So Saturday brought a magical mystery tour of Lilongwe accompanied by the girls from Malawi's new GOLD team! It was another early start (I'm dying for a lie in!) and we were picked up in the MAGGA mini bus ready for an adventure!
First stop was a cultural village somewhere outside of Lilongwe where we were shown some traditional Malawian huts made of bamboo and straw roofs. They were lovely and cool inside and much larger than they looked on the outside. We sat by the water and were served nshima and stew in a bowl which the whole group ate from as is traditional in Malawi.
Next up was a stop at the grave of the first president of Malawi, who ruled for over 30 years (until he was in his 90's) while Malawi created it's new democratic system. He was much loved by the people and he has an elaborate mausoleum which we were shown round by the lovely guide.
In the afternoon we were taken to the Lilongwe Wildlife Reserve which was all of our favourite part of the day. The park rehabilitates and relocates it's animals primarily and the animals that live there full time are injured or have been bred in captivity. The enclosures are huge and are as close to their natural habitat as possible so they don't guarantee any animal sightings at all but there were plenty of monkeys to be seen and we were lucky enough to be at the lion enclosure at feeding time. It was a struggle at first to see the lion but we all managed (with the exception of Alannah who after several explanations of 'look between the 3rd pole and the first tree under the red bar' divulged she was short sighted and couldn't see that far...).
Last on the itinerary was Kumbali Cultural Village which I can only describe as the Centre Parcs of Malawi where we mostly watched some volleyball and Rhiannon was asked to step in when one team was one player down. The rest of us got very excited because they sold Coco Pina, a fizzy drink which smells like air freshener but is surprisingly refreshing. Despite some enthusiastic cheerleading and several Mexican Waves Rhiannon's team still lost.
At the end of an action packed day we were dropped back at the lodge when we realised we didn't have enough money to pay the hostel bill. Cue an emergency dash to several ATM's in the car of an employee of the lodge's restaurant. Cash points only give out 40 000 Kwacha at a time and we can only use cash points at Standard Bank which has been a bit of a struggle in terms of paying for team essentials but we've pretty much figured it out now!
We're off to Blantyre tomorrow so there will be more news soon!
Much Love,
Team Malawi
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