pandastan

Last month, I took my first vacation outside of the country since I first came to Malawi. My Dad and a friend of his came to visit and met me in Lilongwe, then we flew to Dar Es Salaam, flying to the Selous game reserve in the morning. It was the first time I had ever been in a very small airplane, and although I was excited at first, my excitement quickly turned to dread. I felt so vulnerable and nervous in that tiny aircraft without even a co-pilot. I would just stare at the empty co-pilot's seat and the automated steering wheel, moving back and forth like it was possessed. Then, every time there was a gust of wind, the whole plane would lurch abruptly, as would my insides. I soon broke into a cold sweat. It wasn't long before we reached the game park though, but then I was in for another surprise - the landing strip wasn't a landing strip, but an open field! I had had no idea you could land planes that way. I had images of loose pieces of gravel, dirt clods, shrubs and bumps that in my mind were liable to flip the whole plane over at any given moment. I just kept telling myself that they wouldn't be doing this if it didn't work, which of course, they wouldn't. But I wasn't happy until we got off the plane and on to solid ground.



Then we had three days at the most bwana safari I could have dreamed up, which was really nice. I took two jeep safaris, two boat safaris and one walking safari. Also, the encampment was open to the animals, so elephants would wander past your door during the day, as well as giraffes, and hippos and lions would snuffle by at night. I was once again terrified on one of the jeep safaris due to the lions. There were no walls or anything on the jeep, the lions could have just jumped onto it and torn us to shreds, and we stopped the jeep just six feet away from them; one of them got up and looked me in the eyes while it walked under the back of the jeep. Again, I just told myself that they must know that the lions wouldn't attack. But what if this had been just a weird lion? Well, nothing to worry about in the long run. The crocodiles on the boat safari didn't scare me as much even though they were just as close and there were also no walls on the boat. But crocodiles usually don't move very fast, as creepy as they are.

So we saw tons of neat animals, lots of giraffes, wilde beasts buffalo, hippos, zebra, impala, hyena, and all variety of interesting birds. My Dad brought a super-duper camera with him, so I left most of the picture taking to him. I did take a few though, and I figured I would be expected to have something to show for all this, so I posted just a handful at this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/yenwela/DropBox - It includes a shot of some of the domestic animals that can be found in my own house as well: a swarm of gigantic ants that were crawling all over my kitchen door one night and an adorable picture of two of my kittens sleeping together (I can never resist these cat pictures). The kittens are all gone now which is sad, but that's how it goes I guess.

After the safari, I had a few days in Dar Es Salaam and spent one night in Zanzibar. I didn't get any good pictures there though, because I already felt really self-conscious as a tourist while I was there and I couldn't bear to whip a camera out, I was so tired of people staring at me and accosting me with offers to sell me things, hire out taxis or any other thing they thought they could to get me to spend money on them. I mostly just kept to myself and didn't spend as long looking around as I might have if I had someone else to walk around with - it would have been easier to withstand the energy of all those street vendors and other people if that had been the case. I did take some pictures from the ferry though, and I included one that I took as I was returning to Dar es Salaam from Zanzibar.

That's all, I'm back in Malawi now, and it's been a tough transition to come back. I had gotten so used to Malawi I guess, and to be out in the rest of the world where there's more development and more connection to other places in the world was a shock to me that has been hard to deal with. Malawi seems so isolated from the rest of the world, it feels like an alternate reality to be here again. The guardian shelter project is not moving with the speed I would prefer, and I'm nervous because we need to finish the foundation before the rainy season starts. Last year, it came late: not until January. But it might come as early as a few weeks from now if I'm unlucky, and if it comes before the foundation is finished, we won't be able to do the project at all. So far, the foundation hasn't even been started yet, though I've been promised work will begin on Monday. We'll see!