July 18 Blantyre

I was restless at night hearing what I thought were sobbing children, but discovered that it was turkeys walking around gobbling :-) . I also heard the Muslim call to prayer from the nearby Mosque. They blare it over loud speakers - and early! about 5:30. We soon discovered that the only water in the cottage was hot - with no governor -very steamy. So we filled some buckets and let them cool so we had water to wash with. We had breakfast in the Dining Hall. Eggs, fried potatoes and bread. Many dishes are fried in a heavy oil and aren't seasoned. A little greasy and bland for our tastes. But much better than the locals get for breakfast, so I'm trying to be grateful.

We left in our deluxe Land Rover (a wee bit of sarcasm there) for the 5 hour trip to Blantyre. We saw many market places along the road. They were selling vegetables - cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, meat, firewood for fuel, thatching for roofs, charcoal, scraps of metal, tires, just about anything you could think of in the open air. People walk for miles to get to these markets. The woman carry items on their heads and the men push bicycles loaded with wares. We saw young boys selling dried mice on a stick - perhaps a new MN State Fair delicacy.

Forgive the quality of the pictures - they are from a moving Land Rover and we are sitting facing each other, so ..this is as good as it gets