Kande Beach

We had another long driving day that included a border crossing into Malawi. There was a lot more to look at in comparison to the long drive through Zambia. We saw more activity in the villages and people were working in the fields or at the local markets. We saw some people playing soccer and cycling along the road. There were women walking with buckets of water on their head and men fishing in the rivers. There was a lot of police and military check points along the way checking Harmony's driving license or checking our passports. When the local people heard the truck driving by they would stop and look at the truck. When the children noticed we were white people they would shout "Muzungo (white people)" and wave at us. It was fun seeing their smiles and hearing them cheer when we waved back at them.

The following morning a local guide George invited us on a village walk. When we left our camp George introduced us to three of his friends who also walked to us individually as our personal guides. We were shown the village chicken hut and pig stye. We went to the local school and once the children saw us they ran out of their class to greet us. It was a mad experience as a lot of the children gave me high fives and then took my hand and wanted to touch my white skin. We then went into one of the classes to meet the principal who explained the school subjects and told us that the school had twelve teachers for 1390 children. This means younger children go to school in the morning and the older children attend school in the afternoon. He informed us that passing English is mandatory in order to be able to progress into secondary school and university. He asked for a donation to help build a dinner program to allow all children to have a meal to eat at school as some children go to school hungry due to lack of food at home. As we walked out of the school the children again were hanging out of us which was funny but I felt a little bit strange. I'm not a celebrity but I felt that was how I was being paraded around the village.

We then attended the local health center and we were shown around by the general manager. The health center has a maternity service along with HIV testing and immunization. They explained that all other health problems are treated in the hospital 70km away. Again they asked for a donation to help purchase mosquito nets and to fix they water pump. On the way back to our accommodation the personal guides showed us their art. We realised when they took us all aside separately to show us their own art that the main point of them to give us personal guides was to earn money themselves. We also had to pay the head guide for the village tour so we felt a little bit conflicted when we got back as a $10 village walk turned into a lot more money than our budgets were expecting. It was nice to be able to meet the local people and donate money to them as they are a lot poorer than we are. It was a strange feeling to have children wanting to touch my arms because of my skin colour. We had conflicting feelings about the whole thing afterwards and I am still not sure how comfortable I feel about the whole experience.Okumaya devam et