We left Mzuzu around 9:30 this morning saying goodbye to The Royal Garden staff.

I had bought a jar of local honey a couple of days ago and left it at the cafe where I purchased it. We decided to stop by the place and see if we could retrieve it and buy a couple of cappuccinos while we were at it. Ends up the same man that had sold it to me was there and gladly returned this sweet treat made by a woman’s cooperative (I was especially interested in supporting this organization). Yippee!

Then we were truly on the road. It was a long day, but the scenery was glorious and the little towns we drove through were full of life. The road we were on hugged Lake Malawi for most of our journey and along with boats and waves the clouds made for a picturesque day.

In one small settlement we noticed a man selling a string of six fish just caught from the lake. Olipa called the fisherman over and negotiated a price for the fish saying, “it’s for me, not the Mzungu” (the white people).  Of course, she paid a lower price and it truly was for her family. Even with the “real” price the man was happy and nimbly tied the fish to the driver’s side windshield wipers for the ride back to Mthuntama, hours away.

We found another single, large fish and that one got tied to my side of the car over the sideview mirror. Then, just as I was wondering if all that fish would last all the way to Mthuntama, Olipa pulled into a place that sold huge blocks of ice (She disappeared into an overgrown yard only to show up again with a bucket of ice on her head…I’m so impressed with her strength and with the strength of all the women here for that matter). She packed the fish in a cooler that she had brought with us and off we went again.

The day was like this, a series of short, interesting stops. We visited a rice and maize mill, bought bananas and plantains from a stand on the side of the road and drove through an elephant preserve finding plenty of monkeys but only dung and broken branches suggesting elephants were nearby.

Baby James needed his Mama, so Charlotte took over and drove the last forty five minutes or so of the trip.

Pulling onto Alice and Andy’s front lawn felt like coming home after all the traveling we’d done. Alice had made our favorite soy “meatballs” and after hot baths we’re writing, reading, and preparing for bed.