Lower Shire: Adventures of a short term employee.

I have been stalling with the updates because a lot happened and I didn’t know where to start (I knew where to start just needed to finish off my contract incase my blog would be considered as an infringement of that).

My first stop was Machinga (Muh-Ching-Uh) which is east of Malawi or south east as it neighbors Liwonde (Lee-war-den(without the n) and Zomba (Zho-m-buh). I got to the place, an interesting place, chilled and in the middle of nowhere. I got there and like a brand that follows me (drama was right in the corner), I found out that my allowance for that week to take care of my accomodation; had somehow been taken by someone who signed next to my name as if it was I, (crazy, as if I wasn’t panicking on the inside) if it was not for my besties (a married couple I love so much) sending me some money; I would’ve starved.

Training was smooth, not hard stuff and I managed to make some friends and acquintances. Of course there were a few old friends that I had found there, one of the people I had become cordial with turned out to be a thorn in my backside (story for another day), anyway we finished the training and the organisers tell us to go for an impromptu training. Got to the place ( in the mountains) I got to several houses and on my way back, guess who gets lost. I got to the houses fine (well I had help from the locals). Climbed one mountain and crossed one river (tops to hiking lovers, this was where my resolve for not understanding why people hike grew). On the way back I crossed two rivers, and I thought to myself “what in the lost is this” no gps, all I could see were beautiful mountains and a valley of flowers but that is not what I wanted to see, I wanted to see myself alive the next day.

I decided to do what I always do when lost, going straight until i find structures, so yes; my formula worked, I found myself alive and where I needed to be. Left for home the next day just to be called and told I needed to come back eish.

So on the next part, I will share how I travelled to Zomba, my stay and the journey to the lowershire. ( fun fact, J R Tolkien travelled the same route I did when he was on his missions trip and got inspired to write Lord of the Rings). read you next time.