05/16/12
*There is no post for Day 10, due to some controversial issues that went on during the day as well as some personal information that shouldn't have been online. I deleted that post from earlier today. I'm sorry if I offended anyone for what I posted and hopefully my future posts will not offend anyone.
I
woke up early to watch the sunrise over Lake Malawi. It was absolutely
gorgeous! After watching the sunrise for a little bit I went back to bed;
another long bus ride was in order for us today. When everyone woke up, we had
the chance to visit the beach to see the merchants. We managed to barter some
of our extra clothes and water bottles for some really nice stuff! On our way
back the maid that has been cleaning our room asked if we were selling flip
flops. We just gave her a pair to thank her for cleaning our room this past
week. The shirts that my friend Rachel gave away were a huge hit! One guy was
already wearing his new shirt by the time we left.
As
we were loading the bus, our waiter brought his pet monkey to see us!
Apparently Lisa Hinkel saw the monkey a few days earlier and asked the waiter
to bring him back one last time for the rest of us to see. He was abandoned
when it was a baby and was found on the property of the hotel we were staying
at. The owner told the waiter to take him home as a pet.
After
about 4 hours, we were greeted by a familiar face; one of the leaders from the
Youth Ambassadors Program we visited in Lilongwe last Thursday. He wanted to
thank us for visiting, as it brought much joy and excitement to the village.
They managed to save enough money to get each of us matching fabric to keep! We
were very grateful, and in return we gave him a few soccer balls and the rest
of the children’s shoes.
The
rest of the shoes that were leftover went to our tour guide from last week who
showed us the village in the afternoon. He wanted to start it up in the hope he
could save up enough money to enroll his daughter in private school again.
We
had a free day at last, and I was given the chance to look at the cliffs our
group visited while I was recovering from jet lag. It was so gorgeous! I’ve
never seen anything like it before. We decided to bring our books to catch up
on reading because it was much better to read on the cliff than read in our
room. Lisa Z. brought her music so we listened to that while we were reading.
One of the songs that popped up was “Circle of Life” which was very fitting.
There was a goat tied up to a tree the entire time and wouldn’t shut up. I went
to try and “save it”, hoping it would shut up. Once I saw it was tied to the
tree, I knew it was there for a reason; it wasn’t stuck, it was about to be
dinner. The goat didn’t appreciate me trying to save it, so he spat in my face.
I now have a strong urge to eat goat…..
We
didn’t get the chance to eat goat (or eat dinner) because the power went out!
This isn’t the first time the power went out, but we were told in the beginning
that power cuts were common. We were surprised (and fortunate) that the power
didn’t go out more than it did. So instead, we were Amish for the night and
found other ways to entertain ourselves. Rachel and I talked with the professor
about our lives and how we met. Oh that poor woman, she was probably thinking
“why did I bring these two?” We have an interesting friendship that’s for sure.
When the power did come back on we were too tired to do anything, even eat. So
we went to bed in preparation for two LONG days of flying, including being
stuck in the stuffy, humid airport….