Lake Lake
Nyasa is the Yao (one of the 4 spoken languages in Malawi) word for “lake”. When the british colonialists came into Malawi they asked the native for the name of the lake. They said it was “Nyasa”. So the british called the lake “Lake Nyasa”, which effectively means “Lake Lake”! The lake Malawi is 560 km long and 75 km large. The boarders of Malawi, Moħambique and Tanzania meet at that lake. Fishing is a pretty important income for the native who catch Chambo and Kampango. One can see the importance of Chambo when you see it printed on many things like textiles:
Sengabay is about 18 km away from Salima at the south of lake Malawi. The beach is original and has not yet seen many foreign tourists. The beach is used by native people for washing, bathing, fixing fishing-nets etc. But men and women bath seperately. The foam of the withe soap looks funny on the black bodies of the Malawians. Because the holydays have started some school classes visit the lake and are very excited taking a bath.
Seeing this idyllic lake one often forgets that there are crocodiles and hippos some of the time. The locals say that one should not go for a swim after 5 pm. That is the time when hippos are crossing at about 15 meters away from the beach.
