Mua Mission and More Adventures!

Mua Mission and More Adventures!

The next few days consisted of so many answered prayers and blessings.

After spending Thursday morning at Senga Bay, we hopped onto yet another minibus and headed to Mua.  After discussing how to get there with some of the extremely helpful Cool Running’s employees, we were told to get on a minibus to Blantyre and ask to be dropped at Mua along the way.  Besides putting our trust in complete strangers to get us where we needed to go and being squashed like sardines in the hot minibus, the trip wasn’t too bad!  All three of us were asking at every stop, “Is this where we should get off for Mua?”  Every now and then people would just nod their heads, “Mua, yes, yes.” But they weren’t too convincing.  It wasn’t until several stops later did we actually feel confident when several people said we should get off at what seemed to be the middle of nowhere…  We were looking for a guest house Mel had found in one of the information guides she was reading as a part of the Mua Mission.

As we got off the bus, the only thing we could see around us was the paved road in both directions and a gravel/dirt road intersecting it.  There wasn’t much else around us other than the endless rolling hills and mountains.  We couldn’t stop chuckling and smiling because we had no idea where we were going or even if we were in the right place.  Along the gravel road were people hosting markets but there weren’t really any houses or buildings in sight.  We stopped to ask a few people if the Mua Mission and guest house was down that street but several times all we got were smiles on nods.  Although we think they had no idea what we were asking for, we took their nods as “Yes, right that way!”  Finally we talked to someone who’s English was at least a little more present, he told us “Yes, on the right.” 

As we hiked up the road, the flat surface began to turn into a hill that got steeper and steeper.  There was still no buildings in sight and all we could think about was having to walk back down to the main road to try to hitchhike to the next town--and by this time it was beginning to get dark.  After a good 30-45 minutes on that gravel road, we started to see some smaller houses and eventually a sign for the Mua Mission.  We had arrived!!  We still had no idea where to go but after asking around we found the reception and they led us to an extremely nice room.     

At the mission we ventured around for a little while, had dinner and went to bed fairly early as we would be headed out to the next town (Dedza) early in the morning.  We still couldn’t believe we found this get-away hidden way up on the side of mountain in the middle of nowhere.  It was such a beautiful place and although our time was short there we really enjoyed it.

Early Friday morning we woke up for breakfast at the Mission and headed back down that gravely dirt road to try to find a ride to our next destination, Dedza--a town known for an adorable little pottery shop with delicious cheesecake.  The cheesecake was motivation enough to go visit, let’s be honest.

On the way to the main road we tried to inquire more on how far away Dedza was from Mua and how one would suggest we get there.  We were told it was about 20 kilometers this way and then 45 kilometers that way and then several more kilometers to find what were looking for.  We knew walking the entire way was out of the question and minibuses through this part of Malawi were extremely scarce.  This left us pretty much one option--hitchhiking!!

We were so blessed to have the nicest South African men pull over and offer us a ride.  We sat in the bed of their truck and enjoyed the scenery.  Molly, Mel and I all agreed that this drive was surreal.  We drove over a mountain, along winding roads, with the most unreal view we have ever seen.  Mountains to left, right, in front and behind as we drove higher and higher, getting colder and closer to the fog covered tip.  At one point we stopped at the side of the road about half way up the mountain just so we all could enjoy the view.  Molly has a very nice camera and captured some amazing photos of the view.  Those will be shown soon!

The smiles we so big on all of our faces because we couldn’t believe this adventure we were on.  We constantly were saying, “I can’t believe this!”  and “This is so amazing!”.  We all agreed this was one of our favorite parts of our trip to Malawi. 

After almost two hours of driving we arrived in Dedza.  The men not only brought us to Dedza but they drove probably about 10-15 minutes out of their way to drop us off at the gate of the pottery place we had told them about.  We were so thankful for them as finding our way from the main road to the pottery place would have also been an adventure. They definitely were an answer to our prayers!

Pottery and cheesecake!

We spent a good portion of the day looking at the different pottery at the shop as well as enjoying an early lunch after all the traveling we had done.  We sat down at the restaurant across from the pottery shop and enjoyed some chicken curry and sandwiches, as well as some delicious coffee.  We were all pretty stuffed after eating but the moment we had all been waiting for had finally arrived. Time for CHEESECAKE!!  When the cheesecake arrived we couldn’t believe our eyes and the taste was even better than it looked.  It was a beautiful piece of cheesecake with super thick graham cracker crust, and youngberry jam and whipped cream drizzled over the top.  It was fantastic. 

After extreme overeating, we wobbled our way back over to the pottery shop to make a couple purchases just in time to head back to the Holtz’s in Lilongwe.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Dedza and Mua and we thank God for the safety he provided us during our trip.  Malawi is such a beautiful place and it definitely made all the necessary traveling all worthwhile. 

Thanks for reading and God bless your day!