Giving Thanks in Style

Thanksgiving 2012 was definitely an event to remember.

First off, we managed to land a free trip in a private plane from Zomba to Lilongwe, instead of suffering for 6-10 hours on a public bus. Not too bad...

Then, a group of about 12 expats rented a huge, beautiful beach house at Chintheche (conveniently called "The Beach House") on the shore of Lake Malawi....

and proceeded to frolic in and around the pristine water for 3 days.....

and occasionally defend ourselves against local kids playing "Al-Shabaab pirates" as we strolled along the beach at sunset....

 

and read en masse on the patio as over-educated nerds like us are wont to do......

and prepare an awe-inspiring Thanksgiving meal mostly without electricity, because it wouldn't be Malawi without day-long power outages when you need the electricity the most.....

and feast on said awe-inspiring meal on the patio watching the sunset and marveling at how blessed we all are to be where we are, doing what we're doing, and in the company we are keeping....

and, finally, enjoy the lake a little in the morning, gorge on homemade cinnamon rolls baked in a hole in the sand (because the power was out again), take a group picture to commemorate the experience, and start the long trek back to our normal lives...

if you can ever consider anything in Malawi 'normal'!