Senga Bay

Last weekend I spent a rather magnificent few days with 18 other EWB volunteers in Senga Bay on the shores of Lake Malawi. I left a little later than everyone else so that I could spend a little more time at work (I was rather new in the job at that point - 3 days in - as compared to my current mature status of 6 days whole days).
The journey began with an hour waiting for my minibus to fill up, and then a slow climb into the hills near the lake. The sun was just beginning to set when we approached the town of Salima, where I needed to transfer to some form of transportation in order to get to Senga Bay. My minibus was painfully slow at climbing each hill, moving almost at walking pace as we approached the crest of each hill and then accelerating unchecked to the beginning of the next hill. Just after dusk, we pulled into the little town of Salima. When I got off the bus I was surrounded by people trying to fill their pick-up trucks with people for the ride to Senga Bay. Problem of how to get to Senga Bay - solved. I jumped into the back of the pick-up truck and we sped off into the night. The short journey to Senga Bay was entrancing: the evening was warm, the breeze from sitting in the bed of the truck was just the right amount of cool, the company was intriguing (no one seemed to speak English), and the sky was once again full of lightening. As we were nearing the guesthouse where I was going to be staying our pick-up truck was stopped by two vans that were repairing the overhead electricity cables that provided power to a village along the road, and to my guesthouse. Getting out to investigate I was told the guesthouse was only "300m" further on, so I paid off my pick-up and started out. I was accompanied by the guy who been stopped in the car in front of us. He joined me for what I'm guessing was about a kilometer and a half walk, and on the way I learned he was a Malawian solider who'd trained with the U.S. Marines, and served in Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda. A pretty good escort I think!The retreat itself was wonderful. I got to meet all of the other volunteers working in Malawi and Zambia. I learned a little more about what everyone else was doing and how everybody's projects are related. I ate some delicious food (we had some great cooks). I got to sit in some really interesting workshops, workshops that were so interesting that we had monkeys peering in the windows trying to get in on the learning. I swam in Lake Malawi and played a little beach volleyball at the end of a hard day's learning. I'm already looking forward to the next retreat and I hope you enjoy the pictures that I took.

Thanks for reading!