Beauty and splendor
By Julie Dunaiskis
Our morning began with a very noisy wakeup call with the monkeys running along our roof and then proceeding to fight on our porch. They soon settled down and a few of us began the morning attending the Chancellor College Congregation church service at the university campus. The service began with 45 minutes of joyful singing and praising. What an emotional feeling and experience to see such excitement in the young people’s faces. The service concluded and the team then travelled up Zomba Mountain to have lunch at the Sunbird Hotel.
Before eating, we were given the opportunity to purchase wood carvings from local artisans. Along the road up the mountain, there were many people selling fresh raspberries, strawberries, guavas and potatoes. The hotel patio provided a spectacular view up about 5,500 ft. The meal was delicious even with bbq chicken and lamb. To work off all the calories, we then drove to William’s Waterfalls where some locals and visitors were enjoying the cold water. Just getting there gave us the opportunity to experience the local mountain roads – only one car width wide and many, many “potholes”. Thank goodness we didn’t meet many other cars until our downward drive. If we didn’t have whiplash before, we did now but Paul Jones was a wonderful driver despite the bone jarring jolts!
Several of the team, lead by Chris, decided to hike further up the mountain for a view of the Zomba Plateau. Along the way we saw the many sheets of pine lumber that was cut and ready to be taken down the mountain. After the short hike of only 4.4 km., we reached the Emperor’s View at around 6,500 ft. The “View” is named after Haile Selassie (Emperor of Ethiopia) visited in 1965. I felt like I was on top of the world and could see our hotel in the valley below along with the many surrounding mountains and island. The Zomba Plateau and surrounding mountains were absolutely breathtaking and I definitely did not want to leave. We then travelled to another point, the Queen’s View which was named after Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to the spot at one time. We got one last look at the spectacular view.
We were then treated to a presentation from Paul Jones and his wife Helen explaining Emmanuel International activities. They outlined their initiatives in health (nutrition, maternal-child, HIV/AIDS and water & sanitation), agriculture/irrigation, Village Savings & Loans, relief and education. We are very thankful we have such a great partner in our activities during this trip to Malawi.
