Øyvinds blog: Quiet days in Zomba

I had some really nice and quiet days in Zomba, getting back the good feeling about being in Africa. I did pretty much nothing yesterday, except going for a walk in the city centre. The city centre here is really small and though there's not as much hassle here as it is in Lilongwe, it still feels a little bit uncomfortable. To be honest, this city is as close to Cape Coast as it gets, given that it is in a totally different part of Africa. What it lacks is the Atlantic Ocean, but it has the mountains so who am I to complain. This tiny town is a little bit hilly too. Just the way I like it. Those of you that know me will agree when I tell you that my favourite city in the whole world is Genoa. If you haven't been there, you should go. It's the only place I would choose to live over Trondheim. And I love the city of the mustaches. You know that. Zomba does not really resemble Genoa, but it has the same types of hills, again lacking the ocean. Anyway, I will probably lose a couple of kilos during these days, because of all the exercise, just like I tend to think that I do while in Genoa, except for the fact that when there I eat far too much Pizza Pesto.

Well, after the walk in downtown Zomba, I went up to Dominos, a small pizza place with a view over the golf course. By the way, there are golf courses in every major town in Malawi. Like I said before, the colonial architecture is highly present in the hills above the town. It's kind of beautiful, but also a little bit sad that the colonial powers changed this country so much. At Dominos I had to take my anti-malaria drug, and as expected that ruined the rest of the day. I don't eat much at the moment, and I guess I am losing a lot of weight, but from my experience in Ghana and Venezuela, this is normal when I travel in the tropical parts of the world. I never feel like I don't eat enough, except when taking this terrible medicine. Anyway, I get nausea and feel dizzy and just want to go to bed. So I left Dominos for a thirty minute walk back to Annie's Lodge. On that quite short walk I took a couple of pictures, and I must say that I really like the monkeys here. They are cool. However, they scream terribly loud. I actually also took the first picture with people in it. These two children were shouting to me that I should take a photo of them, so I did. It was on some distance, but who cares. I hope there will be plenty of opportunities later to take good pictures.

I told you that I was going to look for Thokozani, and today I went down to the Chancellor College (University of Malawi) and the Department of Geography to see if I could find him. It was a quite long walk along a really nice road. When I got to the university, I got a little bit surprised to find that it was much more modern than the one in Cape Coast. Everything else seems to be a little bit less developed than in Ghana, except the universities (and the supermarkets). This was a very nice building, and I wouldn't mind studying there. A guard took me to the department of geography, and when I came to the office the guy could tell me that Thoko was in Western Cape doing his Ph.d. That was really depressing, but I had a short chat with a professor in chemistry and this geographer, and at least I got Thoko?s new email address. Maybe I will meet him another time.

The rest of the day I am planning to just sit around at the lodge, getting a tan. I look very very pale at the moment. I don't even get a red face. Don?t know why, (well that is not entirely true as I have to use my long trousers while walking around places with people, but I should at least get some colour on my arms and in my face). Tomorrow morning I am going to the bus station to catch a bus to Monkey Bay. In Cape Maclear I will just spend four days on the beach so if I don?t get a tan while there, I will never get one?