...and part 2!

Try this one on for size: staying at a hotel called Korea Garden, eating a full English breakfast, surrounded by Japanese tourists...?

I don't want all of this to give you, the reader, the impression that Lilongwe is a "cosmopolitan" place. It could hardly be called a city at all, by Western standards. But my time here has been so full of these little oddities that I feel compelled to report them.

The final one is this: last week, I and the couple I'm working with (Jenny and Gregory, plus two babies) took their visiting friend up to the lake for a few days. We hired a boat to take us to this small island just about 2 km from shore. Snorkling, eating, watching fish eagles, etc. It was awesome, I promise you. But the funny part? we were there, on this deserted-esque island, eating a lunch of nsima (traditional Malawian staple) and fish with our hands, and what should pass by but a little motor boat carrying a wealthy middle-eastern man in traditional garb with his entire collection of wives--I think about 8--with him in full head-to-toe covering.

Whoa. yes?