Day FOUR - Zomba

Day FOUR – June 20, 2010
Today started off kind of rough I woke up with a bad cold. I had been sneezing and coughing all night since it was freezing. Malawi has a very interesting winter; the days can get very hot, but the nights are completely cold. Dr. Barber gave me medicine, but it was the cough medicine strip things that dissolve on your tongue. I never even knew these things existed and I was even more surprised when it made my tongue numb for a little while. But on a happier note, I had a nice breakfast with an omelet, toast, and these huge pieces of bacon with some pineapple juice.

We were leaving Annie’s Lodge in Lilongwe to travel to the first Annie’s Lodge located in Zomba. I learned that Annie is very successful woman. She started off with a coffee shop and restaurant and worked her way to owning four different lodges in Malawi.

Well, anyways, we had to squeeze all 18 of us plus our luggage (which I still didn’t have) all in this small van/bus thing we drove in. It was very, very tight but we made the 7-8 hour drive to Zomba just fine. On the way there we stopped at this beautiful pottery shop where they sell handcrafted figurines, pots, vases, blankets, shoulder bags, and a bunch of other things. We also got to have a nice lunch there; I ordered the chicken lasagna which was pretty good. One funny thing that happened while I was eating was that the power went out and all the workers looked at us and our lost faces and started laughing. The power going out is a very common thing in Malawi; it happens all the time but for only short periods.
Driving to Zomba was very pretty from what I did see since I kept falling asleep to avoid feeling my legs cramping up. At one point we were at the border line of Malawi and Mozambique which was only separated by one road. Well what I learned about this country was that they had a civil war throughout the 80’s and early 90’s that’s why their buildings looked so bad and some were destroyed and I guess some citizens would run away to Malawi to remain safe.

We got out the car and walked over to Mozambique’s side and walked by the people who had stands of food everywhere. In a way I kind of felt bad because I think we led them to believe we were all going to buy something since we got out the van, but instead we walked by them and kept looking around. Some started yelling and pointing at us and others were starring and talking about us. I didn’t feel very welcomed, but I could understand why they felt that way. Something that did surprise me was that the men kept saying hi and one man came up to me and asked me to be his wife. I didn’t know what to say so I just said no thank you. As we were all getting back on the van one young man tried to get on the bus with us. He wouldn’t take no for an answer until our bus driver came to talk to him. Some think he was drunk since he smelt like alcohol but who knows.

Well, we continued our journey and we saw huge mountains and lots of village life. We stopped at the top of a hill to take pictures of a village below and all these children came running to us. Some were nice and let us take their picture while some threaten to throw rocks at us and started picking some up. That was when we realized we needed to leave. Finally, we got to Annie’s Lodge which was beautiful! It was like our own little village. Everybody had their separated buildings and you had to travel up little hills and stairs outside to get to others and buildings like the restaurant, the bar, and little gazebos. At first they had me and Danielle in this room off at the bottom of the campus by ourselves, but luckily they moved us up to the upper level with the other girls. And good news came when I reached the lodge. Noah, who is like a manager, informed me that they the airport found my bag and contacted our last lodge so Annie’s son Peter was going to drive it down to me soon. It was the greatest news I had all day.
This little hut was the bar! Yes it sold more than beer it had water and soda too but only Coca-Cola products.
Dinner time was great we all had some pretty good meals. I ordered the cheese burger and chips which is basically little potatoes. My burger was very, very well done so it was kind of crunchy but good. I also had an exotic Fanta which is now my favorite soda; I have no idea what flavor it is but I’m glad I tried it. And Annie made us a tasty chocolate cake to welcome us to her lodge which was very nice. I was so glad to meet her; I just think she is such a phenomenal woman. She was really nice to me; she heard I was sick so she said she would send extra blankets to my room which I appreciated very much.

The last few hours of my day were spent with some students from Radford University. They’re pretty cool, I’m glad they came.

Our room was pretty nice except for the large spider I had to kill when I first got in. I loved how we had a real shower with really hot water. That was the best shower I had in a while. I did like how our floor had carpet unlike the last lodge and that we had mosquito net hanging above our beds. But one thing I was disappointed to find out was that we now had to start buying internet cards, which means that my future blogs will be posting less frequently.

Day THREE - Tikondwe Freedom Gardens

Day THREE – June 19, 2010
Wow, so today started off with me hearing a rooster early in the morning. And my roommate Danielle getting left behind because one of the professors on the trip said she was taking too long. We were headed to the Tikondwe Freedom Gardens which is known because it is a sustainability garden. We picked up this man named Dr. Absolom Phiri on the way to come along with us to tour the garden. Dr. Absolom Phiri is a very smart man he earned his master’s degree in Malawi, but then traveled to the United States to earn his PhD at Virginia Tech is Science Education which is how he became good friend with some of the professors on our trip. Currently he has retired from the ministry of Educations in Malawi and now works as a private contractor for USAid.

Driving to the gardens was cool we saw numerous goats all over the road, small little villages, and a lot of little boys carrying fried mice on a stick.




I was soooo scared to cross this bridge on the van!
When we reached the gardens Mrs. Chinkhunta had prepared tea time for us. I’m not a big fan of tea so I tried the coco. The coco in Malawi tastes nothing like our coco it was very, very bitter so I didn’t enjoy it that much.

After tea time, we sat around in a circle as Daniel, Mrs. Chinkhunta’s son, told us the entire history of the gardens. Apparently, his father Dr. Glyvvyns Chinkhunta was the founder of the gardens. He brought a small piece of land for a cheap price because the land was very swampy so everyone thought it was a waste of land since you couldn’t do anything with it. Well he spent about three years digging up the land to clear it of the swamp. And then he spent about ten years digging, planting, and working towards this garden. He knew a lot about agriculture so he was able to dig up his own irrigation systems and be able to water his plants, vegetables, and fruits a healthier way than using pumps and pipes and things of that sort. His garden is completely organic so he does not use fertilizers or anything like that. It was pretty cool to see how his little tiny land has grown this huge garden it is today. Before Dr. Glyvvyns Chinkhunta passed away he was very sick so Daniel left the university he was at to watch over his father and take over the gardens. So Danielle is now the head person of the garden.


We took a nice tour of the whole garden and learned about the system.





In this picture they used these leaf things on a stick to spread around this liquid they made from natural resources that makes bugs go away instead of using toxic pesticide sprays.


Sugar Cane.



This is what it looks like when the bananas bloom.

Some students tried to do the hard work themselves; let's just say they weren't very successful.


We got to pick our own oranges! :)


We never seen a sweet potato that big before!
After leaving the gardens we were headed to the memorial of Malawi’s first president. On the way there this man named Tony who always drives with us since he works for Annie’s Lodge had the driver pull over so we could take pictures of the fried mice on a stick, but he scared all of us when he took the boy’s stick and brought it in the van with us. We all started screaming especially me and this lady named Patty because it was right in front of us. Dr. Absolom Phiri started laughing at us, so we asked him what food in America did he react the same way with and he said oysters and crab which is pretty interesting.

Then we drove to the memorial of Malawi's first president.


After reaching the memorial we drove to the market place and got out to go see what the people with stands were selling. It was sooo overwhelming because as soon as all of us got out all of them came to us saying “Hey friend come take a look at my stand.” We were surrounded and they were not taking no for an answer. And if you did go to their stand they kept trying to put bracelets and necklaces on you to get you to buy it. After a while I just kept telling them that I’m not buying only looking but all they kept saying was “okay looking is for free” but when I came over to look they kept trying to sell me something repeating “I give you best price, best price.” Finally, we got to leave.

When we got back to the lodge the power was out so there were candles everywhere. While waiting for dinner we were all in the conference room talking and telling stories when we saw a lizard on the wall. I was the brave one who touched it, but I did start screaming when the tail hit me when it started running away. It was pretty funny since it was real dark so we could not really see where it ran to.
We got to have a candle lit dinner. I had this really good fish called chambo; it was so good I decided to have two. Eventually lights did come on which I was happy to see because I was ready to take a shower. But this time me and Danielle learned our lesson and took a shower in the hallway bathroom which had a real shower and hot water.

After my shower, everyone was watching the world cup in the dining room and we had friends over. I had met two guys named Simba and Moses and they were both really nice.

By the way, my luggage still has not arrived.

Day TWO - Luggage Missing

Day TWO – June 18, 2010
[Continuing…} The next morning, during our breakfast we got to see a man leading three donkeys up the road with supplies on their back, it was really cool. I was kind of relieved that today was the last day of flying we had to get through. We took a plane from Ethiopia to Malawi. Unfortunately today was pretty rough; when I got to the airport I was extremely sick from the very bumpy bus ride to the airport. I get motion sickness very easily so it was extremely bad. Checking in felt like a slow death, I have not felt so sick in a long time. After getting settled in the airport and taking some medicine I felt better. Some interesting things I learned in the airport were that oranges in Ethiopia are green on the outside and orange in the inside and I must say I got the best orange juice ever from those oranges and the second thing was that the airport does not have any rules on smoking which I hated so much. I was also excited to have soda in glass bottle like the olden days.



I had a pretty good flight to Malawi. I sat with two men named Arron and Charles; Arron was from Malawi and Charles was from Nigeria but now he lives in Malawi. We had pretty good conversation about numerous topics. Arron was the funny one; him and I went back and forth trying to teach each other words. He taught me some Chichewa and I taught him some of the little Spanish I know. I also got to see all the different money bills he has collected from all the countries he has visited like China, Egypt, and 4 or 5 other countries that I can not remember the name of right now.

Arriving in Malawi was not the greatest moment since I found out that the airlines lost my luggage along with several other people that were on the flight. There was this strange moment when this Malawian woman came up to me and asked me my name and age because she said I looked just like her daughter but she has not seen her in a while. I was not sure what to say, but she was real nice when we were talking while waiting.

The rest of the day was pretty cool. When I was leaving the airport my car got stopped to let the president of Malawi drive by along with his many police and military men. I also got to see a lot of the city we were in as we were driving to the lodge. I learned that it is common to catch mice and fry it on a stick, that during the winter season they burn the grass to kill bugs since their grass does not get frost like ours, that women would often go into work with a machete in one hand and a baby on their back, and that they have really large advertisements on the wall for everyone to see. It was also very hard to get use to the fact that everyone drives on the left side of the road. I kept feeling like we were about to crash. And I will always be amazed at how much people can carry on their heads.





Finally we reached Annie’s Lodge where we will be staying for the next couple of days till we travel to Zomba. My roommate is Danielle who is also an A&T student.









After getting settled in our rooms we got to go out and exchange our money into Malawian Kwachas. Tonight was cool too; we got to mingle and get to know the other students on the trip from Radford University and Virginia Tech. The only part about tonight I did not like was that our bathroom had ants everywhere and we did not have a real shower. Our tub had the hand shower head which only spray cold water. So you had to take your shower standing up in a tub freezing and as you washed you had to hit yourself with the cold water. At one point I just jumped because I could not believe how cold it was, I was mad because I accidently sprayed my clothes that were sitting on the counter next to the tub.












Oh and I had a clumsy-slow moment! I was paranoid about getting malaria because this girl was telling stories about another girl who got malaria so I ran and frantically put on some deet bug wipes, but then an eye lash fell in my eye so I tried to get out, but then I put deet in my eye! It was the worst feeling ever!!

Day ONE - Traveling

Day ONE – June 17, 2010
It has definitely been a long journey.



I will start from the beginning. Yesterday, my family and I drove from Connecticut to Washington Dullus International Airport in Virginia. We got very lost and confused, but I made it just in time to catch my flight on Ethiopian Airlines. This flight was about an 18 hour flight with only one pit stop in Rome, but sadly we could not leave the plane. I sat next to a little 3 year old Ethiopian boy and his mother. They were extremely nice and the little boy was so adorable. The funny part is that the stewardess kept mistaking me as the lady’s daughter so anytime they passed out something they kept saying “oh I gave it to your mother.” I felt like I was on the plane forever, but I sure was happy to finally reach Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. One thing I noticed about the Ethiopian airport was that there were so many military men walking around with big guns everywhere. We had to stay the night at one of the hotels they provided for us, ours was called DreamLiner Hotel. Driving through Ethiopia was interesting. It looked very poor with a whole bunch of outdoor market like shops that were extremely close together, there were dirt roads, stray animals, and a lot of red, green, and yellow lights just like the colors of their flag. I had an interesting night in Ethiopia. For one I woke up 3 hours earlier than I was supposed to for no reason so I was just wide awake. I heard people partying across the street at this bar which was kind of funny and then I heard a scary dog howling really loud. I also tried to plug up my phone charger, but I was terrified because I thought I was going to get electrocuted so I kind of plugged it in and backed away like a complete fool. I tried to watch a movie to help me fall back asleep, but it didn’t work instead my lap top just died on me and I couldn’t figure out how to put the TV on at all. I had no idea what time it was over there so I eventually got ready and went down to the lobby and the lady told me it was only 4 something so I was 2 hours earlier than I was supposed to be. Needless to say, it was a very long night for me. Eventually, people started to wake up and we had a pretty good breakfast with some really good fresh fruit and of course regular food like sausage, pancakes, eggs, etc. [To Be Continued...] This shower was so complicated. I had to figure out what button heated the water. DreamLiner Hotel