Hello all,

First of all, happy birthday mommy, sorry i couldnt call but apparently the phone lines from lake malawi leave alot to be desired.

So I am now in malawi and have been for the past 5 days. It is popularly known as the 'warm heart of africa' because the people are all unbelievably friendly. The country is dominated by lake malawi, which is the 3rd largest lake in africa. We have stayed all 5 nights on 2 different wonderful beach campsites that look out onto the water. Most of our days are spent playing beach volleyball and swimming into the big waves on the lake. I've had to control my competitiveness abit in beach volleyball, but then every few plays i find myself bodychecking one of the small girls out of the way to make a diving hit, but hey, i tell myself its for the good of the team. I hear malawi has been in the news quite a bit recently, and if you're wondering, yes i saw madonna running away from a village holding 4 kids under each arm.

the first night in malawi was really great. We were staying on the beach, and ended up playing soccer for hours with a bunch of malawian children. It was really one of those great, unique and genuine experiences...and i scored the winning goal, no big deal. the game was interrupted though when madonna ran out of the bush, grabbed a kid and ran away.

entering malawi was a bit more humourous than it has been at other border crossings. my friend james, from england, was wearing a shirt that read 'IF YOU'RE EASILY OFFENDED....fuck off!' and realized it as he approached the border official. the border official then read the shirt after forcing james to remove his arms from blocking it and surprisingly started giggling. so then he stamped his passport, and as he walked away said, 'and fuck you too'. haha.

one of the highlights of my time in malawi was forcing 3 guys to play beerdie with me the other night, which means ive now played in canada, ecuador, cuba and malawi. we are slowly taking over the world.

as i said before, the people here are amazing, and also hilarious as they all have adopted popular names from north america and other very funny names. for example, i spent the other day walking around the curio markets checking out all of the amazing carvings and such they have here. after briefly negotiating with roger rabbit and puff daddy, i ignored sugar and spice and then did a deal with mel gibson trading him my sandals and ten dollars for an amazing hand-carved malawi chair.

yesterday we went walking around the village, checking out the hospital and schools and talking to people. it was a cool experience, and we saw alot of really interesting stuff. at night we went back to the village where they made us a meal and they put on a traditional dance for us. however, apparently their traditional dance is merely a whole lot of gyrating and a whole lot of awkwardness for those of us, such as myself, who were forced to join them while they danced. there are many pictures of me doing a massive awkward face while some young lady defiles my leg. however, the best part of the night was when our group was asked to perform a song for them. i obviously busted into 'you've lost that loving feeling' by the righteous brothers. as we got into the call and response stuff, all of the children started joining in, so i would yell 'BABY!' and they would respond, and then 'I NEED YOUR LOVE' 'I NEED YOUR LOVE'...'I NEED YOUR LOVE!' 'I NEED YOUR LOVE!'...'SO BRING IT ON BACK!' 'SO BRING IT ON BACK!' 'Bring back, that looooooving feeeeeeling...' etc... etc... amazing.

anyways, i hope all is well at home. off to zambia tomorrow to victoria falls and the+n on to botswana where temperatures are supposed to hit the mid40s so i am not going to deal well with that. happy bday again ma, muchlovedunc