A Baby Boomer in Malawi: Dad's Trip To See Me! Part 1 of 2

Here's what went down when Dad journeyed to the African tropics in the southern hemisphere to see me.
1. Lilongwe and Dedza: Arrival on time, Dad is tired, but happy to see me! Joyful reunion! Dad thought Dedza Pottery accommodations were excellent. We enjoyed the touristic offerings of the pottery, which means shopping at Diamon shop, a guy who was trained in Mua - beautiful stuff. Napkin rings and nativity as souvenirs, a small leaf bowl for me. Wanted to go see rock paintings but no time - due for lunch at Alicia's the next day. On the way to the village in SV, Caitlin got a speeding ticket (mk5000 gone!) and had fun navigating potholes at 5km/hour.

2. At Caitlin's site: lunch @ Alicia's, tough chicken and chili. Dinner at Head Teacher's, chores by hand (dishes, laundry), and lots of rain. We arrived in the middle of an apparent second wave of rain, which is great for farmers, but not that great for tourists who have to drive around in it. Tea at Eliza's - she made a cake for us (white flour) and we had some tea that I had given her a while ago. That was to balance out perspectives: the Head Teacher's plush and technologically advanced house is a big contrast to E's grandma's cement-mud house, though they both have tin roofs over their heads - much stronger than thatched grass. As a testament, E's grandma's house has been there since 1981. Amazing, when most Malawian houses are rebuilt every 5 years from the bricks up. But for good reason is that house still in good shape - a well-dug foundation and elevated floor, so the mud isn't very affected by rains (no melting). Pasta for dinner. Dad's stomach a bit upset throughout- watery, explosive poo, but he was able to eat some of most of the meals served to him.
Church on Sunday - visit to Living Waters. We arrived late after rains (930) and leave early, though we did sit for a very long, circuitous sermon (till 1155ish) about spiritual maturity. Monday morning to Mua for the cultural museum tour. Dad learned about Chewa, Ngoni and Yao cultures. Out guide was a bit of a skeezy Malawian, claiming to know me and being touchy, not to mention that the focus of our tour seemed to be on sex and (puberty) initiation rituals. Interesting masks:
- For female initiation, a hat with white background and red splotches symbolizing menses and black dots symbolizing fertility - dangerous times for a woman to engage in sex. A fertility figure on top: animal-like, white for semen and black for fertility in polka dots.
- Female anatomy and male anatomy masks: eyes of a person, mouth and nose like giant sex organs. Kinda cute, kinda creepy!
Gule wamkulu performance that afternoon - masks and all - at SVCDSS netball grounds. We saw maybe 8 different animals. 1, a snake, had curly hair and a green face with silvery eyes, and it was wearing trousers; the Caitlin animal! Gyrating hips and all. Thanks guys. Overall, Dad enjoyed it; dancers got very close and struck many poses for photographs. Dinner at the Gwirang'ona's house - no electricity and less English, sort of a contrast for Dad to compare again with the HeadTeacher's home. He enjoyed talking to Gwira about education, geography, income and transportation differences, and road system differences between America and Malawi. Dad's comment - "He's actually a smart guy!" Yeah. He knows and believes scientific evidence that the Earth is round, not flat - a discussion we seriously had at school one day at tea break.
Market Day and tea@ the Presentation Sisters Mission in SV. Taught Dad to play Bao on my new board from Mua and had a morning game. Then to Sister's for tea and chatting w/Agogo (Sr. Choza) and Maximina. An awesome teatime spread included boiled maize, guavas, donuts, and tea w/lemon. We contributed some strawberry jam and left it with them there. My Dad had a chance to thank them for taking care of me and learned a bit about their lives volunteering here. Then we played a game called flip out; sort of like Pente (Greek game of forming threes).
Market Day: We stopped at the witch doctor's blanket for an explanation of African medicine. Protectives, love potions, medicine for teething babies, malaria, body pains, etc. Saw secondhand clothes, bought some zitenje, saw produce amayis (fruit, veg, grains, beans, donuts...), butchers, beer brewed in oil barrels, pics with my chippies lady, cherry plum sobo @Glory's shop. Then off to Zomba! Stopped at local fave Chifundo Artisans Network in Balaka to buy some batiks.

3. Zomba Forest Lodge
This place was recommended to me by R____, a med student from Ireland who had spent an elective semester at a health center in Cape Maclear - met her at Mufasa in Lilongwe. It was quite a secluded place - you drive 10km up the plateau to arrive, and we were one of 2 families staying there. Beautiful setting - a front lawn suitable for bocce ball, framed in an array of bird-friendly flowering bushes, big trees all around - and lovely, family-style interior, like stepping into a nature-lover's summer home in the woods. Lavender soap, old fashioned paraffin lamps, and a fireplace, down comforters n the beds, a veggie-bejeweled 3 course dinner served family style, assorted carved board games, nature books for bird and mammal watching, a tea trolley for all day tea drinking, wine and coffee on request, and a fireplace to gather round. Natinoal Geographic and Africa Geographic Magazines, a bookshelf full of good books - a very special place, only missing a record player (though there was a radio playing BBC). The owner: a conservation enthusiast named Ron from S. Africa who had a cute puppy (1/2 great dane) named Patch, who liked to chew and play. In the morning, we hiked down to a slippery trail into the gorge of one mountain stream - wooded like a Costa Rican cloud forest with giant trees and twisting vines. We followed it toward a clearing over the valley. Clouds and mist abounded, the constant source of such lush greenery. Departure for Mulanje around 12pm, regretfully.

4. Mount Mulanje
Check in @ motel and driving along the ring road to Likubula's Forest Office to do a little walking around before dinner and darkness. Saw some other PCVs - Big Ben who was hanging with Kristen and her sis, Shannon. Pools were more like a rushing, flooded river; no swimming! Dad didn't enjoy the Phalombe road, dirty and bumpy. Lovely day next morning for hiking. We depart the motel around 8am (see motel note below) and watch the clouds shrouding the mountain thin and fall as we came around on the road. Though it's cloudy to start, the day looks promising - and indeed by 12pm after descent, we have sun and slices of blue sky. The gatekeeper at the park remembers us from the day before, so he lets us in free of entry (though we pay to park). We walk up a rough dirt road that continues for most of the way (5km?) to the Falls trail. It's not well-used, though we did see a few people living in the park and using the walkways. Hiking went slow - Dad barely slept the night before and was feeling sick, so he felt pretty wiped out to start. I was feeling great most of the way, though the downward trip was a little rough on my wobbly knees - though descending was still a case of the tortoise and the hare. Another thing to bolster my scary observation that Dad Is Getting Old. We followed the side of a gorge into the mountain on the way up, seeing many waterfalls across the way and occasionally glimpsing the source of the river's roar, a confluence of the far off falls. The path to the pool and Nkhalamba Falls itself was not quite clear - many ways were diverging and reconnecting and without a guide, we were unsure and a bit unwilling to continue wandering to the actual falls - we were to travel back up to Central Malawi the same day, so time was short. Finally after looking around, getting muddy crossing a small river offshoot, I took pity on Dad and suggested we descend. Lovely views of Mulanje district tea on the way down. Pictures Dad took were in part to show his friend a place "where you can look out and see only terrain and houses - no roads."
Note: The motel had weird bedding, were uncomfortably warm inside the rooms, showers had no hot water, and a whore was talking loudly in the hallway at night, plus some loud radio sermons from Robert Schuller were blaring 4 rooms down to drown out noise. Not a fave.
Pizza at Pizzera Basilico for lunch was a winner, though!

5. Senga Bay
After money change (shady blck market style), we headed to the beach to get some lake time. First tried the Wheelhouse Marina, which was more than rundown, then went to Carolina Resort, the old PC standby - great terrace atmosphere, bar and dining area, cheap rooms and camping. Off-season rates are great. Dad still surprised by the price of food (Western food, that is). Got a card w/pic made of banana leaves to go w/Dora's retirement present, a bowl carved w/animals outside and inscription: "For Dora / PCMW Zikomo! / Education 2008," made especially by rasta carvers @Lilongwe Post Office. One downside to being n a small group @Carolina: being harassed, especially when sunbathing. Talking to the bartender there: He works 14-24 days/month for k5000, though he pays k1300 of that in rent. Hours are 6am-10pm, he gets one meal per day. Rough conditions - Dad and I agreed we couldn't do it! But as he says, it's a step up from just sitting at home, since he can network and try to land other jobs concurrently.

Next: The Safari!