From Cape Town to Durban

I left Cape Town last Thursday, to take a week long trip up the coast to Durban. It was a lot of ground to cover in 7 days, so I didn't stay too long at any one place. I used a backpackers bus called the Baz Bus, which goes door-to-door to tons of hostels along the coast. It was definitely a nicer way to travel than the typical African minibus. I stopped at Wilderness, Storms River, Jefferys Bay, Port Elizabeth, and Cintsa, before arriving in Durban late last night. I only stayed one night at each place, but that wasn't as hectic as it sounds. The Baz Bus runs on the same schedule everyday, and so I had a full 24 hours at each place. I won't bore you all with a description of each place, (especially since I can tell some of you about it in person in a couple days) but I typically spent my nights at backpacker bars, and days hanging out on beautiful beaches.

As you can see in the pictures, I did a little more than hang out at a beach when visiting Storms River. Yes, that's me on the end of that bungy cord, and in case you're wondering, it's 216 meters from the bridge to the bottom of the gorge (making it the world's highest commercial bungy jump). Unlike skydiving, I never had any intention of bungy jumping, it just kind of happened. It was definitely a little scarier than skydiving, but still more fun than scary. (Hey Mom, aren't you glad you're not hearing about this till after I did it?)

Right now I'm in Durban, and tomorrow I'll be flying back home. See you all soon.

Cape Town

I spent 5 nights in Cape Town, and was blown away by how beautiful and fun the city is. I stayed at a backpackers on Long St, surrounded by several bars, restaurants, and other backpackers. I was definitely impressed with the night life, and it was fun being back in a "western" like city (although sometimes a little overwhelming). During the days I was normally up early to hit up all the sights in my short time there. I climbed Table Mountain, visited Robben Island (where Mandela and others were imprisoned), went on a tour to see the Cape of Good Hope, African Penguins and a winery, and went cage diving with great white sharks. Unfortunately we only saw a few sharks on the cage diving trip, and none while I was in the cage!  But it was still fun. I think my favorite part of the city was that every car ride/boat ride was like going on a scenic drive. 

Pictures:  the Cape Town waterfront, shark cage diving, the coast near Gansbaai, me at the Cape of Good Hope, and African (or Jackass) Penguins at Boulders beach.

Namibia

I spent last week on an amazing 4 day safari in the Namib Desert. Our first day we drove from Windhoek (the capital of Namibia) out to Sessriem, and hiked up Elum's Dune to watch the sunset. Then it was up at 4:30 the next morning to drive into Sossusvlei where we hiked up another gigantic dune at sunrise. The scenery, was absolutely breathtaking: huge sand dunes, giant mudflats, and no roads or buildings in sight.  We also saw a surprising amount of wildlife, considering it was the desert. We spotted springbok, oryx, jackal, and ostrich.

After spending another night near Sossusvlei, we drove out to Swakopmund. The scenery in Swakopmund was equally impressive with giant dunes running right up to the ocean. A few of us went quad biking through the dunes in the evening. It was a great way to see the dunes and a lot easier than walking. It also marked the second time in Africa that I followed Branjolina's footsteps. Apparently they went quad biking a couple years ago with their kids.

The next morning I decided it would be fun to jump out of a fully functional plane at 10,000ft, so three of us went tandem skydiving. The 30 second free fall was definitely one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done. I was a little nervous on the way up, but the actual jumping out of the plane happened so fast there was no time to get scared. After skydiving we drove back to Windhoek, and I got a bus the next night to Cape Town. It was a 20 hour ride, but luckily it wasn't a real "African" bus. It's actually nicer than any bus I've been on in the States.

Right now I'm at an internet cafe in Cape Town. This morning I went with a couple of girls to see a huge colony of seals on Duiker island, and I think now I'm gonna head off to climb Table Mountain. I love Cape Town so far, and I have a feeling I'll stay longer here than I planned on, but don't worry, I'll still come home in less than 2 weeks!

So Long and Thanks for all the Nsima

I fly to Joburg in a couple of hours, so I thought I would write one final blog from Malawi. (Although, I'll still do a few more entries as I travel).

Last Thursday we had a little farewell party for me with the senior staff and teachers at MCV. Actually, I threw the party for myself, since no Malawian could afford it. Some of the staff made some nice speeches thanking me, and a good time was had by all.

Friday was my last day at MCV. We had a closing ceremony for the school year, and a few students made nice farewell speeches to me. While saying goodbye was a little sad, it didn't really get me down since I know I'll be back.

The last 5 days I spent on vacation in Nkhata Bay. I stayed at Mayoka Village again, and met many travelers and had a great time. I even met some Ithaca College grads who knew some Canandaiguans. (Their names were Will, Mary-Ellen and Brendan, for any Ithaca grads reading this.)

I also took the Ilala (the ferry) one last time to visit a very remote beach paradise up the lake at Usisya. There was virtually no one there (except for a British guy who was volunteering in Usisya), and after waking up in my little thatch chalet on the beach I was able to pluck a few mangoes off the trees for breakfast. After spending the night at Usisya I hoped back on the Ilala to Nkhata Bay.   (The pictures are both from Usisya, the first one is the view from my chalet, the second one is the lounge area.)

Right now I'm in Lilongwe at an internet cafe, and I'll be making my way to the airport soon. After a couple days in Joburg I'll be off to Namibia.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Fundraising

For anyone who reads the blog but isn't on my email list, I wanted to make a quick fundraising posting. (sorry for all of you who already got the email.) I'm trying to raise money for teacher salaries next year. We will need about $40,000 total, for 13 teachers. I am hoping to raise $15,000 by January, through small individual donations.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation, please…
Make check payable to: Malawi Children’s Village and designate the check for teacher
salaries at Gracious Secondary School.

Mail to: Conor Brady
4140 West Lake Road
Canandaigua, NY 14424

Or donate online at www.malawichildrensvillage.com
When donating online, please designate for Gracious Secondary School, by putting Gracious Secondary School in the “in honor of section.” We hope to update the website soon to have a proper field for designating money when donating online. Also, if you donate online, it would be a big help if you could email me, to tell me, so I can make sure the donation was properly designated.

Zikomo!

Koche Hill Primary

The other day I went with Felix (our assistant director) to visit a couple primary schools. Koche Hill Primary School, just a few km from MCV, is typical of most primary schools in Malawi. It has about 150 kids in a typical class (with one teacher). As you can see in the picture, they are also short on classrooms. Three of the classes are held outside. Often during the rainy season, these children have to be sent home because there is nowhere to teach them. I hope to find a school in the U.S. that can "adopt" Koche Hill. (MCV has already helped numerous primary schools through this school-to-school strategy.)

On our way back, Felix was nice enough to give some of the students a ride home.

Ending Days

With only two more weeks until I fly out, I think it’s safe to say that this will be one of my last blog entries from Malawi.

We had our last football game of the year two weekends ago against Koche Hill. I am still confused as to whether the Koche team consisted of mainly students with a couple villagers thrown in, or simply all villagers. Some of our students insisted that they were all villagers. The Koche Hill headmaster and the villagers/students insisted that they were students. Accurate information is hard to come by here. Either way, we had fun, and won 2 to 1.

We had one last quiz competition Saturday. It was fun once again, though I can’t really think of anything interesting to report. 1B defeated 1A for the second time in a row. I’ve been busy reviewing the year’s work with my kids, getting them ready for the test next week.

Tomorrow is my last day of actual teaching. Next week students will be taking exams, and on Friday the 16th our school year ends. After that it’s vacation once again! I fly to Johannesburg on the 22nd, spend 2 days there, fly to Namibia for a 4 day desert safari (which should include sky diving), and then head down to Cape Town for two more weeks in South Africa. And then, on the 13th of December, I’ll be headed back to the States.

On a side note, it's been extremely hot lately. This is the hottest time of year in Malawi, right before the rains come. It rained a lot a couple weeks ago, and some people thought the rains were here, but now it's looking like that was just a tease. The rains normally come at the end of November. Everywhere you look you can see men, women, and children busy cultivating their fields, so that they will be ready to plant when the rains come.

Sports Fields

We hired a bulldozer, and have begun flattening a large track of land which will be used for sports fields. With the new fields Gracious will be able to host its own football and netball matches next year. In the future, we hope to develop other things on the land like basketball and tennis courts.

Liwonde

Last week saw a plethora of azungu at MCV once again. Board members Bob and Cindy were here along with four other western NYers. I joined them for entertaining games of cards a couple of nights at Palm Beach, and on Monday I skipped school (gasp!) to join them on a trip to Liwonde National Park.

Liwonde is Malawi’s most well known game park (if anything in Malawi can be considered well known), and is only about a two hour drive from Mangochi. We went for a boat game drive in the morning, had some lunch at Mvuu (hippo) Camp, and then went on a 4x4 game drive. We were all impressed with the amount of wildlife we saw, especially on the boat ride. We got to see crocodiles, hippos, warthogs, a few different kinds of antelope, many varieties of birds, and of course, elephants. I was impressed with the size of the crocodiles. I was hoping some would feast on what looked like a buffet of warthogs and antelope on the river bank, but I guess they weren’t hungry.

I think everyone’s highlight was seeing two ndembo (both with heads still attached) out for a swim.

Some Cape Maclear Pictures

I went to Cape Maclear again a few weeks ago, and somehow never mentioned it on the blog. Not much new to say about Cape Maclear as it was my 6th trip there. I went by myself, but met an English guy named Tony who I hung out with most of the time. Mostly I just relaxed on the beach, but I also went for a hike in the hills that surround Cape Maclear. Tony and I got thoroughly lost on the hike but still managed to see some nice views and get back safe.

ndembo

There was an elephant (ndembo in Yao) at Maldeco, near MCV, on Tuesday. Actually, only its head was at Maldeco. Apparently some park rangers had shot it for some reason, and were transporting the head, when their pickup truck broke down in Maldeco. Unfortunately I did not get to see it, but it still added a little excitement to my day.

The kids were very excited, and some even skipped sports time to try and go see the elephant. The girls that stayed for sports tried to distract their friends on the opposing team by shouting, “NDEMBO!” and pointing every time a car drove by.

At Palm Beach, Daniel (one of the owners) had his shotgun out last night, trying to shoot monkeys that have been stealing mangoes off the trees.

1A vs 1B

I must start this entry with an apology that my blog has been inactive for so long. Our internet has been down for the past couple of weeks. Luckily, you didn’t miss a whole lot, as nothing in my life has really changed. I’m still living at Palm Beach and working at MCV, and locals still yell azungu everywhere I go. (I confess that after about 10 months of being the center of attention, I look forward to walking down crowded NYC streets with no one noticing.)

The form 2s finished their exams a couple of weeks ago and started a long summer holiday that goes until January. I reorganized my schedule with the form 1s so that I only teach in the morning, and I am available to work with form 2 students in the afternoon. Many are not able to come in for these afternoon classes, as they have moved back to their home villages, and live too far away. (Distances become too far awful quickly when you don’t have cars and subways. Even bicycles only do so much.) A group of about 10 to 12 students still comes everyday at 2:00 to work on math with me. There are even 3 girls from other schools!! (They heard that their friends were going to free summer classes, and wanted to join.) I enjoy working with a small group of kids who really want to be there.

Meanwhile, the form 1s have been busy competing against each other in just about everything. During sports time we’ve been having the “Gracious Olympics.” 1A won volleyball and netball, while 1B won Frisbee and football. The kids definitely enjoyed the competitions, and are demanding we play 1A vs 1B football again on Tuesday.

We have also started having quiz competitions on Saturday that pit four students from 1A versus four students from 1B. I’m impressed by how many of the teachers are willing to come to work on Saturdays in order to run the quizzes for the kids. We pride ourselves in being much better organized than the quiz master for the national quiz show. We’ve had two competitions so far, 1A won the first and 1B won the second. We pick new students every time, and try to balance the teams so that the competition will be close. Actually so far they were both blowouts, but since each class won once, I think it’s okay.

Not much else to report. Now that the internet is back I’ll try to be better with my updates. Hope everyone’s well back in the States, I’ll be home in less than two months!!

Back in Action

After a long hiatus (due to vacation and exams) the Gracious sports teams were back in action Saturday. It was definitely another "Very African" Saturday. We left MCV for Mangochi Boma (the town) in the big truck at 1:30 (an hour late), stopped once along the way to repair the truck, and arrived at the agreed upon ground at 2:00 (the agreed upon time).

Before I could say or do anything all of our students took one look around, decided that no one from Palmland (the other school) was there yet, and took off in twos and threes to walk around town. After a few minutes I met the headmaster of Palmland, and he told me that their sports master and students should be there shortly. Having lived in Africa for 9 months, I knew what he meant by shortly, and I decided to walk to a little grocery store with a couple students to buy some bread.

When we returned to the ground, we found it deserted. We found out from others nearby that the venue had been changed, and that Gracious and Palmland would play at another ground in Mangochi. We walked over to the new ground, and after waiting for another 1/2 hour or so the games eventually got underway. As usual our 2pm game started around 4:15.

The netball game ended at halftime when the referee decided the girls were arguing too much, and she was afraid the teams would start fighting. We lost the shortened game 6 to 4.

Thankfully, the football game lasted the full 90 minutes with no major fights or arguments. Our boys were back to their winning ways with a 2-1 victory. Khenge (Mussa James) our star scored both goals.

Matuwi

Since the form 2s are now testing, my teaching schedule has been really light. As a result, I finally had a chance to go out into the field with our outreach team. Currently the team is conducting the 2007 survey to register all the orphans in the 37 villages that MCV serves and entering them into a new database. On Thursday, when I went with the team, we visited Matuwi, one of the larger villages that we serve. We spent the day under the shade of a tree, and orphans and their care givers came to answer questions. (The villagers had been told that the MCV outreach team would be coming today by the village volunteers.) The caregivers answered questions about the number of orphans living in their house, their relationship to the orphan(s), their income/assets, needs, etc. Incomes were typically K1000-K2000 ($7-$14) a month, but one grandmother did answer, “by the grace of god.” Their needs were typically reported as clothes, blankets, house repair, and food. Easily the most amazing statistic was the sheer number of orphans we registered. In Matuwi alone (there are 36 other villages) the outreach team registered 106 orphans*. (I was also told that there should be many more than this in Matuwi, and someone would have to come back to register more later.) I of course should have been expecting such a high number (MCV serves about 3000 orphans a year) but seeing 106 orphans all from one village was still somewhat shocking.

On a more positive note, I was able to easily see the impact MCV has made on Matuwi. In 1997 when MCV did its initial survey, the average household caring for orphans consisted of a grandmother with 7 orphans. As MCV became established, and caregivers began to see the support that those caring for orphans recieved, many more began to share the burden. Thursday, the caregivers (grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts) that came to answer questions were typically caring for only 1 or 2 orphans.

*in case you forgot, in Africa orphan refers to a child who has lost one or more parent.

Wow, a blog with a footnote, that's a first.

An evening at Palm Beach

Several kids were following me yesterday speaking a lot of Chichewa and Yao that I didn’t understand, but with occasional words I knew. I kept hearing the word mbale, to which I responded:

Siya mbale, Frisbee
Not a plate, Frisbee.

(As some of you know I always have a couple Frisbees on the outside of my backpack.)

Also on my walk home yesterday, I saw a group of boys throwing coconuts way up into a tall palm tree to get coconuts down. They were amazingly talented. They hit their mark every time. About 5 minutes later I ran into a second group of slightly smaller boys attempting to do the same thing. Not so amazing; they could only throw the coconuts to about half the height necessary. Apparently it’s a learned skill.

Later that night, I finally saw a couple Palm Beach hippos! There were two of them right out in front of the beach area. One of them even seemed to think he was a dolphin and sort of jumped out of the water. The local fishermen that were just heading out quickly paddled their boat back to shore. Sorry, no pictures. I didn’t have my camera with me.

MCV's Bizhub

No, MCV does not have a machine that is a combination emailer, fax, scanner, and copier. But we do have a room that is a combination clinic, nursery, and school.

The Form 1 students above are attending class in a newly constructed room at MCV. The room was added on to our clinic to serve (along with other new rooms) as a temporary nursery until the old one can be rebuilt. For the next couple weeks the room is being used as a classroom for the Form 1s while the Form 2s are taking national exams at the school. (Gracious is being used as a national exam test site, and students from another local school have joined our students to take the exams at the school. Teachers and non-testing students are not allowed on the premises, thus the temporary classroom in the clinic/nursery.) Don’t be alarmed by the fact that the students don’t have desks; they are simply all being used at the school for exams at the moment.

The idea of MCV’s Bizhub occurred to me because I am currently reading The World is Flat, (Thomas Friedman’s book about globalization). It is really strange to read a book about how technology is changing the world, and then look up and see someone walk by with a bucket of water on her head. Other than my blog, I don’t see a whole lot of evidence that globalization has hit Malawi.

Quiz

On Friday I accompanied 8 of our students who were participating in a quiz competition versus Mangochi Secondary School. This was, sadly, very similar to education day. The poor organization was, as usual, apparent immediately. We arrived with 8 students ready to participate, 4 form 1s and 4 form 2s, as we had been instructed. We were told that this was incorrect, we should only have brought 4 competitors. After we cut down our team the quiz got underway.

Despite the fact that the quiz was being recorded for national radio, all the questions were hand written on little slips of paper which were littered all over the "Quiz Master's" table. This led the "Quiz Master" to lose track of how many questions he asked. On more than one occasion, he attempted to end a round after not asking each team the same number of questions. Luckily, some of us were paying attention and were able to correct this error. We were also able to correct the wrong answers he said were correct, and the correct answers he said were wrong. Unfortunately we were not able to help the quiz master control the audience of students during the 2nd competition. During the quiz between Palmland and Joy (two other schools) he actually had to stop the competition, and kick almost the entire audience out of the hall. (Not our students. They behaved admirably.)

At any rate, despite the "Quiz Master" not having mastered much of anything, our kids were able to do well. Unfortunately, the other kids did even better. We lost by 2 points.

The picture above shows our quiz team and a few supporters getting ready to leave MCV.

Drums in the Night

In case you got the impression, that because I now live with azungu, and eat azungu food, that I have stopped “experiencing Africa.” I thought I would share some things that show I am still living in Malawi. (As if my repeated use of the word azungu wasn’t proof enough).

The last month or so has been a time for many circumcision/initiation ceremonies for the Yao people (the predominant tribe in the Mangochi area). The ceremonies are called Jhando for boys and Mzondo for girls. I have seen many large gatherings in the village near Palm Beach with people singing, dancing, and beating on drums. The drums have also added to the lively chorus of the African night. While lying in my bed, I can now hear the drums, owls, frogs, and the occasional hippo. Sadly I also hear the loud music from the nearest village bar, but it’s not so bad that I can’t sleep. Oh, and lets not forget those lovely roosters.

I continue to greet many, many kids on my walks to and from Palm Beach. Lots of them have started to shout out Bye Bye a lot. I guess they either know I’m leaving Malawi fairly soon, or they just got bored with hellos. Sometimes on the walks home I find myself leading a troop of 20 kids or so. Don’t worry. I don’t think they’re trying to get me to join a Jhando; they’re just really happy that I’m white.

At school we've been busy preparing the form 2s for the Junior Certificate (national) Exams. They are taking them next week!! We haven’t had any football/netball games this term since we’ve been so busy getting ready for these exams. After the exams the form 2s will actually be done with school for the year (until January), but we plan on working out some sort of summer school for our kids. The form 1s finish up November 16th, and shortly after that I'll be leaving Malawi. Good thing I practice shouting Bye Bye everyday.

Back from vacation?

I'm back to teaching again, but am quite confused as to whether or not I'm back from vacation. Immediately upon arriving back in Mangochi, I moved from Sibale's house to Palm Beach. Although I enjoyed living with the Sibales, I was happy to move to a place where I can enjoy the beach everyday. I am staying in a spare bedroom at the resort owners' house (a South African family), and eat my breakfast and dinner at the Palm Beach restaurant. They are giving me a great deal for rent, and so it is not costing me anymore than living with Sibales.

I'm enjoying good western style food every night (no more nsima!) and can lounge at the beach all day on Sundays. The only slight down side is that I now have a twenty minute walk to the roadside everyday to get the car to MCV. And this isn't really a down side at all on the days when most villagers shout "hello" and "how are you?" (It gets a bit tiring when they shout "give me money." and "f$#&* you." instead.)

Also in residence at Palm Beach are several monkeys, a giant eagle owl, and some fish eagles. There are also hippos that live nearby and come grazing at Palm Beach during the night. I haven't seen the hippos yet but some people saw one a couple weeks ago. Hopefully my next blog post will have a hippo on it!

Nairobi (Chapter 2)

I spent one last day and night in Nairobi before flying back to Malawi. I spent the day fattening myself up at Carnivore. It’s one of the world’s 50 best restaurants and definitely one of the best I’ve ever been to. After your soup and salad, on comes the meat. While the flag is still flying on your table they keep bringing it. I ate pork spare ribs, pork tenderloin, lamb chops, lamb, beef, turkey, crocodile, and ostrich meatballs. Needless to say I did not eat dinner that night.

I also got to see a couple more movies (Transformers & The Simpsons), and go to the first decent bookstore I’d seen in 8 months.

Diani

After leaving Takaungu I continued south to Diani Beach. My commute there was quite fun. I left the volunteer house at Takaungu, took a boda boda (bicycle taxi) 2km to the main road, caught a large bus blaring reggae music to Mombasa, caught a tuk tuk (three wheeled taxi) to the Likoni ferry, took the ferry to Likoni where I caught a matatu to Ukunda, and then another matatu to Diani!

Diani Beach (a place my sister actually didn’t make it to) was absolutely gorgeous. My sister’s friend described it as the best beach she had ever been to. I’d have to say I whole heartedly agree. It’s also supposed to be the place where Brad and Angelina were first spotted together, though something tells me they weren’t staying in the same $10 a night hut that I was. Sadly it once again rained every day, even more than in Malindi. I did get in some beach time in between the rains though, and enjoyed the miles of endless white sand and crystal clear water. I also went to visit the Colobus Trust just down the road from my hut where I got to see some rare Angolan Black and White Colobus monkeys. After two nights at Diani Beachalets I headed back to Mombasa where I caught the night train, (much more comfortable then the bus) back to Nairobi.

pictures: a tuk tuk and matatu in Mombasa, camels waiting for tourists, and sunrise from a little cave on the beach.

Takaungu

Takaungu is a small village where an amazing NGO called the East African Center (http://www.eastafricancenter.org/) is located. After hearing about the EAC from two former volunteers: both my sister and Nick Booster, I simply had to check it out. I was pleased, but not at all surprised to find that just about every Kenyan there remembered both Megan and Nick. My boda boda (Kenyan bicycle taxi) driver, Hunter, told me that Nick was his best friend. And the Community Health Care workers' faces all lit up with smiles when I said I was Megan's brother. (My sister, a nurse & future midwife, wrote some of their training curriculum). I was definitely impressed with the work the EAC does, and also with the beauty of Takaungu itself.

The first picture is of the inlet next to Takaungu, and the second is me standing outside the hut where my sister lived for a month!

Gede

After Malindi, I headed south to visit Gede, a site of ancient Swahili ruins. I was blown away by the size of the place. (The picture above is actually just a small portion of the ancient town.) I spent the morning wandering around in amazement and then headed further south to Takaungu.

Malindi

After leaving Pat & Cathleen at the airport in Nairobi, I took off to the Kenyan coast to do largely the same trip my sister Megan did a year earlier. I took a night bus to Mombasa, and felt the bumps so badly that I sometimes wondered whether we were taking the road, or just driving across back country. We arrived early, and I spent the morning wandering around the old town before catching a matatu (Kenyan minibus) to Malindi.

Malindi (my first Megan recommended destination) is a town on the coast a couple hours north of Mombasa with large beautiful beaches. For some reason it has become incredibly popular with Italians. Not only do you see Italians all over the place, everyone thinks you're Italian! Instead of Jambo, many of the locals great you with ciao. I was amazed to see several Kenyans speaking fluently in Italian. I spent two nights at a resort on the beach, that had a huge pool surrounded by palm trees. (Sadly the rest of the place was falling apart; I guess that's why it was pretty cheap.) It rained much of the time I was there, but I still had time to enjoy the beach a little bit, and I hired a boat to do a little snorkeling at a nearby coral reef. I also enjoyed some great Italian food at "I Love Pizza" (good call Moogs!).

Tanzania Safari

After the Kili climb P&C and I hit up three different game parks in three days: Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire. We saw…

Ostriches (some of them mating)
Lions (including a cub)
Hippos
Wildebeest
Impala
Waterbuck
Buffalo
Zebra
Giraffes (including one that was trying to give birth)
Pink Flamingoes
Vultures (taking a bath)
Elephants
Hippos
Hyenas (an entire pack of them)
Baboons
Vervet Monkeys
Blue Monkeys
Sykes Monkeys
And once again lots of birds, lots of big ones this time too.

Sadly no Cheetahs and no Leopards despite the fact that Patrick checked every tree in Tanzania.

Our favorite park was Tarangire where we witnessed a discovery channel type scene…

Two (unintelligent) Egyptian Geese were swimming around in a little river side pool with their goslings, which a Marshall Eagle kept trying to swoop in and steal. As we were watching this, our guide said uh-oh, the Elephants want to take a bath. The Geese flapped and squawked their way out of the pool as the herd of elephants entered it. We think one of their goslings didn’t make it out in time. Then while we were watching the Elephants bathe, the Marshall Eagle made a successful attack and swooped off with one of the goslings.

Kilimanjaro

After spending one night in Arusha, Tanzania, we started our Kili climb on a Tuesday morning. We had a small group. Just Pat, Cathleen, myself, our guide, assistant guide, cook, and 12 porters!! The porters were perhaps the only thing more amazing than the mountain scenery. The loads they carry are simply incredible. For example: one porter put on my large camping backpack, strapped his backpack on the back of it, and then put a box on his head. My brother asked our guide will they leave before us? How will they keep up? Our guide laughed and said they go up much faster than we will. Sure enough all the tourists constantly have to stand aside as the porters practically run up the mountain with duffle bags on their heads.

Our hike up the Macheme route took 5 days to reach base camp, all the while going pole pole (Kiswahili for slowly slowly) because of the altitude. Everyday we hiked through different scenery, all of it amazing: rainforests, scrub land, lava fields, etc. Most of the time we could see the snow covered summit looming in front of us. We also enjoyed looking back down below and seeing nothing but clouds; you’re above a thick layer from the second day on. The hikes were tiring but not incredibly challenging.

We woke up at 11:30PM on the fifth night to begin our assault on the summit. We dressed in our warmest gear, snow pants and all, and with head lamps on started pole pole towards the top. It was quite cold, but nothing us Buffalo born Bradys hadn’t put up with before. (Actually, for me, it wasn’t much worse than being in the tent; my sleeping bag left something to be desired). Cathleen, the Californian, braved it admirably. The hike took a long 7 hours, and made the sunrise at the top all the more rewarding. The glaciers definitely aren’t all melted yet, and Patrick and I enjoyed running out into the ice fields. We also enjoyed seeing the shadow of the mountain on the clouds below, seeing Mt. Meru (a large mountain) far below us, and congratulating each other on reaching 19,384 ft, Africa’s highest point. (That’s right; I’m bragging a little. Did I mention it’s the world’s highest free standing mountain?)

After a brief celebration, and a lot of pictures at the top, we climbed back down to base camp, slept for a few hours, and then hiked down on a new route back to the rainforest. We camped one more night on the mountain and then hiked out the following day. Our legs definitely thought it was a lot of altitude to lose in two days. Luckily for us all we had to do the next three days was sit in safari vehicles and hang out in resorts.

I let my brother take all the pics for our Kili climb and safari; you can see more of them on his picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/mr.patrick.brady/AfricaTrip

Nairobi (Chapter 1)

After our Zambia safari my parents flew back to the States and I flew up to Nairobi. The city blew me away. Not only are there sky scrapers, there are even movie theaters! (It probably has more in common with the states than with Malawi). I got in a day before my bro and S-I-L, and had time to do a few touristy things. Topping the list was definitely hand feeding Rothschild Giraffes. I also saw Karen Blixen’s house (now a museum), it is indeed located at the foot of the ngong hills. It was overpriced but neat to see. I met up with Pat and Cathleen at the hotel that night, and the next morning it was off to Tanzania.

Zambia Safari

After our brief Malawi tour, my parents and I headed to South Luangwa Park in Zambia for safari. We were very pleased with our company, Kiboko Safaris, and our guide Martin was awesome. (no “flying eagles” were identified this time). We went on morning and night game drives, spending the hottest hours of the day lounging at the camp pool, and listening to the hippos in the river.

We spotted…

Elephants
Giraffes
Impala
Waterbuck
Zebra
Hyena
Warthogs
Hippos
Crocodiles
Buffalo
Baboons (including an albino baboon)
Vervet Monkeys
Lions
Countless varieties of birds

And probably many other animals that I can’t remember at the moment.

While the game drives were fun, our favorite part of safari was when the animals came and found us…

I woke up in the middle of our first night when I heard a twig break outside. My tent-mate, an Irish guy named Jamie, and I listened closely. It sounded like a person was walking quietly around outside. There’s no way that could be a big animal we whispered; it’s too quiet. I put on my glasses and walked to the front of the tent. Definitely, a big animal. A herd of elephants had come to the trees in our campsite for a midnight snack. The matriarch wound up with her head (with huge tusks) about 5 feet from Jamie’s bed! Jamie, understandably, had a little difficulty falling back to sleep that night.

When my dad heard about our close encounter with the elephant he went about gathering “elephant food” and placed it outside my parents’ tent. (Interestingly, the pile was placed outside the window on my mom’s side.) The elephants did indeed come again, though I believe my dad’s food pile was left untouched.

My dad, being the hip young guy that he is, shared his photos from their trip over here on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/brady.bc/Africa

The Bradys take Malawi

Before all these entries I have to apologize for their lateness. I do recognize that the idea of a blog is it is updated as things happen. In my defense I will simply point out that my blog is titled Conor In Malawi; and well, I haven’t been in Malawi. Anyways, before I left on my travels, my parents visited Malawi…

I went to pick my parents up at the Lilongwe airport on a Sunday. Unfortunately for me, they showed up on a Monday. (Their flight was overbooked and they lost their seat). Luckily a day spent at the airport waiting for them to get off, did no permanent damage to me, and it made it all the more exciting when they got off the plane on Monday. Amazingly my parents made it with only one lost bag, (one with cleats for the football team), and so we drove straight to Mangochi. The next day we spent the morning at MCV, and then drove to Cape Maclear for a couple days of walking on the beach, snorkeling, kayaking, etc. Then it was back to Mangochi.

My mom spent Friday at the MCV nursery, while my dad and I drove to Blantyre to retrieve the lost bag, since the airline told us that it had been sent there. The bag was of course not in Blantyre, but in Lilongwe. We asked them to please leave it in Lilongwe since we would be heading up there again in a couple of days.

Saturday was MCV’s long awaited 10th anniversary celebration. It was awesome! Many people came for the gathering: 100+ members of staff, 72 village volunteers, 130 students, 37 village headmen, 2 members of Malawi’s Parliament, various other government dignitaries, and many many more. It involved a lot of singing, dancing, and speeches. (Kind of like education day, but much better organized; it only started about an hour late). The dancing groups were really amazing; you’ll all have to see the DVD that the studio made when I get home. Some of the speeches were also great (though most were in Chichewa). Jonathan (a former MCV sponsored student who is now an employee) made a really touching speech about how MCV has made a difference in his life. After day long ceremony, there was a party at a nearby resort with much more singing and dancing. My parents and I left at 11:00, but we were told that the party lasted until 6 the next morning.

The morning after the anniversary we headed back to Lilongwe where we made a last attempt at claiming the lost bag before heading to Zambia for safari. Sure enough, it was in Blantyre.

traveling

I know I haven't posted to the blog in awhile, so I wanted to give a quick update. My parents have been here for the last 12 days, and are leaving today. Their visit has been filled with truly African experiences; both the good and the bad. We had a great time. MCV's 10th anniversary was celebrated while they were here. It was a truly spectacular event.

Tomorrow I fly out to Nairobi, where I will meet Pat and Cathleen (my brother and sister-in-law). We will be climbing Kilimanjaro (hopefully to the top!) and going on safari in Ngorongoro Crater. After that I will be spending a week in Kenya before heading back to MCV for the third term of school.

I'll update my blog with lots of stories and photos on all this stuff when I return August 26th.

tsalini bwino! (stay well)

The nursery that was

Not much new to say about the nursery. It's still very much burned down. The kids are living in the "guest houses" as I explained before, and I haven't heard of any major problems. Neville, Sibale's friend who runs an orphanage in Blantyre, brought over lots of milk, diapers, and other supplies for the babies.

A few staff members also lost their offices in the fire. (Our village outreach coordinator had her office in the nursery building among others). They are currently working outside; thankfully it rarely rains here when its not the rainy season. Sibale has begun to construct new rooms in the storage garage which is connected to the clinic for new offices.

Education Day

I had the pleasure of attending the annual Education Day ceremony yesterday.  Education Day is nation wide with school meeting at various sites around Malawi (according to their "zone") for speeches, singing, dancing, etc.

The Education Day ceremonies for our zone involved Gracious, three other secondary schools, and a couple of primary schools (not sure how many primary schools, but there were lots of little kids running around).

To quote one of my colleagues, Education Day was "well disorganized."

Not surprisingly, the ceremonies did not commence at 9:00 as scheduled.  By the time all the schools showed up and things got started it was 11:30.  Actually, two of the other secondary schools didn't show up at all; apparently they already went on holiday.  When ceremonies did begin, I was a little disappointed that Education Day wasn't exactly kid focused.  (I should have already known this from the non-kid friendly theme:  "School Management is the Responsibility of all Stake Holders.")  All the adults sat comfortably in the shade, facing the various student groups that performed, while the students stood in the sun, viewing the performances from behind.  Since there was no PA system, and no one made a serious attempt to keep the audience quiet, the only people that could actually hear the performances sat in the first few rows.  I was luckily in the first few rows, but alas, almost everything was in Chichewa.

Despite the disorganization, many of the performances (skits, dances, and songs concerning the theme) were quite good.  The pictures and video show a couple of different primary school groups and one from Gracious.  My favorite part of the performances was the fact that the stage continued to shrink as primary school children crowded closer and closer.  To try and control this, primary school teachers were literally using sticks to beat the children back.  (Don't worry, they weren't really hitting them.)

After all the speeches, songs, etc. (which seemed to go on forever, the kids were bored as well) we ate lunch, and got ready for a pre-planned teachers versus students football game.  For some reason, the game never took place.  I'm still not sure why, and no one else seems to know either.

Perhaps the most amazing thing, is that the headmasters, and various committee members met several times to plan Education Day.  Our headmaster was quite confused as to why nothing went as planned, but I can't say any of us were surprised; it was just another day in Malawi.

Fire

Friday night we had a fire at the nursery. Luckily a night watchman spotted the smoke early, and all the kids and staff got out of the building in time. Unfortunately however the nursery is completely destroyed. Not surprisingly, there is no fire department here in Mangochi; the efforts made to fight the fire with the recources available were not enough.

All day yesterday MCV staff emptied out the two guest houses, to make a new home for the infants. The guest houses were being used as our administration office, and girls dormitory. Both the girls and office staff moved into unused classrooms at the school for the time being.

Two babies are in the hospital for smoke inhalation, but otherwise there was no physical harm to anyone as a result of the fire. We're still not sure what started the fire.

I'll try to give more details later this week.

Ndalama

While it’s obvious that most things are cheaper over here, I thought I’d share some examples of just how different prices are.

mashdabwada (basically little doughnuts) 5 Malawi Kwacha
bunch of bananas for MK20.
plate full of chips (French fries) MK30
minibus to Blantyre MK550
night in a cheap hostel MK300
coke MK40

$1 = MK146 right now so the little doughnuts I buy as snacks cost about 3 cents each.

Many things cost as little as MK5 but the bills go all the way up to MK500, so getting change is always a problem. The fact that the bills only go up to MK500 is also a problem since it means you need to carry gangster rolls of cash if you need a lot of money for something. (Not exactly Zimbabwe, but it’s still a hassle)

What’s terrible is that after you’ve been over here long enough you get used to Malawian prices. I sometimes find myself guffawing at something that’s MK20 and refusing to buy it because it’s too expensive. I’m seriously starting to wonder how I’m going to survive in NYC again if I think 14cents is too expensive for a snack.

More pictures went up again today on my picasa site; I couldn't get them all up yesterday.

more pictures

There are a bunch of new photos on my picasa site, including lots of kids enjoying their Gracious t-shirts. (They're in the same album as before, so go towards the end for the new ones.)
http://picasaweb.google.com/bradyco/MoreMalawiPics

Guides

While my guide on the Zomba plateau was excellent, he reminded me of some not so excellent guides I had on previous trips.

A couple of conversations with our guide on Mulanje:
“What kind of flower is that?”
“That’s a wildflower.”
“Do you know what kind of wildflower?”
“A red wildflower. It’s often confused with the orange wildflower.”

“Wow! What kind of bird is that?!”
“An eagle.”
(already knowing I shouldn’t ask) “What kind of eagle?”
“A flying eagle.”

Our guide at Nyika identified a suspicious number of birds as Ogre Buzzard.
"What’s that?"
"Ogre Buzzard."
(completely different looking bird) "Wow, what kind of bird is that?"
"Ogre Buzzard."
After the 4th one Nick and I stopped asking.

Zomba Plateau

As planned, I spent last weekend in Zomba. I stayed with Michael Hill (he’s the bearded fellow in the last Cape Maclear photo). Michael is one of the original MCV board members, and currently lives in Zomba working as the director of Orphan Support Africa (http://www.orphansupportafrica.org/). He was an excellent host, and I got to enjoy a much needed relaxing weekend. (Working at MCV isn’t always quite as easy as I make it appear on the blog)

Zomba is the old colonial capital of Malawi, and is noticeably wealthier than Mangochi. But don’t worry, it’s still Malawi; the power went out both nights I was there. I went for hikes Friday and Saturday on the Zomba Plateau. The plateau has many peaks with spectacular views. From the southern peaks you can look out over Zomba town with Lake Chilwa and the Mulanje Massif in the background; and from the northern peaks you can see as far as Lake Malombe. (Yes, Malawi has more than one lake; Mangochi is actually between Lake Malombe and Lake Malawi). My guide, Kala, (a local secondary school student) was great. He told me many interesting things about the local flora/fauna and culture, and astonishingly he actually seemed to know what he was talking about. If you read the next entry on guides, you'll understand why I say astonishingly.

While I was away for the weekend, our school had a quiz competition with two other schools. 5 form 1 girls from each school competed in questions on Math, Biology, Physical Science, and Agriculture. Our girls won, and I was proud to hear that it was mainly due to the fact that they dominated the other teams when it came to the math questions. :)