After flying in, via Nairobi, and two nights in the house, I departed by minibus for Salima along with an American writer, Marc. Here we caught a pick up truck, along with at least 15 other locals to take us to Senga Bay, a beautiful little piece of the lake only around 3 hours out of Lilongwe.
We both checked into a lodge called Cool Runnings. Not entirely sure of the connection to the Jamaican bob sleigh team, but either way its an amazing place, run by an amazing woman named Sam, who is easily one of the most inspirational people I have had the good fortune to meet. My first impressions of the country were very mixed. Even driving from the airport I could see that its a beautiful and incredibly green country (I'm here bang smack in the middle of the rainy season), but its a beauty I've never really seen before. Where ever you look, stretching right to the horizon, the whole land is cultivated. This was very conflicting, being used to unspoilt natural beauty, but its refreshing to have this point of view challenged. Despite my initial shock, there was still an incredible allure to the whole place, and as I started to learn over the next few days, it wasn't necessarily the stunning scenery you came to see (even though such places still exist as I found out down by the lake), but the warm, friendly and amazing people who live off this land. Everywhere you turn you have kids who wave and shout greetings at you, or someone to show you the way to the market, or just to have a drink with you and share their thoughts, and this is truly the making of this country.
Only a few hours after arriving in Senga Bay, I hired a local called Tony to take me on a hike up in the hills in order to get a better view of the lake. And what a view it was. We walked for about an hour through the bush, with the only human influence being the occasional goat or cow (presumably the land wasn't good for crops), and after seeing some Yellow Baboons (wildlife!) we clambered up some rocks and looked out over Lake Malawi, to Mozambique in the distance. It was absolutely stunning.
After the hike, Tony took me on a walk along the beach for maybe an hour and a half to see if we could find the Hippopotamus (one of the few animals to do well in Malawi) which are known to live in a river nearby. We passed through a fishing village, with all the fish drying on the racks, some beautiful beaches, and a big Baobab tree.
We couldn't walk 10 minutes without finding someone on the beach, either fishing, washing or just sitting. A stark contrast to Loango where we share the beach with only the animals. On arriving at the hippo pool Tony went to ask if the hippo had been seen today, and as he was doing so, I heard a large noise in the water behind, and on turning saw a hippo surface on the other side of the river. We had found them! Or one at least. We sat watching him on the other side of the river, and then a local came over and started clapping. At first I had no idea as to what he was doing, but then to my amazement the hippo started to swim over to within about 10 metres. Then it dived under and we followed it bubbles to the bank literally just in front of me. Unfortunately though as we had no food (a guy who stays regularly in the area feeds them cabbages), he didn’t surface, but made his way back to the other bank. It was good to actually be able to see some wildlife in this country still clinging on.
When I got back to the camp, there were some new arrivals. A group of ladies from the UK, three of whom were nurses (Natasha, Holly and Phillipa) and a teacher (Karen), had just set up camp, and Kuan and Dumi (Taiwanese and Malawian, respectively) checked into one of the rooms. For the rest of the week I pretty much spent my whole time with Natasha, Holly, Phillipa and Karen, who had just finished their electives in a town in Northern Malawi. From talking with them and Sam, and listening their amazing experiences and views of Malawi and the greater issues of Africa, my initial choices in life and my perceived step down the conservation path has become less clear cut. I’ve had a lot of time out here to question whether conservation is the route I really want to take, and it seems to becoming clearer and clearer that maybe it isn’t…
We simply hung around for the next few days, walking into the village to buy food and textiles, and going off to a club in Salima on one of the nights. The club was pretty much just a concrete warehouse with a bar and far too many mirrors and prostitutes. We didn’t get back to Senga Bay until about 4am, and even then me, Dumi and Kwan carried on drinking until the sun started to rise. On the Friday my mother and some of her teaching colleagues (Dave, Emine and Mary-Francis) came down for the weekend, and by the time it got round to Saturday, the ladies were due to leave back for Lilongwe. But before they left, I was able to organise with Sam that we all give blood in the local hospital, as she encourages those who stay at Cool Runnings to do so. I was also able to rope in Mary-Francis and a Canadian Josh. We all headed for the hospital, and were shown the blood bank for 340,000 people – empty. We all lined up and had samples taken first, to check blood group, haemoglobin levels and diseases.
After we were then sat in another room, and ~300ml of blood taken. I’m not entirely sure why they took so little, but the ladies were flying out the next day, so I think that may have had something to do with it, but at least it was still enough to save 2 babies.
This was the first time I had ever given blood (and the first time I’d found out my blood group: A+), and I was able to sit there and poke the bag of my warm blood, all very surreal. A couple of the girls felt a little dizzy after, and the needles were too big to get Mary-Francis’ very desirable blood (haemoglobin level: 17, blood group: O-), but apart from that everything went really well, and we all left feeling we had done something really worthwhile. I think it was easily one of the most amazing things I’ve done in a long long time.
Almost directly after giving blood, the girls hopped onto a minibus and headed back for Lilongwe, and I returned to Cool Runnings to get a lift back the next day in the with all the teachers. Again, the drive back was incredible, with views of fields in the foreground stretching out to big mountains nestled the horizon. The colours of the rich red earth contrasting with the vibrant green of the maize and the browns of the thatched huts were something else, and when you see all this, and hear the locals singing in church or just as they’re walking on the road, its impossible to deny its inherent beauty.
Just before the girls got on the bus back to Lilongwe
Over and out.
