So far, so good

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The very first diary entry...

Dear friends, this is the very first post of the little world tour that Helene and myself is undertaking.

Facts about Blantyre and Malawi
As you may be aware, Helene and our friend Astrid, both medicine students, left Sydney (where we are studying) on 22 October 2005, destination Blantyre, Malawi, Africa. I left Sydney on 9 November, and caught up with the girls in Blantyre on the 10th.

Blantyre is a city of about 5-600 000 inhabitants and is the so-called commercial centre of Malawi. Named after the birth place of David Livingstone in Scotland, it used to be the capital, however, this changed, and the capital is now Lilongwe, which is also the biggest city.

Being one of the world's poorest countries, Malawi is about to experience a hunger crisis due to lack of rain both last year and now, which is supposed to be rain season.

In Blantyre, Helene and Astrid is undertaking a four week medical elective term at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It has been quite an experience so far. There is a great lack of equipment. In the paediatric department (apparently to do with kids for those not familiar with medical terms), up to three kids are sharing each bed, while the mothers sleep on the stone floor. Some two or three kids die every day.

Safari in Lewonde national park
During the weekend, we left Blantyre for a safari in the Lewonde national park. Early on Saturday morning we were picked up from Doogles, the hostel where we are staying. Our driver took us safely through the busy streets crowded with people and stalls. The entire city of Blantyre appears as one gigantic market, with people selling fruit and vegetables, pieces of "art" made of wood or ceramics, shoes, clothes, old digital wrist watches probably made in the 80s, and so on.

Walking in the street is hazardous, not because of hassling salesmen (they usually take a no for a no), but because everybody drives like maniacs. In fact, motor accidents are one of the most common reasons for death in not only Malawi, but the continent of Africa! Luckily our driver didn't run anybody over, because that could have meant the death of us. As morally responsible, we would probably have demanded our driver to stop the car so that we could help the victim. However, as we discovered later, this would have proved fatal. If you stop after killing someone with your car, you are very likely to be killed yourself by the angry mob! The best thing to do is get the hell out of the crash scene and contact emergency, which will probably arrive two hours later after the ambulance driver has dropped of all his pirate taxi passengers. Anyway, the driver took us safely out of Blantyre and onto the "highway." On the highway, the car horn is of great importance. You see, the road is shared by cars, people balancing entire cupboards on their bikes, and the common walkers. Driving in 120 km/h, people literally jump out of the road when you are driving up from behind and honking the horn.

At the countryside, beautiful hills are covered with fields where the people grow the usual vegetables, but also tobacco, coffee and tea. As is usual in development countries, the farms are run by white people (South Africans, Greek (!), and others) selling the produce with profit while keeping their staff on low pay. It it hard for the workers to demand higher wages because of the incredible need they have for the money. The boss can simply fire them if they object, as there will always be someone else to take over.

After about 1.5 hour drive we reached the city of Zomba, which is one of the biggest cities in Malawi. Unfortunately, time and money didn't allow us to see the Zomba Plateau, however, from a distance it looked spectatular. Rising high up from the plains and hills surrounding it, it has a very flat top = plateau.

Continuing, we reached the gates of the Lewonde national park and eventually the Shire River. Here we were taken across in a boat to a lodge where we stayed the night. The site of the lodge was excellent. Enjoying a cold drink in the bar 10 metres from the water was superb. While colourful birds flew around, a half-metre lizard was digging (for food?) just outside, lots of baboons were running around, the casual crocodile floated lazily by, disguised as a log, though revealed by it large eyes staring at us. On the other side, elephants sometimes occured, and the heads of hippos could be seen in groups everywhere. Staying in chalets (a kind of hut), we could also hope (?!) for animals to appear outside during the night because the camp site was completely open. Other travellers had experienced waking up with both elephants or hippos just outside the window. We were not this lucky though.

Saturday night we went on a night safari driving in jeeps. Apart from having to change cars twice as they broke down in the middle of nowhere, the safari was fabulous. The plains were simply full of animals. I have never seen anything like it. There were lots of warthogs (norsk = vortesvin), impalas (antelope-like animals, but with impressive horns), waterbucks, and kudos (why not google these animals?), and we also managed to get fairly close to some elephants. Being aggressive, elephants can be dangerous to approach, so we were probably as close as we wanted to be. We also saw lots of baboons, and even saw some action when a baboon chased down a baby impala! However, before having time to kill it, the mother of the baby impala managed to scare the baboon off. It did not show too much interest in protecting it afterwards though, as it started running away, with the poor injured baby limping after it, trying to follow. We also saw a crocodile on land, but it quickly run into a nearly dried out creek and hid from us. All in all, it was a great safari.

Next morning we got up at 5am and did a walking safari. It was perhaps even more impressive than driving around the previous night. With childish pleasure we had to sneak around like indians, or perhaps malawian warriors is a better analogy, taking care not to make too much noise and also worry about the direction the wind blew. We pretty much saw everything from last night, but it was even more exciting as we could now enjoy all the sounds without the noise pollution of the car. Also, we had with us a guard with a big Mauser rifle to underline the seriousness. Sneaking up on the elephants, the potentially most dangerous animal, was thrilling.

After the boat trip, we enjoyed a relaxed lunch before going on a boat safari. This time we saw a lot of the same animals coming down to the river to drink. Again, the amount of animals was outstanding. Perhaps there was an animal for every two or three metres along the river edge. In the river, we usually only saw the heads of the hippos, although we also had some luck and saw them standing in shallow water, plunging into a swim and then a dive upon our approach. Heaps of crocodiles floated around, and some were enjoying the sun on the river shores. Usually they quickly ran into the water when we came too close. The elephants were harder to approach. Wind direction was important, as the animals could smell us coming, similary it was important to keep noise to a minimum. The elephants typically moved away from the shore if they got scared, and we weren't very lucky in getting close to them. However, after enjoying a quiet cool drink in the boat where the river meets a big lake, we returned upon a great view. The elephants were drinking and relaxing only metres away from our boat on some white sand, with a third elephant on the other side of the water. The two elephants slowly left the sand and walked across the water towards the third one, waving air onto themselves with their huge ears. It was an amazing view, with everybody being very quiet so as not to scare the animals. I am sure I took some great photos!

Our excellent guides earn 6000 kwacha a month, which corresponds to about AUD60 or NOK300. Accordingly, we tipped off our friends generously before returing to Blantyre Sunday afternoon, tired but happy.

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