A little bit of play as well as work - honest

So this last weekend Friday 12th March saw a vast array of VSO'ers gathering at Kande Beach on Lake Malawi. We left at 5am for the 8 hour drive up to Kande. We travelled via the M1 and M5 - sounds very grand, these are just basically main roads, nothing like the M1 and 5 at home, and fortunately nothing like the traffic jams of said home motorways. We had a very good journey up there with two of us sharing the driving. The M1 leads out of Blantyre and then the M5 is the lake shore road. This often becomes single lane as you go over numerous bridges or are trying to avoid suicidal chickens, who would just wander in to the road and then not get out of the way, much to the amusement of local villagers. Beeping your horn would be a big mistake as it just freaks them out and then they are all over the place. We also encountered many curious cattle herds, giddy goats and dangerous dogs - OK the dogs aren't really dangerous but I couldn't think of anything to go at the front of dogs. I have reached my ETC (end of thinking capacity) a useful phrase I learnt at the weekend. The goats were usually tethered but on hearing the car would try and run out in front of it, and you could never be really sure their tethers would hold out in their excitement at seeing a car, and you were never entirely convinced the cows wouldn't just wander across in front of you either. However despite the distance and the obstacles we made really good time and got to Kande in time for lunch and more importantly a swim. We had luckily missed the torrential downpour which formed the mornings entertainment for those who had arrived the day before. The meeting then kicked off in a relaxed fashion at 4pm ish.













How could you not resist a dip in this!

Saturday was a mixture of talks and opportunities to dip in the lake (I keep calling it a sea by mistake as it does seem like that, the lake is absolutely vast, and if I remember my guidebooks correctly the third largest fresh water lake in the world - I stand to be corrected though)

A view down a the beach - water was just glorious - slightly different from Southampton water front!

This is the sunset over Kande Beach on Lake Malawi

As the sun went down we headed for the bar for a post conference get together and some vital bonding over bottles of green. For the uninitiated - bottles of green are bottles of carlsberg with a green label on them! Carlsberg have a massive brewery here in Malawi and it is based in Blantyre. There are opportunities to go on tours around it but they need to be prebooked and you really shouldn't drive there. That wouldn't be a problem as I don't have a car. I thought though that I might save this particular treat for when I have visitors.

Kande Beach is a lovely place to stay and lots of the overland tours stop by there as well, I think they were slightly bemused to see so many people there this time. There are different options for staying, you can rent on of the chalets, stay in the dorm or camp. Fortunately I had a bed as when camping I am like the princess and the pea, and can feel every lump and bump in the ground even when sleeping on 5 mats. Kande would be even better if they could move it a bit closer to Blantyre and then it might be an option for a relaxing weekend. However I am reliably informed there are some equally lovely places on the southern edge of the lake, I am looking forward to finding out and will keep you posted.

Sunday saw us driving back down to Blantyre again, not forsaking a quick early morning dip. We did a slight detour to look further up the coast but missed our turning I think as ended up on the edge of the lake in a road that pettered out but was full of fish. This was probably because it was a fishing port and fish market - no flies on me, there were though on the fish, and the smell factor was quite high, I don't think glade would have cut it.

We eventually made it back home at about 7.45, I think my passengers survived my driving although am not entirely sure as haven't seen them since, but have had text messages, and it is nothing a good massage wouldn't fix.

Anyway it was a great weekend even if we didn't win the quiz night, we came an honorable third though, and yes there were more than 3 teams. It was really good as well to catch up with some of the volunteers and partners in crime that I arrived here with and see how it was all going with them. Sharing housing and settling in stories.

Currently am on my last week of orientation at the hospital and then start working at the college on Monday. It has been really useful working in the hospital and seeing what happens and what kinds of illnesses patients present with here. Some are much the same as in the UK but some are very different, illnesses that is.

Well that's it for today, will up date again soon. x