A short trip to paradise :)

Well, right after I posted my last update, I was about to leave Livingstone for a short holiday to Lake Malawi with Terese, Lina, Johanne, Hanne and Vegard. We started talking about this trip all the way back in September, so we were all pretty excited about it and that we were actually going on this trip :)

Some people would probably think it is a bit stupid to spend almost 96 hours (for Terese and me – since we had to take an extra bus from Livingstone to Lusaka) just with travelling by bus and to only spend about 3 days at the end destination :D At first it did for us as well :D However, it was all the hours on the bus worth it!!! Lake Malawi is AMAZING :) 

Thursday evening Terese and me took the night bus to Lusaka, where we met Johanne, Hanne and Lina at 5 a.m., when we took the next bus going to Chipata (the biggest town in Zambia which is close to the Malawian border). After crossing the border and taking some mini busses and shared taxis, we arrived in Lilongwe, where Vegard was waiting for us. Saturday late afternoon we finally arrived at Cape Maclear :) yeahhh!!!

We chose to spend the mini holiday at the Fat Monkeys Lodge in Cape Maclear and it turned out to be a great choice. It was like paradise! What do you want more than walking out of your room and then having this view:

The view from our dorm

We had some amazing days with relaxing in the sun, kayaking, celebrating Linas birthday and enjoying life :)

Just have a look

Look at the small signs:

"Relax, God is in control" (to the left)

"If God is with us, who can be against us?"

6 a.m. (Johanne, Hanne and Lina sleeping)

A piece from home at the Malawian border

The bus to Monkey Bay

On our way to Monkey Bay

On our way to Cape Maclear - sitting in the back of a truck

Terese with an African child

shopping break

This time we didn't even have to get off the bus to buy food and drinks :D

And here again :)

Nice surprise in Monkey Bay :) I already liked this place :D

Our lodge

Some kids playing songs

Nice view

some children in the village 

nice beach

lovely sunset

nice flowers

Our dorm

local boat

The girls enjoying some cocktails and the sunset

enjoying our dinner

Nice sunset

Telephone in the village

Lina and me buying fruits in the village

Local people at the beach

Boys playing

boys playing

Lina and me kayaking

relaxing and doing pick nick on an island

more kayaking :)

Time for beer pong!!!

And the winners were: Lina and Vivi :)

Happy birthday Lina

Celebrating Linas birthday in this local bar

Johanne, Lina and me

Lina and me playing drums

Nice breakfast

Swimming time (Terese and me)

Local boys

Dry fish 

Lina, Johanne, Terese, Vegard, Hanne and me enjoying the sunset :)

Thanks for an AMAZING trip!

The many hours in the busses and shared taxis on our way to Cape Maclear went surprisingly smooth and well :) We were almost on time and had no breakdowns!

But of course, we at some point had to face the fact that we were still travelling in Africa. When we started our journey back, the taxi arrived more than one hour late…But that wasn’t too bad. It was more the flat tyre, which took them (6 men) 1 ½ hours to fix/change :D We were quickly back to T.I.A.! So instead of arriving around 20-21 hours in Lilongwe, we arrived at 23:30. The next thing was that the information about the direct busses going from Lilongwe to Lusaka we had received, turned out to be wrong and no one was able to tell us, when the busses were going. Hence, we just started off very early (4:30 hours) Wednesday morning, so we could be at the border when it opens and then to be able to take one of the first busses going from Chipata to Lusaka. Luckily, everything went smooth that day and we caught the 9 hours bus going to Lusaka. We were even luckier that we arrived in Lusaka at 17 hours so that we were able to take the night bus to Livingstone :) At 2:30 a.m. I happily arrived in the compound and at 8:30 a.m. I was back to work at Kwenuha :)

The flat tyre

Are they serious? Yes, they were :D

Haha :D at the local market in Chipata

At the local market in Chipata

Nice popcorns at the bus

And grown nuts

The prayer at the night bus

and the "5 minutes" KFC break...well, rather 30 minutes :D

At Kwenuha we were having the monthly sports captains meeting this Thursday, where the main thing on the agenda was the Fun Day we are having next Saturday. We did some good planning and finished with some nice aerobics. The biggest and very positive surprise that day was though that all the sports captains were on time!!! Nice :)

Today we are having the club competition, which I’m really looking forward to.

However, what I’m even more excited about is that my mum is coming tomorrow :) juhhuu!!! I’m really looking forward to spend some nice time with her and to show her more of my life here in Livingstone :)