HOOOTTT crocs

Waaaaaa it is hot in Malawi right now!!! and I am sooo lucky that I live in Nkhata Bay right at Lake Malawi cos if I wouldn't, I don't know what I would do... take 5 showers a day maybe? Here, I can at least take a dip in the lake any time during the day......... well almost. I heard today that there are some crocodiles lurking around the waters and I would not relly want to bump into one while out there enjoying my swim. But then someone told me that the crocs are only out at dusk or dawn (I guess that means no skinny dipping for me at night) but every time I am in the water during the day I do keep an eye out for any slow moving meat eating creatures that has a Finnish girl on its menu.

Malawi at last

I have now been one week in Malawi. The journey here was quite long with a lot of stops... flew from Finland via London via Nairobi with a stopover in Lusaka Zambia until I reached Lilongwe in Malawi. The crew on Kenya Airways were friendly and even the food was good :)

After a bumpy landing I found a couple of other travelers to share a taxi with from the airport to the city center of Lilongwe as taking one by yourself was just too expensive. On the way to town we figured out why.... there were loooooooong long lines of cars to the gas stations... Malawi has currently a fuel shortage. The guys would stay in the fuel line for days until the fuel truck would come and fill up the tanks. Hence, the price has gone up incredibly and there is even a black market where to buy fuel at ridiculous high prices. The whole issue of  the fuel shortage is due fuel coming from other countries and they do not want to sell their fuel for Malawi Kwacha, which is the local currency, as it has a very low value in other countries. They are like "what will we do with these Kwachas? we can't get anything for it elsewhere". This and other political problems has started a small crises with fuel shortage. Well, I think that this is just the beginning of the oil shortage that we all will face soon as we run out of oil and there will be lack a fuel. So we better hurry up and invent some alternative fuel methods before there will be war everywhere! Anyways, enough talking about this, I just had to mention it as everybody here is talking about it and is affecting everybody's day to day life.

On that taxi ride I also realized that WAAAAAA I AM IN AFRICA!! How nice isn't this?? I could not believe I was in Africa! Africa has always seemed distant to me and faaaar away while actually it is just around the corner, especially from Europe. It is even in the same time zone! So hmmm why have I not gone here before? Well now I am!

So there I was in the taxi, sweating like hell, looking at all these black people walking on the side of the road in the heat carrying stuff on their heads and biking with dead chickens hanging from the handles and I was like YES FINALLY I MADE IT TO AFRICA! I was all smiling and excited as my fellow travelers in the taxi, a guy from New York and an older couple from Wales.

I had booked a dorm bed at Mufasa Backpackers Lodge, which was run by a South-African guy and his German wife and their kids. A nice place in the middle of the city where I met tons of other volunteers and expats. All Westerners here are basically volunteering or working for a charity or NGO.  On my first day I already got loads of contacts and invitations to work on various projects. I also got to enjoy a night out at a local night bar called the "Shack", where I had a fun time with other travelers from around the globe and local dudes. I was really surprised to see so many "white" people among the locals and they all seemed to get a long just well. But I have to say it, Malawians are just the nicest and kindest people.

After a late night at the Shack I took the morning bus up to Nkhata Bay. This 9h ride turned out to be an 11h sauna trip. Waaaaa it was hot and I was sweating probably stinking like a pig at the end. I had chosen to take the lake shore bus, which runs along Lake Malawi until you reached Nhkata Bay in the north. The scenery was beautiful and the more north we came the greener it got. We made endless accounts of stops in every little village as people was getting on and off. The bus made more stops than usual as the smaller minibuses were not running due to lack of fuel.

I was lucky enough to meet Josie on the bus. She is one of the owner of Butterfly Space Lodge, where I was going in Nhkata Bay. I got a lift with her to the lodge from the bus station, which was great as there had just been a power cut in the village and I could not see anything but darkness when getting of the bus. She had also ordered dinner for me and her at the lodge so when we got there, there was a plate waiting for me :) That just made my day and yummie it was good too (rice with grilled vegetables and a salad)!

After arriving in the darkness it was a nice surpise the next morning to wake up in this paradise of Butterfly Space. The lake was just right there on the tip of my feet, palm trees and bungalows and even a small beach. Ah, nice! One can easily stay here for weeks at Butterfly Space. It is a very beautiful place right outside the city (or village) center, about a 20 min walk. It is located up on a hill and has several chalets (bungalows), dorms, a restaurant, bar, compost toilets and open air showers. You can hear the waves breaking from the beach and there is always breeze so you can cool down a bit in this hot weather.

The place is owned by two British girls, Josie and A.J and currently Jeff and Jenny is helping out running the place. Most of the guests are volunteers helping out with the various projects. But there are also other backpackers like Wout, who is biking from the Netherlands to South-Africa and Thomas and Sofia, who is making a documentary film of Malawi.

Nhkata Bay is a small town. It is located at a beautiful spot at the lake surrounded by small hills and mountains. It is mainly a fishing town and you can get plenty of fresh fish and sardines. There are many rastafaris in town blasting reggae and the locals seem to like their beers :) I am yet to explore more...but they have an ok food market where to buy tomatoes, onions, papaya, beans and greens.

There are several volunteering projects in Nkhata Bay and Butterfly is running about 5 or 6 of them if not more. They have their own nursery for 2-5 year olds, which I visited yesterday and helped out sorting all the books and spent some time with the kids. My main interest is not to be volunteering at a nursery as I think the kids are just too small. But it was interesting to see how it was set up and run. The kids were soooo cute and yes I could easily stay there and just help out with whatever they need but there is already plenty of short term volunteers helping out and well I also want to be able to communicate more with the kids than to just teach them ABC and colours. So today I went to Chikale primary school and met up with the head principal. This school is, just as the nursery, just around the corner from Butterfly, which is a major advantage as walking anywhere in this heat is a challenge. I must say that I am not yet used to this heat... it is probably around 38'C if not more in the sun in the middle of the day... will one ever get used to such heat? It is the same with -30'C, no one ever gets used to that.

Anyhow, it was a good visit at the primary school. The head principal Chuso showed me around and introduced me to some of the teachers and classes. There are around 750 students at the school from grade 1 to 8, so plenty of kids! And of course they need plenty of help. Currently there are no volunteers there at all... I don't know why... maybe the kids scared them away??

I explained to the prinipal that I do not want to teach a whole class of 70 kids but instead to be a teacher's assistant and help out in class or perhaps take 4-5 kids who are struggling outside and give them a more one on one session. He was open to this idea and told me I can do whatever I want. It is up to me. Well all the better I thought :) But before I start being with the kids, me and another girl will paint some of the walls in one of the classrooms. Will will do some ABCs and numbers and such. So that is what I will be doing (hopefully) in the coming days.

I will also try to upload some pictures. Not sure if this internet can handle it but I will give it a try tomorrow. Right now the power got cut (again) so no more internet for me. So I cannot do anything else than to go out and enjoy a lovely dip in the crystal clear water in the lake. Ah what a hard life!! The angels have defiently showed me to the right place :)

The power is back and it is the next morning :) Now I can finally upload this text to my blog.

Anette's African Adventure

I am thinking about changing my blog title as in five days my African Adventure starts!

The continent has for long been on my "to visit list" and now the time has come. This time I am not going as a regular backpacker but as a volunteer. Volunteering is another thing that as been on my "to do list" for many years and again this seem to be the time for me to do it. So off I go!

However, Africa was not my first thought when I was thinking about where to go and volunteer. I had been thinking to seriously go to Nepal and then to another South-east Asian country. But then my travelling-around-the-world friend Mike and my true hardcore backpacker mate Christine inspired me to go to Africa. Of course Africa has always been on my mind, but was more thinking in the terms of maybe one day I get to go there on my honeymoon. LOL, so I guess I am off on my honeymoon! But where is the groom??

Anyhow, once I decided on Africa I started to do some research on where in the big big Africa to go. There are hundreds and hundreds of volunteer organisations in Africa... the more I researched the more confused I got. But I had one certain criteria! That it had to be for free and in return for my blood sweat and tears I would get food and shelter in return. So I did not even look into those organizations that charges thousands for volunteering for some weeks. This to me is absolutely absurd! I soon realized that in Africa I also had to forget about the free stuff as at least I had to pay for my shelter or the food while volunteering. Well, fine I thought as neither of these are too expensive in Africa.

So I was looking for a small charity offering free volunteering and a cheap bed and I decided to go either to Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania, Namibia or Mozambique. I also wanted to have some recommendations from other volunteers and nomads like me and where else to look than on CouchSurfing! I started reading posts and came across one Coushsurfer that had been volunteering in Tanzania and around so I sent him an email and asked what he thought would be a good idea. This couchsurfer was a Cuban guy in his 50s and he recommended me to go either to the poorer countries Mozambique or Malawi as the people need more help there than in Tanzania. He knew about this small charity called Butterfly Space that was run by two British girls and encouraged me to contact them. So I looked the charity up on the internet, found them very interesting and emailed the girls, who right away invited me to come down and work with them :) They offered me a cheap bed and free volunteering work. "AaaaaaaHhh" I thought shaking my head, never ever underestimate the people on Couchsurfing! Couchsurfers are great great people and even though we do not know each other we can count on one another! Like this guy in the Caribbean Cuba, on the other side of the world, recommends a Finnish girl from north of Europe to go volunteering all the way south to Malawi in Africa. What a small world it is. I love it!

So at the end it was an easy choice. Malawi it was!

The ticket got booked, insurance has been bought, the lonely planet is secured and the backpack is ready! This time around, I have also been smart enough to get a wind-up torch for all those moments when the battery dies and you are outside sitting on the bush toilet in the middle of the dark night when you hear scary rattle noises in the bush next to you. I have also invested in other smart gadgets that I have missed out on before, such as a head-light, practical waterproof dry bags, a ultra light travel towel and new hiking shoes. As all backpackers know the most important thing to bring is, except for the Swiss army knife, an interesting book and I got "Conversations with God" that I hopefully will have time to read.

I have only had a sneak peak in my Lonely Planet Malawi guide book (aka my bible) to get to know something about this new home of mine. I have to admit that I did not know anything, absolutely anything about this country. I did not even know where exactly it was situated in Africa. That is how bad my African geography was. Shame on me! 

So for all of you that actually have no clue, just like me, what Malawi is all about I have done the homework for you. So no need to google it :)

Malawi is located south of the equator. Right about here. Next to the the eight largest lake in the world! It neighbors Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. Malawi it about as big as the UK and is populated by 13 million people, who speaks the official languages English or Chichewa or any of the smaller local tongues. The capital is called Lilongwe, where my flight will take me and they have the same time zone as Amsterdam and Stockholm so hurray for no jet lag! I will get to Malawi with Kenya Airways from London via Nairobi, a 15h flight transit included.

Their currency look beautiful to me and is named Kwacha and divided into 100 tambala. For 1€ you get 220 Kwacha, which maybe you get a meal for on the street. I will for sure find out how this really is as I am a big street eater.

Malawi has the reputation for being "The Warm Heart of Africa" because of its friendly people. Among backpackers it is knows as "Africa for Beginners". So I guess I am heading for the right direction. The rainy season is about to start when I hit the ground and it is promised to be hot and humid with some buzzing malaria infected mosquitos around. I have already stocked up on some glorious green malaria pills, which I hope I can take with no side effects. I am sure the mozzies inhabitate Malawi because of its beauty and animals and I hope to see some of these hippos around the bush. But hopefully not when I am out peeing in the middle of the night.

Malawi seem to also have its on gold. "Malawi Gold", locally knows as "chamba", is the name given to cannabis originating in Malawi. It is internationally renowned as one of the finest marijuana from Africa and brings an economic profit to the country even though cannabis is illegal in Malawi. It is one of the most popular type of marijuana in the Netherlands, where weed is actually legal. Its taste is described as "sweet, with a hint of pineapple".

 

Malawi also got very known a couple of years ago when Madonna adopted a baby boy from the country. There was the dispute whether or not the baby was an orphan and it turned out that his father was very much alive but somehow Madonna got to adopt the child anyway. Hmmm... don't ask me why.

Besides that, Malawi is a very poor country where the majority of the people live on agriculture. HIV and AIDS is very common and so is HIV orphans and infant mortality. There are numerous NGOs and charities located in Malawi. Butterfly Space, where I will be volunteering, is both a local charity and a hostel. They run several projects with the community and I can choose from working at the nursery, teach at the school, build the playground, work with disabled children, work in the garden, help out at their internet and resource center and much more. I have not yet decided what I am going to do as I first want to get there and check out the vibe. But one of my main interests is to work with children and if the vibes hit me hard I will go for it!

During my travels you can check out my whereabouts on my Google Map at the bottom of the blog. I will also upload pictures on Picasa, which is linked to the blog. I plan to write as much as I can and hopefully inspire you to join me in Malawi :) As always, you are more than welcome to visit me wherever I am in the world! As for now, my plans are to volunteer for three months in Malawi and then backpack around in Tanzania and Zambia for one month. But note than plans can always change. :)

Make over!

My blog has got a total new make over and I hope you like the result, cos I do! In between working on the layout I made some delicious raw coconut chocolate balls, which you can see to the left. Yum, yum, yum! I almost ate all of them at once!

The reason why I wanted to give my blog a make over is beacuse I am about to endavour on a new adventure in a couple of days. I will write about the where, when and why in a few but until then WELCOME to my blog!