Water

We got a half day before spending the afternoon finalising our reports for the concluding meetings tomorrow.

We ended up going down to the Rift Valley, I don't like to try and guess what the temperature was. Got back to discover there was no wifi, but much, much worse, no water. We are going out to dinner tonight with our Principal and the College Principal. Sigh! You really realise how much you take for granted at home.

Safari

On our first full day here, before we got laid into work on the Monday, we set off at 7.00am to visit the best park in Malawi. It was a long journey 2½ hours each way in the back of a van with sideways on seats reminiscent of travelling in a LandRover. We had been warned that the last half hour was going to be rough as it was off the road and we had to go up and down over dried up river beds. In the event, for me, it turned out to be the best part of the journey as we went through lots of little villages giving a real view of Malawian rural life and it was wonderful to be able to smile and make eye contact with the people and wave back to the children as we went through. Travelling through was a real eye-opener in terms of the basic living conditions that people face.

At the gates to the park there were some wee boys sitting in front of a house so I went up and asked to take their pics. They were an absolute delight, mucking around and giggling and wanting to see their pics in the viewfinder.

When we were told we were going on a river trip we thought we might see some crocodiles, as we had been told about them but none of us had any huge expectations of what it would be like. We were blown away.

Liwonde National Park is smallish at 211 square miles. Our day consisted of a morning sailing down the Shire River and an afternoon driving around the special fenced area of the reserve. We had lunch at the Mvuu Camp.

We chose the best time of year to visit with nearly all the water holes dried up, forcing the animals down to the river side. We saw, literally, hundreds of elephants in many different groups, some with all male, some with babies. The park has the highest concentration of hippos anywhere in the world and we got more and more blasé about sailing past yet another group. (In fact the group visiting the week before actually managed to sail over one rather disgruntled one!) There were zebra crocodiles, warthogs, buffalo and baboons and more types of antelope than I knew existed. Lots of stunning birds as well, eagles, kingfishers and amazing coloured things that I have no idea what they were in electric greens and blues and bright yellow. We got within a couple of metres from the elephants (even chasing one along the road!), crocodiles and elephants lots of times. It was just amazing. I've got some great photos, although I did end up taking over 1800 shots!

A fantastic day and well worth the discomfort of the long journey.

(Oh, and we have been working really hard promise! More of that soon.)

Sounds

The sounds are an amazing mixture. In the evening you can sit outside and hear the call to prayer, crickets and grasshoppers, distant party-goers all at the same time.

The smells are of wood smoke which permeates everywhere after dark,eucalyptus and warm earth.

People

The people have exceeded any expectation of the friendliness I was told about. You can see why Malawi is known as the warm heart of Africa. Everywhere people are so genuinely kind and welcoming and a smile is always met back warmly.

Even the lady on the plane next to me offered to invite me to her house! She was really interesting to talk to and it turned out her daughter, who lives in the UK, is considering studying medicine at St Andrews.

Arrival

Flying into the airport at Blantyre was a bit like arriving at a cricket pavilion. The viewing platforms were fully packed with families presumably not all waiting for people to come in but rather enjoying the spectacle.

The heat was the first thing that hit us coming out the plane. We had been warned about the bureaucracy at the airport so were prepared to queue to have our passports stamped.

The road to the hotel was like nothing I had ever seen before. So many people, either just hanging about or sitting outside small business run from huts watching the world go by. People selling ears of corn. I hope to go back there to take pictures, but I just absorbed it all the first time.

I wasn't expecting so many trees, and certainly not so many in colour. Vivid pinks and oranges (some sort of jacaranda I think) bougainvillea.

Internet woes

Apologies for not blogging. One of the first things that I have discovered since getting here is that the internet is very dodgy everywhere. I really understand now about the problems that people have here with internet bandwidth. Sadly, it means that the pictures I have taken to illustrate this are going to have to wait until I get home to upload.

As well as poor connectivity there are frequent power cuts, both planned as part of a nationwide energy saving programme and more haphazard. I thought in my innocence that the candle in the room was a nice decorative touch. At the hotel, the wifi seems to go down for a day or too after each power cut too, which is a real pain.

So here are bits and pieces that I have written during the week so far.

We arrived!

We arrived safely with most of our baggage, unfortunately so did the rainy season. Stepping off the plane we were hit by an oppressive heat but within a couple of hours we've been having some spectacular thunder and lightning and thankfully much cooler temperatures.

Poor Esther's luggage didn't turn up - it all seemed very mysterious as Jon and mine were checked through ok from Edinburgh to Malawi but Heidi and Esther's had to be checked in and out at Johannesburg. Still she is hopeful of getting it back tomorrow.

The hotel is wonderful, big rooms, aircon (yay!), fridge, lovely big shower and exotic wildlife -though thankfully only one of the latter in my room.

Malawi itself is amazing, I will try and get together some coherent thoughts of my first impressions and post them later.

Now I am going to have a couple of hours sleep before dinner - we've been travelling for 24 hours and even though I got more sleep on the plane thant others I am still shattered.