winter in malawi- days on a minibus

so i haven't been avoiding my adoring internet fans....however evn before i left dar i was experiencing cyber failure as the rains returned and shut down my favorite cafes. I have been tryng to get pictures up fro the goat race day for ages but tecchniology is often lacking or slow, like pretty much everything else including me. As it turns out I have been in transit...from DAR to MOROGORO to MBEYA to the border with MALAWI south to KASONGA and finally to MZUZU. A great adventureous trip with tears, fears and karma. This is the last iterenet cafe i will see in a few days as I am headed to the bus stand to catch a minibus down the gret slopes to the lake shore and the warmer weather. My newest friend Elise a young lawyer from London made the remark that it is likely warmer back home than here in africa. go figure. so the story starts here. after hicking half way up the ulsurguru (sp?) mountains in Moroogoro with my frenchie friends, Tamara and Emilie and getting blisters in an effort to keep up, then negotiating with the village chairman( more accurtely, i was sitting resting while Joesph our improptu tour guidespoke fast swahili with many hand movements) about an entrance fee before a retreat to the lowlands. My best day yet was had, as tamara commented that i had found my fool. I clowned around with school children, marching, running and stopping with a flourish. I took photos of te market adn the foods and any kibanda managers who would permit me to do so. My broken grasp of the language allowed me to show off, greeting elders. I needed to stop and put another roll in my camera andfound myself surrounded by watoto....girls wearing wearing torn and chafu (dirty) party dresses, shy faces desperate to be in the frame. the next day i was on my way, cross country, thru MIKUMI national park where i saw elephants grazing by the road side. now i have left to spot giraffe and zebra, but i know that it is merely a matter of time, oh time, mintues days years, infinity just might be the illusion i love and hate the most. the Tembo/ndovu/elephants slowly picking prime blades of grass and constainly chewing. they were quite the contrast to the energy of the children previous. I took a horribily outdated coach aptly named LUCKY STAR ad shared my seat with tomya and her two kids, both boys 2 and 4 years. Watching the baby shake his juice to make bubles i could almost smell him quietly learning. Another proud momment for the accomplished ligust in me, i spoke to them entirely i a slow swahili, searching my mind for every word. But everything that goes up must come down.... so upon my arival in MBeya, a cold cross roads town near the Zambian and malawi border, I met george, who helped me to find a place to sleep, a ticket to MZUZU and even gave me a wake up call at 6am the next morning. I stayed at Njombe lodge which was small cement and great. I peed my pants trying not to touch anything in the choo-toilet and caught the football score and the climax sceens of Jim carrey's break ut film The mask---oh canada--- from my window i saw hundreds f cobs of corns, unloaded from shippment perhaps on my smae transport, waiting for someone to do something to them, i could hear the person singing as he worked.
The morning came i was up and off and feeling good- but the bus was lost. someone had scamed me 35oootsh (35$)so i ended up on a speeding minibus with a chicken over my left shoulder making random noises and blinking. at the border the driver, a woman full of energy, with a nose ring intructed me to follow her "brother" who showed me the way to immigration and cheated me on a currency exchange. Karma for my discressions. ah zut! so as i crossed the 100 meters to the malawi imigration i cryied, unashamed and in redemption with a fair measure of helplessness. I had a bit of an attitude when the next offical asked me hw long will you be here, and how much will you spend! but I hoped on aother crowded minibus, the conductor wearing the familiar marron shirt but written on hte back was- minibus association of malawi. i had arrived and had 1500 kwatchas ( malawi currency) to get me to my desination. the scenery was a ever changing panarama, 1st fields of cotton, maize and green tea plantations. 2nd the lake, big, bold ad full of sparkle witht he livingston mountains on the other side 3rd the winding road up the plateau to the highlands were the temperature drops and the clound get caught ont he mountain ridges and dump their gifts tot he red rocky soil(some green with trees adn crops, some bare fro deforestation). apon arival i resufes a taxi driver being still hurt by my border buddies and walked off to find a bank and get an oficail exchange rate. i met a small boy of 17 named Chiko, who wanted to show me his artwork. I looked, tingting type of vilages and the duggout canoes on the shore. I asked for directions and he escortind me to MZOOZOOZOO, where i got a room a cup of tea and traded my trainers for paintings but no money. My feet still had blisters and althou i got thoe shoes in MEC in Quebec City 2 artworks in exchange for 2 (much lighter) painting seemed like a good trade. now i am on the way back down to the lake shore, Nhkata bay.