Hiking to Paradise

I have had quite a long month or so. Starting the 21st of July, I traveled down to Dedza to help train the new education volunteers. This means that the education volunteers that arrived a year before I came are finishing their service, and everyone from my group has been here for a year! Yay! We've made it a year – we're half way! It doesn't seem like it. The new group is full of enthusiastic young faces who seem ready for their next two years of village life. They smell and look so clean, but ah, these things do pass. I spent some of my time during this training living in the village near the Dedza BOMA (British Overseas Military Area). I lived with a woman, her one-year-old child, and her elderly mother. It was a wonderful experience, and I got to use some of my survival Chichewa. I'm pretty rusty.

After helping with training, I stayed in Lilongwe for a few days getting some Camp SKY things lined out. We have almost hammered out our field trips, and know most of the students who will be attending. This year will be a trial for the combination of Peace Corps and Jica (the Japanese equivalent of PC) working together to make Camp SKY even bigger and -hopefully- better. Eight students of Jica volunteers will be attending the camp.

Upon my return to my house I obtained a cat from a volunteer who is finishing his service. I am now on my third cat, Kamwezi – meaning “small moon” in Chitumbuka. Unbeknownst to me at the acceptance of the feline adoption is the fact that Kamwezi has two 2-month-old kittens. It was quite an adventure getting the fully conscious cat and kittens from Chitimba to my house, about a 2 hour minibus ride. The cardboard box was reinforced with twine and a chitenje (piece of cloth), which saved me as the cats destroyed the top of the cardboard box. The cloth was the only apparatus separating a minibus full of innocent passengers from a 3 unhinged feline weapons. Needless to say, I was scratched and bitten numerous times during that trip.

I was given only two nights at my house with the cats before Garrett came to the north to begin his vacation to the (obviously) superior northern region. At that point, we traveled to GAD (gender and development) camp to help with the camp's activities. The camp was very well run and it seemed like it was set up for success. The camp was designed to expose some students from the villages in the northern region to careers in the city. They split up into groups and shadowed various professions including a radio DJ, a doctor, a mechanic, a hair stylist, and other entrepreneurs. In the afternoons the students participated in various activities designed to approach the idea of gender, gender roles, and other sexual issues in Malawi. Garrett and I were only at the camp for two days, but we observed some good group and individual discussions. Things like this make me want to teach Life Skills.

After a few days of camp, Annette met us in Mzuzu, and we prepared for our vacation. We got a hitch from a huge semi going north. It was the biggest semi I've been in. I mean, I've had my fair share of semi hitches, but this one was, like, the mothership of semis. Anyway, we arrived that evening at a friend and fellow PCV's house in Mlowe near the lake where we met another new volunteer, Jay, who was to accompany us. Our team had assembled. The adventure had begun. That night was filled with slap shots and random drawing of body parts on chart paper that were hung in various parts of the house – including the ceiling. We did not go to bed as early as other, more conventional hikers would have on the day before a hiking trip. We are neither your normal, conventional hikers.

The next morning we set off on our adventure around 8:30. There wasn't really a distinguishable trail head, it was more of a road that became increasingly narrower until it was eventually a single-person-wide trail. The hike was never more than 400 meters from the lake at any time during the whole hike, which made for some beautiful views. We crossed many village bridges of questionable construction, but it didn't seem to slow us down. We stopped around noon to have a light lunch and an hour-long nap before continuing on our path. Around four in the afternoon we came upon a village, Tcharo, which had a lovely beach . We decided to camp there for the night. After we set up our tents and started a fire we began to smell ourselves and determined the need to bathe was apparent for the whole hiking party. At this point, some men came to the beach to chase away the children with sticks in order to give us some more privacy. How considerate.

The next day we continued our travel with tired legs and only a few hours of good sleep – at least to my side. Sand is supposed to be soft, but it's not when you're sleeping on it all night. Damn my wide, child-bearing hips. At the end of the afternoon, as the sun was tucking itself behind the mountains, we rounded the final bend bringing us to Ruarwe bay. The end of the hike was the most difficult of the entire hike, being more climbing up and down. It was a bit stressful to the knees, but once we got to our lodge the destination seemed to be well worth the pains brought on by the travel. The lodge was wonderfully nestled into the deepest part of the bay, brimming with vegetation and an overall tropical vacation aura. The food was amazing. Our activities while at Ruarwe included daily swims (sometimes multiple swims), jumping off 30+ ft. high balconies and rocks, yoga on the beach, snorkeling, and naps on the hammock. It was quite a tough few days.

At the end of our trip we caught the Illala, the lake-dwelling cargo and passenger boat, to Nkhata Bay. The trip took about 7 hours or so. They have a nice restaurant on the boat, and a bar on the top level, so when we weren't napping on the deck we were treating ourselves to some boat food and drink. It was a lovely trip, and I hope to go again before I leave the country.