To get to Lilongwe, Malawi it took 36 hours of flight time, where some of us explored Bangkok during our 10 hours layover. Once we arrived we still needed to travel 5 hours by car to get to Mzuzu, the third-largest city in Malawi. We also explored a local food market during our break from the car ride. When we arrived we were greeted by Joseph and his family over a meal at a local Malawian restaurant. Joseph is a researcher and teaching assistant for Luke International Norway (LIN). He is also an alumnus of National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health (CPH), and has been coordinating collaborations and partnerships between Malawi and NTU CPH for over a decade. After dinner, we went to the LIN dormitory, which was already prepared for us with everything we needed with welcome signs from the LIN staff; Natasha, Rose, Eliza and Joseph. The following two days were spent settling in by unpacking, getting groceries, and buying our SIM cards with the help of Natasha. We ate at many local restaurants, one of them, the Mzoozoozoo restaurant. Despite experiencing a blackout, the owners were very hospitable and made us a romantic, candlelit, home-cooked meal. Sunday, we travelled outside of Mzuzu, to see Lake Malawi. We shopped at a market, buying many paintings and hand-carved figures before taking pictures at Nkhata Bay. Then we joined Joseph and his family for a meal of local dishes, like chambo, chicken kwasu and nsima at Chintheche Sunbird Inn beside Lake Malawi. We ended our day by swimming in the lake, watching Joseph’s children have an art class taught by local artists, buying some of their paintings and celebrating Tiffany’s birthday party.
(Verbal consent was obtained before taking the pictures)
