So far Malawi is the poorest country we have come across. Their local currency, Malawi Kwacha, is dying a slow death & there is a black market for $USD. People ask to swap your shoes or your shirt for a wood carving, instead of asking for cash.

We spent four nights camping beside Lake Malawi at a place called Kande Beach. The lake covers 1/5 of the country and is so big it has it's own 'pseudo' tides. Every afternoon we got some exercise by swimming and kayaking out to a little island about 800m from the shore. The water was beautiful and fresh and we could jump off a rock straight into the lake.

Kande Beach has its own local village. We met a guy named Christoph who took us for a walk to visit the school, the hospital and his house. The house was quite flash by Malawi standards. It had 3 rooms, a dirt floor, a few bits of corrugated iron on the roof and was made from bricks and mud. The whole thing cost $300 to build and it housed him, his wife, his 2 year old and his mother. He also told us his wife was pregnant with twins. The six of them would all live happily in a house no bigger than our living room.

Outside in his garden he showed us the Casava plant, which is used as their staple food. It's actually poisonous so it's left to soak for 3 days to remove toxins before its dried out in the sun and ground up. He also had a chicken coop on poles 2m off the ground. He said during the day his chickens wander off and return at night to the coop so they don't get eaten by foxes.

As we approached the school, kids came running out of nowhere to hold our hands and walk with us. The all fought over James and he had them all over his shoulders. I suppose they learn to associate the white man as Santa because we always come with lollies, and gifts.

About 80% of the kids had uniforms and some kept their crappy exercise books and broken pens in plastic bags instead of school bags. The class size is ~100 students per teacher and they hold some classes outside in the dirt because there is not enough classrooms or furniture.

The hospital was just as overwhelming. The beds were old and rickety with filthy mattresses and about half had mosquito nets. About 12 beds were set out in a single room, each about 1m apart and no curtains to separate. The hospital is staffed solely by nurses and midwives and a doctor visits one day per month. Any western citizen would be horrified to receive medical treatment in this dump. How lucky we are in Australia!

On the walk we met up with some guys from the village who looked about 20-25yo. They introduced themselves with funny names like sweet banana, Vegemite, slim shady, georgy porgy, cheese on toast. They said they had all been born in that hospital and educated in that school and were trying to sell wood carvings to pay for their high school fees. It was hard not to feel overly generous after seeing the appalling state of their facilities, however we still were a bit dubious about how well crafted their stories were. Still, we used the opportunity to offload some extra clothing we were carrying around in our backpacks. James swapped some old thongs, a pair of socks and a pair of bonds undies for a set of ebony bookends. Ash swapped some undies, 2 old shirts and a cosmetic bag for a Bao game and some key rings.

On one of the days beside the lake, we organized a pig-on-a-spit. Some guys from the village arrived with a little pig carcass and hooked it up above a pit of coals. We dressed up in costumes which we bought on the side of the road (santa hat, glitter jacket, hippie pants) and drank punch which was disgustingly sweet because we accidentally bought cordial instead of soft drink as a mixer.

The rest of our time in Malawi was quiet. Lots of lying in hammocks, sun baking on the beach, reading books, drinking beer and playing volleyball. It was nice to be in the one place for a few days rather than having to pack up the tent and move on again every day.

Our next destination, Zambia, was 2 full driving days away and we were due for a night in Chipata (town on the Zambian border) before we reached Vic Falls/Livingstone, the following day.