I'm Back!

After leaving SAFI, we stayed in Lilongwe at Korea Garden Lodge as always. We didn't do much, just chilled. Then it was a quick trip to the airport. The trouble was trying to exchange our money. None of the banks at the airport were able to help us out to even exchange it into South African Rand since that's where our next stop was and maybe we could convert from there. No deal. So I ended up getting some more gifts for family and friends. I didn't have too much kwacha left. The two flights to New York weren't too bad! I had to climb over a nice lady when she was sleeping so that I could walk around and such. Thank goodness I never woke her up!

Then we got to New York! Everything was so big and crazy! My first time in a subway! It was so cool! Pretty dark, but cool. I was going to try to take a picture, but then everyone was waiting for me to move on, and I figured I didn't want to get yelled at in New York my first time there, so I continued moving on into the subway. We stopped at Emily's hostel since she is staying for a couple of days. But then we got to go see Carolyn!!! YAY!!! It was so fun to see her! Oh man I've missed her and how upbeat she is and I can totally be myself around her and we just know each other so well! We walked around and saw Time Square. It was crazy! We got bagels and cream cheese and then I had some gelato. We ended up bike riding around central park. It took us about an hour and twenty minutes. It's a lot bigger than I realized! There sure were lots of hills too. Bike riding around made me realize how much I miss having a bike and just riding around. We got pretty sweaty especially since it's so humid there. It was an overcast day too though. We returned our bikes and got some pizza. Yum!
Then Renee and I had to take the subway back to the airport to make sure we made our flight to Utah. We didn't even get lost! Score!

As we were waiting for our flight, the time for boarding was growing closer and closer and I was starting to feel sicker and sicker. My stomach was having a lot of issues. Then I got that sensation where you start salivating more and you know you're going to throw up. So I bee-lined it to the bathroom. I finally boarded after another problem and I got gatorade hoping it would help me out. I searched for a bag in the little pouch in front of me. Nope. Asked the flight attendant for one, and he delivered rather quickly but seemed not to think anything of it. The people next to me seemed to grown whether verbally or in their mannerisms, I don't remember, I just remember they seemed to not want to sit by me anymore (not they really did anyway, I guess). Thus, my issues continued on even before taking off. I had to get another bag and after sitting down was offered gum by the kind folks next to me. I laughed and said thank you and grabbed some of my Altoids for their sake even though I knew there would still be problems and it was pointless...but I was hoping the opposite. I told them I had eaten something bad and that I'm not a wimpy nervous person who hates flying and that I was really sorry. Then I heard the woman ask her husband if he wanted to switch seats so he was farther away. Nope, he wanted to stay tough. By the middle of the flight I had a system down and it was working pretty well since Renee was knocked out asleep the whole time. I was obviously feeling weak, and couldn't hold down liquids either. No good. I was starting to have other issues if you know what I mean, so I would have to go to the bathroom often anyway for that. So by the end of the flight I was exhausted, but kind of a pro at the whole thing. At the end of the flight I still had enough strength to walk, but I felt myself slouching over not holding myself upright. I heard the couple next to me talking about me and saying that they were impressed I made it and said, "she's tough, did you hear her going, 'Come on, you can do this. Suck it up. People have thrown up on planes before.'" That sort of made me smile. I really did lose count as to how many times I threw up and went to the bathroom in general, but let's just go with a lot.
We landed and I was so grateful! I could be with Lindsay! We would have access to good doctors and medicine to heal me. I could eat saltines, drink more gatorade and sprite through a straw and curl up on my side to ease my stomach. When I saw Lindsay, she had a big sign for me! She could tell I was out of it and weak. I seriously wanted to cry. To cry from joy because it was so good to see someone who I love and trust to help me get better. We went to wait for my bags and then Carson and Morgan and Calvin showed up out of nowhere! That made me feel even more at home that there were more of my family to welcome me. They realized I wasn't feeling well and got to helping me. We went to the vending machine for some Sprite and then I saw my parents come out from who knows where and towards me! I was shocked! They flew in from TN! They saw how I was weak and couldn't really stand up straight, so they started helping me out too. I went from having one person to help me out, to six! Thank goodness!
The rest was just sort of suffering through the pain. I had a fever and then we ended up going to the ER because it wouldn't stop. I got some morphine and fluids in me since I was so dehydrated. They released me with some medicine and the diagnosis of traveller's diarrhea. Yuck. So I have been slowly improving and saw a regular physician recently and if I don't keep getting better, they're going to need a sample. Yup, a sample.

Pictures of New York to come!

Nkhata Bay

This past week we went to Nkhata Bay and stayed at Njaya Lodge. There was some pretty delicious food there. I was able to have whole Butterfish. It was really tasty! Also, they had thick crepes with sugar and piece of a lemon that you could squeeze the juices onto the crepe. It was so good! The sugar here is not as fine as sugar in America and I really like it. I like the crunch of the sugar particles here, it's really satisfying.

The view from the eating area of the Njaya Lodge

Also, it rained for the first time this season! It rained for the first time that I've been in Africa! It was so exciting! The rain started our first night in Njaya and poured down on our metal roof, so it was incredibly loud. It was pretty cool though. I got to relax and enjoy the freshness and smell of the rain while reading a book that I brought. It was really nice.
We ended up going on our kayaking trip on Friday to Saturday. It was really nice to get out and do something as enjoyable as the rain was. It rained Friday morning, but stopped at around lunch time, so that's when we headed out. I was the person in the back of the two person kayak. My job was not only to follow the person in front with their paddling, but I was supposed to pedal with both of my feet to direct us. Sometimes I would get caught up in paddling and my timing and I would forget that I had my right foot almost all the way down on the pedal so we would start veering off away from the shore where the waves get bigger. It was pretty funny though. I started getting the hang of it after a bit. After a while I realized that I felt like I was Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon with Toothless! It was the greatest realization ever! The pedals were metal and I just envisioned myself on a dragon sometimes. It was pretty exciting.

Paddling along!

We were able to go cliff jumping. It wasn't too high though. Probably about 20 feet, maybe 25 feet if that. I ended up being the first to jump. It was great! I was really nervous, but I don't think that I would say that I was scared. I knew I would be fine if I jumped and I wouldn't get hurt, but heights are just pretty nerve racking!
Then we continued kayaking and then snorkeled around a small island. There were so many beautiful fish! So many different colors. Sometimes when I looked towards the darkness between rocks, I started to scare myself as to what could come out, but nothing ever did. It was a really fun time. Then we got to the beach and had a nice mashed potato dinner cooked over a fire with some vegetables and some seasoned chicken. It was so good. The best and most seasoning I have had all summer!
We slept on the beach, which ended up being rather uncomfortable, but we got as much sleep as we could manage.

Made it to the beach for the night.

We haven't changed yet, so it's a bit chilly still.

Some kids on the beach with us before nightfall.

We all woke up and ate breakfast (toast with baked beans) and then packed up to kayak back. Kayaking back seemed to go so much faster for some reason. Maybe our muscles were more used to the paddling motion. Again, I was the back paddle and pedal person. After a while of paddling, Emily mentioned to Khumbu (our main guide) that there was a lot of water in the kayak. He came over and opened my skirt covering to see how much we had. He said that it was actually a lot and that no wonder we were slowing down, haha. So he grabbed a cup and started scooping the water out. Khumbu commented on the fact that the water was warm. Haha, I was laughing so hard and saying that I promised I didn't go to the bathroom in the kayak. I wasn't expecting him to say that at all! He told us also that we were more likely to flip over because the water would be swishing back and forth to make us less balanced. After Khumbu got a ton of the water out, he tried to pull my skirt covering back on. We were both still on our kayaks in the water, so it was pretty difficult. He kept floating away and I just kept laughing about it all. So then he started laughing and while laughing told me to stop making him laugh. Haha, it was great! It probably all looked really funny, and we were finally able to get the skirt covering back on. Then Khumbu showed us another cliff jumping spot. It was so incredibly high! It had to have been 50 feet or around there! He told us that he has jumped off of it before, so we asked him to show us. He actually did! It was crazy and so awesome!

Wearing our skirt coverings! 

We had some lunch and found out that our kayak had a small whole in it. So that's why our kayak was full of water! We had some delicious papaya and bananas with rolls and avocados, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, onions, groundnuts, and oranges. So tasty!

We got back to the Lodge and found out that if the waves had been any bigger that day, we would not have been able to kayak back. They had gotten pretty big because it rained earlier that morning and was still cloudy. It was a great couple days!

On Sunday we were able to see a forest of rubber trees! They are so cool! One of the men around came over and scraped on part of the tree and sure enough white ooze came out of where he scraped and came down following the ledge of scrape on the tree and down on a spout that led to a pail to collect the rubber. It was so neat to see firsthand! After it dries it becomes more beige and stretchy! A lot of the people around collect the dried parts on the tree and make rubber band balls and sell them on the side of the road. I am amazed at how cool these trees are!

Also, before we left, I ended up seeing the lake flies! There were lots of big swarms of them! I remembered seeing them on Planet Earth one night as we watched in Provo! It was crazy to see the swarms above the water! I didn't see any close up, but I saw them fly towards the beach nearby and then continue onto the land. I'm glad they didn't fly at me! It was so cool though! The swarm was so dark above the water and at first I had no clue what it was, and then some of the men nearby told me they were lake flies! So crazy!

The lake flies are the dark cloud above the water if you can see it!

We drove back to SAFI on Monday and today we are getting together odds and ends and leaving to go to Lilongwe today after lunch. As I have been organizing, I found some things that would be nice for Adam to have since he is extending his stay for his research, so Emily, Renee, and I gathered them together in one of Adam's large baskets that he bought and I ended up carrying it on my head over to him from our hostel to his. It's not too far, but it was still a challenge. It was really fun to walk with it on my head though. Kevin and Aida and some of the other workers loved seeing me do that. They got a kick out of it and were saying that I was becoming a Malawian woman! It was so fun to see their reactions. They love seeing people try. It was a blast!

Canoes that are usually used. If worked on Monday through Friday all day, it will take about 3-4 weeks to finish. Definitely harder to balance in. I can only imagine.

My chaco tan lines...yeah...

Cool sand on the beach!

Picture Catch Up

Here are pictures from when we went to the bungee jumping and rope swing with Adam, and then to Victoria Falls! That sure was a great day! Hope you like the pictures!

The shadow of the bridge we were on that Adam bungee jumped off of.

Don't worry, I had a guest pass! The bridge is in Zambia and Zimbabwe!

Adam getting ready to bungee jump!

Adam is doing the rope swing on this one.

Victoria Falls!

Another view of the Falls.

We're getting some mist on us!

Cute lock I found on the bridge.

Double rainbow all the way!

Victoria Falls is so big and beautiful!

Two bridges. The falls drop off right past those rocks there!

We're so close to the edge! Don't worry, it's safe.