From the lake, I travelled to Lilongwe. I recently got accepted to be on a committee called VSV which supports and acts as a resource for other peace corps volunteers. I spent 3 days in the capital attending meetings. The last day I was there was also one of my friend's birthday so we went out to celebrate.
I spent a week back home teaching, then headed off for my next adventure: climbing a mountain in Zomba. I spent Valentine's Day soaked and freezing, hiking up Zomba plateau in the foggy, cold rain. We finally made it to a lodge about half way up and decided to stop there and try and wait out the rain. The rain never stopped so we ended up staying for the night. We were dry and warm and we got a cheese platter and some wine and it turned into a fantastic Valentines day. The next day was still cold and rainy so we caught a ride the rest of the way up the mountain to the trout farm cabins where we had planed to stay. Even though it was far from ideal mountain hiking weather, the clouds and fog made everything ominous and pretty awesome looking. The rain trapped us in the cabin all day so we ended up talking and playing games and had a great time. Hiking down the next morning it finally cleared enough to see some great views of Zomba town and the surrounding mountains.
In the span of two weeks I accomplished two of the goals I set during training: hike to the top of a mountain and dive to the bottom of the lake. So far it has been a pretty awesome month.
