Drive to Lilongwe

by Selise Miller

We said good-bye to Lake Malawi and headed to Lilongwe with a stop over in Dedza for lunch. We left Luther Cottage with fish tied to both side mirrors and the wiper at the back of the van--yes I said fish!!! Mphatso assured us they would be ok and be refrigerated once they got home.

He also told us we were taking a short cut to Dedza, which use to be a dirt road with unbelievable potholes, but was now a paved road. Boy were we in for a surprise and the ride of our life! He told us to look at the mountains ahead for we were headed up them.  The view at the top was unbelievable as was the ride! 

Lake Malawi's elevation was about 1600 feet above sea level and  Dedza about 6500 feet above sea level--up the mountain we went. There were villages scattered along the road, selling of produce, and many folks walking or pushing their bike with a 50 lb. sack of flour or metal sheeting for their roof on the back of the bike.

We arrived at Dedza Pottery and Lodge where we ordered lunch from a menu that had many American dishes--yippee! We headed over to the  pottery shop to make some purchases while our food was cooked. Lunch tasted so GOOD for it was not the usual rice and chicken dish.

We finished up with lunch and headed to Lilongwe. We arrived back on the ELCM campus to meet a group from Germany that will be traveling to their sister parish in Balaka. We settled in for the night. We were greatly thrilled to find out we had hot water!