Day 17: Elephant Rock

We spent this morning at Chimbowe school. The MoonCatcher Project has been working with this school for several years. I’ve been here before and was happy to revisit. I wish I’d taken photos of the roads on the way, but I was too busy holding my breath hoping we wouldn’t get stuck. Olipa was amazing navigating the rain-soaked ruts and huge puddles. I was never convinced that we wouldn’t just disappear into one of them, but she’s done this enough to be an expert.

The classroom was filled to capacity, and it was fun for me to see Olipa and Phoebe teach together. Claire had her first experience of how this all works and modeled our kit to the delight of the girls. Mary and Esme came too and afterwards, outside, danced with the girls.

It was sad to leave Alice today. She takes such good care of us. Her cooking is delightful and Phoebe was extra happy to have traditional Nsima for lunch served with greens, tomato eggs, chicken and rice. I’d love to see Alice set up a marketplace stall with her amazing food.

We said goodbye to our tailors and started the long trip to Mzuzu to see Emanuel. This country is gorgeous. Everything is so green because of so much rain this season. Malawi has been in the grip of cycles of severe drought and flooding for several years largely the result of climate change. The rain in this region is very much needed and hopefully will contribute to a productive growing season.

We passed fields of soybeans and tobacco both growing and drying. The clouds put on the best show yet and the sunset didn’t disappoint. I did try to take a photo, but it didn’t begin to do it justice. We saw the Elephant Rock – the spectacular site that marks our getting close to Mzuzu. The sun was getting low in the sky and bounced gold and pink light on the surface of the elephants face. Perfect timing!

We pulled into our bed and breakfast at about 7 PM, found our rooms, took wonderful hot showers and met for dinner. We’d bought a bottle of wine in Lilongwe that we’d been saving for just the right time and last night was it. we sat around a little table filled with food laughing and reliving the day.

Tomorrow we’ll go to a school with Emanuel and see a bit of Mzuzu.