and on the 6th day we rested

Even though Saturday was technically a free day, we got up early to start a day as our travels would take us a few hours away from our lodge. After breakfast, Tom, our driver, was here to pick us up. Coming along, with our team on the trip, was Jimmy and his wife Wezzie.

Jimmy and Wezzie

Some of us were dreading the drive ahead, but the time went by fast as we played games. The first stop of the day was the market to do a little souvenir shopping. This in itself was almost like a game. We were told by others that if you come to the market and purchase an item at the first cost quoted to you, then you are ruining it for everyone else. The objective is to "do business" and barter with them. You have to be willing to walk away and do business with someone else as they basically have all the same merchandise maybe with slight differences. Some people like it, some people didn't do so well under these conditions. Especially considering that we were under a time crunch. Originally, we were given 30 minutes to do our shopping, but the group consisted of four women, so you know that wasn't happening. We ended up extending our time to 45 minutes. We all managed to make out with a few souvenirs for ourselves and loved ones or so we thought. 

The market

After that, we continued on in our journey to Lake Malawi. It wasn't too far away. Once at the hotel, we went to the restaurant for lunch. The hotel had a buffet. There on it was fish, chicken and goat along with nice cooked vegetables and potatoes.  On another side, there were salads, fried bananas and dessert, but we didn't need any dessert. We had our own special dessert as it was Mary's birthday. The staff came out singing happy birthday with a chocolate birthday cake. Richard said the sweetest things to Mary, and of course, she cried. He gave to her a book about Africa to remind her of this birthday. 

Lake Malawi was beautiful. It was nothing like a lake, it was like a beach and an ocean. We ventured down the shore line to where the rocks stopped us. Some of us ventured further and climbed a brick wall to see the "really cool" things that Will told us about. (Don't tell him but it was a bunch of big rocks and a tree that you could see from the other side of the brick wall.) 

Beyond the brick wall (the wall was about 10 feet)

Before going through the gates of the hotel, we noticed a little market a.k.a souvenir shop. Will thought of some other people for whom he needed to buy somethings for. He found some things, but we soon discovered that this market was expensive. Where we would have paid 500 kwacha for something, it was 1500 kwacha here. Collectively, we decided it wasn't worth it, checked our watches, and decided we had some time that if we left the lake early, we could hit up the other market again. Thus, we loaded up.  

We got to the market in time, as they said they were closing in 30 minutes. There were a few of us who wanted some more things, so we got out of the van, picked 1 of 35 shops and started doing business. We each picked up 2 or 3 things, since we were all buying from the same store, we really needed to get a good deal. He started at 1000 kwacha for each item. WHAT!!! That is way too much, we countered with 500. 

-No, no 900. 

-500. 

-No, no 700. 

-No 500 is fair for you and us look at all this stuff we are buying from you

- 600 is the best I can do

- 500 is fair

-700

-wait you just said 600

-ok 600

-can we both agree on 550 thats an extra 500 for all these items, that's a lot of money

-okay 550

That my friend is how you do business in Malawi :)

Along the ride home we saw many interesting things farmers markets, Heaven Bound Funeral home, mice on a stick being sold on the side of the road and real tribal men in leave skirts and masks. It was quite a journey.

For dinner, we stopped at Kumbali VIllage where our youth group who came before us stayed. It's truly roughing it. Open showers where you get your own water and huts to sleep in. Dinner was served in the dining area under the stairs. For dinner we ate chicken, beef, fries and nsima (prounced see-ma which is the local staple) with relish. 

It was a long day and we looked forward to our beds, but not before we play some take'em.