MALAWI...mmmm

Ok so after 3 days of 600 km drives on bumpy, windy, hilly roads with thousands of people with donkeys or on bikes in the way I have finally arrived at somewhere I feel at home. Lake Malawi is where I am at this huge tourist resort on Kande Beach. I feel a lot better today 'cos over the past few I have felt slightly awkward as in groups I can get a little shy..but today I made some good friends.

Lake Malawi is absolutely massive! Where I am looks like a giant bay a bit similar to Queenscliffe, sand, waves it's crazy! The only different thing is that it's fresh water not salty. This morning a group of four of us took two canoes out to a small island about an hour's paddle away. It was great because me and Jodie (one of my new buds) were sitting in the fronts while the boys Tony (an Aussie shearer dude) and Paul (a British schoolie) paddled us out. At the island we snorkled and it was so beautiful under the water there..colourful fish everywhere!! I think I might have mild sunstroke though cos I have a really bad headache and I am burnt all over! Hehe

Also when I get home someone needs to remind me to go to the doctor for a bloodtest for these worms that can get into your blood stream and eat all your insides and grow and grow and grow (gross). If anyone saw All Saints when they caught one in a guy's leg and had to pull it out...yeah thats them...so I have to get a bloodtest to see if I have them and if I do i have to have a tablet. So worth going in the water though!! It is about 35 degrees and the sand is hot so the water is very inviting.

Yesterday was a terrible traveling day. We crossed the border from Zambia into Malawi and had to do the whole visa stamp out and stamp into the next country. Well something happened and the driver didn't get the right stamp to ok the truck...so at the first police check (so many road blocks in Malawi) the police man sent us back to the border to get the right stamp...its crazy. So that added an hour in a hot bus to the 10 hour journey!

Also at one of our many toilet stops on the side of the road (yes i have to pee in the bush and sometimes there are little black children pointing at my white bottom and laughing...not nice) I thought I'd be smart and go behind a large tree rather than a small bush...well I disturbed a group of wasps and one stung me on the underarm-through my clothes! It swelled up straight away and I thought automatically ''I'm going to die alone in the African wilderness!'' So I ran so fast back out of the bushes to the road without even peeing cos I didn't want to die and I showed the Kenyan tour host Sammy. And yeah...he laughed at me and patted me on the back and said I wasn't gonna die. One of my nine lives gone. So for the following 2 hours until the next stop I had my legs crossed busting to go! Another funny thing..this time it was Ash not me (hehe), at the same toilet stop she must have squatted over the wrong type of bush cos when she came out she was itching like crazy and got a big rash on her bum, back and legs. That made me feel better about my wasp sting!

The trip is still going well and it's been almost a week and I'm not homesick yet. Good sign. We have another 2 nights here at Kande and then we drive onto the resort island on Zanzibar which sounds amazing but very expensive...and yep I am running out of money.

BY THE WAY (nick you're gonna be so jealous) US$0.50c Cokes all the way..in glass bottles. So cool.

Anyway...I am running out of money because I am buying a lot of Cokes and the visas are expensive and I am scared to draw out any money from the ATM because...ok another story. Joel (an american guy) withdrew the minimum he could in Zimbabwe to buy a drink. It was the equivilent to US$4.00 aznd with the corrupt government controlling the exchange rate, when he checked his bank balance later it said US$400 down! Thats just scary so I'll try to scrimp in Zanzibar, where we have to pay our own accomodation and food. Wish me luck.

My love to everyone and home and Sarah in Canada.

Keep posted