10/13/09 – 10/14/09: Kande Beach, Malawi
This is why I don’t party much:
One Acacia tradition that we found out about recently is “Fancy Dress Night.” Everyone who participates has a budget of 500 Kwacha (a little more than $3) to buy an outfit for a random other person drawn from a hat. As you can see, my person took the name of the night literally.
Yesterday we stopped at a street-side market to buy clothes for this evening. As we pulled up, I noticed a couple of clothing shops set up a little ways from the road. We would never reach these shops.
Immediately after departing the bus, ten guys came running up to us with bags of the most ridiculous looking outfits I have ever seen. Three questions quickly came to mind:
Where in the world did these guys just come from? (No idea.)
Do they really make any money selling this junk? (Probably, as many Acacia trucks pass through this area.)
Where are all the men’s clothes? (Nowhere.)
I was overwhelmed by the whole situation, so I decided Zhou would have to help me shop for my person (Carol, who named her car Tallulah after Junior’s mom in Cool Runnings, so you know where she stands in my book). Zhou was having the time of her life already in the pile of outrageous outfits – no help there. Another truckmate offered to help out, and after a bit of quick, bad negotiating on her part, she got me a dress and non-matching headband for 100 Kwacha over budget. If only this was my biggest problem of the night.
…
I think I now understand why drinking was invented. Most people were actually quite comfortable in their outfits by the end of the night. Mine never really grew on me no matter how much water I drank or pork I ate. So enjoy the photos in this post now because I doubt you’ll see anything like them again for a long long time.
The five remaining guys on the tour, including our driver, Richard, in the mankini in the middle
Carol, pirate Sarah and Zhou. Unlike myself, Sarah doesn’t actually need the eye patch, that was just part of the costume
Unfortunately, this is what the pig wore
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Picture of the Day: After a long couple days embarrassingly described above, you’d think it’d be our truck that needs the jump. But no, Acacia is the gift that keeps on giving.
