Monday Morning

It is Monday morning and I am back at work - quickly posting on my tea break.
What a fabulous weekend. Kande Beach is simply beautiful, and Lake Malawi managed to meet expectations again by being warm and clear. There were even waves this time and it was fun playing in the gentle surf.
My roomate Heather's mom arrived from Canada last week, and Alexio, Heather's boyfriend, was scheduled to come and visit from Zimbabwe to meet her while she is here. By the way, I have FINALLY added a link to H's blog if you want to check out her view of our time here.
Anyways, unfortunately, Alexio missed his flight and wasn't able to arrive until Friday evening, so we took Heather's mom with us to the beach and decided Heather and Alexio would drive up Saturday morning and meet us there.
I was lucky enough to get out of work early so we planned to leave at 2, and weren't far off - finally getting out at 2:26. It was a bit longer of a drive than anticipated, as we had to detour into Salima to get cash, since we had forgotten to make a withdrawal in Lilongwe. Most of the drive was in daylight, but we still had about an hour an a half of stressful pothole and pedestrian avoidance after the sun departed. We arrived at 6:45pm and headed straight to the bar for a decompression drink and found a number of passengers from an overland tour bus enjoying themselves. Regan hadn't changed yet, and let me tell you, arriving in a bar in a school uniform certainly is a conversation starter!
Once we settled into our rooms, we went over to the restaurant for dinner. Since I had already been there for lunch during my business trip, I was able to let the others know some important things - like that the bean burrito is actually beans on a chapati.
Jules and I headed over to the pool table next for a couple games, but then realizing that it isn't the best spectator sport, we played yahtzee with Regan and Colleen (H's mom) until they went to bed and we could continue with the rubber match.
We had booked chalets on the beach and they were amazing...the only drawback was that they had no bathrooms, and while the walk from Colleen and Regan's chalet was quite short, ours was pretty long! The tradeoff was totally worth it though, and we fell asleep listening to the waves crash. The next day featured a great deal of hammock lounging, reading and swimming. I even got to play in the most random game of malawian volleyball, which was great fun...there was much excitement and unecessary dramatic diving for the ball. Out of the first two games, each team had won once, so the rubber match was competitive and exciting, and went 5 points beyond the usual game point since you have to win by two points....so a close one. My team won just as the sun was beginning to fade from the sky.
Jules and I also learned how to play Bowa - a traditional Malawian game played with marbles or stones on a carved wooden board. We ended up ordering a board from the guys on the beach who taught us how to play and it is really nice, so I am happy with it. Heather and Alexio arrived Saturday so we all had dinner together then played a game of Hoopla before bed. Sunday featured more hammock lounging and swimming until we had to go at around 12:30.
The restaurant was quite expensive, so we had decided that we would pick some chips (fries) up on the way home. When Jules got out of the car to go order them, he was approached by a very drunk man who aggressively asked for money. Jules told him no and went over to order some chips. The other Malawians present asked the man to leave, but he ignored them. When Jules handed his money over to pay, the drunk man snatched it and started to run away. Running on instinct, Jules chased him and managed to catch him and one of the other locals assisted him in prying the money out of the guy's hand. Jules gave the guy who assisted 50 kwatcha and we left. Later, I commented that it was a bit extreme to recover such a small amount of money, but then I came around and agreed with Jules that it was better not to let him get away with it - maybe he will think twice before trying such a thing again...it was too bad really, as we likely would have given him something in the first place had he been less aggressive.
So we have been in Malawi now for 4 months and lost nothing to theft - knock on wood!