Fabulous Five Weeks Part Three - Zanzibar

Have you ever read reviews right before you go on vacation for the place you booked? ALL the reviews - including the one stars? Or have you planned a big trip and had a couple of your friends tell you they didn't like the location? All those little moments of "I hope we made the right decision" to go to Zanzibar - traveler anxiety perhaps? - were forgotten during our fantastic family trip.

Planning a "big" family vacation took almost two years and we had such a hard time coming up with a time and a place for summer 2018 that we postponed until 2019. As always, there is no perfect time but I'm so glad we carved out 8 days to explore Zanzibar - a place that was high on the travel wish list for all four of us. Big benefit was that the girls were on their last US Government ticket to visit us in Malawi so at least we didn't have to pay for that part of the trip!

Stone Town is the old part of Zanzibar City and we thoroughly enjoyed our 4 days there (even the day we arrived after a 2:30 am flight out of Lilongwe). So much to see that the photos speak better than words:

Beach in front of the main building of Tembo House 

Arianna and Abigail ready for our walking tour. We were glad to have our lightweight pants for the hot but conservative location.

Below is a well known Stone Town spot called Jaws Corner. It's where 5 alleys converge and is a meeting place for locals. There's a public pay phone and there's a TV screen for the public. We visited the famous fish market and enjoyed the spice stalls on our tour.

Typical carved doors

The Swahili House - with a rooftop restaurant.

Winding alley - Stone Town is full of them!

Besides shopping and wandering around Stone Town, we enjoyed two great excursions during our stay there. 

The first was to the Spice Farm where we had a fabulous tour which was a highlight of our time in Stone Town. It took about 45 minutes to get to the spice "farm" - a demo plot that shows how spices are grown. We had a great (and humorous) guide who showed us all sorts of things growing and entertained us in the process. Cinamon, vanilla, turmeric, and ginger were just a few. At the end we feasted on a variety of fruit - coconut milk and the BEST pineapple I think I have ever tasted. 

The second excursion was to Changuu/Prison Island. The island has been used to house prisoners and quarantine yellow fever patients. Nowadays it's famous for the giant tortoises that inhabit the island. They were fun to feed and pet and our guide was gracious enough to take photos and WhatsApp them to me since none of us had a phone along!

This view from our room for the second half of our vacation pretty much sums up how perfect the five days were at Breezes Beach Club and Spa. For a long time I have wanted to take Arianna and Abigail to a beach resort since they have heard us sharing happy memories of our vacations in Jamaica. The half board quiet, but not too quiet, resort fit the bill perfectly. Thankfully, the rainy season that lingered longer than usual cleared out and we had sunny days the whole time.

The colors in this part of the world are just amazing. In part because the tides are so wide so the look of the ocean is constantly changing throughout the day. I haven't even captured dead low tide but you can get an idea of what it is like from the swim float placement in the two photos above. 

The lovely swings above are another view of the changing tide. In low tide you can walk a mile out from where Abigail is standing to take the second picture (of Arianna and me on the swings in the water). We did that walk one day (a "reef walk" because we went all the way out a mile to the reef) with a guide and saw amazing sea creatures. Besides the reef walk we enjoyed snorkeling, sampling the spa, and a wide variety of food especially on the themed buffet nights.  It was a vacation we will not forget and the whole trip to Africa with the girls was a fabulous way to end our time together as a Foreign Service family.

Fabulous Five Weeks - Part Two - Malawi, Zimbabwe, Malawi

After Arianna's graduation the four of us got ready to head back to Africa as a family! We had been planning the trip for months and now that it has come and gone I can say that for me it was a dream come true experience.





We landed back in Malawi the day before Abigail's birthday with a concert on the books over the weekend. So, it wasn't the most relaxing birthday but we still enjoyed celebrating her with a trip to the spa, lunch at a nearby restaurant and a home cooked meal with homemade ice cream (purchased ice cream is not usually good in Africa).

Breakfast on the Khonde and the usual stack of birthday gifts/cards for the traditional post dinner gift opening. 

After less than 48 hours in Malawi, we headed back to the airport for our return trip to Harare. I have been several times but neither John nor the girls had been back since our departure almost three years ago. Most of the girls' friends have left the country but a few remained and we had a wonderful time sharing meals with friends. One of the things we love about life in Africa is that whole families spend time together so our kids enjoyed seeing the parents of their friends because they spent time with them when we lived there. 

Besides eating meals with friends, Arianna got to attend her Saturday night Bible Study (it's been going on for 20 years!), Abigail was able to see a famous Zimbabwean sight (Domboshava) which she always wished she had visited when we lived there and I got to perform in a concert with my girls and John got to reconnect with many old friends.

Sunset at Domboshava

Post concert photo

Our return to Lilongwe was quite interesting - plane troubles on our layover in Zambia, reports of unrest back in Lilongwe due to the recent elections, many no show bags when we arrived at the airport, no driver waiting for us (which was highly unusual). Fortunately, there was another American/Zimbabwean/Malawian family along on the journey whom we had met when we first arrived in Zim who then transferred to Malawi and now we know them here! They also had their two girls visiting and had made a trip back to Zimbabwe (where they had lived even longer than we had). It helped to lighten the load of traveling woes to have company!

After landing we had a bit more than 48 hours back in Malawi to prepare for and give another concert, repack for our vacation in Zanzibar and get back to the airport. We were a bit uncertain as to whether or not the concert would go one due to the civil unrest but the day before and day of the concert were quiet so we went ahead with the plans. The turn out was on the small side since many people were still staying home but it was a lovely appreciative audience and fun to do a concert at an old theatre in Malawi.

Fabulous Five Weeks Part One Cont'd - Graduation

Although it was lovely to spend Mother's Day with my mom and daughter, the real reason for the big trip to the US was Arianna's college graduation! Though there have been quite a few grandchildren who have had graduations in the Macy family, this was the first one on my side of the family and it was wonderful that our whole family supported Arianna for her achievement. Many joined her in person and those who couldn't watched via livestream!

Arianna with her apartment mates.

The underdressed family at Arianna's Baccalaureate - we hit an unbelievable amount of traffic and I was oh so thankful that the car I was in (with my mom) made it just in time to scoot into the back of the beautiful chapel (but not in time to get changed) while the faculty were walking in. John and Abigail caught most of it on the screen in the overflow room.

The crowd that supported her in person. Also in attendance was her mentor/fiddle teacher Amy Cann who was a major influence in Arianna's decision to become a music educator (and inspiration to continue playing during those teen years),

It was an absolutely perfect day weather wise. Arianna graduated with a BM in Music Education and will be pursuing employment in Pennsylvania which is the state that she understandably considers home. She will be a great teacher!

After the young crowd helped Arianna clean and pack out her apartment (they did a fantastic job) we all celebrated with dinner. 

The family that watched via the livestream probably had the best view of the graduate receiving her diploma! We have an amazing family that has helped support our whole immediate family, but especially Arianna, in so many ways while we have had our overseas adventures. We are deeply grateful to all of them. 

Fabulous Five Weeks Part One - Family

I left Malawi five weeks ago and life has been full ever since! First stop was a visit with my parents with various family members coming and going as we gathered in the US for Arianna's graduation. My dad had a stroke last October and so part of my sabbatical has been spending some time with them even though it's far from Malawi! Big bonus was a three generation Mother's Day - I don't know if I've ever had that!

My mother and my eldest daughter together on Mother's Day!

With my dad.

Later in the week when John and Abigail joined us.

My dad with his two look alike daughters.

My parents with their three girls.

Where in the world is Mauritius?

Mauritius has been a "bucket list" place for John and me since we lived in Zimbabwe when several families that we knew used to travel there for vacation. We didn't really know much about it but had just heard that it was wonderful (and it is!). But when we started to mention our plans to visit to American friends it turned out that quite a lot of them had never heard of it. And this unknown quality was further confirmed by the fact that when we visited the island and people asked us where we were "from" they were always surprised when we said the US.

In case you aren't familiar with it Mauritius is a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean with white sand beaches, turquoise water and lovely mountains. It's also fairly well-developed, modern in many places, multicultural, and multilingual (many Mauritians are trilingual). When I arrived I finally read up on the history of this island and realized that it is most famous for its extinct Dodo bird, which of course I had heard of but hadn't made the connection.

So, even from Africa (or perhaps especially from Africa?) it's not easy to get there due to the lack of direct flights and good connections. We had to spend a night in Johannesburg on either end of our trip. But at least the flight from Joburg to the island was a breeze. We were on Air Mauritius and just like I feel like I enter South Africa when I get on a SAA flight in NY or the US when I get on a Delta flight in Johannesburg I felt like I entered Mauritius when I entered the plane.

The first photo is of one of the typically beautiful white sand beaches. One of the things that I really liked was that the public beaches in Mauritius are really for the public (i.e. locals!). We arrived on Easter weekend which was the beginning of the school holidays. When we visited a few beaches on Monday there were tons of families who had set up camp in the many trees between the (free!) parking and the beach. That is what the second photo is all about. There were public toilets at all of the beaches. I really enjoyed the fact that local people get to enjoy their own beautiful country which was a bit of a contrast to some of the other island experiences that I've had. It was a bit noisy on Monday but when we went back later in the week things were quieter but still lots of multigenerational local families enjoying the beach. There were also fun food trucks and it was a great place to grab lunch. 

Besides hanging out at the beach, we enjoyed a day in the south where we drove through a beautiful national park, visited the famous seven coloured hills and went to the Ebony Reserve:

The hills were a bit touristy, but the vistas in the park and the reserve were amazing. Hard to imagine the whole island being covered by ebony trees and palms which were pretty much clear cut for the valuable wood and the palm. The island is quite covered with sugar now so it was good to see the conservation work that the reserve was doing. 

The coloured sand dunes were a bit touristy, but the vistas in the park and the reserve were amazing. Hard to imagine the whole island being covered by ebony trees and palms which were pretty much clear cut for the valuable wood and the palm products. The island is quite covered with sugar now so it was good to see the conservation work that the reserve was doing. 

We had some pretty awesome meals during our vacation. Someone advised us to stick to Mauritian style food or seafood which is what I did for the most part. Above is curried octopus and a Mauritian platter including curried venison (yes, it's a local thing). We did also go to a great Italian restaurant where they served amazing pasta. Out of all of wonderful meals our favorite was at our friends' house in their beach bungalow which is where I took the photo below:

Great food, great company and great view - it was a night we will remember!

One of our last fun excursions was to the Sugar Museum and the brand new Atelier of the Mavros family which was absolutely stunning. We first encountered this family of artisans in Zimbabwe and now I've been to 3 of their 4 locations in the world! Well worth the effort to stop in if you are ever in a city where they have a shop (you can check out the art work at www.patrickmavros.com).

As I got home from this lovely vacation I realized that what made it extra special was the people that we met - both old friends and new faces. Mauritians were very friendly and curious about us - as we were about them. If you ever get the chance to visit this lovely island you should take it.

Netflix Recommendation

An incredible true story of a Malawian boy who made a windmill based on books he read in his rural school's library. The US Embassy in Lilongwe had a public showing soon after it was released and I volunteered for the event. It wasn't a hard job - mostly hanging out for a few hours chatting with some Peace Corps volunteers and various other volunteers and guests and then handed out popcorn for about 15 minutes before the movie. 

It was great fun to hear the audience laugh out loud throughout the film (many funny moments despite the serious nature of the movie). Awesome Q and A at the end with William Kamkwamba - the main character and author of a book with the same title.  He very deftly fielded a question about the Chichewa accent. Much of the film is in Chichewa (the local language) with English subtitles. The accents of the actors have apparently been heavily criticized. William's response is that it's only normal for non-native speakers to have an accent and that they made the decision that it was more important to show how Malawians function in a bilingual manor (school scenes are in English) than to have a perfect accent. It's a great representation of that aspect of life in English speaking Africa. For all you teachers/parents out there - there is also a children's book of the story so have a look at that too! I'd love to hear what you think if you watch the film.

Beautiful Malawi - A Walk Around the Neighborhood.

You see the mountains everywhere when you are driving around in Lilongwe and even walking in our neighborhood. Around our house they are off in the distance so this photo was taken on our road trip to Zomba so that you can actually see one of the many mountains that are around. 

This is the typical wall around a house in our neighborhood. Since I'm from the east coast, I love red brick! The rest of these photos were all taken on a beautiful afternoon when we went for a walk in our neighborhood.

A bit blurry but the typical view of women carrying things on their heads - a common sight everywhere in Malawi.

This path leads down from the paved road to a village nearby.

Two views of the incredible green season this year!

We have a few really lovely roads to walk on near our house. There are always people out and about and it feels very safe. My favorite is seeing the kids of all ages (even little ones that are two or three) hanging out with friends and playing. Something we certainly don't seem to have in the US anymore but reminds me of my childhood and the freedom we had to explore outdoors.