Lake of stars!!!

On Thursday 14th October, we left for Lake of Stars in Mangotchi. Feel free to Google it. We got the 6.30 bus from Nsanje which was really rather on time. We reached Limbe after around 4 hours before having to wait for mini buses which would take us to Lake of Stars. We waited for a couple of hours, had lunch, I bought a lollipop which was essentially additives on a stick but I rather enjoyed it. Finally we set of for Lake Malawi, arriving around 8pm we were immediately ambushed by media asking Mike, the leader of Tiphedzane, who everyone was and what it was they had come here for.
I donÆt pretend to have experienced proper reverse culture shock, but it was definitely very strange being amongst so many white people. Nobody was staring or shouting æAzunguÆ at us, we could just blend in. It was all rather surreal, and the luxury of the resort definitely shocked some of the guys from Nsanje, some of whom had never even been to the Lake before.
The Lake feels like the sea, with sandy beaches and almost a little bit of a tide, we went for a swim which was lovely and just lay in the sun, relaxing for a while and enjoying the breeze which we most definitely do not have in Nsanje (while writing this I am in our house, boiling and sweaty). The band from Nsanje were part of the æClay diamondÆ project (which until we saw written down we thought was æGrey diamondÆ û pronunciation varies a lot here!) which focuses on development and helping artists from poorer and more rural backgrounds. However, as well as these artists Lake of Stars contained Tinashe, The Noisettes, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. And a lot of other African artists, some of whom we had heard on the radio back in Nsanje!
The live performances were incredible, the Noisettes in particular were fantastic on stage and on the last night we were told that Tiphedzane would be performing with Get Cape. I was definitely rather skeptical at first because a lot of things are talked about but never really happen, especially when there isnÆt a lot of time. However, around 6.30pm the guys turned up to start rehearsing. It was all pretty surreal but sounded amazing and was quite an experience!
We were supposed to leave on Monday but there was a mega transport fail and we ended up sitting doing nothing from about 6am until 4.30pm when the buses finally arrived and we headed to Blantyre. There was no way we could get our connection bus in the middle of the night so we stopped over in a lodge before starting up again the next morning and eventually getting back to our home in Nsanje around midday on Tuesday. By this point, Nancy was ill and hadnÆt slept and we were both knackered so Wednesday was spent relaxing and doing nothing!
The president comes tomorrow so we are all eagerly awaiting his visit to see the port which is frightfully exciting as hopefully it will make Nsanje more than just the poor, sweltering town in the south of Malawi. Fingers crossed!


OK so the President did come, along with Mugabe which was rather surreal. My shoulders got incredibly sunburnt but i'm fine now! No boats have arrived in the port yet though because apparently Mozambique never agreed to let them through their part of the river so it's all a bit dramatic!

Nancy and I start teaching in the secondary school tomorrow. I am terrified seeingas it's essentially GCSE level and some of the students could easily be my age. Maths and English language though so it should all be fine! Let's hope so.
I shall let you all know how it goes.

Love to you all!
Chloe xxxxxxxx

P.S. It was 39 degrees here on Sunday. And that has been pretty standard for the past week or so! I can't wait for the rain!