does africa know a song of me?

Today, I went with 7 other people to visit the Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve.  This is just a little bit north-east of Ekwendeni, so it didn't take us that long to get there.  We left Ekwendeni at 5 am this morning... Holy cow, that's early.  I got to see the sunrise, though, and it was beautiful.  The park was also gorgeous - just like scenes out of The Lion King.  Awesome.  We went on three game drives with a guide each time (the first time he had a massive rifle... scary), and saw lots of animals each time.  There were always tons of hippos in and out of the water... just lovely.  We also saw kudus (a type of antelope), impalas, baboons, pukus, lots of birds and elephants.  My goodness did we see elephants.  On our second game drive, we watched an elephant by the water for a while... until he started to charge at us.  Good word those animals are big and fast when they want to be.  I was pretty glad to be in a vehicle.  I got some good pictures :).  On the third drive, we saw 5 or 6 elephants moving together away from the water.  They were in a little bit of bush, but we could still see them from the vehicle.  Eventually, this one mother elephant (who was with a baby elephant) off to our left started to charge at us, so we started to drive... except that the road went straight between this elephant and the other elephants.  Right.  This was even more frightening than the previous incident.  One of the elephants even trumpeted at us!  Scary.

But, I made it home and lived to tell the tale.  On the drive home, we saw the sun set and the moon rise - both as lovely as the sun rise this morning.  B-e-a-utiful.

Hi there, friends... It has been a pretty low-key week in Ekwendeni this week.  Hence no blog updates in a bit.  Sorry about that.  Work continues on... I spent most of my time with the AIDS Programme this week, which was really interesting.

Anyway, the exciting news today (about which I just had to write home) was that I saw 3 - not 1, but 3 - signs of Canada today.  First of all, I saw someone wearing a Hockey Hall of Fame t-shirt.  Then (this one is the best one), I saw someone wearing a Tim Horton's visor.  It took a bit to explain why I was so excited about this, but whatevs.  Still so cool.  And then I saw a kid wearing a Maple Leafs jersey.  At least he was cheering for the right team - not Ottawa :).  Even so far away from Canada, I am constantly reminded of wonderful things at home... like Timmy's iced cappuccinos and Boston cream doughnuts.

The adventure of the week was a trip up north to Livingstonia.  This place was an early missionary spot in Livingstonia.  Dr. David Livingstone was a missionary in Africa in the 1800s.  The first two missionary sites in Malawi were malarial, and thus unsuccessful, but Livingstonia - far in the north on a high plateau - turned out to be okay.  The mission station flourished, and the town still exists as "a small piece of Scotland transported to the heart of Africa", according to the Lonely Planet guidebook for Malawi.

So Paul, Julie and I decided to visit.  My friends, the road to get there is insane.  It is, by far, the worst road I have ever been on anywhere... in Africa, in cottage country... I think this road is even worse than any portage I've ever been on.  Mercy.  The view from the top, though, is spectacular - well worth the road.  You can look out over the lake and the hills, and it is just beautiful.  I woke up on Wednesday to see the sunrise, and it was awesome.

It was a very educational day... I felt like a tourist!  We took some time to take in the sites - the houses of the first missionaries there, the church, the hospital (once the largest in Central Africa), a famous bell, and the letters on the lawn spelling "Ephesians 2:14".  When colonial rule in Malawi was coming to a close in the late 1950s, there was a lot of political upheaval in the north.  The colonial government was worried about the Livingstonia missionaries, and sent a small plane to drop a message that evacuation was available if they wanted.  The missionaries were instructed to display a large "V" on the grass outside the church if they were in danger, or a large "I" if they were safe and wanted to remain.  The missionaries wanted to stay in Livingstonia, but also wanted to show that they were living in peace with their Malawian neighbours.  So, they spelled out "Ephesians 2:14" on the grass.  I'm not going to tell you what it says - go look it up.  Cool, eh?  The letters have since been moved to another piece of grass, but they are still there.

I have finally made it to the lake!  Paul, Julie and I went on our biggest adventure yet yesterday when we set out for Nkhata Bay.  We survived all of the mini bus rides that it took to get there, and spent most of our day on Chikale Beach.  It was beautiful, warm and sunny, and we even made it in to the lake for a swim.  It's been so long since I've been swimming - it felt good to be in the water again.  We had a lovely lunch at a lodge just above the lake, and did a little bit of shopping, as there were tons of wood carvers there selling their wares.  It was a fun, adventurous day!

Yesterday, Julie, Paul and I went out with one of the hospital's mobile clinics.  Because these usually go on into the afternoon, we stop at the market beforehand to pick up some food for lunch.  Today, we picked up two live chickens... These rode with us to the clinic, and were then served to us a few hours later - claws and all.  You guessed it - I am back on the vegetarian train for at least a little while.

This afternoon, I attended a choir festival put on by some of the choirs from the church.  It was a fundraiser for an evangelism event that is taking place in Ekwendeni at the beginning of August.  Let me just tell you - it wasn't exactly like the Ontario Universities' Inter-Varsity Choral Festival... no, not really.  More like a dance club.  My goodness.  The music was crazy loud, and there was tons of dancing.  Yes, even I got up and danced in front of people.  Quite a sight to behold :).  It was so very fun, though.  And, the singing and dancing were excellent!  These people have so much energy!  Today wasn't at all like the experiences I've had in choirs, but it was still wonderful.

Hello, friends!  It's been a few days since I've written, so I just wanted to reassure you that I am still well.  Today was a very lazy day, but I'm okay with that.  I went for a run this morning (yes, that in itself is an adventure.  Kids yelling as I run by, chasing after me, adults looking at me as if I'm the weirdest person ever... you get the idea), and then had lots of time to read my book, write in my journal, etc.  This afternoon, we went to watch the Ekwendeni Primary School football team play, and that was pretty fun.  Half the kids playing were playing in bare feet.  Hard core.  Also, when goals were scored, tons of kids from the sidelines ran onto the field, jumping and doing cartwheels.  Fun times.

said my friend Paul as we sat in the mini bus watching more and more people board. That's right, my friends - today was the day. Mini bus day. But let's start a little earlier than that.

Yes - I have two new friends now, from the UK, who are here for the month of July. Julie and Paul are both medical students doing internships at the hospital, and they are very fun. We laugh a lot, drink a lot of sugar drinks, eat a lot of cookies, stay up too late and have lots of fun.

So, this is Republic Day - Malawi got its independence 40 years ago today. We didn't have to work, so we decided to go to Mzuzu. We got a ride in with another ex-pat, did some shopping, went out for lunch and then came home... on the mini bus. Some of you might question my willingness to take a mini bus, but be assured that we used a little discernment when choosing our bus. We passed up the first one going to Ekwendeni, as the door was being held together with masking tape. Right. The second bus was in much better condition, so we opted for that. Don't get me wrong - there was serious praying going on as the bus started up. It was quite full by the time we left, and I think I breathed in a lot of exhaust during the trip, but we made it back to Ekwendeni safe and sound. Pas de probleme. Now that we've done it once, subsequent trips will be easy! :)

Today was my first real introduction to the HIV/AIDS Programme at the hospital.  There are some visitors from Presbyterian Church - USA here for a few days, so the AIDS co-ordinator was taking them around to show them different parts of the project today.  I went along just to see.  The project has 5 main parts: home-based care, orphan care, voluntary counselling and testing, youth, and a community AIDS resource centre.  We got to see examples of all of these today... pretty intense.  It was definitely an eye-opening day.  I am still amazed at how AIDS is affecting this country; it is mind-boggling.  It really permeates every part of life here.  I am also continually amazed, however, at how hard some people are working to combat the consequences of the infection and to prevent future cases.  Just incredible.  Despite some really difficult moments, today was full of hope.  People are working so very hard to change the situation.  Their faith, hope, dedication and love of life are evident and infectious!