Day 37: Cape Maclear

12th August:

I woke up thinking I was still dreaming, looking at my phone to see that Frank the Monkey Bay bus man has texted me (we exchanged numbers so I could find a minibus/taxi when I come back through monkey bay to go further south). 

"Mimi remember my wish is to take u some place where ever u want to go coz am ready to do any thing wat ever u like mimi am crazy of u girl please give me the chancy to show u the way how mouch I love u baby good night mimi"

I gave him no indication of any interest whatsoever and spoke to him for less than a minute, and suddenly he's confessing his love! I'm crying of laughter!

They have a cat here called Iwe - it's the word all Malawians use to say "you" or hey or the polite way of saying "oi!", etc

After some breaky and a little swim I headed off down down the beach, to nearly the other end the bay. There and back took me about 2 hrs! The sand was way too hot to walk on so I walked along the edge of the water, weaving in and out of the locals washing their clothes in the lake. I thought it was going to be a lot more touristy that it actually is- yes there a few people selling their wood carvings and postcards and bracelets, but I hardly saw any "mazungus" around. My quest to find some friends to climb Mt Mulanje failed a bit.

All of the kids on the beach would stop what they were doing as I walked past and either wave or laugh or try out their best English on me. The most common interaction I'd get is the kids saying "madam, bottle" or "give me bottle" or "give me money", but it wasn't in a self pitying, begging type way, they all said it very matter of factly or even with smiles on their faces. 

Met Snoop who introduced me to Harry, a guy who is attempting to run the local drama group here. He said it's very difficult to get the kids interested in joining, although some of the kids from the town seemed more keen. I then found out he'd taken a show up to the Edinburgh Fringe a few years ago, which was pretty impressive seeing as it costs about £1000 just to get there and he clearly did not have that sort of money- must've had some serious funding!

I then played quite a few Bawo games with a guy who worked there, he won 5:3.

I met the American girls in my dorm who are all on a year long fellowship programme with the World Health Core. Some were based in Lilongwe, some in Blantyre, and one girl by the Mozambique border.

There was a BBQ for dinner that I signed up to earlier today. Then all the tables were cleared to the sides and everyone started drinking and dancing into the early hours.
At around ten to two I walked back with some friends I'd made to their house and we watched Michael phelps in the Olympics and  then we had a late night swim in the lake in our underwear.