Catching Up with Dave Barton at Kandy Beach Resort
Today on April 19th, I caught up again with Dave Barton, who has an incredible story behind Kandy Beach Resort. He first discovered this location while camping and started building it in 1993. For the first 10 years, there was no electricity — just an occasional generator for power tools when there was no other option. He slowly built the place up with help from others while still running tours. That’s 33 years he’s been involved with this place.
Over the decades, the resort has gone through many iterations. Dave leased parts of it to others, including a surfing school and occasionally the restaurant. As someone else noted, it may not have the luster it once had, and part of that is due to a devastating fire. They had a beautiful bar — the first building they built — with a gorgeous tree growing in the middle. When solar panels were installed, an exposed wire, likely damaged by animals climbing around, caused the entire bar to burn down. To make it worse, this happened just before insurance was finalized. That’s quite the setback.
Life Advice for Livingstonia University Graduates
Last night I also met some young people about to graduate from Livingstonia University. They asked me for life advice, and I was happy to share. I told them that having passion for whatever you do is essential — passion takes care of a lot of the hard parts and makes the journey far easier.
Discovering the Mafatso Community Development Program
Around midday, three ladies appeared at the resort and I struck up a conversation with them. They turned out to be from Australia, visiting from next door — the Mafatso community development program. Mafatso was started by a woman named Robin, who is currently in the hospital, but she got the whole thing going and it’s now funded by people from Australia.
The organization employs about 70 people in Malawi and hosts a few volunteers from Down Under at a time. These three ladies are here for six months. One of their key development initiatives is running preschools in 13 different locations. Each preschool is essentially a classroom-sized structure with a roof where little kids come to get fed — porridge or oatmeal — and then receive teaching. Each location has two teachers plus whatever additional staff is needed.
I was given a tour of the operation, which was really fun and eye-opening. Two of the ladies had to head off to a soccer game as part of their community involvement. I had to wade through water and cross little creeks flowing into Lake Malawi to get there, but it was a wonderful outing. It takes real passion to keep a program like this running.
Bruce Cowley Arrives at Kandy Beach
When I got back, Bruce Cowley — whom I had met in Nakata Bay on his motorbike — had arrived at Kandy Beach Resort. He had a smooth ride up to the town of Kandy Beach, but then took the first route instead of the second one I had recommended. He ran into a lot of loose sand, which wouldn’t have been an issue for a Land Cruiser but was treacherous on a motorbike. He fell five times in that one to two kilometer stretch and hurt his ankle a bit.
Despite that, Bruce took it in stride. He and Dave got along incredibly well because they knew the same people in Zimbabwe, which made for a really enjoyable rest of the day.
Reflections on the Journey
It’s such an amazing thing to be doing this. The journey just keeps on giving, time and time again. I truly enjoyed today and I’m grateful to have you along for the ride. Thank you for being here.
