Muli Bwanji!

We have arrived back safety from our weekend break. Cape Maclear turn out to be such a seductive westernized haven that we extend our stay for an extra day :0). Cape Maclear is a beautiful area of the lake – with mountainous scenery and fantastic sunsets, it has been developed as a tourist resort and is composed of a number of lodges, pub and restaurants oddly set within an African village. It feels quite strange and cannot be classed as ‘real Malawi’, but the Western comforts of hot showers and pizza were greatly enjoyed by all :0) We caught up with a couple of other medial students from our uni who are based in Cape Maclear. They are working at a clinic there which is staffed by western volunteers. Cape Maclear is possibly the best place to get ill in all of Malawi - there are more medical degrees per person there any other place in the country! We spent the weekend looking at the curios (wood carvings - Malawi seems to have some of the best wood craftsmen in Africa), going on boat trips, watching the fish eagles and snorkeling.

On our outward journey we started early (7am) and we managed to make it there in 7hrs with a mix of matolas (mini buses that are quite literally falling apart in front of your eyes) and the illusive AXA bus (oh for a timetable). On our homeward bound journey we foolishly thought we could achieve the same time but leave later (only 8-8.30ish). After a dusty bumpy ride down from Cape Maclear on the back of a truck containing at least 30 people, a few bikes and empty fuel barrels we arrived in Monkey Bay to find that all the AXA buses had alluded us once again. So commenced a challenging day, which ultimately consisted of 6 ‘buses’, hefty amounts of prayer and took us 11hrs to reach Nhkotakota. We abandoned one of our matolas after the driver had spent over 1/2 hr having a friendly chat with the policemen about his apparent lack of a driving license! Anyway all ended well – lesson learnt – start your traveling early.

We received our results this week and fortunately all 3 of us have passed so we are able to remain in Malawi and complete our elective – yay!! We are hoping to be able to spend a decent amount of time at the government hospital in Nhkotakota next week, as I for one am finding the lack of patients at St Annes a little limiting at present.