From Chitimba Beach our next stop was Kande Beach, also on Lake Malawi, just a few hours south. Same as Chitimba, I was paranoid about the Bilharzia so I didn't go in the water. I walked up and down the beach, and met some local boys who were playing a game called Bowe. Similar to a game called mancala that I've played before at home. They invited me to play so I sat down and played with them for a little while. They let me win.

The night life in Africa so far has been pretty non existant since its dangerous to go out at night, but that night the campsite we were at actually had a little bar, so we hung out there celebrating my tentmate Karens birthday.

The next day we took a tour of the Tonga Village that is just outside our campsite. It's interesting how the tourism industry has evolved in this part of Malawi. All of the land that goes to the Tonga villagers was given to the Chief of the Village to disperse as he wishes. His requirement for giving away (yup, giving away - its FREE) land is that what is done with it must benefit the villagers. Our campsite on Kande Beach was built on land given to a British man who invested the money to build the campsite and then employed the Tonga people to run it. So if you have some extra cash and want some free lakefront real estate I can give you his info!

Just outside the campsite is a row of curio shops with different "owners" who have conveniently given themselves english names of famous people. The first shop I went into, I was greeted by "Shaggy" and "Pink Floyd". Mel Gibson, Fred Flintsone, and Banana Republic also have curio shops here in Malawi. Small world, huh?

The next morning, the Tonga Chiefs son, Savimba, gave us a tour of the village and showed us the primary school, hospital, and since it was sunday, invited us to church. Along the way as we walked through town, children would run up and hold our hands. One of the women tried to teach me how to balance stuff on my head, but I couldn't do it. The primary school was a brick skeleton of a room with a chalkboard at the front and thats it. No chairs or anything. The classroom holds 150 kids and there is only 1 teacher for all of them. When we visited the hospital, the doctor was not there because he had left for church, but we chatted with the pregnant women that were waiting to have their children. Since they don't have the means to get to the hospital quickly and since it is so far away - when a pregnant woman reaches 8 months, she goes to the hospital and waits there for the last month to have the baby. There were women sitting in the courtyard just knitting, talking and basically just waiting up to a month to go into labor. The hospital serves 25,000 people and there is only 1 doctor and 1 nurse. It was pretty sad learning about their educational and medical facilities, makes you appreciate home a lot more. On the other hand, the church service was great - full of jubilant songs, clapping, dancing and laughing - not that I understood any of what they were saying, but it was obvious that they were happy just to be alive.