The disgusted French maid

We were up early again to head to Mzuzu. In Mzuzu, there's a market that sells stupid costumes...essentially children's clothes that westerners and other passers by are willing to buy to look silly. The overlanding company have a tradition of passing through, buying a few items and having a dress up party. Now, I am not against dressing up...if it's done properly. On many a hallowed eve, I have been a very convincing Joker or Cap'n Jack Sparrow. However, I will not demean myself by cross dressing just for the sake of dressing up. So I politely declined, as did Luke and Robin, which was a bit of a saving grace for me.

The idea was to pick an outfit for someone else after having pulled their name out of a hat. Not participating, I helped Catherine, an older Australian woman, pick her's for a young Australian farm boy - a revealing leopard skin bikini. During this, Ruth approached me to say that she had picked up that Luke and Robin wanted to join in, but maybe felt they couldn't afford it, so she had bought them surprise outfits...did I want to join in? I felt I had no choice then. She told me to pick an outfit. I wondered over to the pile, picked up the first thing I found. I chose it because I liked the floral pattern, colours and its relative conservativeness compared to other outfits.

It turned out to be a French maid's dress. A long scarlet frilly bottom part, covered by a smaller floral print apron/front flap and beige elastic top that was meant to come off the shoulders. Fantastic.

I was far from the only cross dresser. But I was the prettiest girl at the ball. There are plenty of photos, though I hope I never see them again. I wasn't in the best of moods by the time the party came round for two reasons: the orphanage (which I'll get on to in a minute) and secondly, cabin fever (I seriously wanted off the truck).

People got quite drunk at the party. Being in a slight mood at that point, I had one drink, it tasting like crap, I stopped there. I might have indulged in a fanta later in the evening, I can't remember.

Around 20h30, we were told that some of the locals would be playing bongos on the beach. We headed down, sat around a bonfire, chatted to the locals, listened to them play bongos (though not impressively) and even played ourselves. I met a guy that called himself Firefly, because he only comes out at night (though I've seen him a lot during sunlight hours in the last few days). Why only at night I asked? Because he's shy. A nice Christian boy, who writes a lot of Christian rap (he said he only does rap with swearing when his mum isn't around). I've seen him a few times in the last few days. He taught me how to play to the local Malwaian game of Boa, which I might go buy from him (having failed to find a decent chess set).

Having gone to bed relatively early, I awoke finally refreshed from my long walk two days early, but my ankle (which I rolled and stretched the tendon when I skateboarding at school) still aching. I went to breakfast early and helped with the daily chores to get the ball rolling (slightly selfishly so I could get food sooner). Ruth was there, but she was acting kind of funny. It took me a few minutes to realise that she was still absolutely hammered from the previous night....in fact she couldn't remember where she'd slept, let alone if she had slept. She was a mess. She runs a tight ship, but when the ship goes down, the captain drowns with it.

The day was spent milling around the campsite as most people were hungover. I had an easy day, but found my irrational anger building with the cabin fever and a final straw: ants in my tent. The ****ers were everywhere. A small amount of orange squash and water had leaked and they were swarming the tent to get to it. I spent two hours cleaning it out, killing each one individually, constantly sleeping the remains of the ant-massacre away and swearing - a lot. Eventually I realised that the ants were in the wooden pillars holding up the sun cover...so I moved my tent out into the open where they wouldn't be able to get me.

I eventually cooled down and went to bed after spend a few hours with the others.