Sunburnt Mzungu

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We have had an extremely stressful time lately transporting ourselves from beach to beach. After Zanzibar, we drove down to Malawi, and you guessed it, hit the beach. We stayed at a resort which I would name but probably get sued for liable after I give you my feedback. If anyone's planning a trip to Malawi I'll tell you where never ever EVER to stay. Unless, of course, you like trashy 18-30 places with euro pop blasting til 2am and fancy barmen who think they have the body of a Chippendale stripper (in reality they resemble a stripper perhaps 30 years after they should have retired). We escaped and went to a school where we were befriended by more children, cue more UN style hand outs of pencils. We walked to the local hospital - I must remember "just down the road" in Africa is at least 3km next time I volunteer to go anywhere with a local. Our guide was not remotely phased about bursting into the consulting rooms where people were getting tested for HIV - it was really embarrassing, we couldn't wait to get away and leave the poor people to it. Then we walked to an orphanage 'close by' yes, another few km's and were absolutely delighted to find it was closed and there were no children anywhere to be found. A five hour walk and I was pretty sunburnt - I wonder if they have a word in African for idiot white person who forgot the sunblock, Mzungu isn't quite accurate any more. We went horse riding through the forest the next day, and for an excruciating 20 minutes experienced bareback horseriding which I wouldn't recommend to anyone, it was the most painful thing ever - horses spines are extremely bony and walking back to the campsite was quite difficult. We took the horses into Lake Malawi and got drenched which was great fun, and didn't realise for quite a while that the water had made the horse hair stick to the inside of our upper thighs - NOT a good look.

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