End of the Rainy Season

Wed 22nd May

Well since my last Blog the rainy season finished around the end of April.

Not much has been said but I think the rainy season was long enough for most areas to have a reasonably successful Maize harvest.

The Maize is now drying out and being harvested with the land changing rapidly from a lush green to a dried out brown.

Amazing how rapidly it changes and cannot remember having any rain for at least 2 weeks now.

Maize is so important out here. It's the staple diet of everybody.

Everybody grows it,  not an inch of land is left untouched from growing it.

Within March and April many people had run out of their own stock and you could see there was hunger outside of the city.

The Government did give out maize handouts but the people will always complain it was not enough and too late. But now everybody is eating fresh maize.

The hunger was not the same as the stories you hear of sometimes in drought ridden countries like Sudan.

However some years when the rain fails in Malawi, then the Maize crops will fail,  then there is severe hunger as most people don't have money to buy food.

Within Lilongwe the handful of Supermarkets are always stocked up with food,  most comes up from South Africa and carries a premium price.

Outside of Lilongwe most villages don't have a store as we would expect but just a small brick hut selling very very few items.

Volunteers living in these villages have to rely on weekly/monthly shopping to bigger towns but not many of these about and can be a 3 hour journey.

When they do they cannot buy fresh meat to take back as it's too hot for their joined time, so they have to buy tinned meat/fish.

I think they have all learnt an art in how to survive with food shopping.

Of course in most villages you can buy live chickens and goats, just need to kill and prepare it or find somebody to do it.

At work on the 22nd April we had a Consultant over for two weeks from Tanzania to commission our database , make specific changes and to educate us.

However my daughter came over to start her two week holiday with me on the 27th so I had to miss the Consultants second week.

But we should be getting close to have a working system soon and so after a slow start to work in Malawi we have all been fully occupied for the last 2 months.

So my excitement was having Dominique over. Not to bore you with all the details we went to Zambia and the South Luangwa Park, 7 hours drive and had 3 nights and 2 days on Safari.

On her first full day we went for a day trip to the Lake at Senga Bay

Although out of season as the raining season was just ending all the grasses and plants were all green and at full hight. The watering holes away from the main fast flowing Luangwa River were still full so many Animals did not have to travel to the River yet for water..

Our breakfast table overlooking the river, if you look closely you can see hippo's and croc's.

This meant it was difficult to see many animals however there was excitement as when travelling around animal would suddenly appear out of the bush like Leopards and Lions.

In the end we saw many animals to many to list but all the big ones.

We stayed at a camp site on the banks of the Luangwa River 3-4m above the water where we could always see Hippo's and crocs.

When it became dark we were warned to watch out for Hippo's and Elephants as they frequently roam though the site.

On the first night about 5am I could hear very load munching noises I looked outside and could see the head of a Hippo 3 feet away happily eating the grass.

Dominique sleeped though it.

We returned to Lilongwe for a night and them went to Lake Malawi and Cape MaClear, its a beautiful spot with Hills surrounding the bay and a few islands.

We took a guide and climbed one of the hills set in there national park from the top had good views over the Cape. Then when we climbed down we ended on some large boulders in crystal clear water with loads of fish. We only had time for 2 nights.

Cape MaClear

Our next trip was to Tanzania so we headed back to Lilongwe and caught the evening coach to Dar es Salam. This is scheduled for 28hrs. 1500km.

The Coach was full and people standing, after 4 hours the bus stopped and picked up more passangers it was crammed. It was only 23:00 and they had to stand until the boarder arriving at 05:00. Not very nice. We eventually got to Dar at 02:00. 32hrs after getting on the coach. We had a few incidents getting ripped off exchanging money, taxi driver demanding money and the hotel releasing our room. But at 08:00 we were off again to catch the ferry to Zanzibar.

We had one night in Stone Town and two at the beach at the very northern point and had a wonderful time there. Fish was great.

Stone Town Zanzibar

Sadly time to go home. I had decided not to catch the bus back,  so I caught the same flight as Dom to Nairobi, where I would fly back to Lilongwe and Dom to London.

Took a Sail on a Dow to do some snorkelling by a coral reef..Zanzibar

So that ended both our holidays with Dom now thinking she might come back again next year.

Meanwhile back to work for me.

Most Volunteers get placements for 12 months so as time moves on people leave and arrive. I am now finding it a bit sad as after 7 months here I have made many friends but many have come to to the end of their placements and leaving back to there own Countries to find new jobs. It's all very sad but new people arrive and life goes on.

 I have been running with the local Hash Harriers ( a social running group) each Monday but recently joined a small group on Saturday mornings and doing 21k's i.e. 1/2 marathon.

This is really interesting as we get to run out of the city, down tracks and right into the countryside. Alway going though many brick/mud villages with lots of screaming kids.

There is a half marathon run at Lake Victoria which looks fantastic, so 3 of us are thinking of doing it. but it's a 2 day drive there and same back and our holidays are running short. So we will see. Aslo now found a group that goes walking/trekking at the weekends who appear to know the routes up the many mountain areas. Which is needed as there are no maps or signs, and GPS is no good as the signal always dies.

 Thats all for now if there is anything you would like me to write about let me know.

Robin