I was able to go golfing at the Lilongwe Golf Club yesterday. The place is a 4 minute drive from our home. A great place I highly recommend. For a little over 60$ per month my family and I can join the club. They have an 18 golf course, bar, restaurant, swimming pool, dirt tennis courts, driving range, playground and cricket field. Your greens fees are 10$ plus a caddy accompanies you for your round. A tip of around 4$ is expected. You pay around 75 cents person to swim(cost goes to chlorine) and about 75 cents per hour to use the tennis courts.. if you want to play at night, it's a little extra to run the electricity. It actually felt a little like Caddyshack.. the caddies are given to you and they find your ball and help with shot selection... We drank bottled cokes and he wore a numbered bib. Roger was my caddy and he told me his average was an 84 for 18 holes.. I played horribly. The course is tight and if you can hit the ball straight you are in the trees. The ground is rock solid and the ball rolls forever . I didn't care much for looking for the golf ball as it felt like a prime spot for snakes.. spitting cobras, black and green mambas, pit vipers and puff adders... I think Ill just buy another sleeve of balls.
After my round I bellied up to the bar to have a Carlsberg and some biltong. There were cricket matches going on all day as well, so there was a lot of people at the club. On the three televisions in the bar were South Africa vs. Argentina in rugby and apparently Saturday was the opening day for the Premier Soccer League. So I stuck around to watch that.. I really enjoy Rugby, and I suppose Ill have to pick a team in the English league to follow. Maybe Everton will be my team. I love the Reds and they are mediocre, so Ill try to stay the course here in Malawi. It was a nice evening and I was convinced by some locals that we should join the club.
Earlier in the day a few roadside purchases... Fresh vegetables and fruits are one of the many things available for purchase. People seem to set up items at the same place each day from about 8-4... I bought about 12 bananas for 1$ yesterday and a huge sack of homemade charcoal for 5 $ . the charcoal is stacked vertically on the back of a bike.. about 6-7 high. It's great stuff.. see photo below.
It is now about 10 am here and it is sunny and about 65 degrees. The weather has been perfect, but it never changes. Usually hits the upper 70's in the afternoon with a slight breeze and a few clouds, then dips into the 50's for the evening.. every evening closes with a beautiful sunset. Have some actual work to do today and a lunch to go to at the Golden Peacock... don't get the salad wraps I've been told. This reminds me that you have to wash everything here very well, because most vegetables are covered with dust, and other unhealthy items. Also, you cannot drink the water here as it is very unsanitary. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.
I almost forgot to send out a belated Happy Birthday to Tom Wehby.. sorry I missed the party.
All for now..
 |
| hole #3 |
 |
| Roger |
 |
| outside bar area |
 |
| charcoal for sale |
 |
| Biltong and beer |
 |
| through the city |
