Vacation and a Boat

When we were in America this summer, we kept saying to ourselves – let’s do as much as we can now, and we’ll rest when we get back to Malawi.  It took us over a month of settling back in to life in Malawi to finally take a few days away to rest.   But it was so nice to get away!

14Sept Vac1

Getting anywhere in Malawi takes a while.  And even though it would take us only about 2 hours to get to Lake Malawi if we drove straight there, we packed a lunch to eat along the way and took our time.

14Sept Vac10

Fortunately, there are some nice places to picnic along the way!

14Sept Vac11

Abigail has turned into quite the explorer!

14Sept Vac2

So after lunch, she and Matt went to watch the cows and goats drink from the marsh.

14Sept Vac4Once we got to our destination – an anglers’ club that’s nice enough to let us stay in their chalets periodically – we had lots of time for sitting and chatting about the different shapes of popcorn…

14Sept Vac13

For reading Stuart Little together…

14Sept Vac3

For playing, and learning, and standing, and clapping…

14Sept Vac12

For dancing!…14Sept Vac5

And of course for taking pictures!  This is what Rachel saw…

14 Sept Vac20

 

And this is what Matt saw!

Then, we decided to buy a boat.

Yes, a boat.  A wooden dugout canoe to be exact.  We’ve seen these turned into tall bookshelves before, so thought that if we could find a boat that was no longer usable to a fisherman but still in good enough condition to make a nice bookshelf, we’d buy it.  So early (4:30am) Friday morning, Matt left with a guy from the village to drive down the coast about an hour or so. They got to the village about dawn and Matt was able to take pictures of the fishermen coming in from a night’s work.  You’ll have to watch Matt’s photos in the next couple weeks to see some of those pictures.  But then the village men took him to see a boat.

14Sept Vac14

There she is – our very own boat!  Hmmm, a little waterlogged, eh?

14Sept Vac15

So waterlogged that it took 9 guys to lift the boat onto the roof rack of our car!

14Sept Vac17

But they did get it on.

14Sept Vac18

And through the sand and herds of cattle.

14Sept Vac6

And Matt brought it back to show the rest of us.  It’s 11 feet long, and by the time we cut off one end and fit it with some shelves, it’ll sit very nicely in the corner of our living room.

Driving Home

14Sept Vac7

Then it was time to go home, back through the marshes and hills and beautiful scenery of central Malawi.

14Sept Vac8

Through the town of Salima and countless villages.

14Sept Vac9

With a stop at a produce stand along the side of the road.

14Sept Vac19

Just a few vegetables, and we’re on our way home.  A great little time to relax and rest!

Oh, and, (ahem) if you’re in the area, we could use a few strong guys to help us get the boat OFF our car now… =) please?

 

Leave a Reply