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Hello...
We are having a very emotional day as all our friends have left so we are back to being stuck with just each other again!! (sob sob) We only have one more week of work left at the hospital before we skive off and go to lake malawi. We have started in Obs and gynae this week and have really enjoyed the change...we have seen lots of babies being born but have yet to do a delivery ourselves its ourt challenge for next week as well as doing a c-section on our own..fingers crossed!! We had unexpected amazing weekend just gone..the tea plantation was spectacular! We braved the minibuses with 24 people all squashed in...we were just glad there no chickens...although there was vomit. Nice. We got to where we THOUGHT was the end of our journey (Laura had survived surprisingly well without Diazepam) and got on the back of a pick up truck for an expected 10 minute drive. An hour later we still had 20km down a dirt track to go...we were orange from the dust by the time we got there. (Emily was sad to wash off the closest she has ever been to a tan in the shower...it looked so convincing! haha) The journey to the tea plantation passed through lots of small villages miles from any kind of shop or sign of civilisation and it definately felt like we were in the real africa! Because it was so far off the beaten track not that many tourists venture through so 6 muzungus on the back of a pick up caused quite a stir. It felt like being a celebrity with all the kids running after the back of the truck and everyone waving at us (...Ian got asked if he was from Westlife..?!?! Laura said yea the gay uggers one which displeased him hehe). The mammoth journey was worth it in the end when we arrived in Zoa. The journey through the villages had scared us a bit..we thought we would be staying in a shack with no running water, food, electricity, beds...oh, we were wrong! The house at the tea planataion was owned by a Scottish couple and was absolutely massive. It had about 9 beds, a huge lounge, dining room and a veranda overlooking the tea plantation. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner at a different table each day. We had our own staff (?!?!?!?!?!) who brought tea and CAKE about twice a day, wooooohooooo *emily does joyous dance for cake presence*. The food was amazing, we had steak on the first night and no rice and beans in sight! We had the whole place to ourselves and spent the weekend relaxing in the peace and quiet (minus the evening sampling the malawian delicacy...gin.) We ventured out for a few walks around the tea plantation and visited the factory where the tea was made. Ian preyed on our gullibility by telling us that unicef has to shut the factory down because they were using child labour to knit teabags each day. Even with the word knitting we fell for it big time and expressed a lot of concern and spent ages ranting about it. Apparently the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionnary as well...! haha. We purchased 2kg of tea which seemed like a good idea at the time because it was so nice but we fear we may not get it through customs because it looks suspiously likes drugs (Laura: Yes Dad, I know I am not allowed to carry anything for anyone on the way home!). Purchase tea strainers in advance everyone! We went for a walk through one of the villages...big mistake! It started off really nicely with the children shouting "Muzungu" and the others running from all over to come and see us. They were really sweet and very curious. They followed us on our walk...in the end we collected about 50. Another celebrity moment I feel. haha. It turned not so nice when the parents shouted something and they all started asking for money. It is a shame but when you see how they live you can see why, We couldnt shake them until we got back to the house, which felt a bit unfair that we were staying in such luxury.
It was a lovely weekend, we are heading to Mount Mulanje on saturday which is the highest mountain in central africa. Will let you know how far/if we climb it at all haha
Love Laura and Emily xxxx
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