The Halftime Show

Well everybody, it's officially half-time of the Mary and Colin Adventure. We reached the midpoint a few days ago and it seems both impossible that we've travelled for 45 days and unbelievable that its only been 45 days since we had a Portillos beef and cheddar or washed our clothes in a real washing machine.

We celebrated our official halfway day in the small yet stunning country of Malawi. Some of you may be familiar with Malawi's famous citizen: Madonna's new kid. Others of you may have visited yourself to swim in the fresh waters of Lake Malawi- home to an astounding 900 varieties of fresh water fish. I saw an ad for a dive school in Malawi that said "diving in Lake Malawi is like diving in a giant aquarium" and I have to believe it's true. We manged to see a couple while snorkeling.

I'd love to astound you with tales of adventure but Col and I literally did nothing while in Malawi except sit on the porch of our beach chalet, read, eat and occassionally take a dip in the water. Some of you may recall that we were weary of exposing ourselves to the water in the lake due to the parasite located under it's shimmery surface. Well, to be honest, it's one thing to vow staying at bay when you are in your cold Chicago apartment but it's a completely different story when you are standing on it's sandy shores in your bathing suit. Besides, we learned that the showers we were taking pre-visit to the lake were just as likely to contain the parasite as a swim in the lake so we were already tainted by the time we reached the beach. Oh well. Skank says we just need to go to the pharmacy here and grab an anti-parasite pill and we should be good. It's somewhat reasuring that he's never contracted the illness and he's a prime candidate having swam in the water numerous times. Then again, the guy walks around the less-than-desirable streets of Dar Es Salaam during a rain storm without shoes on with no consequences. Hmmm.

Anyway, due to our total lack of interaction with culture, community or wildlife (aside from a trip up the mountain to the fabled Livingstonia), I'll share with you a few minor observations on Malawi:

1. They are really concerned with drinking and driving. In a country almost absent of any advertising (except for the always present Coke or Celltell painted huts) we noticed numerous signs that said "don't drink and drive." The other signs we saw said "Reading road signs saves lives." We assume they meant the road signs about drinking and driving. As it turns out, we learned from the owner of the campsite that this is a relatively new law and they are really cracking down on it. HOWEVER, when the law was first introduced it was a bit lost in translation. She told us that a man who worked at the camp had been pulled over when the police saw that he was drinking a Kouche Kouche - a local beer that means "sun up to sun down" - while driving. The policeman waved him over and told him about the new law. He then told the man to get out of his car and finish drinking the beer by the side of the road. Once he finished doing that he was free to carry on driving. She said they've since clarified the issue. Likewise, she told us to find a Malawi "rules of the road" book. Supposedly there is a no doing drugs and driving policy listed. Makes sense. However, she said the book states "doing drugs while driving is detremental because you end up speeding trying to get to the next place to do more drugs." So I guess it's okay to take drugs while driving as long as you aren't rushing anywhere to buy more.

2. The second observation about Malawi is that they've really mastered the art of woodcarving. Malawi is known for it's handcarved wood items - in particular their elaborately carved wood chairs. I am known for wanting the thing a country is known for so Col and I hit the wood market to bargain our way into some wooden delights. After about an hour in the heat I had decided that one of these wood chairs would be both easy to transport home and a real conversation piece to have in our imaginary condo. The promise of "looking good in the condo we'll have someday" has led to many travel purchases in the past: tapestries in India, bowls in Croatia, waterford in Ireland, etc. This time Colin wasn't going for it. Not being the interior design visionary I had put my faith in, Col said he could picture where it would go in the storage space but not in the ficticious condo. Oh well. We walked away with a small table and rhino bookends (which will look great on the bookshelf we don't have in the mythical condo).

Note that I did the bargaining in the wooden goods deal. That's one of my jobs on the trip. Col deals with the money, electronics and rational thought. I deal with the laundry, market bargaining and spirit of adventure. It's working out quite well.

So where are we now? Well, we pulled into South Louongwa Park yesterday. It's located in Zambia and is known for it's large hippo population. We can vouch for this large population by the sheer lack of sleep we received last night. We had just finished our first night game drive (cooler in theory than in practice) and slipped into our hot tent. It wasn't 10 minutes later that the hippos came on shore to feed. Now a hippo can feed for a long time and in doing so makes snorting/laughing-like noises. I may have mentioned this before. When you get a lot of hippos doing this it kind of sounds like late night after the bar closes. As frustrating as this is when you are trying to sleep I still like the idea that we are surrounded by hippos in our tent. Just one of those things I'll miss when we go home. Maybe I can find a "hippo sounds" white noise maker for the imaginary condo.

We will be baking in the hot sun here for another few days before we make our way to Victoria Falls. Until then I'll leave you with a fun fact:

A group of zebras is called a Dazzling of Zebras. Giraffes a Tower of Giraffes. A Raft of Hippos and a Parade of Elephants.

Good to note that we are learning on the trip. Love to all!