All aboard... to Likoma! No.18

After bidding everyone at Open Arms farewell and wiping away the tears our first stop was in Liliongwe where we stayed with Julie and her family whom we met during our first stint in Malawi. After a weekend of relaxing and great hospitality, Julie and Hugh gave us the use of their car in return for taking some building materials up to Luwawa where there having a cottage built at the Lodge. It was fantastic to see all the staff at Luwawa whom we'd made friends with, but soon found out there were lots of departures, including our feathered friends, Kim and Natalie the chickens, who were taken by one of the staff members who left under dubious circumstances!

When we arrived at Mzgambuzi school we were greeted by lots of excited and happy faces. They lept on to the back of the truck for a ride and began chanting songs with our names in. After chatting to the head teacher George, we were happy to find out that the school had been promised a yearly donation by the US government to help with building maintenance as well as school supplies. We also learnt that they had been told by the local MP they would have a water pump installed as soon as the rainy season has finished. Its already great to see that the new school building is being used for lessons and that a new teacher has arrived to help out George, the only teacher. With the extra funds we kindly recieved from some of you, during our stay at Luwawa we went to the nearest town and brought more cement so that the builder can start cementing the floor. On our last day at the School we had a farewell get together with the teacher and kids by giving them a drink and snacks as well as lots of playing and singing songs. The highlight of the day for the kids was getting a ride in the back of the truck for a short ride up to the nearest village where they climbed off the jubilantly waved us goodbye.
The next part of our journey is where our travel adventure truely began. We made our way to a small town along Lake Malawi called Nkhotakota where we waited until 3am for the Ilala Ferry to arrive. Along with lots of other Malawians and half of their worldly belongings, we waited onthe beach in the middle of the night. In the distance we saw the ferry lights and due to there not being a jetty we waited for smaller boats to collect us and take us to the ferry. With our backpacks on we waded in to the Lake and leaped on to the boat and finally got on the ferry by 4am. Our tickets were for 'deck class' which enabled us to sleep on the top deck of the boat under the stars.
After watching the beautiful mozambique scenary we arrived at Likoma Island 12 hours later, and although the island is nearer to Mozambique it is still considered part of Malawi. This is probably the most beautiful part of the lake we'd seen with the typical postcard image of paradise. We stayed in a beach chalet with a view overlooking the lake and spent our time relaxing on the beach, went snorkelling and saw the various types of local fish. On one of the days we decided to head over to the local town and ended up losing our way and by accident exploring half the island in the midday heat (only we could get lost on an island!!). It was soon time to tear ourselves away from this gorgeous, tranquil place and leave Malawian soil as our visas were about to expire.

Our next stop...... Mozambique, which we'll save for the next blog.

Love Nat and Kim xx