Taking the goats for a walk

Fruit & vegetable market

Rubina buys a SIM card

While barreling down Malawi's paved roads with nary a pothole in sight, enjoying my own spacious seat in a comfortable private van, all of our luggage safely inside the vehicle instead of strapped to the roof, I pondered how much traveling with friends varied from my usual shared cold-water showers and overcrowded buses. As in, my comfort zone. "Africa for beginners" had been made even simpler due Kip and Rosemary's fears that we couldn't handle traveling one of the world's poorest countries; every step of our first few days was planned down to the minute and as luxurious as possible.

In Lilongwe, while the rest of the crew kicked back at the plush, Madonna-endorsed Kumbali Lodge, Rubina and I found ourselves arguing over the price of our room at the bleak Golden Peacock hotel in Old Town; we'd booked it online for $10 each but according to the price list clearly posted it was now 2000 kwacha per person. For the dim twin-bed room with a hallway bath any stranger could easily barge into, an extra $8 was non-negotiable. Luckily, a printed receipt and a few hushed phone conversations with the manager got us our price.

I'd rather be in walking distance of town than tucked away in fancy animal-themed rooms 8 km out of town on wooded farmland, so Golden Peacock still fit the bill. After a morning exploring the fruit & vegetable market and discovering the complicated procedure for buying a SIM card (not the shack with hand-written sign declaring "SIM cards" but the women sitting on plastic stools clutching their purses), we returned to the pleasant surprise that our room included breakfast cooked to order.

The rest of the crew pulled up in front of the garden dining area in the two vans we'd rented—yes, two vans for a mere 12 people, 13 when Moffat would join us later—and we were soon on our way to Nkhotakhota. A collection of villages near Lake Malawi, the area's main draw is a beautiful rustic-style lodge and handmade pottery shop on a gorgeous stretch of beach.

Kids waiting outside Nkhotakhota Pottery

Woodcarvers, Nkhotakhota

Bringing in the catch

Malaria is a serious epidemic in Malawi, and all hotels geared towards foreign tourists are prepped with mosquito nets. In a room as nice as Nkhotakhota Pottery's—$25 per person—the nets gave a princess-bed effect. Due to our rather large group, the staff requested we make our dinner selections on arrival and confirm a seating time, to avoid any delays. It barely felt like Africa—everything was too smooth.

We visited the pottery studio, where traditional arts and landscape inspirations are combined to create unique modern designs. The pottery was reasonably priced, at just a few dollars for a small plate, mug or bowl; the studio could also ship heavier items to foreign destinations, much to Kat and Stephen's delight.

Outside the studio was a tent filled with wood-carved souvenirs. The friendly woodcarvers came from one of the villages near the studio where sales are hard to come by; the resort offered them a regular place to meet foreign customers. As much as I enjoyed chatting with the woodcarvers, I didn't want to buy such an easily-found product on my first full day in the country, saving my souvenir dollars for the more exclusive pottery.

Before settling in for dinner, we went for a long walk down the beach. The lodge is surrounded by villagers who are not allowed on the premises; adults comply but children hang eagerly around the edges, grinning broadly and waving hello, tugging at the heartstrings of sappy tourists such as myself. The walk down the beach brought us into more direct contact with teenagers who wanted to practice their English, children who wanted to show off their dancing prowess for our video cams, and fishermen going about their evening work. One particularly keen group of boys mashed up karate moves with dance steps until our stomachs hurt from laughing.

Kip gives a toothbrushing lesson

As we returned to the hotel boundaries and the children began hanging back, Kip took the opportunity to hand out some of the toothbrushes and toothpaste donated by dentist Stacey Sorkin and patiently teach the children proper usage. My heart broke a little when one of the older boys turned to the excitable children fumbling with the brushes to explain, "no, you cannot eat this."

Dinner was delicious, and thoroughly Western—no nsima for us! It was a lovely evening, capped off with an extra bottle of wine after the beers we'd had with dinner. Some of us had spent a day in Johannesburg before arriving in Malawi, while some had puttered around Kumbali Lodge for several days before the rest of us showed up. The sweet porches outside our cottages were perfect for kicking back.

To find out more, please visit the We Are One Malawi website.

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