This email [sic] would have been far more useful to you all (not to mention to us) had you received it earlier, but since David and I didn't learn many of these things until well into the trip, and then they didn't really "fit" with any of the other emails, you get to read about sundry details, now.

Right is wrong because with most of southern Africa having been colonized by the British, everyone drives on the left side of the road. If it were only that, it might not be so bad (for those of us who drive on the "correct" side), but it means the side doors on vans and minibuses are on the left side as well, which always threw me into a dither. Especially when rushing back for a bathroom stop, with the driver revving the engine and honking the horn. So panic inducing. Oh, and Mozambique as a former Portuguese colony should require driving on the right, but to fit in with all their neighbors (I'm assuming), they too, drive on the left.

The currency in Malawi is known as the Kwache. In Mozambique it's Metical (Meticas, is the plural) and in South Africa the currency is the Rand. While we were there, the Kwache traded at 110 to the dollar, it was 123,000 Meticas to the dollar and 6 Rand for a buck. Africa is indeed cheap, but not as cheap as I had thought, especially with all the National Park fees and other things aimed at tourists.

Continue reading "right is wrong: some miscellany" »

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So, we really meant to email sooner, but there was a decided lack of availability of resources (and chocolate, which was even more disturbing) where we were. We went to Chizumulu and Likoma, two large-ish islands in the middle of lake Malawi. They're actually closer to Mozambique, but due to traditional tribal allegiances. they're Malawian (though oddly, the two islands have different tribes and languages). The islands bring in almost everything they need on the Ilala, the largest ferry (and arguably the only one) on the lake. It's also the main transport option, so watching the ferry being loaded while hanging over the top railing is lots of fun. David especially liked watching people hand up single planks of timber to the first deck. And all from dug out canoes! David is convinced we each used up one of our nine lives since the Ilala was declared "unfit for service" 30 years ago. Though funnily enough, it's about as good as any other transport in Malawi.

Despite being laid low by nasty cases of strep throat [David's mysterious flu from earlier], we got our PADI certification while on Likoma, which means we can scuba dive in open water down to 18 meters "with a buddy." That's one of the reasons we've been away from email so long. We sort of missed the ferry on it's Tuesday morning run, so couldn't leave until Saturday (last week) and decided to take the scuba class in the meantime. It was lots of fun--now we just have to actually dive again.

Continue reading "missing the boat" »

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I know, I know, it's shocking to hear from us two days in a row when we should be out meeting people and seeing neat things, but after a miserable night, we decided David should get a malaria test done this morning, just in case, so we're taking a slow day. The test, by the way, was negative: thankfully he just has a really nasty sore throat with flu-like (and unfortunately, malaria-like) symptoms. We're actually too full of Tandoori food to write this email, but since it's a food theme, perhaps that's appropriate.

Interestingly, and somewhat to our surprise, there's a lot of fried meat around, with chicken being omnipresent (living or dead). The only American chain we've seen on the trip has been Kentucky Fried Chicken, though we haven't seen one here or in Mozambique, just S. Africa and Swaziland. There is, however, a South African fried chicken and chip chain called "The Hungry Lion," usually attached to an enormous grocery store, also of South African origins, ShopRite.

Continue reading "rats! fried meat, again" »

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Technically, there is no secret PC handshake, but as David points out, the lingo is just as good. We met Dakota, an education volunteer in Monkey Bay, on the minibus from Liwonde town yesterday. As he and David were chatting during an unexpected stop (caused by my sudden and desperate need to use a bathroom, any bathroom), the PC connection came up and he invited us to stay at the PC transit house here in Lilongwe. We're camping, still, but have made shameless use of their kitchen and hot showers, which is nice.

So, more interestingly, we've been to Zomba plateau, for some nice hiking and to Liwonde National Park, which was amazing! We had our first monkey encounter on Zomba with a lone Blue monkey, which scared all three of us. Much more exciting than seeing them in the zoo. We also went to a trout farm on the plateau, which was interesting. Trout (rainbow, by the way) are not native to Malawi. They were introduced by the British at the turn of the century, but they seem well suited to the colder streams of the plateau and Mulanje mountain. They don't live in the lake, so there's no disturbance of the chombe (a native fish) or chitilids (several different species of native fish).

Continue reading "employing the peace corps secret handshake" »

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Zikomo (Hello):

We're just back from climbing Mount Mulanje, which is really a "massif," or cluster of mountains. (Don't you love how I write as though I have any clue about geology?) The whole thing was like climbing up or down very irregular stairs, but we had a lot of fun. We hiked for about four hours a day for five days and all of the huts (primitive camping, despite their names) were over 6000 ft. The huts (there are 7 on the mountain and we stayed at 4) are run by the Forestry department and each has a permanent caretaker. The caretakers work on two-week shifts and keep the huts supplied with water (from nearby streams) and wood for the fires (generally pine, though not always). We hired a guide, Harry, as recommended by the Forestry office. Theoretically the guides point out birds, trees, insects and animals. Harry's identification skills were a little rusty, but David and I had no complaints about his path finding abilities. We would have gotten lost at least half a dozen times a day without him. The "paths" were either faint through grassland or non-existent over large rock slabs. We came close to rock climbing a couple times, which is not an activity I'm fond of, but the whole experience was lovely!

Our first night, we met a group of 6 forestry officials who were carrying out a "cedar inventory exercise." The cedar on Mulanje is unique to the mountains, but is seriously threatened by introduced pines and (non-introduced, presumably?) aphids. This inventory will be used as a benchmark for later studies by the Mount Mulanje Conservation Trust (MMCT), a relatively new group as conservation isn't as important in countries where people have a difficult time feeding themselves. In conjunction with the inventory, the Forestry dept. has started burning large swathes of pine to be replaced by cedars grown in nurseries down on the plain. Additionally, (and painfully, we think), the forestry dept. employs men to carry 15 ft. pine planks down ON THEIR HEADS! Most of them are barefoot, which made me wince all the more. The worst part, though, is that they only earn 35 kwacha (or 35 cents!) per plank. At most we saw men with two planks, and since they can only make two trips a day, the income is pitiful. On the other hand, it is a way of providing jobs. There is a cable which can be used to bring the wood down, but many of the men "volunteer" to carry the wood down as a means of securing some money.

Continue reading "pick and blunder to fort (b)lister" »

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We're in Blantyre, Malawi. We arrived late-ish yesterday after three rather rattling days of public transportation through Mozambique. We were on what passes for national highways the entire time, but the roads were generally worse than gravel roads in rural Idaho. Adding to the pleasure was the fact that all of the transport options are old prison buses. Not really, but they certainly look like it. The best one (or worst, really) was the minibus we took from Vilankulos to Chimoio. It had major spiderwebbed cracks running the full width of the windshield that had been repaired with putty. The putty, however, must have been failing, because we spent the whole trip with a broom handle shoved into the front seat back while the broom head was positioned against the largest radiating break in the window, 'hopefully' buttressing any probable implosion.

The scenery outside, though, was stunning. We went from tropical coastline to inland savanna grasslands. We saw thousands of coconut palms, which was fun, though David reminded me of the large number of people killed each year by falling coconuts. Baobab trees abound, too, a tree I've always wanted to see. [The really cool ones that look like the roots have sprouted out of the top, usually seen littering African landscapes when Westerners take pictures.] In an effort to make it four travel days in a row, we're off in an hour or so for Mulanje, which is the town at the base of Mt. Mulanje, which we hope to climb for the next few days.

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The answer, of course, is that we are! We're in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. After independence from Portugal in 1975, the government was decidedly communist (though they are no longer), as is reflected by their choice of street names in Maputo. The intersection, by the way, is where our hostel is located. At the moment, we're actually at the American cultural center, which I find very amusing, but they have free internet for citizens, which is the only current advantage to holding an American passport.

Woooo!-was I wrong about Swaziland, which is what I get for presuming to write about a country after only being in it for 2 days. Swaziland is very much NOT the last absolute monarchy. There is a parliament and there are elections, though the king is still head of state and consequently has lots of power. It's rather like Morocco, in that sense. (It's terrible, really--for the rest of my life I'm going to compare everything to Morocco-sorry about that!) Also, our mini-bus ride into Mbabane was apparently an anomaly. Neither our bus ride back, nor, more importantly, our mini-bus ride to Maputo, had only one passenger per seat. In fact, for our 5 1/2 hour journey to Maputo, there were 14 of us crammed into space designed for 9 in a Toyota van. The driver, though, still got his own seat.

Continue reading "what's at the intersection of avenidas vladimir lenin and mao tse tung?" »

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So, we're in Swaziland (David would like to point out that it's the Kingdom of Swaziland), the last absolute monarchy in the world. Or so they say. We got in Wednesday evening, after a long bus trip from Pretoria. We're camping at a backpacking place called Sondzela in the Mlilwane game reserve. The park and the site are lovely, though we're the only ones camping. The fact that it's winter and rather chilly may have something to do with that. Fortunately, it has yet to get below freezing, but it has come close.

Yesterday, we spent three hours on horse back, more apparently for the viewing pleasure of the animals in the park, than for our pleasure in seeing them. I'm sure we made quite the spectacle, but we had a lot of fun. We got within 20 feet of some of the antelope species (impala, nyala) and zebras. David was especially impressed by how calm they all seemed, though he thought the zebras were laughing at the horses for being domesticated. We also saw warthogs, wildebeest, crocodiles, hippos (including a 5 month old!), kudus (another antelope type) and blesbok (related to the goat, apparently, though I would guess rather distantly, given their appearance, which is not very goat-like). These last animals, though, were all more skittish of the horses, so we didn't get as close.

Continue reading "news from the kingdom" »

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