Day 4 - Silly Silly

It's Saturday! Today, our preceptor, Kathy, took her daughters and us to Dedza , the highest town in Malawi, which is about 1 ½ hours south of Lilongwe. On our way there, we drove by a lot of markets and villages. The drive was scenic, with lots of green hills and some mountains along the way. Along the way, we could see Mozambique and some of its mountains.

Malawi in the foreground, Mozambique in the background.

Let's take a selfie...wait! oops! hahaha!!! <3 this picture and this girl! 

Yay!!! Us and Mozambique in the background. So close but so far.

When we reached Dedza, we visited an art studio that specialized in paper recycling. He receives paper from Lilongwe recycles it to make different paper products, such as notebooks, cards, envelopes, etc. They also had beautiful paintings that look so real, with details that looked like it was a photograph.

He makes the paper. He also knows some Japanese. So talented!

These paintings are so beautiful. They looks like photographs!

The shops next door had some amazing wooden carvings, some African animals, some cars and trucks, other decorative furniture like chief’s chair and tables. Afterwards, we went to the pottery place in Dedza (Paragon Ceramics). All the pottery is handcrafted and hand-painted. There were so many different styles and designs of kitchenware and decorative pieces. It was so difficult just to pick out just a few pieces. I felt like I wanted to buy sets of different designs. They were all absolutely beautiful. I saw this one design with a hippo on it that I really liked, but that was the only design I saw, and I wanted other animal designs too, such as the giraffe and zebra. I asked one of the people who worked there to see if they could find other ones. At first, he was said no, but then he asked if the style can be different. I told him that it didn’t matter; I just liked the design and wanted some specific animals. When he went inside a room in the back, I prayed that there would be the ones I wanted. A few seconds later, he held two mugs in his hand and I started grinning from ear to ear. I was super excited about these mugs and was feeling giddy the rest of the day. Thank you God for that, I can’t wait to use these and share them with your people. After we had made our purchases, we ate lunch at the café. It was delicious and had a beautiful, relaxing atmosphere.

I'm so excited to use these!!
Business in the front.

Party in the back!
Teehee! Butts!
Cutest handmade mugs ever!

Luisa's teapot and mug. Love the colours and the silhouette!

On our way back home, we stopped by various markets in search of sweet potatoes and other vegetables. The amount we pay for 3-4 tomatoes, for example, can get us a big pile of at least 20 locally grown tomatoes. We bought potatoes as well, and the big bag cost approximately $2.50. As Kathy was buying the vegetables, one of the ladies came up to us and talked to us in her very, very limited English, which really consisted of a couple of words, like “good”. She looked like she was interested in taking a picture with us since she saw us taking pictures of the stands and came over and looked. So we took a picture with her. While I was taking a picture with her, to my surprise, Malawians are similar to Canadians in some ways when it comes to photos. There will always be people trying to photobomb your pictures.

Malawians know how to photobomb too!

Local, super fresh, and affordable!

When we came back to the house later that night, I walked into my room and was about to put down my stuff when I was suddenly greeted by … a gecko. It quickly scurried behind the shelf. I walked out quickly and asked Darcy for some help. He came in and looked around, then the gecko scurried under the bed. He then could not see it and said that it probably crawled back out. A few minutes later, I saw the gecko again crawling up a wall near the window. I quickly called for Darcy’s help again. This time, he caught the gecko and attempted to walk towards me with it in his hands. He wanted me to take a look at it and I started moving away. He then made me sit on the couch next to him to look at the gecko. I’m fine when it’s either contained or in someone else’s hands and not scaring me. Darcy was then getting up to set the gecko free when he all of a sudden put it on the wall and it crawled behind the couch. That was mean Darcy as I saw the gecko had started to crawl towards the bedroom and me again. Thank goodness that was the last sighting of that one so far. Let’s hope that this little guy is not a frequent visitor, nor are his friends.