Last night, Michelle and I had a date night, and we went down the street to our second favorite restaurant , Fantasia... It's a Korean restaurant and it is delicious.. I think I've mentioned it before.. Here, just like the chinese restaurant, you have to be sly about tipping your servers.. The service here is alway great and you are always met with a smile.. Last night, we had to slip our servers (one of them is named Trevor.. go figure) a few dollars while the managers weren't looking. It's kind of a fun game, but also really sad that they have to accept money for services under the table for fear of being fired..
Every time we go there , there is also an older gentleman who watches the trucks in the parking lot.. Last night it was pouring and he happily stood outside making sure the vehicles were safe.. We don't have to be sly about tipping him, since no one would step foot outside in the pouring rain.Across the street from the restaurant was a group of security guards burning garbage to stay warm on a cool rainy night... They can start a fire out of anything, and will use anything..
Below are some notes I made about some of things we learned about Mount Mulanje.. I was going to mention it in the writing earlier in the week , but was lazy.... Mount Mulanje was eerie and it seeing it from the road, felt like it was inhabited by King Kong... Here are some notes about the place... Geoffrey (our guide) told us some stories, but some of it was from the guide book as well.. Photos are of Maura hanging from a cable line on top of a hill in Mulanje.. the other photo is of women carrying bundles of wood on their head down the mountain..
There is a place on the mountain called Sapitwa.. which translates into "the place where no one goes".. It is the highest peak and apparently many travelers have gone there and never returned..Geoffrey also told us about the pygmies(little people) that inhabit the mountain.. They are spirits that many people encountered when they went up to get bananas off of the trees of Mulanje.. His grandmother told him, that when they would go for bananas, they would see offerings of ntsima and cooked chicken.. apparently these were gifts to appease the pygmies.. He says that most people believe there are no more spirits/pygmies. ... People used to be unable to hike up mountain due to so many trees but now (due to deforestation), there are less trees and no more spirits since people stopped leaving offerings. If you were to encounter a pygmie ( spirit) the spirit would ask "did you see me?" You are supposed to answer "yes and you looked so big ". If you didn't say that , they would fight you ..The pool we swam in was called "dziwe la nkhalamba" which translates "old peoples pool" which could possibly be a reference to the old spirits that are believed to have resided here. Other myths about Mt. Mulanje are other spirits such as the "napolo" ... A serpentine creature who moves between mulanje and mchese, that creates the misty conditions that we experienced while being here...napolo is also blamed for thunderstorms and a major flood that killed many people in 1991. Another belief is that j.r. Tolkien climbed mulanje before writing the hobbit ...I think he named some people in the book the Shire people names after the river that runs through Malawi .
Hope all is well back home
