July 13 - More Nkhata Bay

Fatigue overtook me before I finished last night's entry, so I'll continue it now. After we got settled in our cabins, we hiked down to the restaurant to order lunch. Several of us ordered a feta/cucumber/tomato/lettuce baguette sandwich, but they were out of baguettes, lettuce, and cucumber.  They replaced those ingredients with regular bread, cabbage, and gherkin pickles. It was good anyway!

Jenna, Jayme, and Danielle, hanging out in the restaurant

 Because lunch was being prepared on Malawi time, Jayme, Mike, and I went down to the water's edge outside the restaurant to put our feet in the water, soak up some sun, and play with puppies. Very nice couple of hours. :)

The view from the restaurant

Mine and Jayme's feet :) (picture from Jayme)

Enjoying the sun and the lake views! (picture from Jayme)

Danielle, playing with two of the many puppies!

After lunch, all of us were down by the water, and Danielle and Anna decided to try out the dugout canoe.  The resort had a challenge that if two people could paddle the dugout out to a pontoon on the lake and back, they would receive a free night's stay.  Danielle and Anna couldn't keep the canoe upright and afloat for more than a second.  They tried about five times, and then Mike and Jenna gave it a shot.  They had the same luck. Let's just say we all paid for our rooms that night.

Wading in the lake :)

Anna and Danielle, about to try the dugout (picture from Danielle)

And....it flipped. (picture from Danielle)

Mike and Jenna give it a shot

Once giving up on the canoe, Anna and Danielle decided to go into town and Jayme and I went with them.  We did a little bit of shopping (I bought bracelets for Erin and Ally and keychains for Caleb and Dr. Ammon) and then we had a snack of roasted maize and pink Fanta and took a break from walking.  We would have taken it to go, but the owner of the store where we got the drinks wouldn't let us take the glass bottles.

Roasted maize and pink Fanta!

Me and Danielle enjoying our snack :) (picture from Danielle)

We wandered around the market a little more and then decided to head back to the resort for dinner.  On the way, we saw a little cafe that had iced coffee frappes for 200 kwacha! We couldn't pass that up, so we went inside to get one for the walk back.  The bartender told us they were out of ice, but they could make us a fruit milkshake instead.  We decided to try one and asked if they had to-go cups.  The bartender said they didn't, but he could put the milkshakes in empty water bottles for us.  TIA.  When the milkshakes were finally ready, they weren't anything like an American milkshake.  It was just chocolate syrup, banana, and milk blended together. No ice, no ice cream; it was really liquidy and barely cold. Oh well, the flavor was pretty good anyway and TIA. :)

Jayme and I, waiting for our milkshake

Jayme and I with our Malawian milkshake :P

Dinner was also served on Malawian time.  We ordered dinner this afternoon to be ready for 6:30PM and we were served around 7:50PM. It was good though! I had pumpkin ravioli with a basil garlic butter sauce, a real salad, and freshly baked herb rolls. Yum!

Dinner at Mayoka (picture from Annie)

After dinner, Danielle, Jayme, Mike, and I went down to the shore and sat on some big rocks out in the water and watched fishermen and talked. It was a nice end to the day.

This morning, we (Jayme and I) got up early to take showers in the outdoor shower that overlooks the lake. It was really cool! (Including the water, haha. The hot water ran out in the middle of my shower.) We had pancakes with Malawi honey and tropical fruit. Yum! Then we began the hike back to town to catch a bus to Lilongwe. We got one as soon as we got into town and even had seats! The drive was pretty uneventful; we mostly slept and snacked for seven hours.  The scenery was beautiful along the lake. We even saw baobob trees!

On the bus back to Lilongwe with Danielle and Anna. I love these ladies! (picture from Danielle)

 We're back at Teethsavers and it feels like home! Funny how things work that way. :) When we got back this evening, Fred was watching TV in the den.  I walked in to say "Hi" and soon after I did, a commercial came on that had a scene of an astronaut floating in space. Fred got this excited look on his face and said, "Casey, that's like what we discussed the other day! Now every time I see that, I think of what you told me. You explained everything so well.  Whenever people are talking about flying, I know what to say."

Made my evening. :)