On the move again.....

On the move again in September 18th
It was a bitter sweet few days to say good bye to our home of 6 month.
Our Monkey Bay Lodge community where we held each other afloat most of the time with humor, respect and amazing food creations! Thanks a million times over again Warren, Daliso, Lameck and Cindy

for helping to create special memories; Riki Anderson at the  Mufasa Eco Lodge, Felix, staff and all the kids, Taffy and Leoni from the Norman Carr Lodge; Gert, Colin, Ryan Lula and Jenny; Henri and Sandrine Memorable times have been had and you are all to thank for.
All our vegetable ladies,

our groceries connections at variable stores around the village, our Monkey Bay beach lodge community and most of all “my” kids at the Mufasa Eco Lodge. These kids took me into their midst with acceptance, laughter and such positive energy that it brings tears to my eyes writing these words and looking at their pictures......I am suffering from withdrawals! Those beautiful little humans made me forget for hours at a time why I was still there after weeks and month. Oh, the songs we sang.....the games we played.....the bubbles we blew! Thank you Raphick, Mayamiko, Rose, Janet, Leah, Hazel and Kingsley! Each one of you has a special place in my heart for the rest of my life.
My goal was for each kid to know how to swim and float before I would leave.

                                     Check     ✅

The Mufasa Eco Lodge is managed by Riki A.  a dedicated woman -a retired human rights lawyer who makes sure the kids under her wings at the School program are fed, healthy, active and educated not only while the country is locked down and all schools are closed. Sponsors are active to provide money for athletic training -Africa Athletics.
Here a 6 minute promo video to keep the sponsor’s money flowing:

https://youtu.be/OcTp7Jze-Eg

I just kind of slipped into this gorgeous settlement to do my small part.
Being surrounded with kids, working for the future by being in the moment is the most healing and rewarding for me in general, but especially in times like this. We dare look for some good outcomes from the Corona Pandemic worldwide and personal - this is one of them.
We left our Monkeys at Bay and headed back on our trusty wire steeds to Lilongwe.....why?
.....because the airports in Malawi have opened for business -supposedly on September first -so we played it safe and booked a flight with Ethiopia Airlines none-stop to Nairobi on September 16th.
270km took us three days of pedaling to the capital of Malawi. 100km the first day on loaded bikes wasn’t easy after 6 month of pretty much none-cycling. We were rewarded with a fancy stay at the old Mua Mission at Namalikhate Lodge Dedza, Malawi
This is a bit of a read, but well worth it:

We earned our fancy stay the last few 100 m by climbing up a steep dirt road until all was well and we found ourselves sitting showered and hungry in front of a proper meal.
Second day to Salima was smooth and easy, but we had gotten older, so we stopped at a fancy little lodge (again). It was so unexpectendly cheap that we congratulated each other to have looked no further.
We’ve done it 6 month ago in the other direction...so, in my memory the last day from Salima to Lilongwe should be flat and easy - NOT! (Not just not, but: not at all!)
Somewhere on route denial vanished and we realized it’s all uphill - going up and down kind of uphill-...some 1284m. And though we left early in the morning, we seemed to not be able to make it to the City before dark. As the outskirts of Lilongwe is typically populated with even poorer citizens, we got “cold feet” and begged a collectivo taxi to take us the rest of the 28km to our destination at the south/west side of town. Surprisingly James and I were the only ones wearing masks in a time like this. Swiftly the bikes were stored.....bags and all.....as we crammed ourselves into the small space to find a seat. Luckily there were only 3 more passengers (a lot of cargo though) and I kept my nose out of the window. It was worth the 6000MKW ($8) bikes and all.

Our stay in the capital was pleasant - actually quite fun! We visited people we had met as guests in Monkey Bay and our stay with a German doctor -working in her field to improve the poor health system in Malawi -was perfect and interesting.
We learned soon that our flight - though we confirmed directly with the airline 3 times - did not even exist! That gave us the run arounds for a couple of days, but we were able to “climb the ladder” to some influential individuals and got booked for the 18th with Kenya Airlines! The rebooking/transaction went well with help we had. We were only scheduled two days later than originally planned. Plenty of time to get our COVID test, find boxes for the bicycles and get another lunch at our favorite Urban Cafe. Smooth “sailing” all the way to Nairobi, Kenya!