wed, 4/21...day 111

Our last full day in Lilongwe! My travel agent has finally lined up our flights home, after many hours (days) of phone calls and chasing down seats. After potential trips through Nigeria (not happening!) and Bangkok (the loooong way around), we ended up with the same itinerary that we had Sunday/Monday, just shifted four days. So it'll be a long trip, but not what it could have been!

Today we went searching for a place to swim, starting with the girls' school where we've swum many times on this trip. But they had laps and swim lessons going on (even though it's Fall and swim teams are finished).

So next we tried a local hotel that has allowed non-guests to swim in the pool before, for a small fee. But we discovered that they had recently (just a week ago) decided they'd gotten too many complaints about the noise so they weren't offering that option anymore. Darn! They had some gorgeous quilts up in the lobby, though, so I enjoyed checking those out, while we were there anyway.

As we headed home, disappointed, Sieglinde remembered that we could just go to the hotel/gardens across the street from her house and swim there. Yay! They have a pleasant pool with a cafe so we got some yummy samosas with chips (French Fries) and had a refreshing swim.

A palm tree next to our table had this intriguing seed/flower blooming out of the side. It reminded me of the growth that emerged on our radish-gone-to-seed a few summers ago. Quite dramatic.