AH! So the last few weeks have been very crazy.
Last weekend I traveled to Lusaka, the capitol of Zambia with my
swimmers for a competition. This was the first time traveling into a
different country in Africa since I have been in Malawi. Zambia is a
beautiful country! The 12 hour drive was almost worth it because of
the scenery. There were trees EVERYWHERE (and I LOVE trees!). Lusaka
itself is a much bigger city than anything that we have here in
Malawi. It made me feel like I was at home a little bit. I didn't
realize how much I missed the hustle and bustle of a city until I went
to Lusaka. I miss the sounds of cars zooming past and the smells of
a city. Some of us stayed at a farm, which turned out to be really
cool because there were zebra and impala walking around the property.
There were three zebra that walked around the camp like they owned the
place. It was a great experience to see them up close... I finally got
to see some "African" animals!
Driving in Africa is NOTHING like driving in the states. The distance
between Lilongwe and Lusaka is only abut 450 miles or so, but it took
us 12 hours. While driving you constantly have to be on the look out
for the people that constantly line the roads walking to and from
villages. Women with big buckets of water on their head and a baby on
their backs. Men on bicycles carrying a five foot pile of sticks on
the back of the bike. There are so many potholes in the road that you
feel like you are on some sort of amusement park ride more than you
are in a car. You are constantly swerving all over the road to avoid
blowing out a tire and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. If
that weren't enough, you constantly have to be on the lookout for the
herds of goats and cattle that graze on the sides of (and sometimes in
the middle) of the road, and the lone pigs and dogs that always seem
to be scurrying about. Needless to say, it is quite the experience!
Thank goodness I wasn't the one driving!
I have officially been Malawi-ed. On the journey home, I felt awful.
I knew that I was getting pretty sick. When I got home I took a
malaria test, and it turned out that I did in fact have malaria. I
only had one plus, which is the lowest case that you can get of it, so
thankfully it was not serious. Malaria, however, is not something
that you want to get. You feel awful- fever, headache, body aches,
dizziness, bits of nausea... They say that if you have malaria you
know it, and on the drive back from Zambia I was 99% sure that I had
malaria... it was not fun. I do have to say though... being an
athlete for so many years made my experience with malaria much more
tolerable. The body aches that you get with it don't feel much
different than how you feel everyday of the season when you practice
at least three hours daily. At least those hard hours of training paid
off in a way that I can apply to life after diving. :-).
As soon as I was better from the malaria we were off again to Blantyre
for swimming nationals. I have to say, it is very different being on
the coaching side of things than it is being on the competing side of
things. I have yet to decide which one I like better...
Anyway, hopefully life will slow down a little and get back to normal.
I only have a few more months here, and I would love to be able to
take some time and enjoy them!
