Global Vagabond

     Just before Thanksgiving my intake of RAP (rural aquaculture promotion) volunteers took a trip to Kasonka National Park to watch the annual fruit bat migration.  Its ranked as one of the top natural wonders of the world and it was truly phenomenal.  We did a 4 night 3 day camping trip in the park which included two walking safaris, a barbecue, and some night walks.   The park was BEAUTIFUL and made me a little sad knowing that a lot of Africa doesn't look like this anymore, but at least its close to where I am (about 8 hours) and I will definitely being going back next year.    Here we are hanging out in the bush waiting for twilight.  The gang. Still waiting for twilight, when the bat start flying, so killing time in typical PC fashion Finally! Were all getting ready with our cameras While we were waiting we saw some other wildlife lingering around - here are some hippos I believe these guys are called Puku.  They arent too common throug

       Ok, so since rainy season is upon us here, or getting REALLY close, the enthusiasm for digging ponds is slowing down because everyone needs to start planting for next season.  So Ive been occupying my time with other projects, such as GLOW, Girls Leading Our World, which is a youth girl power after school program (which Ill post about in December) and my newly formed women's groups.         Bread is a hard item to find outside of the bomas (or major town areas) so when the news spread that I can make bread in the village there was a lot of interest among the women and older girls to start learning how to bake.  So obviously to bake on a village level my little cast iron isnt going to work so we went about making adobe style wood/charcoal burning ovens.  For those reading this who may not know my background, I have absolutely no idea how to make such an item.  My mom remembers stories from the one pottery course Ive taken, about 10 years ago, about all my clay flying off

  So this last week we took our first vacation to Myoka Village, Nkhata Bay, Malawi.  If you cant guess from the pictures we are literally ON lake Malawi which looks like an ocean, and gets some oceanic like waves too.   Getting there and back was an adventure in itself, and utterly exhausting, but once there its literally paradise.  Way too many 10 hr bus rides in too few days.   Sunny and perfect 90 degrees everyday with the warm waters easily accessible for all day festivities.  There was a group of 8 of us (Kate, Chris, Luke, Lucas, Mark, Grant, Travis, and myself) all of whom are RAPers and we flew into country together.  Its been almost 4 months since weve last hung out so this was a great break from vill life and to be reunited with my original Zam-fam.   Chris has a friend in PC Malawi so she came down with about 10 of her Malawi crew so it was great to hang with other PCVs and make a ton of new friends in the process.  Also, it turns out one of my friends from college,