And that my friends, brings my epic African adventure to an end. Technically it ended over a month ago but it still stands. On that note, I apologise again for the time lag between my posts. I hope it wasn't here-there-and-everywhere. For those of you who are new to reading my blog or missed the post where I gave my reasoning, the lack of internet service in the third world meant that I couldn't upload my posts in real-time which meant that you were catching up on my stories a little late.

~ Monday 18th August

I have officially touched down in the UK after seven unforgettable weeks in the continent of Africa. My appreciation for my home country has never been greater.

I'm sitting in arrivals at Heathrow and I have a few hours to kill before my parents arrive so let me back up a little and take you through my 38 hour journey back.

On Saturday I once again boarded the coach from Iringa that would take me back to Dar-e-Salam in nine hours. When we reached Landmark Hotel my parents were already waiting for me so I bid farewell to my group and was whisked off in a taxi to the hotel my parents were staying at. It was evening by this point and by the time I'd filled them in on what I'd seen and experienced, it was evening so we went out to eat and they showed me around the area we were in. They had street barbecues! It was pretty cool and after a week of being a vegetarian I was kinda excited to eat meat again. It's the small things in life.

While we were waiting for our meal, we bought a teddy for my little niece and the kid was like "that's some depressing teddy; it looks like it has AIDS". I was dying hahaha wait, let me pic it so you guys can weigh in your opinion.

It tasted as good as it looks for the record. Back at the hotel me and the kid watched a film before sleeping late because we were sharing a room, then yesterday we watched the Liverpool game against Southampton before packing and heading to the airport.

Our flight from Dar-e-Salam to Addis Ababa was at 2am; we arrived in Addis at 6am and then I had the painful five hour wait till I departed for London. The parents and kid boarded their flight at 10am to head to Frankfurt which was their additional stop over on their way home.

My flight wasn't actually bad; I had the loveliest gentleman sitting next to me and I watched two films to pass my time. I got round to watching A Long Way Down (I've been meaning to watch it for ages, 90% because of Aaron Paul) - it wasn't brilliant though, it was one of those movies that's nice as a one-off and it was pretty funny to be fair so it wasn't so bad. And then I (finally!) watched Inception. The sound quality was a bit on and off so honestly, I didn't understand it very well but it passed three hours of my plane journey so I'm not complaining.

I touched down at 5pm and it took me an hour or so to get through customs, reclaim my luggage and find a seat in a cafe but in a location where I could keep an eye on my luggage trolley (which took forever because arrivals was beyond packed). And here I am!

Munching on British goods because my God have I missed them. I ended up paying £8 for a bagel and strawberry lemonade but you know what, it was worth every damn penny.

Oh, message alert. Their flight has been delayed. That means I have another hour to play the waiting game. Ha. It's a good job I have unread books on me.

Until next time folks.

~ Friday 15th August

How is it already my last night here?!? Time has just flown by; I can't believe I touch down in the UK in about three days time.

My last day in the dental department was pretty eventful. A nine year old boy came in today; he needed two extractions and credit to him, he didn't utter a sound. Seriously, I rate that kid for being that strong. My heart went out to him though...he was hands down the most impoverished individual I have ever seen. And I've seen a lot. It's not my first time to Africa and I've worked in the hospitals of Malawi, the 9th poorest country in the world. But this was probably the highest degree of poverty I've seen first-hand. He was in his school uniform but his shoes were coming apart from the soles, so much so that they were almost in half. His clothes were covered in dust and sand and his school shirt was frayed with layers of fabric just peeling away. His mother couldn't afford to pay for the treatment so it went free and then she told Dr Grace that her son was meant to be in an exam but she couldn't afford the transport to send him from the hospital to his school so Dr Grace then paid for him to get to school because she couldn't bear to see him lose out on the little education that he has.

The really sad thing is that boy is one of thousands.

We then had a lady come in (she was a right madam - she threw a tantrum because of how long she had to wait outside, and then she asked me if she could have my handbag because she liked it, and when I said no because I need to take it back to England, she suggested I buy a new one. Don't even ask.) Anyway. She needed a filling doing but then the dental drill stopped working so Dr Grace, David and I went rushing to Dr Grace's car to get a portable drill machine that she keeps as a back-up. Clearly this happens often...?

Then the next patient needed an x-ray of his face looking at but when we put it against the lamp to study it, the electricity went. (It was bound to happen one day). Granted, it didn't affect us so much because Dr Grace had a good idea of what was wrong anyway and just wanted it confirming, but apparently in operating theatre when the electricity went, the doctors started taking out their phones and using the phone light to carry on with the surgery. Crazy, I know.

Our last patient was a 90-year old male who had temporomandibular joint dislocation. In simple terms; the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is a ball-and-socket joint found just in front of the lower part of the ear and it allows the movement of the lower jaw. When you open your mouth, the "ball" (termed the condyle) comes out of the socket, moving forward and moves back into place when you close your mouth. The TMJ becomes dislocated when the the condyle moves too far back and gets lodged in a bony prominence called the articular eminence, and it can't move back into place. So the surrounding muscles go into spasm and the condyle is held in the dislocated position.

It means that the jaw is locked in its open position and it causes pain until the joint is returned to its normal position. The muscles would technically need to be relaxed first but we're in Africa and we didn't have muscle relaxants so we had to make do with local anaesthetic. Dr Grace then pushed downwards on his lower jaw, tipped his chin upwards to release the condyle, and then guided it back into the socket. Although she did say that if he had come a week or so later, it would have needed open reduction, where the temple region is cut open and the joint is pushed back into place.

In other news, OPD had an exciting day. They had a woman come in with gangrene on her middle finger; it was blackened and resembled dead wood. She had initially cut her finger and had left it untreated so she developed an infection. She was also diabetic which damaged her blood vessels and nerves because of the high sugar levels, and so blood flow to that region was restricted, causing gangrene. She needed her finger amputating. Oooh and they also saw a guy with a hole in his foot and they could see exposed bone and flesh. Silently thanking God I'm in the less gory, albeit less exciting, dental department.

After that long-ish morning we headed back to the house for lunch because the guys going for the safari this weekend had to leave at 2pm. So now half the house is empty and it's eerily quiet. And it's not the same without Aleks either. Although, check this, she's coming to England to study Medical Sciences at Uni of Birmingham which is awesome because we can meet up and still stay in touch, probably more so than if she was staying in Sweden.

And since everybody's left, I've not been doing much. I finally packed which was a mission and a half because I had all my Malawi stuff with me too so I quite literally had to sit on my suitcase for it to shut. (I had to cram all my junk food in my hand luggage because a) travelling without my sugar supply makes me feel lost in life and b) if I had made space for it in my suitcase, I'd be travelling home with a broken piece of luggage).

On that note, my laptop bag is broken. So I made a last trip to town to see if I could find like, a temporary £5 bag that would take my laptop from Africa to England to then be chucked in the bin, but no such luck. They were quoting me £22 for some stitched up carry case and I was like, mate, do you know the kind of laptop bags I can get in the UK for £22?

Jesus.

So when I see my mum tomorrow I'm going to make her carry my laptop for me. (Sorry mum).

And yeah, I think I'm all set and ready to go! In the literal sense of course. I'm not so sure I'm emotionally ready to leave this place :(

~ Thursday 14th August

Today was such a busy day ohmyword I'm ready to hit the pillow and sleep but I can't without writing a post so here goes.

Nothing majorly stood out in the dental department today, it was the same old, same old. Although we had a 20 year old guy who came in with periodontal disease and it'd resulted in abnormal tissue that was already progressing to a tumour and also the formation of a ranula cyst. The tissue had to be excised and his four anterior teeth had to be extracted, and they were obviously adult teeth so he'll need dentures.

There's something about watching a guy who's the same age as you, from one of the most impoverished districts in Africa and completely unable to pay for treatment, sitting in the dental chair and having tears silently stream down his face because he's going to be left with the front of his mouth toothless, and he's needing dentures before he's even hit his twenties. It really really hit home. To the point where I actually just wanted to give him a hug.

The rest of the day surprisingly passed pretty quickly; we had lunch at The Village Coffee Shop - their toastie and coffee milkshake was divine. I almost felt like I was back in England. Almost.

Then we went to town and picked up our African pants. I was apprehensive that they wouldn't have turned out right but mine are perfect! They're so incredibly cool. And then we headed back to the house because we were going to the local orphanage to spend an hour there playing with the kids. The ride there was a bumpy one to say the least but we did it make it there safely and we had fun, kicking a ball around, breaking up the odd fight or two, taking selfies and whatnot...pretty standard stuff.

It put life into perspective though...we saw them have their "tea" and it was basically flour mixed with water, that made some kind of brown paste, and they have that three times a day, everyday. At the entrance of the orphanage there were stacks and stacks of flour bags, and it was heartbreaking to try and comprehend life in their shoes.

Ironically, dinner at the house was a barbecue. Which was awesome. It felt a little bit like a campfire and the food was brilliant (as usual). Although now my hoodie reeks of smoke and I have no idea what to do because I wear it every evening and I'm going to need it on the plane. It's too hopeful of me to think no one will notice.

Thursday nights are club nights so the whole house have gone to Shooters for a night out so I skipped and signed myself up for a night shift in obstetrics and gynaecology. I'll be honest, I was terrified about it because I've heard horror stories from some of the others, particularly about caesareans. Like, when a C-section has to be done, the doctors quite literally rip the uterus and then place the uterus on the mother's chest while she's awake and alert because anaesthetic has to be paid for and the mother can't afford it.

Just thinking about it makes me inwardly cringe. And obviously there's the low probability of babies surviving and the painful nature of childbirth more so because of the lack of resources. I guess that's kind of linked to women being expected to have a much higher pain tolerance so they're pushed to give birth as quickly as possible.

Terrified was an understatement. But then I figured I've travelled thousands of miles to experience this, and it'd be a complete waste if I had the opportunity to see a child being born, and not take it simply because I was worried I couldn't stomach it.

So I went. And at the last minute, Aleks decided to join me which eased the nerves a little. I was lucky, there were no C-sections tonight but we did get to see the natural birth of a child.

And it was single-handedly, the most amazing, unreal, and simultaneously gross thing I have ever seen.

Seeing a child take its first breath of life is unparalleled. It's crazy to see the process and witness first-hand just how much of a miracle it is. From start to finish. It's easy learning about human biology and how life begins, and everything in-between, but it's surreal to actually see it. And it hits you just how meticulously designed the human body is. It's inch-perfect to accommodate something so incredibly complex and fragile and precious.

Just wow. Seriously, if any of you ever get the chance to witness the birth of a child - go. 

~ Wednesday 13th August

Ah, the exciting world of oral cysts hey. Here's hoping you're not already put off and clicking the little x in the top right corner of your screen. The post isn't as gross as the sentence suggests. I promise. Stay with me - please?

Although yes, it seems like I'm seeing cysts and extractions in equal proportions. For that reason I suppose, David and I were enlightened by Dr Grace of the different types of cysts that can occur in the oral cavity and we learnt about their clinical features, how they're developed, and the approaches that can be taken in treating them. I would happily go into lengthy detail for each one, but I'm at the risk of assuming that you'll get as excited as aspiring dentists would and in turn just end up boring you to death. Before that little oral biology class though, we were waiting quite a while for Dr Grace to turn up (we were early as usual) so David was teaching me, aided with diagrams, about the geography of America and its states which was pretty interesting (and surprising going by my - albeit very little - existing knowledge).

We saw much of the same; draining of abscesses, the removal of decayed teeth and minor surgeries to excise abnormal tissue. Actually, one case bothered me. We had a four year old boy who came in with a swollen face because he had dental caries right across his mouth so he needed his four anterior teeth extracting. Obviously it requires the injection of local anaesthetic but generally, and I don't blame them, the kids go hysterical when they see the needle. I mean, I'm 20 and I would do the same (or worse). But the dentists have little, if any sympathy. And to some extent, I get that. It's Africa, and with limited resources and patients being unable to pay for dental treatment, their jobs can be frustrating to say the least, but these are kids. 

When they scream and squirm and kick in the dental chair because they don't want an injection, they get four to five members of staff literally pinning the child to the chair and forcing the injection through their clenched teeth and the screaming that follows is unreal. It is outright horrible to watch and hear.

I just wish they would show a little bit of mercy and compassion. Dentists are hated enough as it is so if you're going to be one, be a damn good one.

That's my vow by the way. If I do succeed in my ambition to become one, I'm going to be the loveliest dentist out there. You heard it here first.

We later found out that the little boy had rampant caries which is very severe decay on multiple surfaces of many teeth due to extensive drug use; his mother was regularly taking drugs during her pregnancy and the substances travelled across the placenta to the embryo, damaging the teeth of the foetus. I shouldn't judge, but my God I felt a rush of anger towards the woman who was watching her child scream in agony as his front four teeth were pulled out with close to zero sympathy.

What can I even say? It's the sad sad state of an impoverished world and it's one of millions of cases out there, and not a damned thing can be done about it. On that note, that little girl I told you about? The one whose life we tried to save by funding the flight to save her life. Yeah, they didn't use the money on her for reasons unbeknown to me. All I know is that it's beyond ridiculous and frustrating and heartbreaking. They instead used it on another girl who was in dire need of treatment but I have no idea what's going to happen the 6-year old it was meant for.

On that happy note, we broke off for lunch so a group of us went to this little cafe near the house and then we wandered around town for a while. There's this lady in Masai Market who stitches African pants, tailor-made to fit you, so I went and ordered a pair of those. And then back at the house after dinner, we had another Global Health Tutorial with Dr Rama of the out-patients department (OPD) and he taught us about malaria. Credit to him, he's such a brilliant doctor. The science behind malaria has never been so engaging.

~ Tuesday 12th August

Biggest perk of being placed in the dental department? (Aside from the magnificent oral view of course). We get a lie-in because we start so late compared to everyone else. Bliss.

We had Dr Grace all day today thank God and she taught us about the five different categories of dental caries before she started tending to patients. I shouldn't laugh, but they have this system where they have hand-cut circle pieces of cardboard and they write numbers on it in marker pen, then hand it to the patients in numerical order so they call out the numbers and the respective patient comes in. Taking technology for granted has never felt truer.

Again, majority of the patients were extractions (I apologise for sounding like a broken record) but we had a case where this guy in his early twenties had to be treated because of an abscess that he had due to an infected root canal. He was suffering because he had a bag of pus in his oral cavity that was giving rise to abnormal, rubbery tissue that could potentially progress to a tumour, and because pus is acidic, it was eating into the alveolar bone that connects the maxillae and mandible bones to the tooth. So a surgical technique - marsupialisation - had to be employed where a slit had to be cut into the abscess, and then its edges were sutured to allow it to drain before the wound itself was sutured post-draining.

We then had a similar patient where a 60-year old man came in with his whole left side of his face swollen horribly so. It was just ridiculously puffy (excuse my year 2 vocabulary) so when Dr Grace examined him, she found an infection near the maxillary bone which had formed an abscess full of pus. His whole left cheek was almost acting like a sack of pus so it needed draining although it'll take a few days for it to completely drain; he's been put in a ward so he can come back on Friday for its progress to be monitored and if it has all drained, he can be sutured back up again so he can feel like his normal self.

Yes, it was gross to watch but honestly, I'll take it over extractions any day. Oh and we later found out that the aforementioned patient had come in to see Dr Ngezi a few weeks back complaining of the pain, and upon examination he had said that the patient had no cavities, no caries and no infection. Idiot.

How can you have a patient whose left side is twice the size of his right and say nothing is wrong?!?

*Breathes*

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah, after our placement finished at 1:30pm, we headed back to the house for lunch. I'm terrible at making a toastie (or anything else for that matter) but I swear, although it looked like a mess of cheese, tomato and bread, it tasted so good. And then I followed it with nutella on toast and hot chocolate because I'm a fatty like that and I've been feeling sugar/chocolate deprived since I've been here. Sue me.

We had a volleyball game on a nearby field afterwards. Well, I sat and took pictures and looked after everyone's belongings but it counts right? I wasn't ready for my non-existent volleyball skills to be showcased and for me to be publicly humiliated. Operating the camera was the safer option. And random, but there was a cow tied to a nearby tree so it was just casually playing the silent observer.

We rushed back in time for our Swahili lesson where we learnt greetings, numbers and common phrases we can use when we're out and about. That was for about an hour and me and Aleks, who's rooming next to me and quite possibly one of the coolest people I've ever met, decided to brave the cold and go up to the top deck to watch the sunset. We ended up intruding on Chris' reading time (sorry Chris!) but it was worth it haha and then we headed off to dinner.

Over dinner, Sam, she's in paediatrics, and she was telling us about this 6-year old girl who's suffering from a form of liver disease that's making her stomach swell up and the doctors told her parents that she's going to die. In order for her to live, they have to fly her out from Iringa to Dar-e-Salam where the Government will then fly her out to India for the treatment she needs because Tanzania can't provide it. And whilst the Government will pay for that, her parents have to pay for the flight to the capital but they told the doctors that they can't afford it - they had to give up the life of their daughter.

Sam later asked how much the flight would be and it's 400 000 shillings, and since there's 40 of us in the house, we're each giving 10 000 shillings to raise the funds to save her life. That's like, £5 per person. It's crazy isn't it? How such a small amount, a sum of money that we wouldn't even think twice about, can save a little girl's life.

Fingers crossed it works out.

After dinner we had a Global Health Tutorial; Dr Emmanuel who works at the hospital in obstetrics and gynaecology came in to talk to us about HIV and AIDS and how it affects Tanzanian locals.

I won't lie, it made me miss uni (a little) so I kind of can't wait till the next one...?

Shoot me.

~ Monday 11th August

Day 1 of the GapMedics experience - it didn't disappoint.

Placement started at 8am so us newbies were walked to Iringa Regional Hospital (from tomorrow we make our own way) so breakfast was served at 7, before we left at 7:20. I gotta hand it to Aqib, our cook, breakfast was amazing. Anything you could possibly want, was there. There were pancakes, cereals, fruit, hot chocolate, a toaster and a toastie maker, four different types of english cereal; anything you could possibly want, we had. And it was all self-serve so we could make and help ourselves to absolutely anything we wanted. (The pineapples were the sweetest pineapples I have ever tasted, no lie.)

I was expecting a 25 minute, 30 minute max walk to the hospital because that's what was written in the intro booklet, but boy was it a ridiculously long walk. It took us a good 45 minutes to get there and then we split up into groups according to the department we were in. There was only one other person with me in the dental department, David, so we headed off to the dental surgery. Yes, surgery. I.e. a single dental surgery in the whole hospital.

Wait, hold up. Let me insert a picture of it.

It's a damn sight better than the surgeries in Malawi, I'll hand them that. But you can imagine just how crowded the waiting area outside was, there seemed to be an endless seam of patients. And we didn't start till after 9 which was annoying. The doctors we were shadowing didn't turn up until about 9. We had Dr Nghezi and Dr Grace; we had Dr Nghezi for the first half, and Dr Grace for the second. Dr Nghezi is, um, well, suffice to say, I don't like him.

But never mind. After he taught us the basics of teeth, we watched extraction, after extraction, after extraction...

I understand that it's the first point of treatment because of the lack of facilities and equipment, and also because the patient comes in during the last stage of the problem because of a lack of public awareness on oral hygiene, but it's so sad that patients so young have to lose adult teeth or succumb to life-threatening situations simply because of poverty.

Later on though with Dr Grace, we saw a case of intermaxillary fixation, the removal of an oral tumour, and the treating of an abscess. The latter involved excising the cheek to drain the pus and then cutting out any abnormal tissue that could potentially give rise to a tumour if not removed.

We finished a little earlier today because it was our first day so Sam, the project manager, and the house staff, Delphine and Amina, were going to take us out and show us the town so we broke off at 12:30, headed back to the house and had lunch before we left.

We spent three hours walking in town; they showed us the ATM machines, introduced us to the best cafe places and took us to the Masai Market. It was actually a pretty fun walk and the closest we'd get to sight-seeing although I'm terrified that I haven't remembered the way at all so if I want to pop into town with anybody, they're going to have to know the directions because chances are I'm going to draw a blank.

We got back just before sunset so we quickly freshened up, then we did a little bit of rock climbing; we walked to the top of Gangilonga Rock where we watched the sunset and took loads of funky pictures that I've shared below. It was so much fun.

And then at night, after dinner, we were treated to African dancing! It was brilliant to watch, these local Africans came in and showcased their traditional dancing/singing which was interesting to say the least. If you want to have a watch, brace your ears, make sure your volume is not so loud so as to protect your eardrums, and click play on the video below ;)

Happy watching!

Gangilonga Rock - Video Maker


AFRICAN DANCING:

African Dancing - Video Maker

~ Sunday 10th August

These last two days have been a complete whirlwind. I've gone from Malawi to Dar-e-Salam to Iringa and now I'm in my room of the GapMedics house tapping out this post.

After the 4am start and emotional goodbyes at home, we left for the airport and boarded our two hour flight to the capital of Tanzania. I have to admit, my nerves were getting the better of me. I had no idea what to expect or what the hell I was doing all by myself in an entirely new country. I mean, I know I was with a legit organisation that did this kind of thing day in day out, but still. I was nervy and on edge and my poor parents were fretting as all good parents do, my parents excessively so. Bless them. Four weeks away from me haven't really taught them to let go much.

I walked out of arrivals, proudly donning the GapMedics t-shirt (I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me feel intelligent) and searched frantically for the staff I had been told would be waiting for me also wearing the t-shirt, so scouring the awaiting public was made a little easier. I spotted them relatively quickly which was a relief (more so for my parents) and then we parted ways again for a week, them hailing a taxi/mini bus large enough to carry all their luggage, and me with my designated taxi driver.

I was taken to Landmark Hotel which acts as a stopover hotel for the GapMedics students; students landing between Saturday morning and Sunday morning stay the night, and at 8am of the Sunday, leave for either Morogoro (under-18s) or Iringa (over-18s). It took me about half an hour to get there because the traffic was insane. It was at a standstill for over twenty minutes and it was so hot. That sticky, humid, unbearable kind of hot, and it was just so frustrating having to sit there listening to the hooting of cars and mini buses every thirty seconds without even budging an inch.

I finally made it and was taken to my room so I settled in and assured my parents that I hadn't been kidnapped or raped or murdered, and that instead, I was safe and sound in my hotel room with the door firmly locked.

That is until there was a knock on the door. It was the taxi driver. Holding my hoodie and the bag with all my reading books (as well as my return tickets and passport) that I had unknowingly left in the back of his car. I had completely forgotten about them. I didn't even realise that I was missing them until I opened the door to find him standing there with this huge apologetic smile and my stuff in his hands.

Yes, I really am that clumsy and reckless in life. I could have lost my passport. Jesus.

Once I got over the fact that I could have seriously screwed up my trip (and life) when my week hadn't even begun, I had a shower and went into the dining room to have lunch (they had wifi! After six weeks of no wifi, imagine my excitement at suddenly having free unlimited internet access). I met Kirsty who was the only other person from my group who had arrived by then and because we were due to meet the rest of the group for dinner, we went back to our rooms to rest it out till then.

Dinner was a chance to socialise and get to know everyone else with us and we also got to hear the horror stories from the returning students. One girl was saying that her friend was in a particular department on this one day and out of all the patients she saw, only one survived. I can't even begin to imagine how much of an eye-opening experience this is going to be.

Another girl, she was from the under-18s group, she told us that from her group, ten people contracted malaria and one of those was a girl who had both malaria and typhoid. Well, at least we've been warned!

It's worth knowing what we've let ourselves into...

After we were briefed for the trip to Iringa the following morning (9 hour coach trip - kill me now) we hit the pillow to be up for 6am and we left at 7 to head towards the coach station with the coach leaving at 8, and our torturous journey began. Okay, admittedly, it wasn't that bad. I quite enjoyed it. I had the music, the scenery, and a window seat - I couldn't really ask for more. We only had two toilet stops but the toilets were basically holes in a ground with no flush and a sink that had no running water for us to wash our hands. Suffice to say I was more than able to hold it so I passed.

Just before the drive through the mountains to the GapMedics Rock House, we passed through Ruaha National Park which was pretty awesome; we saw giraffes, elephants, zebras, antelopes, impalas, and passed baboons that were casually sitting on the roadside.

When we finally pulled up to the house, we were met by the cheering and applause of the students that were already there. It was quite the overwhelming welcome! We had a little intro session in the communal/social area (which is kind of like the living room of the house) then we were whisked off to our rooms to settle in before dinner.

Dinner was fab! Seriously, it was just like home food. I was pleasantly surprised. And my roommates Beth (from Australia) and Holly (fellow Brit) are so lovely so despite the gruelling journey and non-stop activity since this morning, I'm so excited for what tomorrow will bring.

Oooh and these are the pictures of the trip and the house - enjoy!

~ 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!

~ Saturday 2nd August

Two days at Lake Malawi is far from enough. I could live there...waking up to sunrises over the water, taking walks across the beach, being surrounded by beautiful scenery - I mean, who wouldn't?!

We left Thursday evening (we were meant to leave soon after lunch but we didn't leave till after 6pm; it's no secret we have timing issues) so we didn't get to the cottage we were staying at till after 8pm. Going to the lake is a family ritual; whoever goes to Malawi, whenever they go, a trip there is always written on the cards. And although I've been there three times in the past, the beauty of it never ceases to amaze me each time. The cottage overlooks the water and as we pulled up, we could hear the waves and faintly see their outline in the moonlight - it was perfect.

We couldn't do much though considering it was pretty late so we just unloaded all our luggage, ate and settled in. I'll admit, I hate going to the lake because the thought of lurking lizards and cockroaches freaks me out. (I'm terrified of anything that moves. Period). Everyone knows that. And takes advantage of it. So my cousins thought it was hilarious to randomly shout "lizard!" and I fell for it. Every damn time. God they're evil.

There was one time when I last came, I was sleeping in the room downstairs with my two aunties and my grandma (who sadly is no longer with us), and my aunty went to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, and she went to flush the toilet and a frog jumped out. That's happened quite a few times when my other cousins have stayed over because the water supply comes directly from the lake, but now do you see why I have issues?! I spent half the time with my legs pulled up to my chin so nothing could come in close proximity to me. I was actually scared to sleep but all the girls were sleeping in one room on this huge king-sized bed so I sneakily made sure I slept in the middle so a reptile or insect couldn't creep up on an unsuspecting me.

*Pun intended*

We set one alarm for 5am (Shaz was in charge of this) so the plan was she'd wake up and then wake the rest of us up to watch the sunrise from the top balcony. The alarm went off, and I vaguely heard it, and no one was getting up to switch the stupid thing off and I was thinking "Shaz, please just get up and shut it off" whilst simultaneously having the thought cross my mind that no one was getting up, and we were going to miss the sunrise. Bummer. Sleep vs sunrise. It's a tough call.

We did somehow sleepily stumble out of bed and we donned our hoodies (it is so freaking cold in the morning here!) then we tried to get on to the balcony, but basically, the upstairs corridor and the balcony are separated by a security door that has those gaps that you can see through, but it was padlocked. And we couldn't get it to open. There were seven of us women, and we were turning the key left, right and centre, but the door wouldn't budge. And we could see the sun beginning to rise and we were trying (in vain) to not miss it but it seemed like the sunrise was going to slip from our grasp. Eventually we decided to be horrible beings and go wake my dad up just to open the door for us. He did. Bless him.

And we did catch the sunrise! Just about. So here are the pictures that are internet-worthy but cannot come even remotely close to watching first-hand, such a stunning display of sheer beauty.

Sunrise - Video Maker

We then fell back to sleep. Naturally. By the time we got up (again) it was 10am so we had breakfast then took a walk along the beach and took more pictures (see below). Then it was time for lunch and after that we went back down to the beach but the water was too cold to swim in so we just chilled on the sand and spent time with each other, although those who were able to brave the cold waves did go for a dip. We then went to Sunbird Livingstonia Beach, which is this lovely hotel on the beach so we took a walk by the water at sunset before having cappuccino in these little huts on the sand. By the time we got back, it was early evening so we got straight to preparing for our barbecue dinner on the balcony and ended the night with toasting marshmallows and trading stories of the past.

Beach - Video Maker

I'm pleased to tell you that we got up a whole half hour early (hurrah!) and we got to watch the sunrise from start to finish the following morning. Wait, that's today. Yeah, sorry, my mind's a little disoriented (I'm struggling to keep my eyes open) but these pictures are of today's sunrise. The water was really rough today and the winds were quite harsh too so we didn't swim but we did go for a walk before packing up and heading home. On the way back, we watched the sunset; we stopped the car on the side (no, it wasn't a hard shoulder, we just parked up randomly) and then got out, ran to the other side of the road and took a picture of the blood-red sun.

Sunrise, Sunset & The Beach of Lake Malawi - Video Maker

African road trips are second to none. And nothing compares to the stunning sunrise over the lake. 'Twas an unparalleled beauty.

Oh. Quick side note.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful mum! :) I love you so much <3

P.s. the slideshows have a soundtrack to them so just hover the mouse over the little screen and enable the sound - enjoy!

~ Wednesday 30th July

The local market - Tsoka market - was in flames last night. I kid you not. Stalls and merchandise (worth billions in the local currency) burnt to ash, simultaneously knocking out the electricity for hours.

I wouldn't have been so affected by it if my phone hadn't completely died on me and was in dire need of charging. Also the small fact that the market is five minutes away and after we went outside to see thick grey smoke billowing in the night sky accompanied by the sharp smell of scorched wood, we panicked at the possibility that it could reach us.

We actually calculated how long it would take for us to be in trouble. Extreme? Maybe. But this is Africa and considering how luck hasn't been in our favour lately, it was justified. Especially if fire engines don't have water.

As it happens, we survived. Although my brother's had a high fever, aching muscles and chills for the last few days - my family, being as smart as they are, starting taking their malaria tablets a week later than they should have done. So we had to rush him to the hospital this morning for an emergency malaria test because we're off to Salima tomorrow to spend a few days at Lake Malawi and we couldn't risk him ruining the trip for us.

Taking him there then resulted in us being caught up in riots that were happening on the main road; there was an uproar between the street vendors and the market traders who lost their stock last night because it was suspected that the fire was an arson attack by the street vendors to impact the market trade. There were angry mobs stoning private property and looting whatever they could get their hands on and some rioters were even burning down vehicles. Eventually, uniformed armed police were having to intervene by firing teargas. I don't think my dad's been more scared in his life!

The drama and excitement seems to be never-ending. But on the bright side, my brother has been cleared of malaria. Yay. He simply has an infection so it looks like we're off to the Lake tomorrow!

(I'll post the pictures - I promise it's so beyond beautiful and well worth the wait)

~ Monday 28th July

Edit: Yes, I understand that you're reading this post about a month later, but it's the thought that counts.

I hope you all had a lovely one after a month of intense fasting. Granted, I had fasts that were approximately 8 hours shorter than yours, but I felt them more here than I have ever felt them in England. I promise you that's no lie. Like, I felt actual hunger to the point where I just wanted food and the time to breaking the fast couldn't come quick enough. I've never felt that back home before (only in the last hour or so but I mean, that's natural, it happens to even the best of us). I don't know what it was, initially I thought it was because I was working, but my mum and my cousin Shazmeen who's here from Paris both said the same thing. Strange.

Imagine my relief when I found out we were celebrating Eid today. I actually first found out that England were celebrating; we hadn't received any news of the sighting of the moon yet because in Malawi we follow the sighting of the moon either here, or in South Africa regardless of whether Saudi report a sighting or not since the clear skies here allow for it. Usually, both Ramadan and Eid are celebrated a day later than England but this year Ramadan fell at the same time. Anyway, I was getting messages from family and friends wishing me a happy Eid and I was thinking "hold up! I don't think we're even celebrating!". I was feeling pretty left out to be honest, the thought of having to fast while majority of the world would be feasting on majestic lunches and scrumptious sweet treats was pretty depressing to say the least. I was literally jumping up and down in happiness a few minutes later when my cousin told us that the moon had been sighted in South Africa.

It's the first time in a very long time that Malawi have celebrated Ramadan and Eid with everyone else. Fate? I think so.

I was the only happy one though. The family were unprepared to celebrate (we Indians are last minute with everything). Last night was a mad one. At 11pm, my cousin Nasreen rushed off to make fresh cream icing and finish the cake she had still had left to decorate, my aunty attended to her half-prepared lunch for today, my dad was teaching my little cousin Hamza algebra (yes, you read that correctly), and I began the henna for us four girls. I slept at 2am (shock to my system after a series of 10pm curfews). So much for beauty sleep.

I then awoke at 4am and I now feel like a zombie writing this at 12am because it's been non-stop. We had guests in the morning and then, because my cousin still hadn't finished that damn cake, we went out looking for strawberries (in our flashy desi clothes - we were getting some seriously funny looks from the locals). We then did a barbecue for lunch which was amazing, no lie. If you ever want to taste a real barbecue, go to Africa.

After that, us kiddies (Shaz, a 23 year old, me and Nasreen being 20, my cousin Nusrat and brother Shaahid being 16, and Hamza being 10) headed off to an Eid fair because we're just that cool. If your imaginations have sprinted ahead to Pleasure Beach or something to that scale, please stop now. It was merely a poor excuse of a fun fair, a stretch of land with scattered stalls, a paddling pool, a cordoned off area that measured about 3m x 3m where paint-balling was taking place, go-karting (a race track that would take a minute tops to drive around) and a single ride called The Big Wheel.

The paddling pool had no water, the paint-balling would have resulted in us having a 3-a-side game which is pathetic and the go-karts only had two little cars, both of which had no fuel. Go figure. So we simply bought lots of junk food, laughed at the African life that should have stopped surprising us by now, and sat on The Big Wheel twice because admittedly, it was awesome. For an African "ride" anyway. It was two wooden planks serving as a swing within a cloth ferris wheel so we swung back and forth, but the wheel itself was moving round so it was an optical illusion of us moving in a counter-clockwise direction whilst the wheel spun in a clockwise direction. Impressive.

We got home in the evening and then we just bought pizzas from Pizza Inn and chilled as a family. It's been a long day. My feet are aching and my eyes are drifting and so I must love you and leave you (with a picture or two that captured our fun day).