Pennie
Pennie Blackburn Joined: October 7th 2007
Logged in: June 3rd 2010
Logged in: June 3rd 2010
Travel Blog Posts
my friendly lizard
I don’t know what it is with my bathroom but it is like a Zoo! Well actually I do know what it is - the drain from the bath goes directly outside my bathroom window and directly into the drain it is clearly at sufficiently a shallow angle to allow any and all animals smaller than drain size to come in as well water to go out. On a more or less daily basis I have any number of bugs coming in. Of course you will know that spiders are my least favourite; but fortunately Steph is completely unphased by them. I am so over cockroaches I just leave them there and they find their way out again. Little bugs are fine but the small scorpions worry me a bit. Most days I have a ... read more
Ngala lodge
So I haven’t updated my blog in a while…… The rains have well and truly come. For a couple of weeks before Christmas it rained almost constantly and I was beginning to think that my plans for Christmas by the lake would be a literal wash out; and was feeling rather bad at having invited Sarah to come and spend the time with me just to look at the rain. There were absolutely no signs of Christmas anywhere in Malawi - well save the guy in the Santa hat in Blantyre in November and carols in Shoprite - you would never have known it was Christmas time. On Christmas Eve there was a torrential rain storm and there was a power cut from about 4 in the afternoon. Eventually about 8:30 I gave up and ... read more
Crocodile
Liwonde is about 1 hour north of Zomba. The national park is some 540 square kilometres stretched along the side of the shire (pronounced shiray) river. The Shire originates at Lake Malawi and drains into the Zambezi. Liwonde itself is a small town located at the barrage which regulates the flow of the Shire further south. Several small villages are located along the Lower Shire and a couple of weeks ago the press reported that a small girl had been taken by a crocodile from its banks. Apparently this is fairly unusual but not unheard of; but fishermen who fish in the river in small dugout canoes often suffer accidents with the crocodiles and lose an arm or a leg in the process. Sue and Gareth decided to camp in the park on Friday night and ... read more
Jacaranda
It’s 5:30 in the morning. I seem to be waking up with the dawn every day. Although it means I’m tired later on; I love this time of day. The morning light is different again, it is cool and there is often a gentle breeze and sometimes quite a strong one. The birds start signing and in the distance children are playing as the area around us slowly wakes to the day; cockerels crow and there is a certain peace and quiet before the rest of the house wakes up. The house has been provided by the Zomba Mental Hospital; and as the pictures show it was pretty Spartan when we first moved in and we have had to spend more than we expected to buy the basics. A psychiatrist working at the university college medical ... read more
James very happy to meet the mazungu women
The African sun is setting gently over the countryside. As the sun sets, the warmth of the light bathes the surrounds and the earth deepens in colour and bringing out beautiful rich burnt ochre. On some days the sun itself turns a deep, deep red. The colours of the evening are uniquely African. The landscape during the day is largely dusty brown punctuated by occasional bright colours of bougainvillea or jacaranda trees which are shedding their purple flowers onto the grounds around them. Zomba is a quiet and small leafy green town in the south of Malawi. It has a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. Our garden looks out towards the Zomba plateau and elsewhere around the town are hills of varying sizes. I’m lead to believe that on top of the plateau there is forest and ... read more
Every interaction or conversation begins with the statutory greetings; which have quickly become referred to as mulu bwangying amongst ourselves. • Moni Achemwele / Amayi / Abambo (hello sister, mother, brother) • Mulu Bwanji? • Ndili Bueno, kaya inu? • Ndili Bueno, Zikomo Often that is the interaction in its entirety; people in the street call out to you as you pass Moni achemwale, mulu bwanje…..yesterday a man I passed on the street waved as many people do (there are relatively few white people here and we stand out like beacons and have some kind of strange celebrity status) and shouted his customary greeting and when I replied he broke into a huge grin and got up walked from where he’d been relaxing with his daughters and shook my hand went through the whole process and ... read more
Loading the pickup
Our journey to Zomba was not without adventure. We filled a small pickup truck with the three of us, a driver, Zenaida our representative from Zomba Mental Hospital, Thomas the HR manager and a policeman who had spent a few days in Lilongwe following up a case. All our oversized western baggage filled up the back and we had small bags on our laps. We made our way to the VSO Lilongwe guesthouse in order to pick up equipment for the house. After some discussion three double mattresses and a fridge freezer were added to the back and we all squoze back into the truck and went on a journey to try and find a rope to tie down the load. After trying several places stopping and starting our journey; we finally located a rope and ... read more
