Vwaza and Lukwe

Apologies for the later than usual blog post but I’ve had quite a bit of catching up to do after returning on Tuesday from a five day trip up to the North of the country.

Last Friday I set off with Judy, Natalie, Chris and Cenk for Mzuzu. Being surrounded by mountains Mzuzu is considerably cooler and therefore greener than the rest of the country, this makes for some stunning scenery and a much wider variety of crops including coffee which the area is renowned for.

On the Friday night we stayed with some other volunteers that are stationed in Mzuzu and went on a short hike to the local reservoir which was a much needed leg stretch after five hours in the car.

Holding locals up as usual

First thing on Saturday morning we set off for Vwaza which is a national park and nature reserve that is little visited by tourists but hosts a great variety of big game and bird life.  We camped overnight in wooden chalets, right on the banks of the lake which is home to several herds of hippo. There is no electricity or running water at the camp but staff are happy to help you build a fire and will cook any food you bring with you.  

We went on two game drives during our stay at Vwaza and saw a great variety of wildlife, below is a couple of my favourite shots but be sure to check out the flickr link at the bottom of the post for the full set. The only no-show was the elephants, we saw some dung but unfortunately that’s as close as we got – maybe next time

The lack of electricity at Vwaza meant there was no light pollution at night and I was able to get some great shots of the African night sky; 

The following day we moved on once more to a little village called Lukwe near Livingstonia.  Lukwe sits right at the top of the rift valley overlooking lake Malawi, to get there we had to navigate 23 hairpin bends on a 15km dirt track which took us the best part of an hour in the car – thank god for 4 wheel drive! We stayed in an eco-lodge there for two nights, one of the most romantic and peaceful places I have ever been, the views were jaw dropping!

The lodge itself was really special too with composting toilets and gravity showers completing the eco feel. The onsite restaurant serves food all grown locally or even within the lodge grounds and was some of the best I’ve tasted since arriving in country.

During our full day in Lukwe (the Monday) we went on a long hike up into the mountains and visited a local waterfall that offered up even more stunning scenery

Tuesday was a long drive back to Lilongwe that took us the best part of 7 hours. Can’t wait to get back on safari now!

Full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGTJsyR

Becs Birthday Blantyre Bash

One of my fellow volunteers called Rebecca turned 29 this weekend, not only that but it was also Independence Day on the 6^th and a public holiday on the Monday. Always looking for an excuse to party a group of about 10 of us descended on Blantrye for the weekend to celebrate. Judy, Natalie, Lin and I all set off from Lilongwe in Judy’s new car, the rest were coming from the southern region and met us there.

Blantyre is about a 5 hour drive from Lilongwe so it took us most of the day to get there. This wasn't a problem as there is always something interesting to see when you drive around the country and some of the scenery is truly stunning.

Upon arrival in Blantyre the drinking began in Ernest. We had brought with us a crate of “Kuche Kuche” which is the local beer here (although brewed by Carlsberg) and this was accompanied by various other offerings people had brought, including of course plenty of Malawian gin!

I’d made a cake for the occasion which received much more attention than it usually would in the UK and thanks to the parlour games that Beth had devised the whole event took on a real birthday party feel.

Once we’d eaten all the cake, drank most of the gin and played all the party games we could think of we decided to head out into town to what I believe is Blantyre’s only night club, the blue elephant.

The club was busy and it was great to see that it wasn't just full of white people, this was a place that locals could actually afford to go to once in a while! They played lots of African pop which was great fun and some of the volunteers who are placed in very strict puritan villages were reveling in the chance to dance without having to have the curtains drawn!

The next day we were all feeling a little delicate so we decided to head over to a local guesthouse called Chez Mackys for some R and R. Chez Mackys has a small pool which you can use for free provided you buy some food and drink so we setup camp and spent the day chilling out and nursing our hangovers – boy is volunteering hard work!

In the grounds of Chez Mackys we discovered this spider, actually we saw one and then quickly realized there were tens of them everywhere! I’m not kidding when I say this thing is as big as your hand, this image is pretty much 1:1;

Full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGKuzKC

Lilongwe Wildlife Centre

On Saturday afternoon Judy drove Myself, Chris, Natalie and Lin over to Lilongwe wildlife sanctuary. It’s the only wildlife sanctuary in Malawi and looks after some one hundred injured animals. Some of the animals are short term residents awaiting release back into the wild, others will remain in care for the rest of their lives due to the nature of their injuries.

We arrived just in time for a guided tour that luckily coincided with feeding time. The highlight was a three legged Leopard and a one eyed lioness named Belle

Full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGvnUyT

The Prison

On Saturday morning I went to help out at the local prison. Cenk had made friends with one of the guards who’d told him we could come along and help a Christian mission who were arriving with medicine and food for inmates at the infirmary. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take my camera inside the prison so I’ll do my best to describe what was a truly eye opening experience.

Some 100 prisoners sat outside, cross-legged on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, not making a sound. Most had nothing on their feet and all were wearing plain white T-shirts and white shorts which had been crudely cut and sewn together from material resembling that of a lab coat.

All the prisoners we were meeting were receiving aid because they were very ill. It was quite upsetting to see how weak some of them were; people in the advanced stages of AIDS, some suffering from TB, others close to death from Malaria. In a UK prison I’m sure most of them would have been released on compassionate grounds long ago.

We were led into the area where the 100 prisoners were sitting silently on the floor and taken to a bench directly facing them. Looking them all in the face was quite unnerving at first, they were all giving the bench their undivided attention. With us on the bench was a preacher who was leading the Christian mission, two ladies who’d arrived with the preacher, presumably members of his congregation and two prison guards.

Proceedings began by one of the prisoners leading the others in song, the whole thing was in Chichewa but the occasional hallehula confirmed that it was Christian in nature. Next the preacher read the parable of a blind man begging on the road to Jericho that Jesus cured, the preacher told the prisoners to ask Jesus to help them in a similar way, fixing the root of their problems and stopping them from returning to prison. The service concluded with a poem written by one of the prisoners and then it was time for food.

I was amazed to see that despite being practically starved not one prisoners started to eat before all were served and the preacher had said grace, it almost felt cruel to me that we’d made them wait for so long. When they were finally allowed to eat the meal was over in just a couple minutes . Not a single grain of rice was left on anyone’s plate.

During the service one prisoner had been rushed through the gates into the infirmary carried by his arms and legs. I’d thought at first he might have already been dead but it later transpired he was one of two epileptic twins who’d been fitting. After chatting to one of the guards a little more it turned out that the reason they were both in prison was because the police could not decide which one of them had actually committed the alleged crime. This is of course shocking but in fact some prisoners have been here on remand without a trial for years!

Once the meal was finished Cenk, Nyack and I dispensed the bars of soap we had bought with us. The prisoners were incredibly grateful and mercifully we’d bought enough for everyone there.

To end on a positive note, the guards at the prison all seemed very good people and there was no hint of brutality that I could detect. In fact, despite being a maximum security prison I was surprised how few of the guards carried guns or truncheons. There seemed to be a great deal of respect for the guards from the prisoners and the guards we spoke to genuinely felt sorry for the poor conditions the prisoners had to face.

In Country Training II

It’s been quite the social week here in Lilongwe. The intake of volunteers who arrived in country at the beginning of February have been in town for a week long training course known as ICT2 (in country training 2.) It’s been a great opportunity to make some more friends and build up that contact list for cheap weekends away :-)

Tuesday night was a bar called “The living room” which is very pleasant even by UK standards, they serve descent food and often have different events on such as movie night, quiz night and acoustic night. This week they had a guitarist playing on the veranda which was great background as we hunkered down under our blankets on the couch drinking ice cold Malawian gin.

A note on Malawian gin; it’s incredibly smooth and tastes slightly fruity, mixed with sobo (orange squash) or tonic you barely notice the alcohol content which can prove painful the next morning when you realize you drank half a bottle!

On Wednesday night two volunteers who work at the local refugee camp invited us all round for a cheese and wine evening. Cheese is virtually unobtainable in Malawi and when you can get hold of it the quality is pretty awful. Tom and Helen had recently been back to the UK and had smuggled back as much as they could carry so the party went down a storm. There were at least 40 odd people there from various NGO’s and countries of origin all eating as much of the stuff has humanly possible!

On Friday the ICT2 lot had a field trip planned to a cultural centre about 100km outside of Lilongwe. Although officially I wasn’t on the training course I managed to snag a seat on one of the pickups so went along for the day.

The centre was actually a village set up by a catholic mission, we had some lunch and then a very knowledgeable tour guide showed us round three rooms that displayed various aspects of pre-Christian Malawian culture. 

Our Tour Guide

The ICT2 Volunteer Group

Unfortunately cameras weren’t permitted on most of the tour but pictures from the journey and around the centre can be seen here;

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGvmFuB

On the way back we had some engine trouble which gave us a chance to stretch our legs. The pressure build up in the radiator caused a geezer of water to erupt which made for a pretty cool shot. Sadly though this did mean we all had to surrender our drinking water so we could fill it back up and get home;

Wait for it...

Boom!