July 13th - a lil rendezvouz to the South

- Me on top of the Beekeeping centre as roofing takes place!

- (l to r) Willet, Thomas, Brighton and Eznas sitting on our porch tucking into our leftover rice

Yo! Thanks for the comments, it's really nice to hear from you. I am back in Mzuzu en route to Blantyre, which is the largest town in southern Malawi. We (Tom and I) have just booked our overnight bus tickets which will leave here at 5 this evening and get us in to Blantyre at about 7 in the morning. The rest of the group decided not to come on this wee adventure with us as they felt that a 26 hour journey to pick up some jars was a bit excessive. I can kind of see where thry're coming from, but never the less I didn't want to miss out on a chance to see the South even if it will be a fleeting visit.

The jars we are going to pick up will be used for the first batch of honey which will be produced from the centre. Mcloud preferred that the first delivery of the jars was arranged face to face and from then on they will be delivered to a town nearer the village. This epic adventure will not, therefore, be a regular occurrence.

Since my last post I have been in the village, continuing with 'work' on the site. I use the word 'work' loosely as our requirements seem to have diminished since the brickwork has finished. We arrive at the site at 7 every morning still but tend to sit around until the tea break with sweet potato at about 8.30 and then hang around a bit longer until lunch. Whenever we can we shift bricks or help cook so the time passes fairly quickly.

We also had our trip to Nyika National Park, which was a really fun experience shared with ourselves, the Kachimbeka members and several community members. Mcloud was keen to make the trip open to members of the village so it was a wide range of people who came. We also brought a couple of chickens for the ride, but they sadly didn't make it back fully. We stayed in a youth hostel that the government runs for local people to come and use as training venues for community based organisations. It was nice to have a holiday with the locals and it was fun sleeping in the bed next to Tamara, the 60 year old female Kachimbeka member who has an infectious laugh and who refuses to believe that I can't understand Tumbuka.

Joel was struck down with Malaria after Nkhata bay so spent a few days in Mzuzu with Mark and Rose recovering. He's made a good recovery and was lucky at how quickly he managed to get diagnosed. It looked pretty rough so we've stepped up a notch with our deet applications and hope that none of us get it again. Apart from Joel's Malaria we have been lucky and not had to deal with any other illness.

We have the official opening ceremony of the Centre next week and Mcloud has organised a lavish ceremony at which all the local chiefs in attendence. 85-90 people have been invited including some of the Malawi press. Much to the delight of the rest of the group I have agreed with Mcloud that the 6 of us will fill a slot at the ceremony. The performance is a work in progress at the moment but the vision is a song along the lines of "one man went to mow a meadow". watch this space is all I can say!

One of the highlights of the Nyika trip was the Safari at Vwaza Marsh. We were able to walk really close to a group of very 'chilled' hippo's. Unfortunately we were unable to see many more big animals except for the rotting trunk of an elephant that had recently died. It was kind of wierd seeing an abstract trunk. This trip made me thirsty for a bit more safari so I have decided to extend my flight home till a bit later so I can go on safari with Poppy and Tom in the Serengeti in Tanzania, home of the Lion King.

That's it for now - have got a bus to catch!

love Amali x