Schisto, anyone?

This past weekend was one of my best weekends here so far since I’ve finally settled in and made friends and know about different events that are going on in town. Friday night my friends and I went to check out a famous musician from Zimbabwe, Oliver Mtukudzi’s and the Black Spirits. The concert was fantastic. It was held outside in the courtyard of one of the nicer hotels in town under a large tent. There must have been about 1,000 people there. I was surprised that so many people made it out since the tickets were pretty steep – 2,000 kwacha, about $14. But as our housekeeper, Godffrey, who really wanted to come put it, “I buy 10 chickens for my family for that price – ahhh, no, Godffrey will not come.” Although pricey, the show was a wonderful cultural experience. Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits combine South African and Zimbabwean pop music with traditional kateke drumming to create uplifting beats. The band’s lyrics, sung mostly in the Shona language of Zimbabwe, address both social and political issues of the African continent. I was relieved when half way through the concert, everybody rushed to the dance floor and alas, the dance party had begun!

Towards the end of the night, my feet needed a rest and I found myself sitting on the sidelines in the company of a Buddhist monk. He couldn’t speak English and since my Hindi isn’t that great, our ability to communicate verbally was very limited. We ended up communicating with our digital cameras. He showed me his pictures and I showed him mine. His final comments to me were, “India good, America bad.” He was on his way back to his home, Dharamsala, India, and was clearly very ecstatic to be homeward bound.

Saturday morning, three of my friends and I headed to Lake Malawi. It was quite an adventure as a significant part of the journey was made on dirt roads that wound around through mountains passes and had large potholes that were generously scattered everywhere! Luckily, our rental car was a Rav4 which handled the dirt roads and the potholes very well! It was my first time driving a manual car on such crazy roads and I have to admit, it was actually really fun! I was initially a little concerned about the roads as motor vehicle accidents are a very common cause of death in Malawi but we were very careful and luckily, our journey was safe. On our way to the lake, we made a pit stop in a town called Dedza. Dedza is a quaint pottery town with a café that features cheesecake and coffee! The pottery was in fact beautiful and I ate my fair share of cheesecake, chocolate cake and chicken curry. A very random yet satisfying combination of flavors!

Lake Malawi was beautiful and it surpassed my expectations. The area where we stayed was a little south of Cape MacClear which is a very crowded, party central location with lots of tourists. Apparently you can stay out until 9 am and go to raves, etc. Not quite the experience that I was looking for! So, I was pretty happy when we arrived at our lodge. It was situated on a deserted, remote, quiet part of the lake with sand, clear blue – green water and a bar right on the water. I was a little torn as to whether I should swim in the water or not because of the schisto, but everyone who swims in the lake just treats themselves as if they do have schisto. And since the water was so beautiful, the weather was perfect and sunny and my friend had brought his snorkeling gear, I couldn’t resist swimming and it was totally worth it! Aside from swimming, snorkeling, soaking up schisto, hiking around the lake and exploring the terrain, we spotted some large, leaping, iguana – like reptiles and eagles, played spades for about 5 hours, were serenaded by a local band called the “The Freedom Band,” and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the city of Lilongwe. On our drive back, we stopped in Dedza again to inhale more cheesecake, chocolate cake and chicken curry. We also attempted to chase the sunset and get lots of pictures but the sun sets within a matter of seconds here!

This was definitely a great little adventure and I’ll be heading to the pharmacy soon to snag my dose of praziquantel in hopes of quelling off any cerceriae that may have penetrated through my skin!

Hope this finds you enjoying the beginning of summer and happy Memorial Day weekend! Peace.

Sima ;)