Leo in Malawi: March 13 - On the way to Zomba

We took Ilhame to St. Luke’s Hospital in Zomba when she would be working for the next four months. On the way there we saw some interesting mountains called inselberg (island mountains). We ate some local chicken by the road with msima. It is ground and bleached corn cooked and served in a pile like rice. Even the taste reminds me of rice. Msima is the most eaten food in Malawi and you can find it at any restaurant and at any location. Rice is popular too, however more expensive for local people because it is not as cultivated as much as corn is (you saw it in the photos). I tried cooked squash leafs. It looks and tastes like spinach and I could not believe it that it was not spinach. Since we left capital Lilongwe in Central Malawi to go to Zomba in the Southern Malawi and after that we went back in direction of Northern Malawi using Lakeshore Road (road M5), we needed to stop for a sleep. The location was Nkhotakota on the lake Malawi and Wildlife Reserve is located there too. No, we did not have time to see the reserve this time. The lodge is located 1 km from the main road and it was bumpy so it was good that we were in 4x4 vehicle. The driver Kennedy was excllent and he knew when to speed and when not to. Also he was really careful with pedestrians and drivers who were almost everywhere. We came at the lodge around 11 PM and after that heavy rain started to fall and it did so most of the night. Beside rain the whole night we had a soothing sound of the waves.

Danas smo odveli Ilhame u bolnicu St. Luke’s u Zombu gdje ce biti stacionirana slijedece cetiri mjeseca. Na put smo vidjeli planine koje zovu “inselbergs” (otok planina). Jesli smo domacu koku koja je bila prilicno mrsava, ali ukusnija od masovno uzgajane. U prilogu uvijek dobijete “msimu” sto je izblijeljen samljeveni kukuruz, koji je kuhan i serviran u velikoj kolicini kao i riza. Ukus je takodjer slican rizi. Msima je najpopularnija hrana u Malawiju i naci cete je svugdje. Riza je takodjer poularna, ali je dosta skuplja za ljude koji zive ovdje jer nije kultivirana kao kukuruz koji raste svugdje (sto ste vjerovatno vec vidjeli na slikama). Danas sam kusao kuhano lisce od tikve (znan da vecina vas vec koluta ocima). Kad je lisce kuhano izgleda a i ima ukus spinata. Nisan mogao vjerovati da nije spinat. S obzironm da smo isli iz glavnog grada Lilongwea u Zombu koji se nalazi u Juznom Malawiju, a poslije toga smo se uputili prema Sjevernom Malawiju koristeci Lakeshore Road (cesta M5). Bilo je kasno i morali smo negdje odspavati. Mjesto se zvalo Nkhotakota a nalazi se na jezeru Malawi. U blizini se nalazi i park (divlje) prirode. Od glavne ceste do mjesta gdeje smo spavali udaljenost je bila 1km i put je bio prilicno pun rupa, ali smo srecom imali terenca. Vozac Kennedy je odlican i zna kada voziti brzo a kada sporo te kada upozoriti pjesake i bicikliste na cesti. Stigli smo na odrediste oko 11 sati navecer. Dobra kisa je padala vecinu noci a osim kise culi smo i zvuk valova sa jezera sto je bio prilicno opustajuce. Spavao sam kao na Kornatima.