{"id":50,"date":"2024-06-29T21:09:26","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T20:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/malawi24\/?p=50"},"modified":"2024-06-29T21:09:26","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T20:09:26","slug":"a-day-at-the-lake-by-the-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/malawi24\/2024\/06\/29\/a-day-at-the-lake-by-the-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"A day at the lake by the kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning I woke up still absolutely traumatized from the previous night- we spent the evening wandering around our hotel but I was feeling tired so decided to go to bed first before anybody else. As soon as I had tucked in my mosquito net and had laid down on my pillow I could hear something fluttering around me- I turned on my phone torch and saw what looked like a moth, however as I approached it closer I noticed that it was much bigger than an average moth and that it was in fact A BAT. I tried to stay calm but then I noticed that there was actually TWO bats and they started flapping about my mosquito net and I audibly screamed (not even being dramatic). I was on the top bunk so I couldn\u2019t exactly jump down to leave the room, and was scared that the bats would eat me or something so I just stayed put and just sat there crying until somebody came back. After about twenty minutes or so I heard everyone else outside so I began yelling, informing them that there were bats in our room- at first they laughed and thought I was joking, but when they opened the door everybody else panicked as much as I did. Grace and Keira hid under my mosquito net while the boys went to their room next door to give us extra pillows and duvets which was very kind of them since the bats had literally left their droppings all over the room. The next morning we had to go to reception to change rooms in case there was some sort of infestation, but now I have a nice big room with an ever better view so something good did come out of the situation in the end. Every time I see or hear a bat floating around us I get literal flashbacks and don\u2019t think I can ever look at one again so please show your deepest condolences in the comments. – Ava<\/span><\/p>\n

Before lunch we took a wander down to the street stalls encompassing the road to our resort. We weren’t allowed to buy anything on the way down so we just had a gander of the merchandise scattered in the stalls. Me and Jemma were yonks behind everyone else as the men at the stalls refused to let us leave without arguing for ages about buying something. I promised most of the vendors to buy something on the way back and i did from most of them. There was a beautiful bracelet at the first stall that the man said was 10,000 kwacha and i was giddy at the price so i told him to reserve it for me but by the time i made my way back to his stall on the way home he tried to tell me 35,000 and i only had a few thousand left so i asked for it in pounds and he tried to tell me 50 but it would have exchanged to 17.50 so i told him i only had 15 and he let me have it. The same guy also tried to scam Jemma with a gargantuan price increase but i think she managed to talk it down (she didn’t)<\/span> – McGeezer<\/span><\/p>\n

This past week has been very different to what i expected, although i knew it would have a strong impact on my life i never expected it to affect me this much. I have made bonds with people I have spent 5 years in school with and otherwise wouldn’t have become as close too which I am extremely grateful for but it has also opened my eyes to things I would have never noticed or thought about before. It gave me an insight into what i actually want to do with the rest of my life, at the start of the week i was set on going to university and doing law but now i would like to move to somewhere like malawi or stay in scotland and work with younger people who might not have had the same opportunities as me. I have also noticed the ignorance I had before coming on this trip like wasting food or money and complaining about small things. These are all reasons why i believe this has been the best 2 weeks of my life and i will be forever grateful for it and everyone that helped me to be able to come here and supported me to be able to have this experience as i really believe that if you have the chance to come here or anywhere like this you should. – Keira !!!<\/span><\/p>\n

If I’m being entirely honest I did not think this trip would impact me as much as it has. I have genuinely learned so much and my perspective of everything has definitely been permanently altered for good. I could not be more grateful i was fortunate enough to experience something like this. I can safely say I would 100% come back and do this again – that’s not to say this trip was easy from beginning to end because it wasn’t but every moment good or bad was important. Anyways a monkey tried to steal Trinity’s shoe at breakfast, and there’s a calico cat at the restaurant that always looks angry all the time but it always comes up and sleeps next to us. When we returned back to the resort after visiting some stalls (where i got scammed (again)) we had lunch and i got a burger but it was huge, like massive and hence hard to eat, but it was still really tasty, the rest of the day was calm, we played hangman in some sand with a stick and trinity got mad i guessed the movie after one letter but she was just jealous of my amazing skills. We watched the sunset and it was beautiful as it always is here, it was a very nice last day and i’m sad the trip is ending so soon but i can’t wait to go home to see my family and tell everyone everything that’s happened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

– Jemma :))<\/span><\/p>\n

Hey fellas Aidan speaking. It’s been great.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n