I updated our blog up to our stay in Zomba, which was a beautifully cool spot where we stayed in a small house reminiscent of a lake cottage. With flagstone floors, Readers Digest Condensed books on the shelves, bunk beds in the corner of the living room and chintz curtains, it felt like a cottage in New England. We enjoyed visiting with our hosts and neighbors, the Theissens, and our kids played with their kids quite a bit. Two trips up nearby Zomba mountain were like a little taste of heaven, with green forests, ferns and walking trails. Kevin and Toby went on a nice long hike and Ben and I hung around near the trail beginning looking at all the ferns, throwing leaves in the bubbling creek, and investigating various bug homes. You just cannot imagine what a breath of fresh air this was for us. After living in the northeast USA, we really miss being able to hike and spend time in the cool, green outdoors. Here in Moz, it is not even possible to go for a walk. There are just people everywhere here near town, and further outside of town there is just not a lot to see. And it is HOT. So, we drank in the beauty.
On our way from Zomba up to our new digs on Lake Malawi, we stopped at a game park. A Christmas gift from a family member allowed us to go on a little safari trip. The park was too wet to navigate in our truck (bridges had collapsed) and so we paid for an hour's boat trip up the river to see hippos and animals on the shore, then for another hour in a safari jeep where we saw warthogs, Waterbuck, Impala, Bushbuck, Baboons, and monkeys. We had hoped for elephants, but this time of year they move further into the park where we couldn't follow. The kids really enjoyed seeing the animals, though Ben got bored pretty quickly and fell asleep lying face-down across my lap. I think he is much more of a homebody than Toby, who is always up for adventure. Ben seemed to tire so easily on the trip, and it makes me believe that he is less of an adventurer even though he is much more personally adventurous (in the form of pursuing danger!).
At Lake Malawi, we had a big house all to ourselves. It was only about $15 per night for the four of us, and we had a gentlemen to cook our food and wash the dishes, and he graciously cooked with the simple things we had brought. We had our own little beach on the very still lake, and a little cabana with comfortable beach chairs. What a treat! Despite a torrential rainstorm with thunder and lightening that kept us up until 1 am, Santa did indeed arrive. Our small people informed us of this at 5:30 am. Needless to say, we had a nap later! That night, we drove down to a nearby resort to eat their buffet. It was a small, family resort that was very cozy, and we enjoyed the feast of pork, chicken and goat on the menu while we watched the Queen's speech on the "telly" in the small dining room.
We headed home on December 26th after quickly packing up all the presents and bidding farewell to the gardener and cook. They were busy getting ready for the next instalment of visitors. We drove south and then east, crossing the border without problems. We drove on beautiful tar roads to the border, and then were pointed down a small dirt road after we crossed. "That is the road to Cuamba", we were told. Good grief. 2 1/2 hours of bumping later, we arrived at the Piper's house, Australian missionaries with SIM who gave us a warm welcome. We enjoyed talking with them and hearing about their ministries there in the "frontier" town of Cuamba. Our trip home the next day to Nampula took only 6 1/2 hours, much less than the 8-11 hours anticipated. We found that our heavy LandCruiser handles these bumpy dirt roads fabulously, holding the road and handling the punishment while not punishing the passengers. We were very thankful for our strong truck. It handled great. When we love it, we love it, but when we hate it (paying for diesel, paying for repairs) we hate it.
At home in Nampula, we found some wonderful Christmas packages waiting for us, and had our second Christmas with much rejoicing. We found that our well had collapsed, and that a pipe under the house had broken. More on that in a later post. The pets were all still alive, including the chickens, and the summer planting has begun. A month's worth of african dust has settled over everything, and I spent quite a bit of time unearthing all of our electronics and valuable documents that I had hidden all over the house. Almost everything has been found. :-) Our faithful workers were happy to see us and we have been busily unpacking and cleaning.
We are so thankful for a good vacation. It only lasted a week, the vacationing part, but it was great and we enjoyed it a great deal. We were all grumpy (except Ben) after returning, wishing we were still in Malawi, but glad for the time we had and thankful for the safe and "easy" return.
Thanks for your prayers!
Cami
No comments:
Post a Comment