Between Service, Sights, and Spotty Signal: Memories and Mayhem in Malawi
The adventures of 6 PCVs from all across Zambia and their vacation to Malawi plus the chaos no one predicted! Warning: this is a long one!
Let me first introduce the cast of this post! From Northern Province, we have: Cailyn, a fellow health volunteer who went to BU; Eeshani, a teaching volunteer from Oregon whose parents met during their PC Fiji service; and Hayes, another teaching volunteer from Georgia whose dad did PC in the Congo. Then, from their neighboring province, Luapula, we have Hahns, a Midwesterner and a health volunteer. And last but not least, Ethan, who is in Northwest Province near the Angola border and serving as a teaching volunteer from Washington State.
Now that you know the group, we can jump into the trip. Starting in February, we began to plan where we wanted to travel. The teaching volunteers can only take vacation during school breaks, so we knew we’d be going in April. A group from another cohort was going to Namibia, and we were kind of invited, but we decided to do our own thing. We chose Malawi because it was a good time of year to go to the lake and do some hiking. Plus, it gave the other five a chance to come through Eastern and see my site! We had initially wanted to do a night or two at South Luangwa, a game park near Chipata, but it wasn’t the right season, so we took it off the plan and added a lake day instead.
Cailyn was our head planner, with Eeshani using some PC connections to secure a couple of free lodgings and gather advice from current PC Malawi volunteers. We all gave input on activities, but those two did the heavy lifting. I planned their jaunt through Eastern, and the boys were along for the ride. The agreement was that they didn’t have to plan, but they couldn’t complain during the trip. To be fair to them, they would have helped if needed—but that would’ve been too many cooks in the kitchen, per se.
The itinerary:
Everyone, except me, leave their provinces and meet in Lusaka, ZM at a hostel for a night
Board a bus to Eastern Province, ZM in Lusaka, ZM at 3 am
Meet in Katete, ZM and spend one night at my site
Go to Chipata, ZM for one night, staying with an RPCV
Taxi from Chipata, ZM to Lilongwe, MW and then to Monkey Bay (on the south end of Lake Malawi)
Relax for a few days on the lake
Find taxi from Monkey Bay, MW to Blantyre, MW and spend a night with an RPCV
Next day taxi to Mt. Mulanje and begin to hike
Hike for three days to reach the highest peak and come back down
Drive from Mulanje, MW to Lilongwe, MW and spend one night with an RPCV who served with Eeshani’s parents
Head back to Chipata, ZM and then they would catch a bus to Lusaka, ZM
Until bullet number 7, everything went as planned. Half of number 7 did not pan out, and only a few other things after that went as we had planned. But we will get there.
While I was at home, prepping for their arrival, the crew started their journeys. They all faced setbacks and had unfortunately eventful trips. Those trips, however, are not my story to tell. Somehow, against many odds, they all made the bus in Lusaka and headed towards Eastern!
They arrived in Katete just before noon on little to no sleep but, besides Hayes who was feeling sick, they were all in good spirits. We did a quick walking tour of Katete and picked up some groceries before heading to my village. The kids were pretty excited when the car pulled in, but I don’t think anyone was as excited as Mtunzi when 6 muzungus got out of the car. A crowd gathered quickly to greet them but we managed to sneak Hayes inside to lie down because he felt feverish. None of my friends speak Nyanja beyond the greeting since they all learned other languages based on their geographic location. Still, this did not stop them from interacting with people. I was so impressed and grateful by how outgoing, patient, and down for anything they were while at my site.
My host mom had insisted on having a hot meal ready for us when we arrived so I had bought the ingredients in advance and she cooked while we were in town. The group was so impressed by the meal (nsima, chicken, soya pieces, fried okra, and cooked greens) and how welcoming my host family was. They even went the extra mile and warmed bath water so that after the meal everyone could bathe and feel refreshed from the long journey. Taking turns going to bathe gave us some down time inside, but my house felt cramped with six people, their luggage, and an excitable dog. It was only until the next morning, though, so we made it work. After we were all clean, I had wanted to take them (except Hayes) on a walking tour but we never got around to it because once we were outside we could not get very far without being stopped. Ethan, being a teaching volunteer, immediately engaged the kids with some learning games. Any chance of a walk was out of the question once we got the chalk out. All the kids were enamored and I fear that I will not hear the end of it. Having great friends is a blessing and a curse! I won’t waste too much time with the time at my site since the rest of the trip is much more exciting. One more highlight was the village coming together to show them traditional dancing which we all made fools of ourselves trying to join in.
Hayes was semi-recovered by the next day when the taxi came to take us to Chipata. Mtunzi chased the car for a while which nearly broke my heart. I wish I could take him everywhere. We were staying the night at the RPCV’s house I have mentioned before. She and her husband were incredibly generous to let us lodge at their beautiful home. It was such an upgrade from my little house. Their three dogs and three cats got lots of love, too. We did a walk through Chipata and they were all incredibly jealous of it because we have real ice cream, beautiful scenery, and many other hidden treasures. Just in time, I remembered a friend of friend teaches some dance classes. Cailyn was thrilled at the chance to dance, and convinced Ethan and I to go with her. We spent an amazing two hours learning to dance salsa and afro-beats. I had been to one class before with the aforementioned RPCV, but it was a reminder of how much joy dance and movement bring me. It is also a super positive and non-judgemental environment. For dinner we went out to an Indian restaurant, as Eastern has a large Indian population and restaurants with amazing food. The meal definitely ensured that they would all find a time to come back. When we got back they surprised me by having ordered a cake for my birthday! The surprise was extra impressive considering none of them had been to Chipata before. I have some ideas of who helped them and the combined effort and thoughtfulness makes me feel so loved!
The next morning we headed to the border, which is only about 15 minutes from Chipata. We left around 7am since we were traveling all the way to Monkey Bay (see the image below for an idea of the distance). Everyone was sad to leave Chipata and the dogs, but now the real adventure would begin! Immigration didn’t take too long and we quickly found two smaller cars to take us to Lilongwe where we would meet the car we had arranged in advance to take us to the lake. The entire trip we had great drivers, and even with some inevitable car issues, we felt really lucky with this. It helped that through Eeshani’s PC connections we had been in touch with some PCVs in Malawi who gave us good contacts, advice, and prices to expect. The drive to Monkey Bay was beautiful and we were all so excited to be on vacation and going to a body of water that the amount of time in cars (longer than the time indicated below to be sure) that day didn’t phase us too much. We arrived at our lodge right before sunset and knew we had made a good choice of vacation spot. The eco-lodge was right on the lake and we knew that after we checked in we would be going for a swim. The water was delicious and revitalizing. After an evening dip, while we waited for dinner, one staff member told us about the hippos and that we would be able to hear them at night but assured us they stay on the other side of cove and never come this side. I won’t lie, we still swam at night after that.
The next day we went on a boat excursion through the lodge with two of their lovely staff members. We went to try and see the hippos but they were not visible. Then we bought some fish from another boat and went to feed the eagles. The birds clearly knew the boat because the staff would whistle and they would come to the trees above and wait for us to throw the fish out. The videos we got were really cool, unfortunately I cannot attach one. They took us to see some other parts of the bay and then we moored to an island and snorkeled. The water was incredibly clear, but the fish were small. Mostly we just enjoyed the water and peace for a couple hours. When we got back we walked into town for lunch and went to a local restaurant. Here we met another American who was staying at our lodge and heard about her really cool travels across the continent. On the way back we could hear the hippos so two staff members took us to a lookout and we saw a baby and two big ones down below! The views of the lake were stunning everywhere we went.
The next day we woke up early to meet Andrew for a hike. We were rewarded for our early rise in humid conditions with great views and the chance to see two other villages. Both villages are fishing villages and can only be reached by boat or the hike we took. The kids take this route to school everyday and so does everyone going to town unless they have a boat to paddle. It is pretty humbling to be sweating and stumbling and then be passed by barefoot women with 30 kilos of maize on their heads who haven’t broken a sweat and aren’t looking down to see their foot placement. I have often been humbled in this way during my time in Zambia. We were back at the lodge by 9 where we enjoyed coffee, breakfast, and swimming. The rest of the day we spent at the lake reading, playing cards, swimming, and napping in hammocks. It was, in my opinion, a great vacation day. The next day we were traveling to Blantyre to stay with a RPCV that Eeshani had connected with before then going to the mountain to start our hike. We would spend the afternoon in Blantyre prepping for the hike by slimming down our bags and buying food for the next four days.
Andrew had connected us with a friend, Blessings, to drive us to Blantyre and then Mount Mulanje. As we were packing the car, Eeshani got a text from the RPCV saying he had become really sick and didn’t think he could host us anymore. We tried to insist that we didn’t need anything from him besides a place to sleep for the night, but he wasn’t replying so we quickly booked a cheap place we found online. The drive to Blantyre was nothing notable but that is a good thing and Blessings’ car was spacious (meant for 8 so we had a little extra room). Once we arrived we tried to locate to our booked place which was not easy to find. Eeshani had the Malawian SIM so she had to do all the communication. Finally we found it and went inside. As I was talking to the housekeeper in chichewa, the others were looking at the place. We picked rooms and Ethan and Hayes had the foresight to check the bed. They found a bug. We showed the woman and Blessings. She was sure it wasn’t anything of concern but Blessings told us we should go. A quick internet search confirmed the bed bug and we quickly moved out. We called the person we booked with and told her we would not be staying or paying (luckily I had not put payment information down). She was understanding and apologetic. Now we reached back out to the RPCV to say we had tried to find other accommodations without luck and if it was possible for us to still sleep there. His wife replied that they might be going to the ER but that they could give us a spare key. Realizing how seriously ill he must be, we went back online to book another place. We found a rental that looked way too nice but was not too expensive and decided to book it even though this had led us astray the first time. While we waited for the landlord to reply, we went and did our shopping. It was really overwhelming to shop for 6 people for 9 meals that we would then ask other people to carry. We also bought food for that night and water to take up the mountain with us because the guide told us there would not be reliable water sources. Finally we checked out and loaded up to go to the new rental. Unfortunately, the host had not sent us a clear marker so we ended up driving around and spending a lot of time trying to get in touch with them to give us a clear location. Blessings is possibly the most patient person I have met, as he took this all in stride and never seemed annoyed. Finally, after being in the car for 12 hours instead of 5, we arrived to a house that was much to nice for us. The groundskeeper gave us a tour and once we confirmed there were no bed bugs, Blessings left and promised to pick us up early to go to Mulanje.
Our plan had been to leave some stuff at the RPCVs house and get it on our way to Lilongwe after the hike so that we could shed all extra weight. After more phone calls, the rental owners agreed to let us keep stuff in the garage. The warm showers and comfy beds made it hard to imagine waking up at 4:30 to go climb a mountain. But up we got and Blessings found the place with ease that morning. So we started off! I was personally feeling quite nervous. It was a bit drizzly but we didn’t think much of it. The drive was beautiful and seeing the mountain made us all get quite excited. We found our guide at the base town but we needed to get bags for the porters and also a mountain pass of sorts which we had been trying to locate for months. The pass (which turns out is an actual key) gives you access to the huts up the mountain and their bedding, pots, and other amenities. It also has a conservation aspect and you don’t have to pay as much per day to climb by getting the key. We finally got a hold of the person with the key and so Eeshani and Cailyn went with Blessings and our guide to get it while I waited with the boys for our porters and repacked the bags. It was still drizzling but it looked clear enough. It is the end of rainy season in this area and so we did not anticipate the rain being an obstacle. About twenty minutes later Eeshani called us and said that the man with the key who has decades of experience climbing this mountain highly discouraged us from climbing that day. He said if it cleared up later today and didn’t rain tonight we would be okay to go tomorrow and the guide would know ways to avoid the worst of it. Apparently he chewed out our a guide a little bit for not telling us that the rain was a danger sooner and warned us to monitor the weather and conditions ourselves. People tend to underestimate this mountain because it does not have the prestige or height of Kilimanjaro, but it is a serious climb, especially to summit like we wanted to. Luckily, he gave us some lodging recommendations (I am still scared from the bed bug scare). We called the lodges and found one that was affordable and had space. Blessings was still unfazed and happily took us back to Mulanje the town. The rain was getting heavier and the road we were supposed to go up to get to the lodge was not accessible by car. We had planned to hike anyways, so we unloaded and put on rain gear to walk the rest of the way.
Within the first two minutes, with all our stuff on our backs, we were walking through roadside runoff and I stepped too confidently and found myself chest deep in a ditch of dirty runoff in front of a market of people. It took me a minute to get out, and I had to leave my dignity behind to do it. This is a point in the trip where I could have found myself crying, frustrated, and outright defeated. Instead, we were dying laughing. We ended up having to walk 30 more minutes to find the lodge, and we were still laughing when we got there. Luckily, this lodge had no bed bugs, had space for us, was affordable, and had a kitchen we could use so our food for the mountain wouldn’t go to waste. While it wasn’t the hike we expected that day, we were all exhausted and soaked (me most of all). After confirming none of my belongings were wet - I had thankfully had the foresight to put my phone and passports into a ziplock bag and my backpack was impressively water resistant - I took a warm shower. It rained the rest of the day so we read, napped, and played games until we got hungry enough to cook. We were still hopeful that the rain would clear and we could hike the next day. However, once it was dark it was still raining steadily and we called our guide and he confirmed we wouldn’t be able to do the planned hike. He did say we could do some day hikes but that he wanted the same amount plus we would have to pay for transport to the mountain base and back. It was a hard decision, but we decided we would not hike Mt Mulanje this trip. We would stay for one more day at the lodge and do a day hike ourselves and then go to Zomba and hike the plateau and explore the former capital of Malawi before going to Lilongwe. After making these decisions, we called Blessings to ask if he would take us to Zomba and then Lilongwe, and he agreed! He was truly our biggest blessing at this point in the trip besides each other.
After having dinner, we played salad bowl, one of my favorite games, to lighten the mood. It was the hardest I had laughed in a while. This was a long day of being disappointed and rained on, but we still managed to have a great night. It is another example of our strength as a group and our friendship. It would have been easy to let our frustration out on one another, but that would have been unfair. We had planned to the best of our abilities but everything that went wrong was out of our control. So we pivoted and made the most of it!
The next day we decided to explore where we were and not get into a car. There are some tea farms at the base of the mountain so we started by walking through those. It was still drizzling a bit but we could see blue skies so we refused to go back. We were not able to get a tour of any of the tea houses but it was beautiful to just walk around. It also allowed us to spot a waterfall close to where our hotel was so we decided to go and find it! This was the best part of the day. We found the river and climbed up the rocks until we got to one of the waterfalls. It wasn’t the big one we had seen in the distance but it was beautiful and rewarding. We didn’t take many pictures since we were climbing up a river but trust that it was gorgeous and we had a blast. After the swimming and hiking, we stopped by the ditch I fell in the day before and got some fresh produce from the market to zhuzh up our dinner. At this point, the sun was out and there was a lovely rainbow. It wasn’t the day we had planned months before but it was a great day at the base of Mt Mulanje.
Blessings showed up on time to our hotel the next morning! It should not be a surprise that we were psyched to see him. Zomba was just past Blantyre so we stopped back at the house from before the mountain to pick up our stuff. Once again, Blessings found it easily and we got all our things before heading out. We had once again booked a place online that looked lovely. To get there we had to cross the sketchiest bridge I had seen (think wooden planks and when you were on one end the planks went up). But the house did look stunning and had a great view. When we pulled up, however, a woman walked out looking confused. As you may expect, she was already staying there and informed us she had booked it for a month. We hadn’t heard from the host so she called them and we realized they hadn’t taken the booking down from all the booking websites and it got double booked. A stroke of luck came when the host informed us they had a second property nearby that was free and we wouldn’t be charged more. It was too bad because that first place was lovely, but the woman ended up knowing the area well and gave us many recommendations that proved to be very useful. After a bit more run around, we found the next place. It was fine for a night. Once we unloaded the car, we walked to the botanical gardens nearby. There were a lot of monkeys around and their lack of fear of us did make us fear them. We took the recommendation of the woman from the rental and went to an Italian restaurant sold by the promise of amazing gelato. We were not disappointed. The property was beautiful, the staff was kind, and then the owner came out and spoke with an accent that sounded like she could have left Italy yesterday. If you ever have the chance to go to Zomba, Malawi, make sure you go to Casa Rossa. The food was incredible, and the gelato was some of the best I have ever had. We ordered seconds of dessert. The owners were incredibly kind, humble, and helpful. They gave us a map to help us hike to the plateau the next day and gave us tips on routes we could take alone and ones we would need a guide for. I cannot say enough great things about this place, they had a puppy, their staff was local and had worked there for years, they made small batches of everything from scratch every morning, and their house was full of unique decorations and memorabilia from their travels and the travels of their guests. Next time, I definitely want to stay there.
The next day we got up early so that we could hike to the top of the Zomba Plateau by 11 and be picked up at the top by Blessings. We took the ‘Potato Path’ to circumvent the paved road up. Once again, we were humbled by the locals going up and down easily and in non-hiking shoes who would pass us while we huffed and puffed up. The views were great at first, but as we got more into the fog, the views were swallowed by the clouds. It was still worthwhile but also rubbed salt into the wound that we did not get to hike Mt Mulanje. Blessings picked us up at the top where we bought grenadillas and raspberries as a post hike treat. On the way out of town we took another rec of the woman from the day before and got burritos at a cafe. They hit the spot even though they wouldn’t be considered authentic. Then we were on the road again, this time to Lilongwe to stay with another RPCV who also works for PC Malawi. This would be our last ride with Blessings, so it felt nostalgic in advance. That was until we were stopped by some traffic officers and our 4 hour journey was undoubtably going to made longer. We told our host what was going on and she assured us patience was the best and they would be waiting for us with a warm meal and beds no matter what time we arrived. Luckily we got there before dark, but it was another long car day we had not anticipated before their journey back to Lusaka and eventually their sites.
Despite the frustration with the traffic cops, Blessings handled it and we made it safely to the house. We were welcomed so incredibly it nearly erased the stress and tiredness of our day. The amazing food, engaging conversation, and the beautiful home with hot showers was all we hoped for and more. It was tragic we had to leave at 5 the next morning to cross back to Zambia and could not stay longer with the lovely people. The rest of the crew was aiming to board a bus in Chipata at 9, so we needed to get there before 9 including time at the boarder. We had called the same drivers who we had been with on the way into Lilongwe and they agreed to pick us up again. But we weren’t out of the woods or done with hiccups yet. The drivers arrived on time and we started off but 20 minutes into an hour and half drive the boys’ car pulled over. There was a problem with their fuel pump. The drivers assured us that they could fix it and we would be able to make it. It wasn’t NASCAR fast, but it was pretty impressive. We did make it to the border and through the checks before the big bus arrived. Payment was hectic with all the currencies but it was all sorted and we got into a different taxi to the Chipata bus station on schedule to make their bus. And the saga has a happy ending! They got on the bus, made it to Lusaka without any breakdowns, and each made it back to site the next day. I am tired from writing this long post and I am sure you’re tired of reading it.
Nothing will be as exciting as this for a while, but I will do my best to write again soon.
Peace out,
Sophie
LOOOEVEEE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY!
So so cool! Happy you got to travel and see such beautiful things! Miss you very much and sending love❤️ (this comment sounds like something my mom would say)