Bricks and Mountains

Tania and I before getting in the truck on this great adventure!

The next day we all got up and headed to Malonje, not before getting some delicious donuts on our way out of town.  The drive took about 45 minutes to reach the edge of Malonje and we went straight to Roy’s plot of land.  Let me just say from the start, from the moment we got to Malonje, I agree with Roy, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  His plot of land is at the base of a mountain and it is so green and just breathe taking. 

We all piled out of the truck and then were shown the bricks and he told us what he was planning for the land and then we got to work.  Even as we were breaking up the dirt and pouring the water in to start to make the mud, he doubted us.  Then we took off our shoes and started stomping around in the mud to make the correct consistency for the bricks (think wet cement consistency). 

Roy's view.... not bad huh!

I think I was falling... but I could have been trying to push her into the mud too!

Making Mud!

Then one of Roy’s workers showed us how to pack the molds and how to flip it over.  We each took turns doing this task and then we tried to figure out a way to be efficient about it.  Tania and Sam packed the molds, I took them and flipped them over and washed them out again while they were packing the other ones.  I was also in charge of digging more dirt to make more mud. 

Working hard.

While we were doing all this, Roy still didn’t think we would finish 300 bricks, but that just made us want to do it more.  After about 2 hours of work, we had made 300 bricks.  Not all were perfect but everyone who was around was very impressed by the quality of our bricks and said most of them would be used. 

Us and the Kids we were entertaining by working.

Some of the better bricks that we put our initials on

The view on our hike

                Next, we all piled into the truck again and he took us on a tour of Malonje.  It is a smaller town but still has quite a bit, it has a golf club (what??? It’s been so long since I’ve seen a golf course) and some fancy hotels, we ate at one of them, and his family seems to be about half the population of the town.  As we were driving, he would point out to me, “this is where my uncle lives and my aunt lives here.  My cousins live in those three houses there”… and so on.  After eating, we drove part way up the mountain on one side to go to some natural pools where the local people often swim.  We would have gone swimming but it was so cold, although Tania did fall in while we were walking across a part that was very shallow.  We sat there for a while and then headed further up the mountain to see the waterfall.  We were able to drive a little further up and then parked the car and had about a 30-minute hike up the mountain.  This place was absolutely beautiful, I think I could have sat there for days and just relaxed.

The waterfall

Walking back down the mountain

  

Our Walk down while the sunset

The pools at sunset

              We headed back down the mountain back to the pools and watched as the sun set.  Absolutely amazing!  On our way down, we stopped to buy some things made from Malonje cedar.  I got a nice little keepsake box, which smells AMAZING, and termites apparently won’t go near the stuff.  I think I could live in a house made of this stuff; it is so soothing and just makes me relax.  We grabbed some dinner and then he took us to one of the bars in town for a few more drinks.  We had decided that it was too late to head back to Blantyre and we ended up staying at his grandfather’s house.  But before we went home we were at the bar and we met some of his friends.  One man, Riaz, we were talking to about Mozambique.  His ex-wife is Mozambican and turns out, he knew some people in Cuamba that he wants to introduce us too someday.  He also owns a bunch of land in Malawi and from what I got, somewhere he is opening up a game reserve, or something along those lines.  So during our conversation he started to ask us a question, then stopped and said, “Wait are you two democrats or republicans?  Cause if you are democratic I’m not going to even bother asking you this next question.”  Tania’s and my response was the same… just ask, we won’t be offended.  He ended up saying that if we came to visit his game reserve thing we could shoot guns, we looked at each other and were like… “OK!”
          Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go this trip but we got his email and are in the works of planning another trip to shoot some guns with this guy, although I made it very clear, I didn’t want to shoot any animals, just targets with all sorts of different guns that he has.  After watching the last few minutes of the USA vs. Portugal game of the world cup, we headed back to Roy’s grandfather’s house to finally go to bed.