Malawi: The Warm Heart of Africa

I last left you in Zanzibar... after returning to Tanzania via ferry, we made our way overland through the port city of Dar Es Salaam, spending the next couple nights in Tanzania. Although Tanzania is a nice country, our next destination was my favorite so far in Africa: Malawi! (Although Kenya has a special place in my heart).

We spent almost a week in Malawi, mostly along the beautiful white sand shores (from quartz crystals) of Lake Malawi where we spent time with local Malawians and went kayaking, swimming, and I was even able to go SCUBA diving! The fish life in the lake is so interesting- hundreds of endemic species of African cichlids! Some fish I saw are endemic to the specific island I was diving at! Quite specialized little fish!

The cliche about Malawi is that it's the warm heart of Africa, because the people are so nice and welcoming. I found the cliche to be very true. Every day when we'd go down to the beach, where lots of little kids would join us swimming- we had a blast playing with them. Unfortunately, most of them have lost one or both parents to AIDS or Malaria or more often a combination of both. But, those children were so joyful and thankful! One particular boy, John, had a really bad burn on his hand, so I brought him out some first aid supplies and cleaned and bandaged him up- which caused many teenagers and children to then proceed to show me every cut they had, some of which were fine, others needed a band-aid. Someone from our travel group joked that I was going to become the town's new witchdoctor. John was so thankful that he made me a couple bracelets as gifts- so sweet!! Another younger boy, Ovias, also really touched my heart and I loved playing with him in the water.

Malawi also has the best woodwork and crafts we've encountered in Africa- we bartered with clothing and a little money and got a beautiful Malawian chair (which we've been lugging around since). Also in the craft market, the local carpenters taught me the African game of bao, which is a little like backgammon and chinese checkers, but played with seeds or small stones on a board with little indentations. Once we headed out of Malawi, most the people in our group agreed that Malawi was a special place with friendly people, inspiring natural beauty, and low-key for travel!