so in the end i was able to upload a few pictures. here are the links, or view them on my facebook profile
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099173&l=83401&id=2606069
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099170&l=cd045&id=2606069
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Post 8
Hi, after reading my post from yesterday I realized that quite a few parts might seem unclear and there were a few things I wanted to add. So here's part two of this post.
First off, regarding the chief in Congo and land in Zambia and local populations rights in general. The Lunda chief that Stuart and I met with is not some person wielding a spear and dressed in whatever traditional clothing might have been. He's an older guy, dressed in pants and a buttoned down shirt. He had a cane and his house was quite unassuming. In Zambia all the land, outside of the big cities, pretty much belongs to a chief of the local tribe. In order to buy land in Zambia you have to first deal with the local chief and come to some kind of understanding, usually monetary, and than deal with the Zambian authorities. That's just the way it works, and I believe it is similar in Malawi, Mozambique, and I imagine most of the countries I'll visit.
When Stuart went to visit him it was mostly to discuss what kind of monetary arrangement was to be put in place regarding the splitting of game hunting revenue at Nkwaji and to have some input into which local people would be employed. If you don't go through the chief than you're going to have problems, although the people who the chief chooses know they don't have to work too hard because they have his backing. It's not the most conducive policy to getting things done fast, but it's kind of the only way to go about doing things.
The other thing I wanted to clarify a little more was the location of the farm and Nkwaji site. There is a tri border area with Zambia, Congo, and Angola and both of the sites are within a few kilometers of the triple border. You can easily drive into Angola or Congo without realizing it, and there are kind of token border agents at one post only, so it's basically accepted that people will go back and forth as they choose. For the most part the people who pass the border are the Lunda, who historically have lived in the region and the borders put in place by colonial powers had no logic to it. It divided up their people, and they don't really view the border as defining their nationality. They're Lunda first, and whatever country was imposed upon them second.
I also forgot to write about how nice the Lunda people I met were. Most did not speak any English, but there were several that spoke quite well. Everyone was quite friendly, although it's a little unnerving that they viewed me, because of my association with Stuart, as a boss. They greeted me like bwana, or master/boss/chief, which meant a half kneel and they bowed their heads to me upon the initial greeting. I felt half like a slave master, reminding me of a little like the family I first lived with in Salvador, Brazil, where there were three servants living in the house. Anyways, very nice people, although Malawi still takes the cake. From everything I've heard Malawians are the nicest people that I'll meet on this trip.
I also read quite a bit over the last week. I did a few book exchanges while at the hostel in Lusaka and also bought a book. I read Bill Bryson's A History of Nearly Everything which I strongly recommend. He basically gives a history of all of science, and does it in his very witty writing style. He's just an amazing author and can make any subject a fascinating read. I bought a book called Gun, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. He's a UCLA professor of Geography and this book is about how it came to be that some peoples conquered others. He tries to make this discussion scientific and quantitative and show through facts how it came to be that the Incas were conquered by europeans and not the other way around amongst other examples. He shows how available crops, animals, population density, and disease explain it all. It's interesting, but it takes 600 some pages for him to explain it all. He could have condensed it a bit more in my opinion, but still an interesting book. I also read a Toni Morrison book, Paradise, which I think I liked. I'm not sure I get it, and if anyone's read it, please let me know. It was also really nice to just read, something I haven't done anywhere near enough of in recent months.
Finally, a little more about Zambia. One telling sign for me is a billboard in Lusaka for a bank. It says "If you think you have to use bribery to do business in Zambia, think again" That a bank uses this idea shows how pervasive bribery is here. From what I understand from talking with Stuart, the family that owns Hillwood farm, and a few other folks its just understood that without bribes nothing gets done. This is why I don't see Zambia becoming the Chile of Africa. Not that Chile is without corruption, but the country prides itself on its relatively low levels of corruption. Its police force may be the least corrupt in the world. Too much of the copper money in Zambia will just dissapear and prevent the country from realizing its potential. Zambia also has huge agricultural potential with vast areas of land suitable for all sorts of crops, but its potential is far from being realized. There is no capital to start this up, and not enough trained workers as well. Many of the white farmers from Zimbabwe have moved to Zambia to start farms, so this is changing a little, but not enough. Zambia should be able to feed the continent, yet in all but a few years of its history since indepedence in the 60's its had to recieve food aid. Another ridiculous issue regarding this is that it sells a lot of its maize to the Congo. The price for maize in the Congo is five times that of Zambia, so instead of feeding its own people, the country sells huge amount of its food to their neighbor. Who knows where this money goes, but I sincerely doubt as much goes back into govt. projects as it should. The country can also get away with this, because the UN, World Food Programme, and other groups pump food aid into the country. They can't tell Zambia to stop selling its food and feed its own people, because they Zambia won't and if they stop giving food aid it only means people will starve, not that Zambia will start feeding itself. A similar story happens in quite a few different countries in the area, and one of the reasons I'm becoming really disallusioned with all of these foreign aid groups. I'm not blaming the food aid groups, because its really the government corruption that creates the situation, but their existence makes it a lot eaiser for the government to put more money in their pockets knowing there will always be the aid groups to pick up the slack.
Well, I'm going to go to Victoria Falls in a few hours, and tomorrow I'll be at the falls. When I'm done at the falls I'm going to take a few crazy bus rides all the way to the northern tip of the country to Mpulungu. From there I take a boat on Lake Tanganyika to a chimpanzee park in Tanzania with the largest population of chimps in the world. Its' a really remote park, and I'm excited to hike around there for a few days. The boat only leaves on Friday, so I'm going to spend almost a week in the Mpulungu area exploring the Zambian side of the lake. There are some other huge waterfalls and nice hiking. I'm told there's good internet connections there so I'll try to load pictures when I get to Mpulungu, if not when I get out of the Tanzania park to its lake port city of Kigoma in a few weeks.
Tchau, B
First off, regarding the chief in Congo and land in Zambia and local populations rights in general. The Lunda chief that Stuart and I met with is not some person wielding a spear and dressed in whatever traditional clothing might have been. He's an older guy, dressed in pants and a buttoned down shirt. He had a cane and his house was quite unassuming. In Zambia all the land, outside of the big cities, pretty much belongs to a chief of the local tribe. In order to buy land in Zambia you have to first deal with the local chief and come to some kind of understanding, usually monetary, and than deal with the Zambian authorities. That's just the way it works, and I believe it is similar in Malawi, Mozambique, and I imagine most of the countries I'll visit.
When Stuart went to visit him it was mostly to discuss what kind of monetary arrangement was to be put in place regarding the splitting of game hunting revenue at Nkwaji and to have some input into which local people would be employed. If you don't go through the chief than you're going to have problems, although the people who the chief chooses know they don't have to work too hard because they have his backing. It's not the most conducive policy to getting things done fast, but it's kind of the only way to go about doing things.
The other thing I wanted to clarify a little more was the location of the farm and Nkwaji site. There is a tri border area with Zambia, Congo, and Angola and both of the sites are within a few kilometers of the triple border. You can easily drive into Angola or Congo without realizing it, and there are kind of token border agents at one post only, so it's basically accepted that people will go back and forth as they choose. For the most part the people who pass the border are the Lunda, who historically have lived in the region and the borders put in place by colonial powers had no logic to it. It divided up their people, and they don't really view the border as defining their nationality. They're Lunda first, and whatever country was imposed upon them second.
I also forgot to write about how nice the Lunda people I met were. Most did not speak any English, but there were several that spoke quite well. Everyone was quite friendly, although it's a little unnerving that they viewed me, because of my association with Stuart, as a boss. They greeted me like bwana, or master/boss/chief, which meant a half kneel and they bowed their heads to me upon the initial greeting. I felt half like a slave master, reminding me of a little like the family I first lived with in Salvador, Brazil, where there were three servants living in the house. Anyways, very nice people, although Malawi still takes the cake. From everything I've heard Malawians are the nicest people that I'll meet on this trip.
I also read quite a bit over the last week. I did a few book exchanges while at the hostel in Lusaka and also bought a book. I read Bill Bryson's A History of Nearly Everything which I strongly recommend. He basically gives a history of all of science, and does it in his very witty writing style. He's just an amazing author and can make any subject a fascinating read. I bought a book called Gun, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. He's a UCLA professor of Geography and this book is about how it came to be that some peoples conquered others. He tries to make this discussion scientific and quantitative and show through facts how it came to be that the Incas were conquered by europeans and not the other way around amongst other examples. He shows how available crops, animals, population density, and disease explain it all. It's interesting, but it takes 600 some pages for him to explain it all. He could have condensed it a bit more in my opinion, but still an interesting book. I also read a Toni Morrison book, Paradise, which I think I liked. I'm not sure I get it, and if anyone's read it, please let me know. It was also really nice to just read, something I haven't done anywhere near enough of in recent months.
Finally, a little more about Zambia. One telling sign for me is a billboard in Lusaka for a bank. It says "If you think you have to use bribery to do business in Zambia, think again" That a bank uses this idea shows how pervasive bribery is here. From what I understand from talking with Stuart, the family that owns Hillwood farm, and a few other folks its just understood that without bribes nothing gets done. This is why I don't see Zambia becoming the Chile of Africa. Not that Chile is without corruption, but the country prides itself on its relatively low levels of corruption. Its police force may be the least corrupt in the world. Too much of the copper money in Zambia will just dissapear and prevent the country from realizing its potential. Zambia also has huge agricultural potential with vast areas of land suitable for all sorts of crops, but its potential is far from being realized. There is no capital to start this up, and not enough trained workers as well. Many of the white farmers from Zimbabwe have moved to Zambia to start farms, so this is changing a little, but not enough. Zambia should be able to feed the continent, yet in all but a few years of its history since indepedence in the 60's its had to recieve food aid. Another ridiculous issue regarding this is that it sells a lot of its maize to the Congo. The price for maize in the Congo is five times that of Zambia, so instead of feeding its own people, the country sells huge amount of its food to their neighbor. Who knows where this money goes, but I sincerely doubt as much goes back into govt. projects as it should. The country can also get away with this, because the UN, World Food Programme, and other groups pump food aid into the country. They can't tell Zambia to stop selling its food and feed its own people, because they Zambia won't and if they stop giving food aid it only means people will starve, not that Zambia will start feeding itself. A similar story happens in quite a few different countries in the area, and one of the reasons I'm becoming really disallusioned with all of these foreign aid groups. I'm not blaming the food aid groups, because its really the government corruption that creates the situation, but their existence makes it a lot eaiser for the government to put more money in their pockets knowing there will always be the aid groups to pick up the slack.
Well, I'm going to go to Victoria Falls in a few hours, and tomorrow I'll be at the falls. When I'm done at the falls I'm going to take a few crazy bus rides all the way to the northern tip of the country to Mpulungu. From there I take a boat on Lake Tanganyika to a chimpanzee park in Tanzania with the largest population of chimps in the world. Its' a really remote park, and I'm excited to hike around there for a few days. The boat only leaves on Friday, so I'm going to spend almost a week in the Mpulungu area exploring the Zambian side of the lake. There are some other huge waterfalls and nice hiking. I'm told there's good internet connections there so I'll try to load pictures when I get to Mpulungu, if not when I get out of the Tanzania park to its lake port city of Kigoma in a few weeks.
Tchau, B
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Post 7
I'm dedicating this post to the Sharabbq on May 30th, which I have RSVP'd for.
Anyways, I'm back in Lusaka after a week in the Northwest of Zambia. After an extra day in Lusaka because of car problems the three of us finally made it out on the road. We drove north to the region of Zambia called the copperbelt the first day. Zambia is very rich in minerals, especially copper, and most of the countries revenues come from copper. This region is where the majority of the industry in the country is, its oil refineries, better hospitals, pretty much everything. The two main cities, which we passed through, of Kitwe and Ndola look pretty nice. They have wide streets, modernish looking buildings, and you don't feel like you're in a poor country. Just outside of Kitwe was the city of Chingola, which has copper mines literally on the edge of the city, which alarmed me environmentally. In Chile I visited what is the world's largest open pit copper mine, and the city next door was evacuated because of environmental issues. So I can't imagine it's too healthy to grow up in Chingola.
There are other copper mines being opened up all over this region and exploration is being done further north and west, where we were headed. Zambia reminds me of Chile in a few regards. They're both very large, sparsely populated countries, with tons of copper. Chile is the economic success story of south america, and while there are too many issues in Zambia, in my opinion, to see it reach Chilean economic levels, who knows. If the price of copper keeps rising, and there's sound economic planning, than Zambia could be pretty well off. On top of copper, there are diamonds, and quite a few other minerals in the area. In one city, just stopping to be some oranges, we were approached by some folks trying to illegally sell us some mineral i'd never heard of. Apparently, illegal mining is a big thing in the area. The area is huge, forested, and there's not too much law and order, so its almost an anything goes atmosphere.
At the end of our first day we pulled into a Chimpanzee reserve called Chimfunji, or something like that. There's a white Zambian family that decades ago was given some hurt chimpanzees that the police got while stopping smugglers from the Congo. The police gave the family the chimpanzees and ever since they've been rehabilitating sick chimpanzees from whomever will give them to them. Most are ones taken from smugglers from the Congo. The family is actually quite mean, don't like tourists, but need them to help pay for the chimp farm. Fortunately they hired a Zimbabwean family to run the campsite, lodge section and they were quite nice and very helpful. We came in late at night, and they got a fire going for us right away, and heated up water for showers.
The sunrise the next morning was absolutely incredible. The campsite is right on the river which divides Zambia and the Congo in the area. I'll post pictures tomorrow, so you can see how amazing the sunrise was. That night we saw this city glow in the distance, which turns out to be the major Congo city of Lumbambashi. It's a huge copper city, and the mines in that area make Zambia's look like scraps in comparison. The instability has prevented the Congo from really taking advantage of their mineral wealth, but that country is loaded with natural resources.
The next morning we saw the chimps in the reserve, and their pet hippo. They have a hippo that has been there since she was born, and is basically tame, which for a hippo is a heck of a thing. They're quite mean animals, apparently. The Zambian family was again fairly dismissive of us in the morning, so we left and kept on our way.
Our first destination on this trip was supposed to be a place called Hillwood farm. We didn't know much about it, just that it was supposed to be really impressive, and that the region was nice. We were hoping to get there that night, but the roads were in such bad condition we couldn't make much progress, and spent the night on the side of the road in the Zambian bush. The next day we finally made it to the farm, and what a farm it is. It's massive first of all, there's a game hunting ecoreserve in the middle of it, and it's as modern a farm as I've ever seen. All of this is great, but they were closed for tourists for a few more weeks. Fortuantely for us we met up with Stuart, another white Zimbabwean, who was working for the farm. He was just leaving to go to a different reserve, operated by the same farm, about 70 kilometers away. He said it was super remote, really pretty, had a river right by the site, and we could stay as long as we wanted for free. So, off we were following Stuart to the site called Nkwaji.
Nkwaji means Fish Eagle, in the Lunda language, the language of the local people, who are called, no surprise, the Lunda. The area is also being slated to be a hunting reserve, and Stuart is building fences and other facilities for the area. The site really is about as remote as it gets, and its just stunning. Semi-tropical forests, big grasslands, and just really stunning. The next day I went hiking in the area on the footpaths and 4x4 trails that go through the area. Went through quite a few villages, and just had a great time in the area. Stuart set up a canoe trip for the three of us for the next day with his workers. Stuart also took us to all these cool spots in the area, and was just thrilled to have company. He's been there for a few months, pretty much on his own, and was so hospitable to us the whole time we were there.
So the next day he took us to the nearby river and three of his workers came with some dugout canoes. It was kind of like Heart of Darkness light. We paddled through rainforest, mangroves, and some really nice scenery. We paddled a lot though, and mostly not straight. Dugout canoes are not easy things to maneuver, and a lot of the time was spent avoiding going into mangroves, and other places we could get stuck in. Going upstream was also not so easy, but was a nice workout. After paddling for about 3.5 hours upstream, we got to finally enjoy a nice cruise back to the starting point. For all of that time paddling, we only got about 20 minutes to float back downstream. We were stunned by how short of a distance we made paddled, but it makes sense with all the time spent just trying to direct the canoe in the right direction. It was a great time though.
Oh, back to mining for a second. Throughout my time up in this area I saw lots of light aircraft carrying drones behind them. Apparently the drones are surveying the area for copper and other minerals. Again, there is a lot of copper, and lot of people trying to take advantage of the wealth.
There's not much to do a Nkwaji at night, and Stuart has gone a little stir crazy in his time there. His main source of entertainment is shooting bottles filled with gasoline into fires. He's got this huge shotgun with him, and we spent our nights shooting stuff. Bottles with water we'd throw, like clay pigeons, and shoot in midair. At night we'd shoot these gas filled bottles, which made a huge blast, but at the same time the blast for the shotgun was enough to immediate extinguish the fire and the small fire we set up behind the bottle. It was a lot of fun, and I'm not a bad shot. I hit almost every water bottle in midair that was thrown for me.
So, after a few days at Nkwaji Tom and Omer wanted to continue further south in western Zambia, and I didn't want to go. I was having a great time being in Nkwaji, and I couldn't bear the thought of being in a jeep for a few more days. So, after talking to Stuart, I decided to stay at Nkwaji for another day and than go back to Hillwood Farm for the weekend. From there I'd head back to Lusaka, where I am now, and than go to Victoria Falls on my own. So Tom and Omer went off, and I hope they're having a great time, and stayed at Nkwaji.
My last day at Nkwaji I went hiking again, and found these cool fruits that are the root of a plant. The hard shell holds a really sweet fruit, which nobody could tell me the name of, but guarenteed me were safe to eat. That day I also took a half day trip with Stuart to visit the local chief. The local chiefs have to kind of approve everything, otherwise your bound to have certain problems. The thing about this chief is that he lives in the Congo. So, off we went through roads not monitored by immigration officers to the chiefs village in the Congo. Because the chief likes the reserve, and everyone knows that Stuart works for the reserve we were actually as safe as one could be in the area. We went the chiefs village, had lunch with him, and headed back for another night of shooting things. So it was amazingly cool to have gone to the Congo, but it was just an hour drive from where we were, and was kind of anti climactic. Still, I can now say I've been to the Congo.
The next morning I left Nkwaji and headed back to Hillwood farm with Stuart. Like I said before, the farm is enormous, and there are quite a few large houses on it. Stuart, and a peacecorp volunteer have one to themselves. There are quite a few extra rooms, so I got myself a room in a villa for this past weekend. The farm also raises cattle and sheep, and Stuart gets a certain amount of meat for free. So this past weekend I had steak and lampchops, and really good ones too. The house we stayed in has an orchard around it with guavas, oranges, and avocadoes, so i picked those fresh from the trees each day too. It was a really nice weekend to stay the least.
During the day Stuart took me around the game reserve. All the wildlife in the area has long sinced been poached or killed for food. So the reserve is specially fenced off and antelopes, buffalo, zebra, and all sorts of stuff has been reintroduced. This area once had lion, rhino, and elephant too, but the farm has not reintroduced that because they don't have enough room. Rhino might come back though. Basically super rich people spend an enormous amount of money to come shoot them, and that's how the farm supports itself these days. A zebra costs 50k US to kill! Rhinos, if they add them, would be in the 200k US range!!! So some people have got a lot of extra money lying around. I was initially against this whole hunting thing, but it actually does quite a bit of good. The local communities always get a cut, going back to the keeping the chief happy thing, and this way at least the animals are back in the area, even if its just in a reserve. Hunting concessions in general also keep poaching down, because you can hunt legally, and the local people have an interest in keeping tourists coming to the area. So they dont' engage in poaching anywhere near as much as in areas where sanctioned hunting in prohibited.
Anyways, a little about the farm. The farm was started over a hundred years ago by missionaries from Britain that came originally to Angola. They came across the country and crossed the Angolan border and set up a hospital where the farm is today. The hospital is still there, and is apparently the best in the region. People come from Angola and Congo for treatment there, and its still run and funded by missionaries, from Canada mostly. There's also a prestigious boarding school on the farm. The school, called Sakeji, is ridiculous. Huge swimming pools, and air strip, modern buildings, science labs, its quite weird to see it in this far out location. Another really interesting feature of the farm is the footpath going across the game reserve. The footpath is hundreds of years old, and was used by slave traders to take slaves from the Congo to the Angolan coast. The farm still lets local people use it as they pass through the area from village to village.
Stuart took me into the reserve to the animals, and I saw almost everything they have, except the two really cool things, the zebra and sitatunga. Sitatungas are some weird antelope animal that submerges itself in water most of the day. I missed both because I was off looking at plants. There are tree ferns and iris all over the place, and i was looking at these when Stuart says he say the zebra and sitatunga. I was thrilled to see the tree ferns and iris though, and I don't care for a second i missed out on the animals. I think I'll be able to see at least zebras later while in Uganda. The forests in this area full out tropical, and really cool to see and hike through.
Well, after an amazing, relaxing, and well fed weekend at Hillwood farm I hitchhiked my way out of the farm back to Lusaka. Its been two long, not comfortable days, but its over. So now, I'm going to go to Victorial falls before I head north to Tanzania. I'm going to get an overnight bus or train tomorrow and spend a day or two before heading back to Lusaka and going back north. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow, and I'll post the links in another blog post. I'll probably remember a few more things I forgot to put on this post. All is going well, and I'm excited for Victoria Falls and a big bunjee jump.
Hope everyone is doing well, and Happy 60th to Israel!
Anyways, I'm back in Lusaka after a week in the Northwest of Zambia. After an extra day in Lusaka because of car problems the three of us finally made it out on the road. We drove north to the region of Zambia called the copperbelt the first day. Zambia is very rich in minerals, especially copper, and most of the countries revenues come from copper. This region is where the majority of the industry in the country is, its oil refineries, better hospitals, pretty much everything. The two main cities, which we passed through, of Kitwe and Ndola look pretty nice. They have wide streets, modernish looking buildings, and you don't feel like you're in a poor country. Just outside of Kitwe was the city of Chingola, which has copper mines literally on the edge of the city, which alarmed me environmentally. In Chile I visited what is the world's largest open pit copper mine, and the city next door was evacuated because of environmental issues. So I can't imagine it's too healthy to grow up in Chingola.
There are other copper mines being opened up all over this region and exploration is being done further north and west, where we were headed. Zambia reminds me of Chile in a few regards. They're both very large, sparsely populated countries, with tons of copper. Chile is the economic success story of south america, and while there are too many issues in Zambia, in my opinion, to see it reach Chilean economic levels, who knows. If the price of copper keeps rising, and there's sound economic planning, than Zambia could be pretty well off. On top of copper, there are diamonds, and quite a few other minerals in the area. In one city, just stopping to be some oranges, we were approached by some folks trying to illegally sell us some mineral i'd never heard of. Apparently, illegal mining is a big thing in the area. The area is huge, forested, and there's not too much law and order, so its almost an anything goes atmosphere.
At the end of our first day we pulled into a Chimpanzee reserve called Chimfunji, or something like that. There's a white Zambian family that decades ago was given some hurt chimpanzees that the police got while stopping smugglers from the Congo. The police gave the family the chimpanzees and ever since they've been rehabilitating sick chimpanzees from whomever will give them to them. Most are ones taken from smugglers from the Congo. The family is actually quite mean, don't like tourists, but need them to help pay for the chimp farm. Fortunately they hired a Zimbabwean family to run the campsite, lodge section and they were quite nice and very helpful. We came in late at night, and they got a fire going for us right away, and heated up water for showers.
The sunrise the next morning was absolutely incredible. The campsite is right on the river which divides Zambia and the Congo in the area. I'll post pictures tomorrow, so you can see how amazing the sunrise was. That night we saw this city glow in the distance, which turns out to be the major Congo city of Lumbambashi. It's a huge copper city, and the mines in that area make Zambia's look like scraps in comparison. The instability has prevented the Congo from really taking advantage of their mineral wealth, but that country is loaded with natural resources.
The next morning we saw the chimps in the reserve, and their pet hippo. They have a hippo that has been there since she was born, and is basically tame, which for a hippo is a heck of a thing. They're quite mean animals, apparently. The Zambian family was again fairly dismissive of us in the morning, so we left and kept on our way.
Our first destination on this trip was supposed to be a place called Hillwood farm. We didn't know much about it, just that it was supposed to be really impressive, and that the region was nice. We were hoping to get there that night, but the roads were in such bad condition we couldn't make much progress, and spent the night on the side of the road in the Zambian bush. The next day we finally made it to the farm, and what a farm it is. It's massive first of all, there's a game hunting ecoreserve in the middle of it, and it's as modern a farm as I've ever seen. All of this is great, but they were closed for tourists for a few more weeks. Fortuantely for us we met up with Stuart, another white Zimbabwean, who was working for the farm. He was just leaving to go to a different reserve, operated by the same farm, about 70 kilometers away. He said it was super remote, really pretty, had a river right by the site, and we could stay as long as we wanted for free. So, off we were following Stuart to the site called Nkwaji.
Nkwaji means Fish Eagle, in the Lunda language, the language of the local people, who are called, no surprise, the Lunda. The area is also being slated to be a hunting reserve, and Stuart is building fences and other facilities for the area. The site really is about as remote as it gets, and its just stunning. Semi-tropical forests, big grasslands, and just really stunning. The next day I went hiking in the area on the footpaths and 4x4 trails that go through the area. Went through quite a few villages, and just had a great time in the area. Stuart set up a canoe trip for the three of us for the next day with his workers. Stuart also took us to all these cool spots in the area, and was just thrilled to have company. He's been there for a few months, pretty much on his own, and was so hospitable to us the whole time we were there.
So the next day he took us to the nearby river and three of his workers came with some dugout canoes. It was kind of like Heart of Darkness light. We paddled through rainforest, mangroves, and some really nice scenery. We paddled a lot though, and mostly not straight. Dugout canoes are not easy things to maneuver, and a lot of the time was spent avoiding going into mangroves, and other places we could get stuck in. Going upstream was also not so easy, but was a nice workout. After paddling for about 3.5 hours upstream, we got to finally enjoy a nice cruise back to the starting point. For all of that time paddling, we only got about 20 minutes to float back downstream. We were stunned by how short of a distance we made paddled, but it makes sense with all the time spent just trying to direct the canoe in the right direction. It was a great time though.
Oh, back to mining for a second. Throughout my time up in this area I saw lots of light aircraft carrying drones behind them. Apparently the drones are surveying the area for copper and other minerals. Again, there is a lot of copper, and lot of people trying to take advantage of the wealth.
There's not much to do a Nkwaji at night, and Stuart has gone a little stir crazy in his time there. His main source of entertainment is shooting bottles filled with gasoline into fires. He's got this huge shotgun with him, and we spent our nights shooting stuff. Bottles with water we'd throw, like clay pigeons, and shoot in midair. At night we'd shoot these gas filled bottles, which made a huge blast, but at the same time the blast for the shotgun was enough to immediate extinguish the fire and the small fire we set up behind the bottle. It was a lot of fun, and I'm not a bad shot. I hit almost every water bottle in midair that was thrown for me.
So, after a few days at Nkwaji Tom and Omer wanted to continue further south in western Zambia, and I didn't want to go. I was having a great time being in Nkwaji, and I couldn't bear the thought of being in a jeep for a few more days. So, after talking to Stuart, I decided to stay at Nkwaji for another day and than go back to Hillwood Farm for the weekend. From there I'd head back to Lusaka, where I am now, and than go to Victoria Falls on my own. So Tom and Omer went off, and I hope they're having a great time, and stayed at Nkwaji.
My last day at Nkwaji I went hiking again, and found these cool fruits that are the root of a plant. The hard shell holds a really sweet fruit, which nobody could tell me the name of, but guarenteed me were safe to eat. That day I also took a half day trip with Stuart to visit the local chief. The local chiefs have to kind of approve everything, otherwise your bound to have certain problems. The thing about this chief is that he lives in the Congo. So, off we went through roads not monitored by immigration officers to the chiefs village in the Congo. Because the chief likes the reserve, and everyone knows that Stuart works for the reserve we were actually as safe as one could be in the area. We went the chiefs village, had lunch with him, and headed back for another night of shooting things. So it was amazingly cool to have gone to the Congo, but it was just an hour drive from where we were, and was kind of anti climactic. Still, I can now say I've been to the Congo.
The next morning I left Nkwaji and headed back to Hillwood farm with Stuart. Like I said before, the farm is enormous, and there are quite a few large houses on it. Stuart, and a peacecorp volunteer have one to themselves. There are quite a few extra rooms, so I got myself a room in a villa for this past weekend. The farm also raises cattle and sheep, and Stuart gets a certain amount of meat for free. So this past weekend I had steak and lampchops, and really good ones too. The house we stayed in has an orchard around it with guavas, oranges, and avocadoes, so i picked those fresh from the trees each day too. It was a really nice weekend to stay the least.
During the day Stuart took me around the game reserve. All the wildlife in the area has long sinced been poached or killed for food. So the reserve is specially fenced off and antelopes, buffalo, zebra, and all sorts of stuff has been reintroduced. This area once had lion, rhino, and elephant too, but the farm has not reintroduced that because they don't have enough room. Rhino might come back though. Basically super rich people spend an enormous amount of money to come shoot them, and that's how the farm supports itself these days. A zebra costs 50k US to kill! Rhinos, if they add them, would be in the 200k US range!!! So some people have got a lot of extra money lying around. I was initially against this whole hunting thing, but it actually does quite a bit of good. The local communities always get a cut, going back to the keeping the chief happy thing, and this way at least the animals are back in the area, even if its just in a reserve. Hunting concessions in general also keep poaching down, because you can hunt legally, and the local people have an interest in keeping tourists coming to the area. So they dont' engage in poaching anywhere near as much as in areas where sanctioned hunting in prohibited.
Anyways, a little about the farm. The farm was started over a hundred years ago by missionaries from Britain that came originally to Angola. They came across the country and crossed the Angolan border and set up a hospital where the farm is today. The hospital is still there, and is apparently the best in the region. People come from Angola and Congo for treatment there, and its still run and funded by missionaries, from Canada mostly. There's also a prestigious boarding school on the farm. The school, called Sakeji, is ridiculous. Huge swimming pools, and air strip, modern buildings, science labs, its quite weird to see it in this far out location. Another really interesting feature of the farm is the footpath going across the game reserve. The footpath is hundreds of years old, and was used by slave traders to take slaves from the Congo to the Angolan coast. The farm still lets local people use it as they pass through the area from village to village.
Stuart took me into the reserve to the animals, and I saw almost everything they have, except the two really cool things, the zebra and sitatunga. Sitatungas are some weird antelope animal that submerges itself in water most of the day. I missed both because I was off looking at plants. There are tree ferns and iris all over the place, and i was looking at these when Stuart says he say the zebra and sitatunga. I was thrilled to see the tree ferns and iris though, and I don't care for a second i missed out on the animals. I think I'll be able to see at least zebras later while in Uganda. The forests in this area full out tropical, and really cool to see and hike through.
Well, after an amazing, relaxing, and well fed weekend at Hillwood farm I hitchhiked my way out of the farm back to Lusaka. Its been two long, not comfortable days, but its over. So now, I'm going to go to Victorial falls before I head north to Tanzania. I'm going to get an overnight bus or train tomorrow and spend a day or two before heading back to Lusaka and going back north. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow, and I'll post the links in another blog post. I'll probably remember a few more things I forgot to put on this post. All is going well, and I'm excited for Victoria Falls and a big bunjee jump.
Hope everyone is doing well, and Happy 60th to Israel!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Post 6
Hi all, hope everyone is doing well. So there's a bit to write about on this post, so it may go quite long. First off, I'm writing from Lusaka, Zambia not Tanzania. I'll get to why later.
First, seder. Seder was incredible for a variety of reasons. The Friday before a family of five Israelis showed up in Nkhata Bay, so our numbers kind of ballooned a bit, but it was fine. We got a few more chickens, one of which I killed, and put on a feast. There were chickens, of course, potato salad, a cabbage salad, a bean salad, roasted potatoes, chicken soup, roasted peppers, etc.. It was a real feast, especially for a seder in Nkhata Bay. In the end we were 16 people, but we had a few dropouts, so we thought it would be even more. Mr. Chocolate was not feeling well, so unfortunately he couldn't make it. In the end every Israeli in town came, we all had a great time, and got a bit drunk. The five us of us who were cooking all day had five liters of wine before the seder even started. We had another five liter box during the seder as well. There was very little service or any kind of ceremony. We sang ma nishtana, did a blessing over wine, and just ate. The way seder probably should always be.
The funniest and most bizarre part of the seder was having four nkhata bay policemen show up saying they were there to protect us. What happened is that one of the Israelis in town, Omer, father kind of freaked out. He heard something on the news of a high possibility of al qaeda trying to kidnap israelis abroad during passover. He than somehow got the number of the Israeli ambassador to Kenya whom he managed to convince and somehow contact the chief of Malawi's police. Whom he convinced to contact the head of the Nkhata Bay police department to send some people over to protect us. We were really confused during the seder what the policemen were talking about, but had a good laugh after realizing what happened. Don't worry, we fed the policemen well too.
My last few days in Nkhata Bay were great as usual, and it was very difficult to leave. I had originally planned to go to Tanzania, than I decided I would delay that a few days and go hiking in the area. Than Tom and Omer got this idea to drive to the northwestern corner of Zambia. None of us still really know what is there, but its remote, and its more for the experience than a specific place to see. So Tuesday morning we drove to Zambia, and last night made it to Lusaka. Today is kind of an errands day and tomorrow we're off to this corner of the country.
I'll get back to Zambia, but I have a few more things to say about Nkhata Bay. That place is one of the most incredible places I have ever been to. The people are geniunely some of the friendliest I've ever met. Its beautiful and the pictures will not even come close to doing it justice. The people I met and the experiences there were special too. Mayoka village is an eden and its owners, Gary and Kathryn, are some very, very nice people. I got to know many of the expats and long term volunteers living there who cooked for me, gave me internet access, and made me feel like I was at home the entire time I was there. Mr. Chocolate is possibly the greatest person I have ever met as well. I'm exaggerating, but he was quite a guy. When I said goodbye he said I would have to buy him a phone so we could stay in touch. It was very tough leaving the place, and I very much hope one day I'll come back, especially on Tuesday which is when Mayoka has a free dinner buffet.
Omer has a jeep, which is part of why I'm going on this Zambia trip. It's a different way of travelling, and one I probably will no have a second chance to experience. Our trip to Zambia quite eventful. We picked up a hitchhiker who is a peacecorp volunteer from Colorado named Dan. He has a really interesting blog, malawidan.blogspot, if any of y'all want to find out some more about Malawi. He's doing environmental and sustainable agricultre projects in northern Malawi. Really cool guy, and told me a lot of info about agriculture and forestry in Malawi. Unfortunately it was almost all bad news...
Malawi should be a completely forested country. Very little of it is today, and much of the existing forest is actually replanted foreign trees. Many of these trees, Eucalyptus and Pine, take up all the soils nutrients leaving the soil in very poor condition. Most of the trees are cut for timber and also to clear land for agriculture. The wood is mostly exported to Mozambique, which has stricter laws regarding forestry. Malawi is a very, very, very poor country with 85% of its population in rurul areas mostly in small scale agriculture. Almost everyone grows maize and tabaco. On top of tasting like shit, maize has almost no nutrional value, and it destroys the soil as well. Tobacco, obviously, can't feed you, and it really destroys the soil. So why do they plant them? The government a few decades ago was bought out by business interests, and made its citizens grow these crops. There are other more sustainable and nutrious crops grown, like Cassava, but not too much. It gets much worse...
Today Monsanto, wikipedia them if you don't know who they are, sells Malawi its maize seed. The seed is genetically modified to not be able to reseed. So Malawi has to rebuy seed every year from Monsanto at quite a huge cost. The government makes the population use this seed through laws, subsidies, and a variety of other methods. They do it, because they get money in their pockets from monsanto, and pressure from the US govt. Everything I'm writing is what Dan told me, so I should note that I haven't investigated it at all. But he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. The tobacco industry money in govt. politicians pockets is the reason tabacoo is still planted as well.
Both maize and tabacco are going to starve the country. They destroy the land and make it more and more difficult to replant. The deforestation means soil erosion is much more commonplace, and landslides are more and more frequent destroying crops. The trees that are replanted also strip the soil of its nutrients making agriculture more difficult. Basically corruption, and evil businesses are going to starve Malawi. It was very frustrating to hear this, although Dan himself says he remains optimistic. On an individual level he meets people who are starting small, but progressive projects to change the nature of agriculture and forestry in Malawi. He realizes change has to come from the top too, but he's happy to help where he can on the local level. It's a shame too, because the average Malawian is one of the friendliest people you will ever meet, and they don't deserve it.
After dropping off Dan in Lilongwe, Malawi's weird urban sprawl capital, we headed straight to the Zambian border. We got a flat, and sure enough, we had a nice downpour a minute afterwards. Not bad, we switched the tire pretty quickly, and got to the border.
The border crossing was the weirdest any of us had ever had. We gave the border guy our Israeli passports, and a few minutes later he asked us to come to an office. We go to the head immigration guy's office where he says he has never met people from Israel before. I think that's bullshit, tons of Israelis travel in this area. He than asks us if we know Jesus. He than gave us a 20 minute lecture on how we have to accept Jesus, how he doesn't understand that we don't but we live in Israel. I can't even remember the lines he used, they were so idiotic. In the middle of it all, he stopped turned to his computer and started some solider shoot it up video game. After ten minutes of that he went back on his Jesus talk. Eventually he gave us the visa and let us go, but there were a few minutes when I really had no clue what was going on. Very weird and not really pleasant experience.
We got to a place called Chipata that night, just over the border and yesterday drove all the way to Lusaka. They speak widespread english in Zambia, and its most known for Victoria Falls. I may or may not get there. We're first driving to this remote northwestern corner right at the convergence of the Zambian, Angolan, and Congo border. Its safe there, no worries. We'll than make our way back to Lusaka and if there's time drop into Victoria Falls. I think we'll have time, but we'll see. Tom has to get a flight in a few weeks, so that's what's limiting us. I'd love to get to Victoria Falls, and there's a 100 meter plus bunjee jump there too I'd like to do.
After we get back to Lusaka I'm heading north for...Tanzania. I'll be taking a boat up lake Tagan yika to the chimpanzee park, Mahale Mountains, in Tanzania. From there I'll continue to Rwanda and Uganda. Having said that my plans have changed enormously, and I imagine they will continue to do so. I'm happy to be having some cool adventures, be travelling with some nice guys, and hopefully it will continue that way.
The other big news is that I have finally uploaded pictures! You can apparently view these facebook albums even if you are not on facebook. The following links should take you there, or you can view through my facebook profile. I've also loaded videos too, but that's only through facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097783&l=2caf9&id=2606069
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097784&l=c234f&id=2606069
I will be out of internet contact for possibly the next two weeks, although most likely less. When I'm back in Lusaka I'll post about our trip to the this northwest corner, which none of us really know what there is to see. Zambia's a beautiful country, so I'm sure it'll be nice.
tchau, Ben
First, seder. Seder was incredible for a variety of reasons. The Friday before a family of five Israelis showed up in Nkhata Bay, so our numbers kind of ballooned a bit, but it was fine. We got a few more chickens, one of which I killed, and put on a feast. There were chickens, of course, potato salad, a cabbage salad, a bean salad, roasted potatoes, chicken soup, roasted peppers, etc.. It was a real feast, especially for a seder in Nkhata Bay. In the end we were 16 people, but we had a few dropouts, so we thought it would be even more. Mr. Chocolate was not feeling well, so unfortunately he couldn't make it. In the end every Israeli in town came, we all had a great time, and got a bit drunk. The five us of us who were cooking all day had five liters of wine before the seder even started. We had another five liter box during the seder as well. There was very little service or any kind of ceremony. We sang ma nishtana, did a blessing over wine, and just ate. The way seder probably should always be.
The funniest and most bizarre part of the seder was having four nkhata bay policemen show up saying they were there to protect us. What happened is that one of the Israelis in town, Omer, father kind of freaked out. He heard something on the news of a high possibility of al qaeda trying to kidnap israelis abroad during passover. He than somehow got the number of the Israeli ambassador to Kenya whom he managed to convince and somehow contact the chief of Malawi's police. Whom he convinced to contact the head of the Nkhata Bay police department to send some people over to protect us. We were really confused during the seder what the policemen were talking about, but had a good laugh after realizing what happened. Don't worry, we fed the policemen well too.
My last few days in Nkhata Bay were great as usual, and it was very difficult to leave. I had originally planned to go to Tanzania, than I decided I would delay that a few days and go hiking in the area. Than Tom and Omer got this idea to drive to the northwestern corner of Zambia. None of us still really know what is there, but its remote, and its more for the experience than a specific place to see. So Tuesday morning we drove to Zambia, and last night made it to Lusaka. Today is kind of an errands day and tomorrow we're off to this corner of the country.
I'll get back to Zambia, but I have a few more things to say about Nkhata Bay. That place is one of the most incredible places I have ever been to. The people are geniunely some of the friendliest I've ever met. Its beautiful and the pictures will not even come close to doing it justice. The people I met and the experiences there were special too. Mayoka village is an eden and its owners, Gary and Kathryn, are some very, very nice people. I got to know many of the expats and long term volunteers living there who cooked for me, gave me internet access, and made me feel like I was at home the entire time I was there. Mr. Chocolate is possibly the greatest person I have ever met as well. I'm exaggerating, but he was quite a guy. When I said goodbye he said I would have to buy him a phone so we could stay in touch. It was very tough leaving the place, and I very much hope one day I'll come back, especially on Tuesday which is when Mayoka has a free dinner buffet.
Omer has a jeep, which is part of why I'm going on this Zambia trip. It's a different way of travelling, and one I probably will no have a second chance to experience. Our trip to Zambia quite eventful. We picked up a hitchhiker who is a peacecorp volunteer from Colorado named Dan. He has a really interesting blog, malawidan.blogspot, if any of y'all want to find out some more about Malawi. He's doing environmental and sustainable agricultre projects in northern Malawi. Really cool guy, and told me a lot of info about agriculture and forestry in Malawi. Unfortunately it was almost all bad news...
Malawi should be a completely forested country. Very little of it is today, and much of the existing forest is actually replanted foreign trees. Many of these trees, Eucalyptus and Pine, take up all the soils nutrients leaving the soil in very poor condition. Most of the trees are cut for timber and also to clear land for agriculture. The wood is mostly exported to Mozambique, which has stricter laws regarding forestry. Malawi is a very, very, very poor country with 85% of its population in rurul areas mostly in small scale agriculture. Almost everyone grows maize and tabaco. On top of tasting like shit, maize has almost no nutrional value, and it destroys the soil as well. Tobacco, obviously, can't feed you, and it really destroys the soil. So why do they plant them? The government a few decades ago was bought out by business interests, and made its citizens grow these crops. There are other more sustainable and nutrious crops grown, like Cassava, but not too much. It gets much worse...
Today Monsanto, wikipedia them if you don't know who they are, sells Malawi its maize seed. The seed is genetically modified to not be able to reseed. So Malawi has to rebuy seed every year from Monsanto at quite a huge cost. The government makes the population use this seed through laws, subsidies, and a variety of other methods. They do it, because they get money in their pockets from monsanto, and pressure from the US govt. Everything I'm writing is what Dan told me, so I should note that I haven't investigated it at all. But he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. The tobacco industry money in govt. politicians pockets is the reason tabacoo is still planted as well.
Both maize and tabacco are going to starve the country. They destroy the land and make it more and more difficult to replant. The deforestation means soil erosion is much more commonplace, and landslides are more and more frequent destroying crops. The trees that are replanted also strip the soil of its nutrients making agriculture more difficult. Basically corruption, and evil businesses are going to starve Malawi. It was very frustrating to hear this, although Dan himself says he remains optimistic. On an individual level he meets people who are starting small, but progressive projects to change the nature of agriculture and forestry in Malawi. He realizes change has to come from the top too, but he's happy to help where he can on the local level. It's a shame too, because the average Malawian is one of the friendliest people you will ever meet, and they don't deserve it.
After dropping off Dan in Lilongwe, Malawi's weird urban sprawl capital, we headed straight to the Zambian border. We got a flat, and sure enough, we had a nice downpour a minute afterwards. Not bad, we switched the tire pretty quickly, and got to the border.
The border crossing was the weirdest any of us had ever had. We gave the border guy our Israeli passports, and a few minutes later he asked us to come to an office. We go to the head immigration guy's office where he says he has never met people from Israel before. I think that's bullshit, tons of Israelis travel in this area. He than asks us if we know Jesus. He than gave us a 20 minute lecture on how we have to accept Jesus, how he doesn't understand that we don't but we live in Israel. I can't even remember the lines he used, they were so idiotic. In the middle of it all, he stopped turned to his computer and started some solider shoot it up video game. After ten minutes of that he went back on his Jesus talk. Eventually he gave us the visa and let us go, but there were a few minutes when I really had no clue what was going on. Very weird and not really pleasant experience.
We got to a place called Chipata that night, just over the border and yesterday drove all the way to Lusaka. They speak widespread english in Zambia, and its most known for Victoria Falls. I may or may not get there. We're first driving to this remote northwestern corner right at the convergence of the Zambian, Angolan, and Congo border. Its safe there, no worries. We'll than make our way back to Lusaka and if there's time drop into Victoria Falls. I think we'll have time, but we'll see. Tom has to get a flight in a few weeks, so that's what's limiting us. I'd love to get to Victoria Falls, and there's a 100 meter plus bunjee jump there too I'd like to do.
After we get back to Lusaka I'm heading north for...Tanzania. I'll be taking a boat up lake Tagan yika to the chimpanzee park, Mahale Mountains, in Tanzania. From there I'll continue to Rwanda and Uganda. Having said that my plans have changed enormously, and I imagine they will continue to do so. I'm happy to be having some cool adventures, be travelling with some nice guys, and hopefully it will continue that way.
The other big news is that I have finally uploaded pictures! You can apparently view these facebook albums even if you are not on facebook. The following links should take you there, or you can view through my facebook profile. I've also loaded videos too, but that's only through facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097783&l=2caf9&id=2606069
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097784&l=c234f&id=2606069
I will be out of internet contact for possibly the next two weeks, although most likely less. When I'm back in Lusaka I'll post about our trip to the this northwest corner, which none of us really know what there is to see. Zambia's a beautiful country, so I'm sure it'll be nice.
tchau, Ben
Friday, April 18, 2008
Post 5
I've had a lot of requests to write another blog post before seder, so here's a short one.
I'm still in Nkhata Bay enjoying this amazing place, but I think I'm ready to go now, or maybe not quite yet. I've gone on a few nice hikes, including one where I just started walking one direction with no idea of where I was going, and after going into a small village had a group of small kids take me along another path which led to a very nice beach. Since my Tongo and Chichewe, the local languages are basically non-existent, it was quite an experience in communication. I've read a few books, but mostly done nothing the last few days.
Seder is tomorrow, so chag sameach to all, and I think we're prepared for tomorrow. We have all the shopping done, but we need to kill our chickens today so they won't be so tough tomorrow night. We're making chicken soup, rice, and a few different salads. I'm also going to attempt to make matzah, and out of maize no less to give it a local flavor. I've heard maize does not stick together, so this may not come out all, but we'll see. There are six Israelis, including myself, who are here in Nkhata Bay for seder, so you can probably imagine what trying to plan it was like. In the end five of us are going to be there, and on girl has decided to no longer take part. While it's very unfortunate, and I still hope she'll show up, I feel like it was somewhat inevitable. It should be a nice evening though, we'll have about 12 or so people, including Mr. Chocolate:-)
I've just come back from the local immigration office here in Nkhata Bay, which was a frustrating experience. I came into Malawi on my american passport, and i've been using that passport everywhere so far. In Tanzania it turns out the visa is twice as much for americans and british as every other country. So I would like to go in on the Israeli passport, but the Tanzanians would see no evidence of me being in Malawi and would ask questions. I'd probably have to show the american passport and pay for the more expensive visa. So I went to the immigration office to try to get a malawian stamp in my Israeli passport. It took a half hour to explain it, and once the guy understood he refused, but not because he didn't think it was possible. He says in Nkhata Bay they are only allowed to give entry and exit stamps, and extensions on current visas. He thinks I can do what I want in Blantyre, a two day and 12 hour each way bus ride, but he doesn't have the power. I don't understand why one immigration office could do something another could not, and he was not able to explain it to me either and I think was just being difficult. I know I can be less than diplomatic if I'm in a completely illogical situation. I don't think I was rude, but I may not have helped my case too much. So I'll try using the Israeli passport in Tanzania, but I expect I'll be paying the more expensive visa in the end.
Final thing is that I've changed my trip a bit. I'm no longer going to volunteer in Mbeya. I've gotten hooked on the Rift Valley Lakes, and I've heard amazing things about Uganda. On top of that I've heard less than thrilling things about Tanzania, and apparently its the rainy season right now. So, I'm going to Tanzania, but just to the western side for their rift lake, called Tanganyika, and than continue north through Rwanda and Uganda. Rwanda should be very interesting as well because of the history, and everybody I've met who has been to Uganda has raved about it. So that's the new plan, and I'm excited about it.
On Sunday I'm either heading north to Tanzania or taking the boat on Lake Malawi to the next town north, a four hour ride, where Jonny Newton, the British guy who knows Natalie and Dave, is volunteering. I might spend a day or two there, and than do a nine hour hike to a town called Mzuzu where I can than get an hour bus back to Nkhata Bay. I would than head off the next day or day after for Tanzania. The hike is supposed to be amazing, and I'm very tempted to do this. On the other hand for the first time yesterday I felt like I had enough time in Nkhata Bay. I think doing seder will be a good way to finish out my time here, and I do want to move on. I think I'll decide tomorrow night.
Entao...thanks for the feedback on the blog. I was hesistant about doing it, but I've had great responses, and I appreciate that. Chag Sameach!
I'm still in Nkhata Bay enjoying this amazing place, but I think I'm ready to go now, or maybe not quite yet. I've gone on a few nice hikes, including one where I just started walking one direction with no idea of where I was going, and after going into a small village had a group of small kids take me along another path which led to a very nice beach. Since my Tongo and Chichewe, the local languages are basically non-existent, it was quite an experience in communication. I've read a few books, but mostly done nothing the last few days.
Seder is tomorrow, so chag sameach to all, and I think we're prepared for tomorrow. We have all the shopping done, but we need to kill our chickens today so they won't be so tough tomorrow night. We're making chicken soup, rice, and a few different salads. I'm also going to attempt to make matzah, and out of maize no less to give it a local flavor. I've heard maize does not stick together, so this may not come out all, but we'll see. There are six Israelis, including myself, who are here in Nkhata Bay for seder, so you can probably imagine what trying to plan it was like. In the end five of us are going to be there, and on girl has decided to no longer take part. While it's very unfortunate, and I still hope she'll show up, I feel like it was somewhat inevitable. It should be a nice evening though, we'll have about 12 or so people, including Mr. Chocolate:-)
I've just come back from the local immigration office here in Nkhata Bay, which was a frustrating experience. I came into Malawi on my american passport, and i've been using that passport everywhere so far. In Tanzania it turns out the visa is twice as much for americans and british as every other country. So I would like to go in on the Israeli passport, but the Tanzanians would see no evidence of me being in Malawi and would ask questions. I'd probably have to show the american passport and pay for the more expensive visa. So I went to the immigration office to try to get a malawian stamp in my Israeli passport. It took a half hour to explain it, and once the guy understood he refused, but not because he didn't think it was possible. He says in Nkhata Bay they are only allowed to give entry and exit stamps, and extensions on current visas. He thinks I can do what I want in Blantyre, a two day and 12 hour each way bus ride, but he doesn't have the power. I don't understand why one immigration office could do something another could not, and he was not able to explain it to me either and I think was just being difficult. I know I can be less than diplomatic if I'm in a completely illogical situation. I don't think I was rude, but I may not have helped my case too much. So I'll try using the Israeli passport in Tanzania, but I expect I'll be paying the more expensive visa in the end.
Final thing is that I've changed my trip a bit. I'm no longer going to volunteer in Mbeya. I've gotten hooked on the Rift Valley Lakes, and I've heard amazing things about Uganda. On top of that I've heard less than thrilling things about Tanzania, and apparently its the rainy season right now. So, I'm going to Tanzania, but just to the western side for their rift lake, called Tanganyika, and than continue north through Rwanda and Uganda. Rwanda should be very interesting as well because of the history, and everybody I've met who has been to Uganda has raved about it. So that's the new plan, and I'm excited about it.
On Sunday I'm either heading north to Tanzania or taking the boat on Lake Malawi to the next town north, a four hour ride, where Jonny Newton, the British guy who knows Natalie and Dave, is volunteering. I might spend a day or two there, and than do a nine hour hike to a town called Mzuzu where I can than get an hour bus back to Nkhata Bay. I would than head off the next day or day after for Tanzania. The hike is supposed to be amazing, and I'm very tempted to do this. On the other hand for the first time yesterday I felt like I had enough time in Nkhata Bay. I think doing seder will be a good way to finish out my time here, and I do want to move on. I think I'll decide tomorrow night.
Entao...thanks for the feedback on the blog. I was hesistant about doing it, but I've had great responses, and I appreciate that. Chag Sameach!
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