OK let's see here. The four weeks from the last post I wrote were pretty uneventful. Mostly spent in the village. Last Sunday I went in to Lusaka for In-Service-Training. 5 incredibly long days of workshops. It was pretty good, but I was surprised by myself a few times. For the entire past three months I couldn't wait to go to IST and see my friends and eat good food and have hot showers, and those things were definitely nice, but there were several moments where I found myself missing my village. To be honest I never thought that would happen. It was just an overwhelming week. A lot of people around, a lot of information thrown our way. It's easy to get overwhelmed when you're used to the pace of village life.
On Saturday morning 12 of us caught a bus or hitched a ride that began our 2 day journey to Malawi. Two solid days of transport across southern Africa in situations that at times could only be described as hellish, including at one point a man having a seizure right in front of me on a bus. But on Sunday night, very exhausted, we arrived at Nkhata Bay on the northwest side of Lake Malawi and realized immediately it was worth it. We're staying at Njaya Lodge, a guest house right on the water. We have a large stone beach house for the 12 of us. The water is pristine and just the right temperature. The pace of life here is slow, and the hardest decisions to make are what to have for dinner and whether to stay on the beach or jump in the water. Last night some guy we met on the beach cooked us freshly caught fish and chips over an open fire, which was delicious. After that two guys named chicken pizza and happy coconut (no joke. i couldn't make stuff like this up) brought over a couple of djimbes and played for a while. they let me try and i managed not to make a total idiot of myself. this morning I came to the internet cafe and met a guy from the states who has been in Nkhata Bay for 4 months. He didn't plan to, he just didn't wanna leave. I can understand why.