We have a house!!!
It is the first, very depressing house we saw, but as I said earlier, it looks a LOT better now. The location is fabulous for us, though it may mean a bit of walking for Regan to get to school.
Our weekend was also fabulous...quite the adventure.
We took the 'AXA' bus, which looks a lot like a bus we would see in Canada. The difference? No bathroom and selling of standing room tickets. We were one of the first on the bus, so we were OK, with seats in the back. After you arrive in Salima (the closest town to the beach), you can take local transport to Senga Bay...this is in the form of a matola (read pick-up truck onto which they pile 21 people). We had the luxury matola on the first leg, with a steel cage over the back of the truck and a tarp over that to keep the rain off us (it is rainy season!).
Sort of perfect in terms of what we were expecting, the matola blew a tire, and we pulled over - instead of an actual jack, a bunch of people picked up the truck and replaced the tire. We were able to pile back in again in a few minutes...five minutes later, the spare blew as well. The driver called 'a friend' to take us the rest of the way. Up pulls the smallest pick up I have ever seen in my life (it only held 16 of us instead of 21).
After a while, we pulled up at our campsite area and it was GORGEOUS. The campsite is on the beach and comes complete with a bar. We had two hours of sun just after we arrived (the only 2 hours of the weekend), so we took advantage and went swimming (in hopefully bilharzia-free water). After dinner it rained steadily, but we were able to head to the hotel bar next door and enjoy a live band while ordering a few bevvies.....nice way to spend an evening.
At the campground, baboons and hyenas are frequently spotted...Regan and I did not see it, but Jules saw a baboon right in the campground - no hyenas this visit though.
In the morning, it was still pretty rainy, so we decided to pack up and head back to Salima to see what there was to do....now we know....there is nothing to do in Salima. We waited around at the bus station for hours, and were getting concerned about the bus ever coming. We decided to take a mini-bus back to Lilongwe, but I started to get cold feet as soon as I got on....to ice the cake, the driver loaded a pail of fish under the back seat (which we were sitting on). That was it for me, and we got off the mini-bus and decided to wait for the AXA bus after all. Then finally the bus came. There is enormous competition in order to get back on the bus to get back to Lilongwe, so elbows came into the situation. We got on, but had standing room - for 2 hours.
Still, all in all, a great first weekend away, and I look forward to many more to come!
I am trying to update flickr, will let you know if I am successful!