After getting off to a super rocky start, Jon and I woke up the following morning and headed off to the bar/restaurant area to check out the view. Turns out the hotel is situated basically directly overlooking the lake and man is it beautiful. It honestly reminds me a lot of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala...and so I suppose it feels a bit more like home for it :).
While we had kinda sorta been dreading these two days, they turned into the most amazing reprieve from the road we ever could have asked for. There isn't really much to do at the hotel (read: no internet) and I've honestly never been happier. For the past 48 hours, Jon and I rotated between the following activities: sleeping, eating, relaxing, swimming, watching sunrises/sunsets, reading, hanging out with our travel companions, playing card games, and did I mention relaxing?
We also did quite a bit of activities. The first day here Jon and I rented a "kayak" (aka a huge flat bottom boat with two oars that was QUITE difficult to steer). I lasted about 30 minutes before I was over the crazy rocking and pseudo-seasickness! Julie also volunteered to lead a yoga class both days, which I participated in and helped her to correct the kids' form (kind of, let's be honest, I'm not very good at yoga...). The kids LOVED the yoga classes and got a kick out of the different poses and contorting themselves in strange ways! Marcus also taught a round of Karate which they also couldn't get enough of (although neither of us participated in that...:-p). Yesterday Jon and Roger also played volleyball for about 2 hours with a bunch of the boys! Jon had already worked out (because he was THRILLED to not be on the bus and able to do physical activity) when he decided to join in. I think he finally felt like he had a solid day of working out :-p.
While Jon played volleyball I got the opportunity to talk to a bunch of the boys that live and attend school here (more on that later) about their education system in Malawi, their families, and their lives, while sharing with them a bit about my life and the differences between New York and Malawi! Needless to say, there was quite a bit to talk about - surprised?
I also got a chance to talk to Clemmie, the Program Manager for a nonprofit which is housed here at the hotel (again, more on that later). She told me that they are working on setting up more robust systems and gathering more data so that they can apply for even more grants. She and the nonprofit's Executive Director were QUITE excited to find they had a grant writer in their midst! In fact, the ED offered me and Jon jobs on the spot and asked if we wanted to stay for the next year! While we WON'T be staying at the lake for the next few months, I did tell them I'd be more than happy to lend my services to their organization, so I'm hoping I'll be able to help them with some of their grant writing in the future :).
While we had two pretty wonderful days weather-wise, it did rain both afternoons/nights pretty hard. And I mean HARD. When we planned our trip, we had figured out it was supposed to be rainy season in Kenya and Tanzania. But then we got here, and discovered that the rainy season had come early to much of Eastern Africa...and so we missed it there...but are definitely getting quite a bit of it here! We're now expecting it to be a bit...wetter...over the next week in Zambia and Zimbabwe. I guess we'll see!
Other than that, we have just been enjoying the beauty all around us and spending quality time together (becauses just being together 24/7 hasn't been enough :-p).
I'm going to be pretty sad to leave this place tomorrow and kinda hoping our journeys bring us back again one day :).
Jess' highlight of the last two days: honestly there are too many to name - the last two days have been pretty incredible!
Jon's highlight of the last two days: playing volleyball at the lake
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