Coconut Madness

Elihu (a peace corps friend) and I sharing a coconut as Dan catches the action. I lost my composure a bit, but luckily Elihu maintained focus and was able to get a substancial amount of coconut juice in his mouth. We practically finished off all the coconuts on the island, thanks to Dan's climbing and rock throwing skills. (Chizumulu Island)

Voices from Malawi and More

Dan sharing a cup of tea with an Elland in Zimbabawe. He has a real way with the ladies!

Malawi has been great! Tons of fun, sun, hanging with the locals and just being a bum. Lake Malawi is full of beautiful water, smiling faces and a slow pace of life, which was definitely appealing to both Dan and I. We spent the first couple days in Senga Bay hanging on the beach and going to the local bars. After a near death experience in a dugout canoe, we decided to spend more time on land and less in the water. It turns out that Dan is quite the pool player, and he made a big impression at one of the bars. It only took a couple of games before people started buying us drinks! We spent three nights in our tent praying that the heavy rains would not leak through. Fortunately, they didn't!

After a couple of days, we decided to head north to Nkhata Bay to catch a ferry to some of the lake's islands. I have to say that the ferry ride to Chizumulu was about as uncomforatble as it gets, filled from top to bottom with piles of people and their things. Dan snuggled up on the floor with a handfull of children and had his temper tested by a local drunk man that fell right in his lap. Thankfully Dan recognizes patience as a virtue and refrained from throwing the man over board. We then offloaded the ferry into a small life boat and headed to shore. It felt almost like we were smuggling refugees under the cloak of darkness. As soon as we reached the island the atmosphere changed quite dramatically. It was the difference between night and day, from a slave ship to a private island resort.

On Chizumulu Island we met a group of Malawi Peace Corps volunteers, and were having so much fun that we decided to remain on Chizumulu for the entire stay (instead of spending a couple of days on Lakoma as well). Life on the island consisted of snorkeling in the crystal clear waters and a plethera of games. The island night was lit by fireflies and colorful conversations about Malawi. Christmas eve was spent singing broken lyrics to age old classic Christmas carols, and on Christmas morning Dan participated in the white elephant gift exchange with the Peace Corps volunteers. Dan ended up with a serong and tupperwar full of candy. This was a pretty good gift considering that of others (i.e. cigarettes, tuna fish, peri-peri hot sauce).

Overall, Malawi was fun and will be missed. We left Malawi yesterday and spent an entire day hoping from mini-bus to mini-bus and eating rice and beans. So far from what we have seen southern Tanzania is beautiful and full of hills and mountains. The Tanzanian people appear to be excellent farmers, for the hills along the road have been decorated with all kinds of different crops.

Jon is teaching kickboxing to
the local children of Chizumulu Island (Malawi)

Dan with a few Peace Corps volunteers, spreading the love, Christmas week.

(Chizumulu Island, Malawi)

This was the missing picture of Jon at Vic Falls

More to come soon!

Victoria Falls

Meditating over the view at Vic Falls. I've never really been one for ropes or railings. It was nice to be able to sit right at the cliff edge and soak in the beauty of the waterfalls.

This is Zimbabwe

Jon and I (Dan) have been in Zimbabwe for the last two weeks, away from normal internet communications and have thus neglected our task of sharing this journey with others that might like to see what is happening. This country is an amazing place. As soon as you cross the boarder from South Africa the atmosphere, the landscape and the people change immediately. In fact this country seems to be in a constant state of change. Every time that I return here things have changed. This time the situation is not good to say the least (if you have been keeping up with news reports on the situation in Zim then you will know). I will spare you the details for now as some information may not be appropriate for distribution at the moment. Accept to say that there is a massive Cholera outbreak within the country right now and many people have been affected, with over three hundred dead already. Please keep the people of Zimbabwe in your thoughts and prayers. 

As there is not much time to tell stories right now, I will instead try and give you a quick summary to catch you up to speed:

We survived our first real Chicken Bus experience, from Jo'burg to Chiredzi- 16 hours long.

We have played with Elephants, some of whom were a bit frisky but very cute 

We've watched amazing Zimbabwean sunsets

We've gone camping in the bush with friends

Jon goes running with the Giraffe in the morning, just to get ready for the day

Most most artistic picture of the week goes to Jon, with this amazing pic (one of my personal favorites)

And just this morning we were hanging with the King of the Jungle, about 20 feet away sitting in the back of an open truck.