Today, we left to go on Safari in Zambia. The drive was pretty fun, however, it
was crazy to see how poor the infrastructure of this part of Africa is. We were on a paved road for about half
of the time that we were traveling, but once we got to the unpaved portion, it
was kind of rough. There were so
many bumps and it was amazing they put the bus through all of that. We knew that it couldn’t be good for
the bus and it definitely was not the most fun part of the trip for us as well.
Photo by Marie Freeman
Photo by Marie Freeman
The highway on the way to Zambia.
Photo by Marie Freeman
Once
we got there, Zion and I were roomed together. We checked out our accommodations and we thought that
someone had made some sort of mistake.
The place that we are staying at is called Croc Valley Camp. Zion and I are bunked up in something
that looks like a honeymoon suit.
It is a little cabin that includes three beds, a kitchen and bar, shower
and bathroom. It is really
nice. After seeing where we were
going to be spending the weekend, we decided to go around check out where
everyone else was staying. By far,
we had the nicest accommodations, but everyone was still well taken care
of.
The bathroom on safari.
Photo by Marie Freeman
The
main thing that stood out to me from the day is the difference between Malawi
and Zambia. When we crossed the
border, we were immediately greeted by a more mountainous and wooded
terrain. It has been explained to
us that Malawi has over forested their landscape and therefore do not have many
forests left. I also noticed that
the city that we passed through at the border, Chipika, had a much denser
population than any place that I had seen in Malawi.
This picture was taken in Chipata, a city that is about 20 miles away from the Malawi border.
It
is very interesting to see the difference in beauty from Malawi to Zambia as
well. I feel like it was more lush
and green than Malawi and when coupled with the mountains that made it very
pretty to look at. From all that I
could gather from the quick trip from Malawi to Zambia, Zambia has more opportunity
and is more likely to have a better economy in the long run.
Before
the night was over, we also went on our first safari. After being in a bus for about 6 hours we then got to spend
4 more hours in the back of a safari bus, which was very bumpy as well. Honestly though, that was really a good
adventure and the bumps weren’t too bad.
We got to see everything from some impalas all the way to lions.
Today we got up early and went to Wimbe village, where “The
Boy Who Harnessed The Wind” was set.
When we got there, we went straight to William’s house and he was
actually there! He was getting
ready to leave in a taxi to go to the airport and leave to go back to school in
America. We were so lucky to catch
up with him quickly before he left.
On our way to the Wimbe Village.
Photo by Marie Freeman
Today
was pretty crazy, because we actually got to see what everything in the book
looked like. We got to meet William’s
family, see the library that he checked books out of, and even went to the
trading center.
Us with William Kamkwamba.
Photo by Marie Freeman
William talking with us.
Photo by Marie Freeman
Exploring the village.
Photo by Marie Freeman
Blessings looking at the arrows that Williams grandfather used to hunt with. Photo by Marie Freeman
William's first windmill.
Photo by Marie Freeman.
Touring the primary school in the Wimbe Village.
Photo by Marie Freeman
Posing in front of the library that William checked books out from.
Photo by Marie Freeman
Overall,
the day was pretty good, but it was kind of overshadowed by the fact that I was
still dealing with the sunburn that I got at the lake. I got burned really bad, so the entire
day, my back was stinging as if I was getting bit by mosquitoes. This didn’t stop the entire time that
we were gone, so it was really hard for me to enjoy everything.
Nevertheless,
I realized how cool of an opportunity it was to be in Wimbe village seeing the
things that we got to see and made the best of it.
Looking
back on the day, I have come to realize how blessed I am. I am pretty sure that this is a typical
takeaway from a day visiting Africa, however, it keeps hitting me everyday and
I believe that this realization will permeate the way that I live for the rest
of my life. William made a huge
breakthrough in his village with the use of wind energy to create electricity
and he continues to innovate ways to use everyday waste for energy. The thing that I noticed today was that
his family was still living in the same place and in the same traditional manner
as the rest of the village. They
definitely had more luxuries and amenities than the rest of the village, but I
had this picture in my mind that they would have a nice house and be living a
luxurious life instead of still growing maize behind their house.
In
reflection on my time here so far, I consider whether or not I could see myself
living here and working here. I
have only been here for a short time, but I have a hard time seeing myself
coming back to a place like Malawi.
I have definitely learned a lot so far and will take back what I have
learned and apply it to my life, but for some reason, I think that I would
really struggle in this environment.
The weather is hot and the days are long. This response could be due to how packed our schedule is,
however, I think that it might be the same regardless.
My day began when I woke up at
8:16. I jumped out of bed quickly,
because I was going to go change money this morning with Nyssa and Ellen at
8:15. I quickly got up and we were
out the door. We had to get our
money changed because we were going to a huge market to buy fabric for the
girls. The bank took forever. We went in and were not sure what
exactly we needed to do when we went in, so we just kind of sat there. We finally were told that we have to go
to a specific window for exchanges, but it still took them a long time to come
and help us.
Once we got back, we left
immediately to go to the market.
When we got to the market, all I could think of was the bazaars that are
in Central Asia that I have been to.
The market was exactly like the ones in Central Asia. We walked to the fabric section of the
market and began browsing. There
were so many different vendors and they all had a ton of different fabrics that
they were trying to sell. It was
really awesome, because it showed all of the different patterns that most of
the Malawian women wear everywhere.
The dresses that the women wear are called chitenjes and they are just
like a wrap around of fabric. I
was overwhelmed by all of the choices.
I couldn’t even decide on what I wanted to buy for my sister, mom and
girlfriend. I wanted to buy some
of the traditional fabric for them as a present. I ended up purchasing four different designs and hopefully
they like them.
When we got back, we left to go to
new town. New town is where
parliament and other new government buildings are located. We quickly stopped and learned about
the first president and other things about the history of Malawi. It was really hot and at each place
that we went, we were told about more and more history. I quickly became tired, because I
couldn’t really understand anything that they were saying and we were all
standing in the direct sunlight at noon.
The group at the new parliament building.
The team at a statue of Banda and the clock tower.
Photo by Marie Freeman
After lunch, we went to visit a
family who does permaculture. I
didn’t know what permaculture was before today, but now, I want to learn
more. Permaculture stands for
permanent agriculture. They showed
us around the house and gave us a lesson on the resources of Malawi and how
they could be more sustainable. I
found this very interesting, because they were telling us about how to live
more self sufficiently while eating healthier. My parents are very interested in things like that, so the
entire time, I thinking about how I can pass on a lot of the information that I
was learning. Also, it was really
inspiring how much they have been able to accomplish and how much more sense it
made in comparison to what the Malawians typically do.
Kristof talked to us all about permaculture and cultural stigmas associated with it.
Photo by Marie Freeman
After visiting Neverending Food, how does what you learned
connect to the previous readings about sustainability?
Based on what you heard today, what would you like to change
about your lifestyle?
When
I go home, I do not plan on changing anything about the way that I live my
life. I loved everything that we
learned today, however, at this place in my life, I do not have the desire to
change anything drastic about the way that I live my life and how it pertains
to sustainable practices. I do
hope to share what I have learned with my parents and that will affect me while
I am home. I do have an interest
in living a more sustainable life, however, the many things that Christof talked
to us about today would not be something easy to change in my life right now as
a college student.
What is something that you appreciate more about your own
life since coming to Malawi?
I really appreciate that I do not
rely on the weather each year to produce sustenance for my family. There are so many Malawians who are
sustenance farmers and it is hard to see without it changing you. After reading “The Boy Who Harnessed
the Wind,” I realized how much they livelihood is based on what the weather
does. They have no back up plan
for when the rainy season comes to late and produces a poor crop. They seem to be stuck in a rut that
they don’t have any way to get out of.
On
our way back from Lake Malawi, I got to see all of the farmland again. This reminded me about how blessed I am
to have a grocery store that I can drive to 24/7 and I never have to worry
about whether they will have food or not.
It is times like these that it really hits me hard how much I take for
granted and how I want to live my life in the future in a way that isn’t so
ignorant to the issues of this world.
What do you appreciate about life in Malawi?
The biggest thing that I appreciate
about Malawi is the incredible people.
The Malawians have been nothing but hospitable and fun so far. There have been many Malawians who have
stopped us and welcomed us to their country. That is not something that people in America do.
One
of the ways that the people of Malawi are incredible is through their skills. They have blown my mind with their
ability to paint, carve, build, problem solve and do business. All of the artwork that we have see on
the side of the roads is awesome.
Then you see the carvings and there is nothing that you can say other
than, “Wow!”
Today,
we went to Lizard Island in the middle of Lake Malawi and swam around for a
little while and even jumped off of some big rocks. I got to take my GoPro with us, so I got to take some fun
videos with it of us jumping and swimming. I really enjoyed this time, because it allowed me to have
fun filming, while at the same time enjoying jumping off the rocks. Also, it showed everyone else what I
like to do in a practical way. Plus,
I got to try out some new ways of filming and attempting to get some really
cool shots.
A quick video that I put together from our time on Lizard Island.
After
going to the island, we came back to Cool Runnings and had lunch and drove back
to Lilongwe. On the way back, I
was thinking about the amount of money that I have spent and how much money I
have left for the trip. I only
changed $40 to begin with and I have already purchased a lot of the gifts and
fun souvenirs that I wanted, so that means that I still have way more money
left over than I could ever need.
I was thinking about how I can begin to take the things that I have
learned so far on this trip and the things that I have seen and use that money
to do something about it all.
However, I don’t know exactly what that looks like. Therefore, I will probably continue to
think about this and figure out what that will look like before we leave.
I woke up to a bunch of ants crawling all over me.
Cool Runnings view of the lake.
Also
on the way back from the lake, we stopped at a craft market. I quickly bought the things that I
wanted and was out of Kwacha. I
kept walking around and looking at what the venders had, but I was unable to
purchase anything else. Right
before we had to leave, I went into one of the stalls and talked to a guy named
Mike. I quickly told him that I
did not have any money left, so I would not be able to purchase anything, but I
asked if he would still show me the things that he has made. He quickly showed me and I told him
that he was really talented. Then,
I wanted to simply talk to him about life so that I could learn more about
where he is coming from and how he feels about it all. I asked him how long he had been
working in the business of carving and he told me 7 years. He then told me that he is only 19
years old and my mind was blown. I
looked at his necklace and it had a cross on it, so I asked him what it stood
for. He began to tell me that it
stood for the fact that he is a Christian and that he believes in Jesus and
what he did for the entire world.
I am a Christian too, so it was easy for me to relate to him.
Mike and I at the craft market.
Mike
taught me that it is great to believe in the Bible and what Jesus preached when
he came to earth, but it is something totally different to actually live it
out. Mike told me that he cares
more about glorifying God through his faith and what he does, than he does
about selling everything that he has carved. He told me that when he only focuses on selling all his
inventory, he is not bringing God any glory and that typically results in poor
sales. However, when he focuses on
glorifying God through everything that he does, the Lord provides for him. That doesn’t always mean that he
sells a lot of carvings or bracelets, but it does mean that he is relying on
more than just himself. This meant
a lot to me and I was able to get a photo with Mike to remember him by. Unfortunately, I had to get back on the
bus in order to leave, but before we pulled away, Mike came up to the window
and gave me a letter opener. He
hadn’t sold anything all day and I had nothing to give him, but he gave me a
piece of his inventory, which is his livelihood. I told him that I would be praying for him and his
business. We left and I know that
I probably won’t ever see Mike again here in Malawi. But I do know that one day everlasting, I will see him in
heaven as we worship God together as brothers in Christ.
Today was a busy day.
We got here yesterday and so trying to sleep last night was something
that I was worried about because of jet lag. I ended up waking up at 4 in the morning and was wide-awake. Nevertheless, I was able to sleep until
about 8 and then get up and get ready for the day. We had to be ready to leave the World Camp house around 10
because we headed to Lake Malawi to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The ride there took about 1.5 hours and
we drove through the Malawian countryside that consisted of many villages and
farmland.
Some local citizens of Lilongwe walking along a major highway.
A dugout canoe in front of the Cool Runnings beach at Senga Bay.
A local village that we passed by.
It
was really awesome to really see how Malawians live their life. It was also interesting to see how they
farm and make bricks and take care of their children. We saw many Malawians on the way there and they were so
friendly to us. They would wave
and yell to us as we passed by in our bus, because it was very clear that we
are not from around here. When we
finally arrived, we didn’t know what to do. We were on a beautiful lake with many possible activities,
but we didn’t know where to start.
I really just wanted to hang out and relax a little bit. We decided to go for a walk down the
beach past a local fishing village and interact a little bit with some of the
locals. It was kind of funny,
because some of them would just look at us funny and then others would actually
say hello and be nice.
For
the rest of the day, we all hung around the beach, played some games together
and relaxed. And to top of the entire
night, we watched the fireworks down the beach to bring in the New Year 7 hours
before everyone else on the east coast of the US.
We all stood on the beach and watched fireworks to bring in the new year. I took a quick 'star trail' and wrote 'Malawi' with a headlamp.
Today seemed like one of the longest days of my life. My day started on Friday morning when I
got up to go to work, only to stay up all night and drive down to Charlotte at
two in the morning to make my flight by six. We then flew to Washington and then to Addis Ababa. From there we flew to Lilongwe, which
is the capital city of Malawi.
Lilongwe is where World Camp is located. World Camp is the non-profit organization that is hosting us
and organizing much of the activities that we are participating in while
here.
Look at Addis Ababa from the airport.
The
longest flight was from Washington to Addis Ababa and it was between twelve and
thirteen hours long. I was really
surprised, because I usually cannot sleep at all when I am flying, but this
flight was different. I had the
ability to sleep for almost the entire way and it totally changed my
perspective on long flights as well as the entire trip over here.
I worked hard to finish The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind on the last leg of our trip.
The
highlight of the trip over here was seeing the landscape of Africa! I have never been to Africa before, so I
really enjoyed being able to sit back and just take it all in. When I am experiencing a new place, I
typically am really quiet and to myself and observe everything. As I am observing it all, I take in the
things that are different than what I am used to as well as the things that are
the same. It is through this
process that I begin to gain a better understanding and appreciation for the
new place and culture that I am in.
