Liwonde National Park

Another safari weekend, this time in Liwonde National Park. Liwonde is in the southern region of Malawi and straddles both sides of the Shire river. It was the second time our VSO volunteer intake  had met up since in country training and it was really great to see everyone again.

The opportunity to go on game cruises along the river really sets Liwonde apart from other reserves in Malawi. The nine of us chartered a boat for a night and spent a wonderful 24 hours on the water, spotting elephants, crocs and a myriad of bird life.

I think the pictures do this trip way more justice than my words can so I'll leave it there. Below are a few of my favorite shots but be sure to check out the flickr link at the bottom for the complete, hi-res set.

Full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjHNdu1D

Senga Bay and Cape Maclear

My weekend travel schedule continues to be jam packed, I’m really trying to see as much of Malawi during my year as possible. For the last two weekends I’ve been to the lake which has been great R+R after my harrowing dentist appointment of the week before!

Senga bay is a peaceful cove with only a couple of tourist lodges and a thriving local fishing village. We stayed in a place called coolrunnings which is a great little backpacker lodge that puts something like 45% of its profits into local community projects.

Coolrunnings

Senga Bay Fishermen

The lake itself is crystal clear and stays shallow for a good fifty metres out. It was my first time swimming in a freshwater lake and I must say it’s heaps better than the ocean in a number of ways. Because it’s not salty you don’t feel grotty when you get out and because it’s a contained body of water it’s much warmer than the sea and much calmer.

The second weekend a slightly larger group of us went to Cape Maclear. The cove is similar to that in Senga but Cape Maclear is a little more touristy (as much as Malawi ever is) and has a few more lodges, some of which have late night discos.

The Lake Isn't Just for Fun

We hired a boat for the morning and went snorkelling around a small island just off the shore which was great, we saw lots of freshwater tropical fish and the visibility was excellent.

I can certainly see myself going to the lake as often as possible while I’m here, it’s a beautiful and relaxing place to spend a few days

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

The Dentist

Last weekend one of my worst fears came true, a cap on one of my teeth fell off and left me needing to rely on Malawian dental care. It wasn’t causing me any pain and I was very tempted just to ignore it but knowing that would be foolish and by summoning a little courage I booked an appointment at the local clinic for that Thursday.

Like most things in Malawi I found the dental clinic at the end of an unmade dirt track, the building looked ordinary enough and from the car park at least I couldn’t hear any screams of pain. Feeling pretty nervous I stepped inside to an empty waiting room with a reception desk in one corner. Business must have been fairly slow as the woman there instantly knew who I was and asked me to fill out a questionnaire.

Moments later and quite unbelievably on time my dentist appeared. She was young, Brazilian and very friendly looking which immediately made me feel much more relaxed. She led me through to the dental surgery which seemed very clean and much like one you would find in the UK, this settled my nerves further still.

Just as I was beginning to unwind a Malawian chap in a lab coat that looked twice as nervous as me entered the room and announced in broken English that he’d be assisting the dentist. It soon became apparent that the nervous dentist’s assistant was new to the job and hadn’t worked with this dentist before, in fact I suspect he was a student. Every time the dentist turned to ask for an instrument the poor guy would have the wrong thing in his hand, then he would drop the right thing on the floor and have to go re-sterilise it. At one point while leaning over me with the photo-cure gun he actually fell off his stool and landed on top of me!

The dentist was not a whole lot better. A full ninety minutes I was in the chair! She spent an hour building up my broken tooth until it was roughly the size of Kilimanjaro, only to then spend another thirty minutes filing it back down again! In her defence she was also child minding the nervous assistant and battling with poor equipment at the same time. The high pressure hose on her drill kept flirting off and making a sound like a gunshot; I’d jump, she’d jump and the assistant would fall off his chair. At one point she had hurt my gum and asked if I wanted anaesthetic, dreading the thought of either of them coming towards me with a needle I’d said without hesitation “you know what, it’s actually not that bad”

About forty five minutes into the proceedings the dentist turned to the nervous assistant and said

“I need more B2”

“we don’t have” came the response

“B3?…  B4!?”

In the end my new tooth ended up looking like a top deck chocolate bar with the top being a noticeably different shade of white than the bottom but to be honest at that point I just wanted to be out of there

Eventually the dentist was satisfied with her masterpiece. She asked me if it was still too high and I lied saying it was fine, I think she suspected I was fibbing but we were both tired and her next patient (victim) had already been waiting thirty minutes so she let me go.

Remember to brush your teeth kids…

An Average Day

Apologies that it’s been a while, it’s been a quiet few weeks here in Lilongwe; getting into the rhythm of work out here and enjoying a simple African lifestyle.  I thought I’d take the opportunity to share with you what constitutes an average day here in Lilongwe and a couple of side projects I have on the boil at the moment.

If the wind is blowing in the right direction then my day begins at 5 when I’m woken up by the call to prayer from the local mosque, otherwise my alarm goes off at 6. I get up and put my immersion heater on; T-1 hour till hot water.  While I’m waiting for the hot water I rinse off some clothes that I’ve had soaking in a bucket overnight and hang them outside on the line to dry. Then it’s time for some fresh Mzuzu coffee, the previous volunteer who had my house left a stove top espresso peculator which has quickly become one of my most prized possessions. I put it on my standard VSO-issue two ring electric stove and fire it up. Breakfast is either cornflakes or some homemade bread with honey from the Livingstonia orphanage.

Bread and baking in general is one of my side projects. VSO don’t issue volunteers with an oven but I was able to buy a very small one that resembles a microwave from a South African superstore for £80. The oven is very slow and doesn't get terribly hot but when baking bread this is made up for by the speed at which proofing happens; thanks to the African heat typically 40 mins compared to 2 hours in the UK

Breakfast done I make some sandwiches for the day. Shopping for food in Malawi can be a little hit and miss, one week you’ll go and there’ll be lots of chicken, the next week there might not be any chicken at all so you have to improvise with what’s available at the time, recently my local supermarket has had back bacon in (a pretty rare commodity out here) so I’ve been enjoying bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch of late.

Finally time for that shower! I’m actually really lucky to have hot running water, even if I do have to wait a while for it. Many volunteers aren't so fortunate and very few locals have such luxuries.

It’s now 7:30 and time to head to the office. There are two local “bus” routes I can take to work, both of which involve about a 20min walk and a 20min ride. The local buses are quite an experience; they are privately owned mini-buses that should seat 10 but somehow manage to squeeze in 16. There are typically two guys running them, one drives while his friend acts as a conductor/marketing guy, both taking money from passengers and advertising the service by shouting the buses destination out of the window at anyone they pass.

All the mini-buses start off in old town which is really the centre of Lilongwe and then go out along various routes, terminating in a particular numbered area which is how Lilongwe is divided. The buses I can get are the 12 and the 18 known as such because they terminate in areas 12 and 18 respectively. Most buses are 150KW (about 30p) for a single journey regardless of where you get on or off, some will try and charge you more (especially if you’re white) but they usually climb down when they realise you know what you’re talking about.

On the bus itself it’s very cramped and smells pretty horrendous. Local sellers use the buses to get to market and bring their goods with them which can include fish or live poultry. Most Malawians also can’t afford deodorant or even soap which doesn't help matters on the odour front.

Although I quoted 20mins before the journey can actually take much longer if business is slow. If the conductor on the mini-bus doesn't feel he’s got enough passengers he’ll simply pull over and wait until some more appear, if business is really slow and another bus comes along you may even be ‘sold on’ to the other bus and have to swap.

I normally get into the office for 8am. I’ll actually skip the rest of my day at work as I’ve already blogged about the office but I promise to give you all an update on the project progress as a separate post soon.

I normally leave the office at around 4pm and make my perilous return journey on the mini-bus back to area 6. I’ll often call at my local supermarket Chipiku on my way home for supplies. As I mentioned before, shopping for groceries can be fairly hit and miss at times but the Chipiku near me is large and generally has a good variety of things in stock, not least of all some very nice South African reds which I try and limit my consumption of to a couple a week

Once home I’ll get the washing in off the line and iron everything  to kill any Tumbu fly eggs. I won’t go into any detail about these guys here but for those of you who want to know more the full horror can be read about here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordylobia_anthropophaga

Next it’s housework time, I generally try to sweep everyday and mop as often as I can. It’s a fairly futile task as the ever present red dust of Lilongwe re-settles almost instantly as you finish but at least you can feel clean for a little while.

Night falls at 6pm sharp pretty much year round and after that it’s not really safe to be outside in Lilongwe unless you’re in a vehicle. As such after dinner the evenings can drag a bit, if there is no social event happening that I can get to then a movie on my laptop is usually the only entertainment there is.

Unless I’m out then bedtime is normally around 9pm – unheard of in the UK but you feel very fresh in the mornings :-)