FAM in Malawi

The FAM (Father, Aunt, Mother – a.k.a. Mark, Candy, Cindy)) Travels to Malawi
Getting to Malawi
The FAM journey to Malawi was pleasant and uneventful. After the first leg (Bishop Airport, Flint to Detroit Metro to JFK) we found ourselves at a Holiday Inn Express in a questionable neighborhood in Queens. We cruised the neighborhood to find food and beer, found beer and went back to the motel to order delicious pizza. Love that East Coast thin crust baked in a hot oven. JFK check-in was fine; Mark bought 3 bottles (it was a bargain, it came with a messenger bag) of Jack Daniels at the Duty Free store. He has never done that before—perhaps traveling with his 2 wives drove him to do this. And surprise - they were jumbo size liters, not the smaller ones we get at home. South African Airways was great. Even the long flight didn’t seem that long, due to the fact the excellent crew supplied us with toothbrushes, wine, movies and fine food. Arriving into Lilongwe, we spotted Alyssa and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) Kelly waving to us on the outside balcony.

Lilongwe
Lilongwe is the capital city of Malawi. It is spread out more than other capital cities we have been in and people drive on the left side of the street. There are no little arrows indicating this anomaly painted in the streets . Initially, each street crossing was an adventure requiring the FAM travelers to reach deep into their brains to access their spatial abilities. On FAM traveler kept emitting strange “OOOH –OOOH” sounds during the street crossings. Guess Who?
The highlight of Lilongwe was running into and meeting Alyssa’s fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. While feasting on a huge avocado purchased from a vendor who carried a large flat box of them on his head, along with cold Kuche Kuche’s (the local beer) outside the Diplomat’s ( a Peace Corps hangout), several PCVs stumbled upon us with lots of animated greetings and smiles. It is a holiday break for them, so the city is full of PCVs who instinctively find each other. Margaret and her parents, Jane and Steve Sessa-Hawkins joined us on safari (more on that later); we first met up with them for lunch on Saturday, along with 2 more PCVs, Joce and Caitlin.
Our Lilongwe Hotel, the Kiboko Town Hotel is great. A true African Hotel, that caters to travelers of all varieties and nationalities. The best part is sitting in the upstairs open lounge area, with couches full of pillows and friendly strangers (Andrew from Britain, a journalist arriving to write about Nyika Plateau where Andrew works, anthropologists from Norway and Germany). The second best part is the breakfast served in the downstairs open air lounge area.

Saturday afternoon we went to local vegetable and fruit market. We crossed a 100 yd wide river on an elevated log wooden plank bridge to get to the clothing and material market. We took the better bridge and had to pay a toll. Despite taking the better bridge there was still a FAM traveler emitting the strange OOOH – OOOH call. Guess who? Hint: Not the same wife as the one who emitted the sound during the street crossings. After the bridge crossing we embarked on the search for material with which to make dresses. . The intensity of market with blazing sun, music blaring, and skillful negotiations by Alyssa paired with the desperation of the sellers, led to Mark finding shade and standing in the distance. Alyssa also bargained with sellers for greens and veggies. Coupled with some dressing and other appetizer-like food procured at Shop-Rite, our market purchases made a substantial meal devoured in the fKokibo’s wonderful lounge area.
Off to Safari

A seven-hour drive in a Land Rover on terrible roads was made bearable by Henry, the most competent driver ever met by the FAM travelers. Uniquely worded road signs were spotted "Give Way" and "Deviation Ahead". Both paved and gravel roads were full of people walking and biking on their daily routines of going to church (it was Easter Sunday), carrying water, logs, and all sorts of items on their heads and the back of their bikes. We saw dressers, four foot high log bundles, food, water, everything imaginable being carried on persons and bikes. The scene was reminiscent of the CROP Walk saying – “We walk because they walk. “

We arrived at Wildlife Camp, right outside of South Luangwa National Park, were offered a ride to our tent, but declined the offer and lept out of the vehicles to walk to our luxury tents and (they did have cement floors , toilets and showers in the back). We were not allowed to walk at night due to the animals (big animals that eat other animals —hyenas, leopards, giraffes, elephants hippos and baboons all wandered around our living space). Candy also was not allowed to go on runs or walks—she asked several times and got the same answer.

After settling in we went right to the pool, oval-shaped and eight yards at its widest, and immediately saw a hippo in the river (which our tents faced and so did the pool), an elephant on the bank, vervet monkeys (aka blue-balled monkeys), and yellow baboons. Since we could walk to eating area in the daylight. We took advantage of that opportunity. We met Conrad, the camp host, at our first meal. Before we were completely oriented to the place, but all seated at our table, for the first time, he said, “Now, that you are all relaxed, would you like something from the bar?” (Remember General Rainsford in The Most Dangerous Game?—could be an even scarier story with hyenas and leopards in the background).

Life at the wildlife camp included finding a gecko in the toilet, a toad on the toilet paper roll and hearing a hippo chewing on something outside the tent in the middle of the tent. And then there were the baboons in the backpack... It seems one F.A.M. traveler left her backpack outside the tent. Due to extreme heat in Lilongwe, the coconut oil used as a beauty product by one F.A.M traveler melted and was very attractive to ants, so it was put outside the tent to keep the ants from inhabiting the tent. The baboons really enjoyed the treat, dragging out not only the coconut oil, but also unmentionable pieces of the F.A.M. traveler's clothing as additional playthings. Late that night, the sounds of laughing hyenas were heard. Leopards killed four baboons (an act of vengeance?), ate what they wanted of the kill, then the hyenas came to clean up. Other pleasures of Wildlife Camp life were laying in bed listening to bird sounds and hippos in the pre-dawn hours and gazing at the night sky, especially the constellations of the Souther Cross and the inverted Orion.

A typical safari day included wake-up by the night watchmen at 5:00 am for the 5:30 transport to restaurant, leaving for safari at 6:00. Return to camp at 10:30 for quick dip in pool and lunch at 11:30, followed by naps/reading/swimming/jogging in pool. Return to restaurant for tea and biscuits, leave for evening safari at 4:00, 2 hours in daylight, with a “sundown beer” at sunset, followed by 2 hours of shining night animals. Return to camp at 8:30 for dinner and sleep. Surprisingly exhausted with no physical activity, except bouncing and holding onto grab bars in open-air 4 x 4, we ate heartily.

Animal Sightings: Our driver/ guide was for the safari was Philamon. He was soft spoken and incredibly knowledgeable about the natural world. He was able to communicate his knowledge with reverence and awe. The first significant, and also favorite, sighting was of humping hippos right in the middle of the river with their baby watching. Philamon politely called this mounting. We all watched for a longer time than we were willing to admit. We saw several crocodile with mouths open and learned that was the way they got rid of parasites. We will try to organize this into mammals/water creatures, birds and vegetation.
Mammals/Water Creatures: Giraffe, elephant, hippos, impalas (striped butts), pukus, bush buck, baboons, monkeys, lions, leopard, water buffalo, spotted hyenas, cervit, serval, genets, mongoose, civets, zebra, warthogs

Three kinds of storks, wooly, saddle bill, and open bill stork. Crested cranes, fish eagles, snake eagles, and more. So many fascinating birds! Lilac-breasted rollers, woodland kingfishers, sparrow weavers, yellow weavers, louries, oxpeckers, jacanas (they’re polyandrous—Philamon thought that was a bad idea but some of the ladies on board disagreed).

The elephants were of a smaller variety. There used to be 110,000 elephants, but due to hunting the population is down to about 9,000. The hunters went after the largest elephants, so those that survived to breed were smaller; hence a current population of smaller elephants. Sort of reminiscent of Darwin's finches.

On the last night safari ride, our guide heard about lion sightings on his radio and asked us if we were game (no pun intended) to head across the park to see them. We found a pride of lions stalking some zebra. The lions were so close to the safari vehicle, we could have touched them. They were pretty oblivious to us, because they were so intent on the impala. We thought we might be able to see a kill, but the zebra sounded a warning and all the animals scattered, but still on guard. Shortly after, we came upon a group of impalas all bedded down for the night except for the sentries standing guard on each corner of the field.

Between stalking a pride of lions in a high-speed chase, being threatened by an angry elephant, and star-gazing on the night drives, the safari was anything but boring. We are off to the lakeshore now for the next leg of our adventure.

Tiwonana!