Jennifer in Africa
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WORKING & TRAVELING IN AFRICA

Mfuwe

8/31/2019

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Mfuwe is the main settlement of South Luangwa National Park in the Eastern Province of Zambia, serving the tourism industry and wildlife conservation in the Luangwa Valley. It is located about 100 km (62 mi) west-north-west of Chipata.

This village holds the record of the highest temperature ever recorded in Zambia with 42.8 °C (109.0 °F) set on 26 October 2011.
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In the morning one of the locals, Esther, took us around her village. It was Sunday so the children were not in school and were very excited to have visitors. It started with 6, then 12, then 30! The older ones could speak quite a lot of English. The little ones wanted to hold hands. We each had two or three on either side.

Families
Esther explained the process of brick making from mud to baking. Each family unit has 4 living spaces made from bricks. The main living area, the toilet, the shower and the kitchen. The first three have steel sheets for roofs but the kitchen has thatch to let the smoke escape.

She introduced us to several families—which all seemed to be a cousin or a sister. Most families have at least 6 children. She explains, “This is why Zambia is so poor. The wife cannot say ‘No’ to her husband.“ The children from Mfuwe all seemed to be healthy and thriving.

The School
The school is a series of 6 rooms, a library and a kitchen. In the kitchen there were only three large fire pits with humongous pots. This is where breakfast is served. ALL the children come to school every morning because of the  breakfast porridge—a mixture of cooked maize, mashed soya beans and ground nuts.

The library is its own building and is the most popular place in the village. There are 2 volunteer librarians to help with reading lessons.

The remaining rooms are the classrooms: 6 rooms, 6 grades, 1,000 students. The kids from all of the neighboring villages come to the  Mfuwe school. They also come on Sundays to watch television and play. Thus the throng that greeted us this morning.

The Chief
We learned that each village has a  “head man” who reports to the Chief. The Chief rules over several hundred villages. The chiefdom is not an elected position but an inherited one.
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On Safari

8/31/2019

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Our next destination was South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. When we arrived at our lodge the first thing we were told is not to walk around the campus without a guide.

This kind seemed extreme. But sure enough each morning we awoke to new friends: the first morning there were two hippos right outside our front door and the second morning a family of elephants traipsed right across the yard.

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Everything but the lioness and cubs...

  1. Elephants — maybe one in ten without one or both tusks. Cause is both congenital and poaching. But of course poaching elephants with the biggest healthiest tusks alters the gene pool and begins to favor elephants without tusks. 
  2. Giraffes — mostly living. We saw a freshly killed giraffe and awaited the lions to return for dinner but the smell became too overwhelming and we moved on.
  3. African buffalo — (the ones with the horns that look like a curled mustache)
  4. Hippopotami — wading, yawning, wallowing, and bellowing. 
  5. Impala and puku — small ungulates (leopard snacks)
  6. Zebra — this species has only pure black and white stripes. (Some have brown patches and “shadow stripes”)
  7. Vervet monkeys
  8. Yellow baboons
  9. Male lion — probably an adolescent
  10. Spotted genet — (cat family, spotted body like a leopard and long bushy ringed tail. Size of a Maine coon cat. Omnivorous. )
  11. White tailed mongoose
  12. Wart hog — (Pumba)
  13. AND THE LEOPARDS — The South Luangwa is best known for its leopard population. Our first leopard casually strolled around the Land Rover, not more than 4 feet away. Our most leopardly leopard was asleep on a branch in an Acacia tree, just above his 1/2 eaten impala. The hyenas circled the base of the tree hoping for scraps to fall.
Kitty or Killer?
Killer, clearly
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South Luangwa National Park

8/31/2019

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Elephants

Each evening just after sundown, we hear drumming in the distance. It is coming from the surrounding villages. Elephants, despite their seemingly calm demeanor, are not the mild mannered gentle giants one might think.  Mostly without malice, they create chaos as they lumber through villages eating anything and everything. And just due to their sheer tonnage, they topple thatched huts, chicken coops, water storage... anything that lays in their path.  So at dusk the villagers position drumming sentries to deter the foraging giants.
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Monkeys

This morning at breakfast a cheeky monkey dropped out of a tree, dashed into the dining area and grabbed Robert’s boiled egg, then his brother grabbed Shweta’s toast! 

In the middle of the night we were all jolted awake by the most raucous cacophonous howling and screeching. It sounded like one of the baboons was being ripped to shreds. Just a normal family squabble. 

Of all of the places I’ve now been on safari, the South Luanga was the only park with night game drives and walking safaris. The walking Safari was great for learning about the environment. We spent time talking about animal poop. But the most fascinating lesson from our guide, Abo, was about what happened last night. This environment is very sandy so every morning he could read the animal tracks and the drag lines. He pointed out the lone Zebra tracks the three Lions that following the zebra. Further along he pointed out  where the Lions had dragged  the zebra into the dense thicket. And his best guess was that the whole party was still there! 
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Internet at last!!

8/21/2019

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OK so maybe that’s an exaggeration. I have had Internet but it’s been terribly unreliable and there’s been so many more fun things to do that struggle with the Internet
The sight of the sparkling clear blue Lake Malawi was so welcomed after the long van ride. And it was a long 4 hours, crammed in the van, bouncing over potholes and shifting from one butt cheek to the other for some respite. My titanium knees were folded up at about 120 degrees so when we arrived I had to remind them how to straighten out. But Cape Maclear was worth the journey.

Cape Maclear is on the southern tip of Lake Malawi. The Lake is 350 miles by 47 miles and takes up 1/3 of the country. Lake Malawi was named “The Lake of Stars” because the hundreds of lanterns from local fishing boats look like stars in the night sky.


Our second night at Cape Maclear, Vicki had arranged for a sunset cruise. The sunsets at Lake Malawi are reputedly unparalleled. This cruise was dubbed “The booze cruise” since we were each asked to select whatever we wanted to drink from the bar. By the time the cooler was loaded, our guides could barely lift it. The skipper was Harry, a gregarious joyful host who would stand on the bow and sing to us. Needless to say, before long we were all belting out “Hakuna Matata” and “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. The sunset trip’s highlight was watching the Malawi Fish Eagles circling, swooping, and snagging fish within a few yards of our boat. Dale masterfully captured an eagle mid flight, wings spread, talons extended using his handy point-and-shoot camera. And the challenge was on. Robert pulled out his professional Pentax camera with a 150-400 zoom lens. It looked like a bazooka compared to all of our cameras. Jo commented sardonically, “Why Robert, I have never seen one quite so big!” To which Dale rebutted, “it’s quite about skill not size” and you can see where the conversation went from there. Along the way we snorkeled and worked our way through a cooler of beer; and the sun set magnificently.


Lake Malawi is definitely one of my favorite places.
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Nairobi with Family

8/6/2019

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I met my family from Seattle and Austin in Nairobi. Yes Nairobi is a big, busy and probably dangerous city. Whatever. We enjoyed our few days there. I did find the perfect hotel!
I can’t say enough good things about this hotel. It was very British. That’s neither here nor there. There was live piano at mealtimes and when he heard our accents he played Jack Johnson and Billy Joel.
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(left to right) Ryan from Austin, TX, and Elaina, Jennifer and Doug from Olympia WA
We spent 8 days on a wonderful safari organized by Seraphina with Africa Dynamics out of Seattle. Not a single single detail was overlooked.

Our favorite camp was Sentinel Mara—a tented camp perched just above the Mara River. Below us were 2 pods of hippos and they snorted and giggled us to sleep every night. One hippo snortles and then the response is a “ ha ha ha ha...” it was fun to imagine their jokes about the silly humans.
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All the guides were A+, the food was superb meal after meal, the camp staff were kind, interested and had their own interesting stories. Of course there was the Big Five: Lions, leopards, rhinos, Buffalo, and Elephants. While the Big Five now mostly refers to camera wielding tourists, the name comes from the game hunters wielding big guns.
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The Big Five refers to those prized feisty beasts that would fight back when hunted. Cheetahs run and hippos don’t wear ivory.
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Camping on Our Own Deserted Island

8/5/2019

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The view of Domwe Island from Cape Maclear is breathtaking. We kayaked across Lake Malawi to a private secluded campsite on Domwe. Our backpacks were carried for us by Baby Ella.

We had a lovely dinner and then moved down to the beach for a campfire. This is when Vicki broke at the Amarula, a South African liqueur made from the fruit of the Marula Tree, also known as the Elephant tree. I guess they like the silky sweet fruit also. One of the guides had told us that the fruit of the Marula tree would get the baboons and elephants drunk. It sure did a number on us! By the end of the evening it was affectionately known as “Lalulalula”.
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Girlfriends on sunset cruise
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Harry, our sunset tour guide who sang "Welcome to Malawi" and danced on the bow.
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Schwetas
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Villagers bathe and do their dishes and laundry in the lake.

Freshwater in Africa is frequent source of GI infections such as cholera and dysentery. Lake Malawi harbors schistosomiasis, so we all took Praziquantel after swimming.

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Malawai, Zambia & Botswana

8/3/2019

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3 Country Tour with a Group of 11

Off on an adventure with a group of 11 on a tour of 3 countries, Malawai, Zambia & Botswana with Rock My Adventure.
The flight getting here was easily worth the extra $100.

The Africa Cup Soccer championship had just concluded in Cairo. It was all that was showing on the local TV networks. Algeria had won & Senegal had lost in the finals. And my seat mate turned out to be the CEO of the Malawi Football Club. We drank scotch and talked football, family, and his hopes for women’s football in Africa.

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Howard met me at the airport and brought me to the Kiboko Lodge where I met my travel group. We were three Brits, three Romanians, two Canadians, a Scot, an Indian woman and myself,  the only American.

It was clear from the get go that this group loved to laugh and this was going to be an adventure on many levels.

Our new friend Shweta’s luggage was lost. Is this not your worst nightmare! Our resourceful leader called the host at Kiboki lodge who had a friend that worked at Lilongwe airport and miracle of miracles, he found her backpack and drove it to us! Here are the wild and crazy Brits taking full credit for the recovery mission.

Along the way…

Lilongwe Textile Market
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Vintage Toyota Van
"Hope for the best, plan for the worst." That pretty much defines adventure—when our first van broke down, only to be replaced by our second van that ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere. It takes good-natured traveling companions to stay in the adventure.

The following day we would make the four-hour trek to Cape Maclear, Lake Malawi, so it was an early night.

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    Jennifer Williams MD, from Olympia, Washington is working and traveling in Africa.

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Our next destination was South Luangwa National Park in Zambia
When we arrived at our lodge the first thing we were told is not to walk around the campus without a guide.

This kind seemed extreme. But sure enough each morning we awoke to new friends: the first morning there were two hippos right outside our front door and the second morning a family of elephants traipsed right across the yard.



Picture
Our first evening safari — Everything but the lioness and cubs
  1. Elephants- maybe one in ten without one or both tusks. Cause is both congenital and poaching. But of course poaching elephants with the biggest healthiest tusks alters the gene pool and begins to favor elephants without tusks.
  2. Giraffes, mostly living. We saw a freshly killed giraffe and awaited the lions to return for dinner but the smell became too overwhelming and we moved on.
  3. African buffalo, (the ones with the horns that look like a curled mustache)
  4. Hippopotami, wading, yawning, wallowing, and bellowing.
  5. Impala and puku are small ungulates (leopard snacks)
  6. Zebra--this species has only pure black and white stripes. (Some have brown patches and “shadow stripes”)
  7. Vervet monkeys
  8. Yellow baboons
  9. Male lion-probably an adolescent
  10. Spotted genet (cat family, nocturnal, spotted body like a leopard and long bushy ringed tail. Size of a Maine coon cat. Omnivorous. )
  11. White tailed mongoose
13. Wart hog (Pumba)
14. AND THE LEOPARDS. The South Luangwa is best known for its leopard population. Our first leopard casually strolled around the Land Rover, not more than 4 feet away. Our most leopardly leopard was perched on a branch in an Acacia tree, just above his 1/2 eaten impala. The hyenas circled the base of the tree hoping for scraps to fall
Kitty or Killer
Killer, clearly
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