Becs Birthday Blantyre Bash

One of my fellow volunteers called Rebecca turned 29 this weekend, not only that but it was also Independence Day on the 6^th and a public holiday on the Monday. Always looking for an excuse to party a group of about 10 of us descended on Blantrye for the weekend to celebrate. Judy, Natalie, Lin and I all set off from Lilongwe in Judy’s new car, the rest were coming from the southern region and met us there.

Blantyre is about a 5 hour drive from Lilongwe so it took us most of the day to get there. This wasn't a problem as there is always something interesting to see when you drive around the country and some of the scenery is truly stunning.

Upon arrival in Blantyre the drinking began in Ernest. We had brought with us a crate of “Kuche Kuche” which is the local beer here (although brewed by Carlsberg) and this was accompanied by various other offerings people had brought, including of course plenty of Malawian gin!

I’d made a cake for the occasion which received much more attention than it usually would in the UK and thanks to the parlour games that Beth had devised the whole event took on a real birthday party feel.

Once we’d eaten all the cake, drank most of the gin and played all the party games we could think of we decided to head out into town to what I believe is Blantyre’s only night club, the blue elephant.

The club was busy and it was great to see that it wasn't just full of white people, this was a place that locals could actually afford to go to once in a while! They played lots of African pop which was great fun and some of the volunteers who are placed in very strict puritan villages were reveling in the chance to dance without having to have the curtains drawn!

The next day we were all feeling a little delicate so we decided to head over to a local guesthouse called Chez Mackys for some R and R. Chez Mackys has a small pool which you can use for free provided you buy some food and drink so we setup camp and spent the day chilling out and nursing our hangovers – boy is volunteering hard work!

In the grounds of Chez Mackys we discovered this spider, actually we saw one and then quickly realized there were tens of them everywhere! I’m not kidding when I say this thing is as big as your hand, this image is pretty much 1:1;

Full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGKuzKC