Everyday I experience a wide range of emotions here in Malawi. Days are either really great or frustratingly bad. When I go to bed at night I can feel so so happy and then other nights I am pissed right off at something. And its unfortunate that the bad feelings always outweigh the good, even if the good thing is disporportionally better than the bad. Why do we dwell on the crappy thing and not move on easily to the happy thing? I'm not sure. I remember reading an article once about a psychology experiment. It went something like this: a person was given a free $20 and then later was robbed $5. Then the person was asked to rate the emotion they experienced after each event. Even though the good thing was much better in value than the bad thing, the person let the bad thing outweigh the good thing.
So to get to the point of the story, although I had a wonderful week one crappy thing happened on Tuesday morning that ruined the whole week for me. As I was switching mini-buses in the Lilongwe market someone picked my pocket and stole my cell phone (only my phone and nothing else). This really bummed me out. I honestly don't want to buy another one, but on the other hand its a really important communication device here. No one has home phones and its isolated enough as is. Sigh. It really ruined my day and left me on a sour note after an awesome trip.
Anna, Christine, Lucas (Christine's friend in Blantyre) and I all went on a safari in Liwonde National Park. It was so good to see Christine again since IPMP ended in June. We had a blast hanging out at the camp, drinking wine and beer, checking out the wild animals (hippos, baboons, elephants, impala, sables, water & bushbucks, warthogs, etc.) on dawn safari and canoe safari. I even had a fish farming moment on the canoe trip. I was asking what kind of fish were in the river and I think I surprised the hell out of our guide, Eliam, when I spoke about the fish using their Malawian names (chambo, makumba, utaka, chilunguni, mlamba). As it turned out his village was in the process of building fish ponds so that evening we met so that I could give him some advice.
After our safari in Liwonde we headed down to Zomba where we did some hiking on the plateau. It was much cooler at the elevation (as compared to the heat of the park). Incidentally enough there was a trout farm on the plateau where you can stay in cottages while exploring the region! So of course that's where we shacked up for the night (I'd like to point out that I didn't even suggest the Zomba trip - it was Anna and Christines idea). One of the guides, Lovemore (what a fantastic name), took me fishing Malawi style. He made his own pole from a 8ft long tree branch, cut with a machete, cut a groove on the end to hold the twine and then tied a hook onto the string. He even made a bobber out of wood. Very primitive but it serves the purpose. I wish I could say I caught a big one but it was not my lucky day. I still had trout and chips for dinner though. :)
Besides fishing we went hiking on the plateau. The trail was spectacular, overlooking the town of Zomba, huge trees towering above us and a rushing river beside us. The best part of the hike for me was visiting the waterfalls. There were 2 - Williams falls and Mandala falls. Whenever I see a beautiful waterfall I have the urge to just dive in, so I did! I suspect my friends think I'm a little crazy but honestly I don't know why you wouldn't. The moment was so right. The rush of the water falling on my head with such a cool force beating down on me was exhilarating. Life is about these moments.
Alas all good things must come to an end. As I said at the beginning of this blog, despite the terrific week with good friends and good travel, I was too bummed to write a blog about it until now, when I have finally shook off the emotion and decided to get back to my writing. It feels nice to be writing again.
No comments:
Post a Comment