27 March: Long drive leaving Zambia and heading into Malawi. The border crossover was interesting and thankfully we had no hassle. We changed money with the "guys" at the border - all of whom lined up at the truck with wads of notes and changed money for us! Interesting!

Malawi is a very poor country, the poorest we visited on this trip. However the people are super friendly and pride themselves on this. The lake covers one third of Malawi and the residents are very dependent on the lake for fishing and water for irrigation for farming. Driving through the countryside I noticed the lack of concrete structure buildings - all buildings were made with wood and straw roofs. There were no cars and very few tracks, lorries or other vehicles and the roads were bad. The villages were sparse and lacked the vibrancy of towns and villages in other countries.

We drove for a few hours and stopped off in the local town, where we picked up some costumes for tomorrow night's pirate party. We pulled into a petrol station for lunch and we were swarmed by kids. GP warned us not to give any money or food to the kids and it was so hard taking out our lunch preparing food sitting down and eating our fresh food as they looked on. I was delighted to be leaving. However GP explained that it is unsustainable and bad for the community to promote a culture where kids expect handouts from the overland trucks. It makes them feel entitled to handouts and does not promote a culture of working for what you earn. Secondly GP was saying that he has witnessed fights breaking out between the kids over the goods that are handed out. It was tough to stomach though.

We arrived at our camp site at Kande Beach about 4pm and we upgraded to an ensuite room. Dinner was a lamb stew made over an open fire which was lovely.

28 March: We did a cultural tour with Roger of his local village, visiting a chicken house on stilts keeping the chicken safe from hyena, rogers home house which he shared with his family and orphaned cousins. We also visited the local water pump which is very important to the local people. We then visited the local hospital and school. The hospital deals primarily with maternity patients and malaria patients and on average 120 patients pass through the hospital on a daily basis. The hospital is staffed by one midwife nurse and his helper. A doctor visits the hospital once a month and any urgent cases have to either wait for the doctor to arrive or else pay for very expensive transport to get to a hospital in another village. Donations were requested for mosquito nets for pregnant women and their children as well as transport funds. The primary school has over 1500 students and 10 teachers. Do the maths. There are not enough rooms never mind table and chairs for the students so the pupils take turns sitting at desks or on the floor. Some classes are taught outdoors. Although primary school is funded by the government, books and school supplies are not and many families do not have enough funds to pay for these simple items. Some of the pupils are orphans, their parents being victims of aids or malaria. The school supports these students and pays for all supplies as well as helping them through secondary school. Donations were also requested here for learning materials and helping students through secondary school which is not fully state funded. All secondary schools are boarding schools and only cost the pupil USD50 per term. However these fees are too high for some pupils and they have no option but to either drop out or look for sponsorship. Me and Gordon committed to sponsoring some kids through school.

Throughout the tour I had my own personal chaperones - Nick and James who told me about their lives and traditions. Every so often different villages get together for dances. This is where men and women meet. You can not marry a women from your village and must go to another village to meet a woman. The woman must leave her village and move to her husbands village to live after marriage. Al there is a high population of Muslims living alongside Christians in Malawi, cross religion marriages are allowed but a Muslim women could have to convert to Christianity in order to live in her husbands community. Couples get married quite young - under 18 and only 10% of couples have a wedding. The rest can't afford a wedding and just get married. The husband and the bride's family provide a cow each for the wedding celebrations if there is a wedding and there is traditional music and dancing in the local hall and the whole village is invited. James was also telling me that his dad dies and that his cousins live with their family as they were orphaned. As he is the eldest the money he earns from farming, tour guiding and selling wood carvings goes towards his younger siblings and cousins education.

We then went for a traditional dinner at Rogers house including kasava, rice, kidney beans, sweet potato soup, spinach and eggs. The kids also sang and danced for us. At the end of the tour I agreed to purchase a number of key chains and pendants from Nick and James which turned out lovely.

That night we had a bit of a party at the camp site. Some of the local guys helped us roast a pig on a spit, with salad and we had butternut squash soup for starters and special pirate punch which was a mixture off everything! We all dressed up as pirates and my new braided hair was great for the theme! The evening as great fun but got a bit rough once we started on the Malawi rum! Gordon managed to last a full three hours before heading to bed at 10pm - that's what getting old does to you! Being the big party I am I managed to last a little later and had great fun helping he barman serve drinks and dance on the bar with the rest of the group. Fun times.

29 March: Woke up with a black eye and vague memories of the night before, none relating to my black eye. Not fun! Met Nick and James and exchanged some toiletries for a painting of all the countries I have visited in Africa on this trip. We left Kande Beach and made our way to Chitimba Beach, a lovely campsite on Malawi lake. Spent the day relaxing and recovering!

30 March: Up early for our 17km uphill hike to Livingstonia which is a functioning mission funded by the Scottish government and church. We had three guides walking with us and was a hard but enjoyable walk. The views were spectacular the higher up we got. We stopped halfway up at some waterfalls where we were able to get into the river and cool down. We trekked up to the top and got to visit the hospital and the museum and saw the schools run by the mission. We went to the maternity and paediatric units in the hospital and while it was great to see the good work that is being achieved by the Mission, I hated being the tourist going in to stare at the new mothers, and sick babies. The last thing Id want after giving birth or if I had a sick child was a load of rich tourist staring at me like lions in a cave. However tourism is a major source of their income and this happens on a regular basis. We managed to arrange a lift back down to the camp site which was not easy given the lack of transport vehicles in Malawi. There were 7 of us each paying $10 each for the lift and we all jumped into the back of the pick up truck and was a little cramped at the start of the journey. However along the way we picked up numerous people who jumped on so much so that we were standing on the back to fit everyone! We reached the bottom of the hill 90 minutes after starting the journey - the journey was 15km! At the bottom of the hill there were loads of people waiting with bags of stuff for a lift back up to Livingstonia. Our guides said people could wait for days for a lift back sleeping on the side of the road. Noone gets a lift for free as petrol is so expensive and vehicles are so scarce.

After lunch of crepes and nutella we went to the local craft market where we got some lovely gifts and art work after a lot of bargaining including exchanging a number of items of clothes! I then headed to the local witch doctor with a guide who could translate for me as the witch doctor couldn't speak English. We went to the village and word spread there was a visitor. No messing within 10 seconds, this quiet village was swarmed with kids looking to play with me, football (ball made out of plastic bags), wanting pictures taken and wanting to sing and dance. We(all the kids, the guide and me) went into the witch doctors house where the witch doctor was dressed in his traditional gear and he did a traditional dance for me with music. All the kids sang and clapped and cheered when I got up to dance with the witch doctor. He then showed me a number of potions and told me what he did. He was in school when he got a vision to go to the mountains. He lived in the mountains for a number of years before being chosen by the king of the witch doctor to train under him which he did for 5 years before returning to the village. People come to him to cure illnesses as well as for curses and spells. He said he still believed in medical modern medicine and would refer people to the doctors and nurses if he was unable to help them. As for spells and curses, he makes up different potions from local herbs and plants including love potions, good luck potions, energy drinks etc. He said that he doesn't put bad curses on people, that different witches do that but that he can reverse a bad spell if needed as well. He gave the example that if my husband had an affair he wouldn't hurt my husband or his mistress but would cast a spell that would my husband love only me and not want to be with his mistress. Was quite interesting listening to him and to the community's belief in him. He told my fortune after but wasn't very enlightening!