Paradise Found: Lake Malawi

So, almost four years after my first attempt to visit Lake Malawi, this past weekend I headed back there with my PPB roommates. This time, however, the trip was a success!

We left early Saturday, which left us with plenty of time to miss a turn, end up going 50km in the wrong direction (to Mwanza, a town on the border of Mozambique), and then find our way back to the correct route.

But soon enough, we had arrived at paradise: Lake Malawi! Crystal clear water as far as the eye can see, pretty islands, palm trees on a sandy beach, and a quiet, hippie hostel to call home for the night. The hostel, called Mufasa Backpakers, was really great - I'd recommend it for travellers not concerned with en suite bathrooms and luxuries like that. After being greeted by the friendly hostel staff, we booked a boat trip out to snorkel and swim at an island later that afternoon.

Monkey Island

Josey sitting on the boat front paddling!

The boat trip was hilarious on various levels. First, we saw a tiny boat and thought surely it was taking us to a bigger boat that could hold 4 people. But no, that was our boat. We all climb in, and chat for ten minutes waiting for the motor to start. When Lauren asked the boat driver about it, he said the battery was just dying, so the motor wasn't really working. Not sure how he thought we were going to get there. Lauren offered to paddle, then the boat driver took over since the island was still far off. Forty minutes of Josey's paddling against the wind later, we landed on a rocky island and found out the snorkel gear was broken so we all just swam. It was lovely!

climbing rocks in flip-flops...exactly why chacos were made?!

the view from Jam Rock!

A heaping plate of rice and Chambo (fresh fish) at Kingfisher's in Monkey Bay was a great way to end our first day. On Sunday, we asked the staff if there was a way to hike up and see a view of the Bay. They pointed us towards a rocky hill, and assured me that my chitenge, shorts, and flip-flops were fine hiking attire. That made for a pretty funny climbing adventure, but we made it to the top for some spectacular views! It was short and sweet, but SO beautiful, and fun to travel with Lauren and Cherise!

At Kingfisher's

Until next time, Monkey Bay!

Also, I typed a great post about our joint Malawi and American Independence Day 5th of Braii, but the internet failed me so here are some pictures which will hopefully suffice!

Dr. Manary, Lauren, Tereza, M'gumbo, Cherise, and I

Malawian dance off?

The perfect braii!

with great friends!

No American braii is complete without dessert!
Homemade Banana Pudding and Apple Pie!

Dr. M and the PPB team!

Waking up

early morning on the road to Mulanje 

There’s something magical about watching a place wake up.

Even before the sunrise, the city of Blantyre begins to come alive. Guards getting off the night shift walk down the quiet streets. Joggers weave up and down the twisted hills of Blantyre. Minibuses make their first stops, and begin a long day of loading and unloading passengers along the roadside.

The sun creeps over the mountains and more of the city is illuminated. Mothers sweep the dirt away from their porches. Kids shiver and squirm as they stand in the tub for a before-school bath. Men greet each other as they ride along on their bicycles, sacks of charcoal bigger than themselves strapped to the back. Markets begin to dance with color as old wooden stalls are filled with the day’s tomatoes, onions, papayas, and cabbage.

Outside the city, the tall grass begins to glow through the fog, bright with the light of a new morning. Women gather at the village wells, and they leave with colorful plastic buckets filled with the day’s water balancing carefully on their heads. A man crosses the road with his herd of cattle; kids in blue and white uniforms walk purposefully towards school.

I feel like in the quiet awakening of Malawi, I get to see it in all its beauty. I’ve never really been one to appreciate mornings, but I’m so glad I get to here. If you’ve never been up to see your city or town wake up, try it. You can always sleep in tomorrow. And you might just come to appreciate things about where you are that you’d never even noticed before!

In addition to enjoying these amazing mornings in Southern Malawi, here are some other highlights of the week:

N'sima for lunch - finally!

at the Final of the African Netball Championships!

Team PPB climbs Michiru Mountain!
(not pictured is Alex, who decided to run up the mountain instead of hike it....)

Cross at the top of Michiru Mountain

Month 2: the adventures continue

Namandanje Village

The bluest sky overhead. The reddest dirt billowing up over the road. The greenest bushes and brownest grasses I’d ever seen, flanking the road on both sides.

Namandanje

Walking around the village of Namandanje, I couldn’t imagine a more glorious display of God’s creation. The stillness of a place that’s yet untouched by the messiness and busyness of Western living. Just families, farms, and a small village center. 

This was the backdrop of our overnight clinic this past week.

Nurse Jean, Nurse Eleanor, and Vegas - O/N clinic dream team!

We left early Wednesday morning to serve our most remote clinics – Chamba (which, fun fact, means marijuana in Chichewa. Not to be confused with Chambo which means fish or Chombe which means tea.), Chikweo, and Chipolonga. 

A good book (The Pilgrim's Progress), good conversation, and good food made an electricity-less evening pass quickly. It was a refreshing trip!

Chipolonga clinic 

Other highlights of the week included preparing for the PUFA study acceptability trial (essentially me finding out if children will like the taste of a new recipe of Chiponde as much as the current Chiponde. The trial starts tomorrow, and my goal is to complete the 160 kid trial in three weeks! Let the fun begin!), going to see the Black Missionaries perform a live concert with my housemates (they are the most popular band in Malawi -and pretty good! - so the concert was packed. Survived my first encounter with crowd control tear gas, and got to dance along to some of Malawi's best reggae, all in one night.), and driving out to Zomba to hike on the Zomba Plateau. The road to Zomba is under construction, yet amazingly we managed to follow all the dirt detours and arrive without a map. We enjoyed lunch at the top once we’d finished our hike – definitely a fun day trip for anyone living in Blantyre. 

taking in the views on Zomba Plateau

Zomba Plateau hike with Lauren

One last thing: This past week I had to miss special days for two of the people I love the most (and who've joined me on many an African adventure!) - my dad and my baby sis. Happy Father’s Day and happy birthday Kels! I love you both and can’t wait to celebrate with you in July.

mandatory Daddy-Christy safari selfie in Botswana

Zambian new years with Kels. Can't believe you're 19!

Chikwawa Pass

Friday morning we got off to an early start to drive to clinic (surprise!), and yet somehow I was still wide awake an hour down the road when we found ourselves stuck behind two giant sugar transporter trucks on the narrow mountain pass (one broke down going down, and the other got stuck trying to get uphill around it). With a pretty steep drop-off on one side, and a narrow, deep ditch on the other side, I thought we might be there all day. So naturally we all got out and Lydia and I embraced the photo op and begin snapping away while the nurses and our driver Vegas talked with other onlookers.

The view from Chikwawa Pass!

Surveying the scene 

The view from Chikwawa Pass truly is one of the most magnificent, grand views in Malawi, so it was a perfect place to get stuck! A crowd gathered, and Vegas decided that he would attempt the impossible – driving sideways in the ditch to get around the trucks. After a minibus got through, we knew Yellow Cruiser could too. Vegas got through without a hitch, and we were on our way. Fun little adventure for 6:45 in the morning.

Lydia and I enjoy the breathtaking view

Clinic went well, and then Friday later afternoon, I headed to the POST OFFICE (the sign is in all caps covering the whole front of the building, super helpful for finding it) and sent four postcards! Mail is one of my favorite things, so if you send me your address, a postcard will be heading your way soon!

I also love getting mail, and my address here is:

Christy C----

Project Peanut Butter

PO Box 32664

Chichiri

Blantyre 3, Malawi

Other highlights this week included the Malawi v Kenya football match (Julie and I were able to make it out to the second half of the match after a long day of clinic and despite a pathetic final score [2-2] it was a lively game), getting to cook one of my all time favorites – Sherri’s Greek Pasta – for my housemates, prepping for the PUFA study which will be launched in the next 2 weeks, and welcoming two new PPB volunteers.

This song sums up how I feel about the first half of my time here quite nicely….and it also plays on the radio here nonstop!

Keep on keeping on!

The road to Chikwawa district clinics - I call it the Shenandoah of Malawi

Today I saw two exceptionally random bumper stickers; here they are for you:

1.      "Every problem has an expiry date."

2.     "Delay is not denial."

Not really sure how they tie in to anything else here, expect maybe to say that although I’ve been very much 'delayed' in posting on here I’m not in denial of it. Ha, who knows.

 

touring the PPB factory

mix that Chiponde!

I ended up with a foreign travel stomach bug for a good part of last week, but I still managed to pack a lot into the time I had! Last Monday, we all suited up in PPB lab coats for a tour of the Chiponde factory. The factory manager told us about a currently vacant position, and I told them that really, if I didn’t have to go back to school in the fall to graduate, I would have applied in an instant. How fun would it be to work in a peanut butter scented factory?!

Later last week, we went to the Malawi v Namibia World Cup Qualifying match. It was a GREAT game, very well played by the Malawi Flames, even in if ended with a 0-0 draw. We play again on Wednesday, and if we beat Kenya, we’ll be in the running for World Cup 2014. There are way more people selling things at football matches here than anywhere else I’ve ever been….during the game people walked past us selling Coke, lollipops, samoosas, cellphone minutes, hardboiled eggs, mandazis, cold-ish milk (and people actually buy it!), straw hats, maheu, necklaces, apples, hand-knitted visors, pretty much everything I could possibly need at a Malawian football match. It’s great.

The football stadium! 

so much smoke!

On Saturday I escaped our house for a few hours because the neighbors were burning so much trash the smoke alarms in OUR house were going off. There isn’t trash pick-up here, so it’s a necessary evil, but it was just an unfortunate placement of their trash heap. Although it was somewhat comical, it had been going on since Friday, so I was ready for a respit. I ended up at our favorite spot to get tea and internet and met a fantastic group of British med students - it was fun to hear about their work here and discuss the many challenges of improving health systems...as well as talk about England. Because let's be real, I'm about as crazy about England as I am about Africa, and all the Brits I've met in Africa have become fast friends :)

The gorgeous view from our favorite cafe

As far as my research goes, my proposal unfortunately has to wait on ethical approval here for another month. In the meantime, I’ll keep on keeping on - enjoying my daily work in the clinics, helping with other PPB studies, and my many other African adventures! 

...Like seeing a baby monkey run across my street when I was walking home from church yesterday! 

Sunday Best

The road to Namitambo clinic - so
blessed to be working in this beautiful place! 

My church back in Virginia is like a second family to me, and I absolutely love getting to be a part of the worship team there. And although I doubt there is any church in Malawi that's quite like Relevant, I really wanted to attend a local church while I was here.

This morning, I put on my Sunday best to visit St. Paul's Church, which is part of the Anglican Church of Malawi and is located just up the road from us. I debated whether or not to try to arrive for the service at the time advertised on the church wall. I've shown up to enough church services and events in Zambia on time to know that the advertised start time is usually more of a very rough estimate. But alas, I showed up on time, and much to my surprise, the preacher was already walking in. I quickly grabbed a song book and Eucharist, and took a seat in the beautiful cathedral. 

A few things that made it great:
1. It started at 7:30am and was packed! (and I still got to sleep in 2 hours later than I do during the week!)
2. It was an Anglican church, so it was a total England throwback (minus the fact that the Eucharist was half English/half Chichewa which added a slight element of confusion).
3. I got to be that visitor who stands up and says who I am and gets clapped for.
4. We sang songs we used to sing at International Baptist in Zambia!

5. The only other mzungu there sat next to me and kindly pointed me to all the right pages and prayers throughout the service - it was so nice of her! And it turns out she is a trustee for the organization I'm working for here. Small world.

Sweaty but still smiling after my first solo clinic
at Ndakwera!

On Friday I was in charge of a feeding clinic on my own for the first time! It was both exciting and challenging, but all the kids were seen! We even drove to a nearby village afterward to find one kid who hadn't shown up - and not only did we find her, but she graduated from the program! Yay!

Also, yesterday (June 1) was World Milk Day; who knew?! Lots of milk-drinking and singing around Blantyre in celebration, and we even saw a couple hundred people gathered wearing Milk Day chitenjes!

We're enjoying a restful afternoon in the sunshine and breeze (current temp: 82!), walking to get internet and buy bread, and hanging out at Kabula - before getting back to the clinics tomorrow!

Baking in Blantyre

birthday dinner for Ellen!

Last night, my housemates and I (Ok, we actually live in 2 houses, but they’re behind the same wall!) celebrated my roommate Ellen’s birthday at Casa Mia, a delectable little Italian restaurant just a short walk up Kabula Hill from our house. It was Ellen’s first birthday in Africa, and between the streamers Julie and Christina put up while we were at clinic, the homemade celebratory kettle corn, and a birthday dinner, I think it was a memorable one!

Today was my day off which meant I could sleep past 5, hooray! After breakfast and getting caught up on research prep for a couple hours, I was off to Shoprite (the main grocery in Blantyre). I really love grocery shopping, especially in different countries. It’s fun to see what’s popular and what isn’t sold at all. For example, there’s no greek yogurt here, or lunchmeat that doesn’t look like pink bologna. And I bought what I thought was cream cheese but it’s actually some sort blended cottage cheese. I’m hoping its bizarre flavor will grow on me (What does one do with blended cottage cheese?!).

There is however, almost everything you need to bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which was the reason I went to Shoprite in the first place! Anyone who knows me well knows that baking is one of my love languages. I get so much joy from baking for people, so I decided to try my luck at baking in Blantyre.

And although this isn’t exactly a food blog, these cookies were my first Malawi baking attempt (and a success, according to my roommates!), so I want to share the recipe with you! I only had a 1 cup, a ¼ cup and a ¼ teaspoon to measure everything with, so I ended up winging the measurements a bit. I also modified it a bit from the original recipe; my changes are in parentheses!

first baking in Blantyre, a success!

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour 

1 cup regular oats

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup granulated sugar (only used ½ c)

1/2 cup brown sugar (brown sugar here is basically white sugar that hasn’t been bleached, but it was fine)

1/3 cup butter, softened (I used ¼c  butter and then a couple Ts of mashed ripe banana since we had one that needed to be used)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used closer to 2t)

1 large egg

1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted (No pecans here, but I chopped up roasted unsalted almonds which worked great!)

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate minichips (No chocolate chips here, so I chopped up a dark chocolate bar and threw it in)

(I also added about 1t of cinnamon. Cinnamon, in my opinion, brings out the best in anything you bake!)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks, and enjoy!! Yield, 3 dozen cookies (mine made 30 cookies).

Two other nuggets:

monkeys running through the golf course

This afternoon I went for a run down to a golf course (my roommate suggested it as a pretty place to run - she was right!), and despite the hills and my slight fear of being hit by a stray golf ball, it was great! Best part was the monkeys running through the course as well!

home sweet home!

This is my room on Kabula Hill! With many of your smiling faces featured on my wall of photos. I can see mountains out the window - it's gorgeous!