This just in: time to flee!

The British High Commissioner was just expelled for information contained in a leaked diplomatic cable. Jon posted some background a few days ago, and BBC confirmed it today. Things could get a little dicey around here, and I don't just mean that the Malawian delegation to the royal wedding will be uninvited...

Seems like a good time to get out of Malawi for a bit, and we're long overdue for a vacation anyway. It's a little sad to miss the immediate fallout from this diplomatic guffaw, but I'm sure that the pace of any backlash will be at Malawi speed: slow. We won't miss everything.

More as it unfolds!

Sleep tight: Don’t let the bedbugs bite!

Last weekend, Jon and I headed to Bua River Lodge for a much-needed break from Lilongwe.We’d been planning it for several weeks, but were almost prevented from traveling due to the usual: gas shortage. Somehow, we got the last drips of petrol half way to our destination, and we were able to recover from the stress of multiple dry pumps along the way.

We arrived in Nkotatkota Forest Reserve to find that our hiking trip had instantly been promoted to Romantic Getaway: we were the only guests for the night! We had the thatched roof chalets, the outdoor showers, the 3-story tree house, the chefs, the staff, the hikes all to ourselves! This news on top of the delicious coffee served in a charming coffee pot was almost too much to bear. Jon and I both giddily took photos to commemorate our luck. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

We spent the rest of the weekend reading, hiking around the reserve with our reformed-poacher-turned-guide, enjoying drinks by the raging river, and gorging on the delicious food – all in quasi isolation from the world. Safe haven. Relaxation.

It was such a nice weekend that the emergence of the bedbug bites the day after our return barely made a dent in our post-trip glow. Or, the bites left less of a glow and more of inflamed mess, but what can you expect? It was a jungle there (or at least in our bed)!