Sunday, January 29, 2012
A day in Chintheche @ Nkhata Bay
We had a day off today from work. In Malawi the SACCO employees work 6 days a week, Sunday is their only day off, wow!
The Regional Manager Ezekiel picked us up from our hotel and along with his wife, Mildred, we headed out to Lake Malawi. We saw some amazing things today.....first we came across a rubber tree plantation, where they are growing rubber trees from seedlings. Ezekiel explained that their President had a vision for Malawi about 30 years ago to have it full of trees, in the North there are so many and it is really beautiful.
Further down the road we came across a mature rubber tree grove. To collect the rubber they slice ino the tree and insert a shunt to have the rubber drip out into a collection pot - much like maple syrup, cool!
Then we arrived at Chintheche at a beautiful private beach area where we spent the day visiting with Ezekiel and Mildred learning many things about Malawians and just life in general. Mildred is a registered dietician and also a chicken expert. She told us to never break apart a chicken wing as it is in this joint where all the steriods and other shots are given to the bird and if you split it apart all of that will seep into the meat you are eating...yikes...who knew?!
On the way home we stopped at a road side market area and Ezekiel bartered for us for our treasures in the local dialect, but it was all very respectful and they weren't overcharging us by much, but perhaps that had to do with our company :)
All in all an absolutely wonderful day...I'm a little sun burnt, but hey this is Africa after all.
Oh Yeah! P.S. Ezekiel told Garth and I that our report for Karonga Teachers' SACCO was "good, really, really good", ohhhhh......I was so pleased....I feel so honoured to be able to share my credit union knowledge from back home to make a difference over here.....it made my whole trip worthwhile! Now I've left a little piece of me behind in Malawi! <BIG BIG SMILE!>
Mugone Bwino (good night)
Heidi in Muzuzu
The Regional Manager Ezekiel picked us up from our hotel and along with his wife, Mildred, we headed out to Lake Malawi. We saw some amazing things today.....first we came across a rubber tree plantation, where they are growing rubber trees from seedlings. Ezekiel explained that their President had a vision for Malawi about 30 years ago to have it full of trees, in the North there are so many and it is really beautiful.
Further down the road we came across a mature rubber tree grove. To collect the rubber they slice ino the tree and insert a shunt to have the rubber drip out into a collection pot - much like maple syrup, cool!
Then we arrived at Chintheche at a beautiful private beach area where we spent the day visiting with Ezekiel and Mildred learning many things about Malawians and just life in general. Mildred is a registered dietician and also a chicken expert. She told us to never break apart a chicken wing as it is in this joint where all the steriods and other shots are given to the bird and if you split it apart all of that will seep into the meat you are eating...yikes...who knew?!
On the way home we stopped at a road side market area and Ezekiel bartered for us for our treasures in the local dialect, but it was all very respectful and they weren't overcharging us by much, but perhaps that had to do with our company :)
All in all an absolutely wonderful day...I'm a little sun burnt, but hey this is Africa after all.
Oh Yeah! P.S. Ezekiel told Garth and I that our report for Karonga Teachers' SACCO was "good, really, really good", ohhhhh......I was so pleased....I feel so honoured to be able to share my credit union knowledge from back home to make a difference over here.....it made my whole trip worthwhile! Now I've left a little piece of me behind in Malawi! <BIG BIG SMILE!>
Mugone Bwino (good night)
Heidi in Muzuzu
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