Exam preparation week

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Three days ago it was the Malawian Independence Day and to celebrate, a little ceremony was organized on campus by the students. There I had tried local traditional drink called Thobwa; a fermented mix of millets, maize porridge, sugar and water. It had the smell of really old cheese, had a really chunky texture to it and it tasted like milk that had been in cereal for way too long. The week followed with tedious exam preparations for both the lecturers and the students. Thursday my local friend Wilson brought me on another tour of the Mzuzu surroundings. First we wandered around major tobacco trading area (most of Malawi’s economy is based on tobacco and Mzuzu is one of the major trading hubs). We entered a building where they received and graded the tobacco. A really energetic man gave me a tour of the facility in which I was extremely overwhelmed with the amounts of tobacco. After exiting the tobacco building Wilson showed me the local slaughterhouse where most of the beef in Mzuzu comes from. A man gave us tour and explained the processes they used to kill the cows. Outside the building they laid out the cow hide to dry in the sun as they would later be shipped to other countries to be used to make shoes. For our last stop of the day we visited the botanical gardens, a 478 hectare protected forest and garden. A worker we found at the gates gave us a free guided tour of the walking trails in the woods where I saw a monkey and a rare plant our guide called ‘don’t touch me’. When you touched this plant the branches would slowly descent toward the ground, it would take several minutes for the branches to rise up again. The next day we went out with other ex-pats of Mzuzu to a local restaurant to celebrate an Irish man’s birthday.

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Photos

praying mantis
here's an interesting insect we found outside our office after finishing up the exams

Comments

[Sara ta cousine]

Justin, I love reading your blog! You describe things so well (so openly) and make really substantial observations - I can't think of a better travel writer! I can't wait until I can see some of your pictures and hear more stories!