at the Sunbird. After another lazy day at the trout farm and buying some gifts, we cooked an egg (yes, one egg) in the guest kitchen, took some sappy photos and went to bed early. We're now in Blantyre at Doogle's and we're meeting up with some friends from Lilongwe for dinner tonight. One of them is a British diplomat here on official business. She's a great girl with a pretty awesome job working for the Brits here in Malawi. We take the bus (hopefully) from Blantyre, through Mozambique, and to Harare tomorrow so please keep us in your good thoughts and prayers. You might now hear from us again until we get back and then... what's the use of a blog? Just invite us over for dinner instead.

Cheers,

Andrea and Michael

Africycle and the Zomba Plateau

This last leg of our journey has been a lot of fun. We left Lilongwe with a couple of people on Friday and got dropped off at a very busy bus station in Blantyre. And by bus station, I don't mean a Greyhound station like Bloor and Dundas, I mean mini-buses everywhere and muddy roads, and people selling phone minutes for cell phones and we made it through that to Doogle's Lodge, where all the travellers supposedely come on their way through the city. We were able to drop off our larger packs here (I say here because that is where I am right now) for the weekend and head to Zomba. Oh, Zomba. What a paradise of Malawi! I was so impressed by the little town. We took a crazy minibus there with only 23 people in a Westphalia style VW van and both Andrea and I sent a specific prayer up a few times that we wouldn't tip over on the corners at 100 kmph.

And there was Africyle on the left hand side of the road, just a few kms before reaching Zomba. We has such a great time visiting their site. We met Innocent 'the ladies man' first and he showed us around the place, the tools they used, what they needed most (mountain bikes and kids bikes have been a hit) and where they store the bikes that are about to get fixed. They've been officially running since August and have sold about 350 bikes since then, which is wonderful considering the competitive prices they are selling them at. Edward the welder wanted to show us his welding job on the side of the container and wanted us to show it to his best friend Ted back in Canada. Philip showed up and gave us a more administrative tour of the place.

We stayed at a guest house for the night and ate some wonderful food at a local Indian/Burgers restaurant called Tasty Bites (I had a few for sure). The next morning we headed to the plateau to the north of Zomba. What a great time. Next post...