The rest of the week in Malawi was pretty much the same, save for Thursday night which was so absurd it would be impossible to explain on this blog. Early yesterday morning we got a minibus out of Nkhata Bay and began a 12 hour journey back to Zambia, in conditions better than the way there, that ended at about 6 last night in Chipata, the capital of Zambia's eastern province. Which is where I am now. Every province in Zambia that has volunteers in it has a house where they can stay for a few nights a month for r&r and I'll probably be there until thursday. It'll be a good time to get myself back into gear for village life, but there are other reasons as well.

As you may or may not have heard, two weeks ago today Levy P. Mwanawasa, the president of Zambia, died at the age of 59. He had a history of health problems and had a stroke at the end of June that he was never able to recover from. Tomorrow is his burial, and it will be a Zambian national holiday. I really haven't been able to see what the country has been like in the wake of his death, with being in Lusaka at training and then in Malawi, but there has definitely been a somber mood throughout the country. Mwanawasa was by all accounts a good president who worked hard to fight the corruption entrenched in Zambia's government, due in large part to the less-than-moral presidents who preceeded him. A 60 day mourning period follows his death, at the end of which Zambia's political parties will announce their new presidential candidates. A 30 day campaign follows, culminating in a presidential election which will take place about 2 or 3 weeks after the American election. Zambia is a peaceful country and there are no expectations that the current state of things will lead to any unrest like what happened in Kenya, but please keep Zambia in your thoughts and prayers as they make a decision that will greatly affect the future of the country.