Sunday and the Lake

Today was a busy day.  We got here yesterday and so trying to sleep last night was something that I was worried about because of jet lag.  I ended up waking up at 4 in the morning and was wide-awake.  Nevertheless, I was able to sleep until about 8 and then get up and get ready for the day.  We had to be ready to leave the World Camp house around 10 because we headed to Lake Malawi to celebrate New Year’s Eve.  The ride there took about 1.5 hours and we drove through the Malawian countryside that consisted of many villages and farmland. 

Some local citizens of Lilongwe walking along a major highway.

A dugout canoe in front of the Cool Runnings beach at Senga Bay.

A local village that we passed by.

            It was really awesome to really see how Malawians live their life.  It was also interesting to see how they farm and make bricks and take care of their children.  We saw many Malawians on the way there and they were so friendly to us.  They would wave and yell to us as we passed by in our bus, because it was very clear that we are not from around here.  When we finally arrived, we didn’t know what to do.  We were on a beautiful lake with many possible activities, but we didn’t know where to start.  I really just wanted to hang out and relax a little bit.  We decided to go for a walk down the beach past a local fishing village and interact a little bit with some of the locals.  It was kind of funny, because some of them would just look at us funny and then others would actually say hello and be nice. 

            For the rest of the day, we all hung around the beach, played some games together and relaxed.  And to top of the entire night, we watched the fireworks down the beach to bring in the New Year 7 hours before everyone else on the east coast of the US.   

We all stood on the beach and watched fireworks to bring in the new year.
I took a quick 'star trail' and wrote 'Malawi' with a headlamp.