going north (saturday)

Get a ride to Kamphata from the eye hospital 6am Saturday morning and jump right on a minibus for Lilongwe! Then a bus for Mzuzu…uneventful trip…next bus to Rumphi where we stayed for the night…our jumping off point to get to Nyika Plateau. Went for dinner at Matunkha (lodge, restaurant that supports an orphanage). Rhona and I both ordered the Matunkha special—vegetarian, pumpkin pie, crispy cheese and stuffed tomato. It sounded interesting and was reasonably priced. When our plates came out it was a plateful of fried foods…we couldn’t tell what was there but went at it. we found fried cucumber (I don’t recommend it—it is just weird), fried cabbage leaves (also strange), fried green pepper, fried banana. The crispy cheese was a stick of cheddar that had also been fried. There was a cold mashed potato rosette. The pumpkin pie was pieces of pumpkin on a thin pizza crust and the stuffed tomato was full of leaves (very nice) tho garnished with a fried leaf. After the meal we wished we had gotten a picture but decided against ordering another just for a picture. (plus fried food all looks the same)