Did you know that Carlsberg Malawi was the first Carlsberg brewery outside of Denmark and started operations in 1968? Malawi is a country not well known to the western world, although it boasts beauty in so many different ways from it's lake to the mountains, savannahs, villages, and more. Since arriving, I've been extremely fortunate to come across an amazing community of both foreign expats and locals to make the rough times feel a bit more at ease. As I learned early on, the more you say yes to things, the easier it is to make friends and fit right in. Lilongwe itself doesn't have a lot of activities to offer, so sometimes it's best to take advantage of every long weekend we get and make a road trip to a new part of the country that we have yet to explore. About a month back we happened to have a 4 day weekend, so a group of 15 of us decided to make a 6 hour drive up north to Nkhata Bay, a port town on the northwest shore of Lake Malawi. The drive up was absolutely gorgeous and luckily didn't involve too many unpaved roads. It was amazing to witness the varying landscapes from one region to the next as well as the roadside markets as we passed through multiple villages. However, as we came closer to the destination, we began to notice countless trees chopped down as a result of deforestation to be used as lumber and to support the expansion of agriculture and the energy needs of the rapidly growing population. As mentioned from my Chichewa teacher, she recalls there being so many unique fruits trees that you couldn't find elsewhere while growing up in the 80s and 90s, but now so many of those trees and fruits have been completely vanished. On a bright note though, there has been a rise in the planting of pine trees to supplement the demand in wood, and pine is a great sustainable alternative that can grow very quickly. Malawi is located about 1,500 km south of the equator and has a subtropical climate, providing optimal conditions for the fast growth of trees. Check out the following website to learn more about what Malawi is doing to provide environmental protections and sustainable agriculture projects: https://panterito.org/en/forest/timber-malawi/.
We stayed at an elevated lodge right on the lake called Mayoka. It consisted of a wide range of rooms and prices from dorm style rooms to private chalets to family style rooms and private luxurious suites all next to one another. They also had a common shower that had an outpost overlooking the water, although I did spot a tarantula sitting in the corner when I went to shower initially the second night, so I immediately turned the other way. For about $12 per night, we had all that we needed as well as kayaks, paddle boards, snorkeling goggles, and a free half day boat tour with activities included. On top of that, they also had live music every night as well as some of the best food I have had since arriving in country 3 months ago. One night consisted of a full Indian buffet with several veg and non-veg curries, chapatis, rice, samosas, and rice pudding. The second night consisted of a full proper braai with grilled chicken, fish, beef, eggplant, peppers, sweet potatoes and several other side dishes. And because I haven't had pizza in over 3 months, you know that craving hit, so I had to try their wood-fired oven pizza made from scratch, and to my surprise it was actually really nice.
(local butterfish with nsima and veggies)
The views from the lodge at night as the sun began to set were simply breathtaking and made the long drive up completely worthwhile.
The second day there, our whole group took a half-day boat excursion with planned activities along the way.
We initially took a 45 minute ride to a few cliffs along the lake for those interested in partaking in cliff jumping into the water from about 5 meters high. While it didn't look too intimidating from the bottom, after climbing up the rock, it definitely felt much higher. My parents are probably going to be so upset with me, but I figured I might as well be transparent and not leave out any of the fun. Don't worry, I made sure to let several people jump ahead of me, including a 7 year-old girl who back-flipped in on her very first jump...After a few jumps from most of the group, we then proceeded to a spot in the calm waters along the densely forested shoreline. Our guide then told us all to be quiet and whistled real loud to grab the attention of Malawi's national bird, the African fish eagle. He then grabbed a small fish from inside the boat and threw it out into the water alongside our boat. Check out the video to see what happened next (apologies in advance for the cell-phone going off in the background):
The fish eagle catching it's prey in live action was quite the spectacle to witness. The eagle actually appears on the Malawian currency, and is the emblem of the Malawi Police Force. It is large, weighing up to 2.5kg, with a wingspan of about 2 meters. To end the boat ride, we then went to an island where we met up with some local villagers, who actually speak a different language specific to Nkhata Bay called Tonga, which is also a Bantu-derived language similar to Chichewa in certain ways.
As we arrived on shore, a group of about 40 children came out and greeted us with warm smiles and waves. The guide had arranged for us to play a couple games including beach volleyball and a long jumping competition. The game consisted of 3 sticks. The objective of the game was to run and jump once between each of the sticks and then land in front of the last stick. The first stick was a placeholder for the line from which to jump in front of, while the second stick separated the two spaces from which to jump in between. As each round concluded, we would then increase the distance between each of the sticks until there was only one person left standing. It definitely got very heated and competitive, but was a lot of fun. As we concluded, I noticed that the kids seemed very eager to participate as well, so we outlined a smaller version of the game for them to play in, and they absolutely loved it. It was hilarious to watch because some of the little ones didn't fully understand the rules of the game and would just run through the whole course while forgetting to actually jump in between the sticks. They loved it and everyone was happy, so it was all good.
The guide had also brought some snorkeling goggles from the lodge for us to use. Unfortunately, they weren't the best quality and were quite blurry, so I ended up borrowing a pair from a friend who had her own. This time, I made sure to slather my back and neck with sunscreen before going into the water to snorkel. I had made the big mistake a few years back while snorkeling in the Philippines and got completely sunburned all over my back and neck and even peeled quite a bit, which I had never experienced before. Unfortunately, this time around there wasn't much to see in the waters, as we were a bit too close to shore to see the beautiful cichlid runs. For so many of the local kids, they had never seen snorkeling goggles before, so we attempted to teach them how to wear and use them closer to shore, but soon enough they gave up after struggling to learn how to breathe properly with them on.
(can you spot me?)
As we were about to say our goodbyes, we happened to have some leftover banana bread and samosas that we packed on the boat. We initially made the mistake of handing out some of the bread to the children ourselves. Once they saw the bread, they huddled up real close around us and would proceed to devour the food within seconds before the other children (particularly older bigger boys) would wrestle them for their food. It was really sad, yet uplifting to see how much the food meant to them and to see their reactions and gratitude for it. This is why I am grateful for such little lessons my father taught my sisters and I about finishing whatever is on our plates. In particular, when at a buffet, feel free to go eat whatever you want, but make sure that whatever goes on your plate goes in your belly and not to waste, even if you don't like the food. So instead of giving out the food ourselves, we then gave all the leftover food to our guide, who then had the kids line up in a single-file line. He first gave the girls a piece, before proceeding to the boys, but made sure everyone got an equal share of the food. We then said our goodbyes and headed back to the lodge with happy smiles.
