Bye Bye Malawi

~ Friday 8th August

Tonight is our last night in Malawi.

I'm sad, nervous and excited all at the same time. Tomorrow I shall be Tanzania bound and my GapMedics journey starts, but I've been in Malawi for six weeks and it's been so much fun. I do and I don't want to leave.

We've spent the last week packing and getting our stuff together and buying souvenirs/gifts for everybody back home. Last Sunday Shaz left for Blantyre where her placement is and on Monday, we dropped off my dad's friend's daughter, Mariam back where she's staying in Chipata for the summer. Both are the most ridiculously chatty people I have ever come across so the house volume has dropped considerably since they've been gone.

Last Monday was (hopefully) the last episode of drama of this holiday. God knows I've had enough to last me a lifetime.

So Chipata from Lilongwe is about the journey from Leicester to London, a good 2, 2 1/2 hour journey at the most. Although African journeys of that distance take a lot longer because people walk on the sides of the road as well as smack bang in the middle of them (bearing in mind these roads make up the "motorway") so half the time is spent swerving around people and making sure we don't knock them over. It's no easy feat, I tell you.

We did pretty well until we reached the last village before entering Chipata where this little kid, he must have been about three years old, literally shot across the road. We missed him by a centimetre. I kid you not. That boy is lucky as hell to be alive.

*Thanks the lucky stars for dad's brilliant reflexes and quick swerving/braking*

To top it all off, on our way back home, we nearly hit a guy on a bike, just missed running over a dog that was casually crossing the road, and our car was running out of petrol in the pitch black of the isolated African motorway. We made it to Lilongwe on the last few drops of fuel. Just about.

And now we're here! Ready to leave this mad place. We've just finished weighing our suitcases (surprisingly, we're not overweight) and we brought the holiday to a close by sitting by the fire, drinking milkshake, and toasting marshmallows (then dipping it into chocolate - it tastes divine).

It's now 12am so I have to bid you all goodnight and bring this post to an end because we're up at 4am to catch our early flight to our neighbouring African country.

Tanzania, here I come!