Revolution!!!!

There have been many highlights for me in the last two weeks. One: last weekend Friday 11th Feb., I went with Elleana and my Boss and the Boss of my Boss to Lilongwe for a conference/meeting of the Association of Malawian Midwives (AMAMI). That was so inspiring!

The long journey there was totally worth it (also a highlight), I think by now (or how the Malawians would say: as of now) you must have realized that I just love to go on the roads in Malawi through the lush green maize fields with its beautiful landscape and scenery. Especially the way to Lilongwe from Blantyre is wonderful as you travel along mountains, through rich valleys and little villages with markets bursting with fresh fruits and veggies. thanks to the rainy season! When the bus stops you will always have a gathering of women and kids selling bananas, cassava, tomatos, soft drinks, airtime, and snacks like samoosa or chips. It is always a busy pile of people. The women carry their goods on the head, the young men and kids theirs on the shoulder and you can just lean out of the window and take what you want. First product then money is the rule and if you´re smart you have the right change otherwise you might pay more then you wanted. It is quiet hectic because everyone wants to sell something and it gets really complicated when besides the big bus also a minibus is stopping at the same time. I love to just watch the scenery, the shouting and selling and bargaining. That’s how you learn it best..

Lilongwe was as always relaxing, Elleana and I stood with Mark, my Bosses in the hotel. The meeting was fantastic! We had several presentations and a long plenary discussion about what goes wrong and what goes right in Malawian’s midwifery. Even the Minister of Health (Prof. David Mphande) was there to talk about how serious the government and the president take the issue of health. “The situation in Malawi is unacceptable” was one of his statements. How important it is to reach the Millennium development goals (i.e. maternal and child health, universal education, combat HIV/AIDS, gender equality, end poverty and hunger) is self speaking, all in all they want to improve the Malawian health sector with special focus on the education of health professionals (lack of skilled nurses, midwives and doctors is a major problem here, they just don’t get trained well). I didn’t know before that the first lady is the coordinator of the safe motherhood initiative and puts a special focus on family planning as well as preventing early marriage and alternative health care techniques. I think that’s quite liberal and regarding family planning one of the key points (together with education) to improve the situation here. There´s just simply not enough food, water, money, teachers, doctors or future objectives especially for all the children here plus because of HIV and tuberculosis there are so many orphans who never have a chance. It is alarming and the only key is family planning and education I think. Sounds tough but 5 kids in a family have more chances then 10, that’s a fact.
Under the motto: Malawi needs more midwifes now than ever before the plenary discussion was held. This bit was the most interesting one I think. All the midwives, if working at the bedside or as lecturers or in administration were pointing out problems, solutions, things which go well and things which go wrong. The motivation and attitude of the midwives especially in the district hospitals and health clinics seem to be a major problem. They are deaf and blind and don’t say a word, the picture of the 3 monkeys (one holding a hand over his mouth, the other over the ears and the third covers his eyes) came into my mind. While women are bleeding, delivering, dying midwives are sleeping, chatting or are simply not on duty. It is crazy, they just look away! Stories were told about cleaners delivering babies because there was no midwife, women and babies are dying because situations weren´t taken seriously or weren’t realized. It makes me really sad. They are numbed by all the terrible things they see every day, and angry that never anything changes. It is one way of dealing with this to react like the monkeys, just shut yourself out. So it was even more motivating to see the midwives on the meeting being dedicated, enthusiastic and act as role models for the new generations. It is important to have these ones on the wards, to benefit them, point them out and let them be an example! Especially one midwife really inspired me, Lennie Kamwendo, she has been working as a midwife in Blantyre for more than 30 years, never gave up smiling, never gave up trying to improve, always asking, always positive. She was teaching at the Kamuzu College of Nursing in Blantyre, one of my colleagues was one of her students. She wrote a book (Sexual and reproductive health, what you always wanted to know) I so have to get that! I am thinking of asking her to talk in front of the students here, I think that would be really inspiring for them. They haven’t seen anything else but the Malawian way, they don’t know how the labour wards look like in Germany, never experienced the work of one to one attendance of midwives like in Dublin, they just don’t know it better so maybe she can tell them what best they can make out of this. It is not all about high standard equipment, fancy beds with aroma therapy and harmonic colours and pictures of waterfalls on the walls. I think it is about the attitude, the smile of the midwife, the commitment and dedication to her work, her passion. Lennie I´m sure can tell us all a bit about that, to keep on smiling and being friendly when all around you women and babies are dying even though you try the best you can. She is a real midwife, an inspiration! I see if I can get in touch with her. It´s time for the Malawian midwives to stand up and change all they can to improve this situation.
Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera to the meeting so no pictures, sorry, but I try to get some send out to me so maybe later.

That evening El, Mark and me went to see the Black Missionaries in the Shak, and besides that the new volunteers have arrived! About 10 of them were at the concert too, they seem really nice! Unfortunately no one of them is coming to Blantyre. So I´m not the newbie anymore :)
We had a good night out with a lot of reggae and all the rest of it. The next day we travelled back to BT and I chilled the rest of the weekend with spending Sunday at the pool in this French place again. Nice!

This week then started quite busy for me with teaching every morning big lessons like the whole physiology of labour and puerperium. It is really getting into detail with four different stages of labour and then all the physiological changes after the baby is born. Interesting but time consuming! For me it is a good review and refresher, and now with a few years of practical experience it all makes so much more sense than when I did my training. Midwifery is definitely more practical experience and understanding of the individual woman than only the theory of how the baby winds itself through the pelvis and what can all go wrong. With my last lesson about psychology of labour I could round this theory up easily, is it not all about the approach and the attitude in the individual situation? I think psychology is 70% of our job and we don’t even know so much about it, only through experience. It is so interesting! I really start to enjoy this whole teaching thing!

But behind the walls of our college grounds people seem to not enjoy the teaching thing at all. This week were big demonstrations from the students of polytechnic and accountancy taking place.

Their book and study material allowances have been reduced by 25% now they are on the street. They have blocked the highway, thrown stones, damaged cars.
The police was answering with tear gas and clubs. Unfortunately our college is positioned pretty unfortunate between the highway and the other college so all the tear gas has also blown into our offices and lecture theatres so a smaller panic started with students running and screaming and even collapsing. Nikki and I had to flee in the bathroom to wash our burning eyes and mouths with water, man that shit hurts!!!!

The revolution of the youth is spreading over Africa! Of course it is not as serious as the rebels in Egypt or Tunisia but is it not also the government of Malawi which cuts the costs and closes the eyes while the president Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika drives around on evacuated highways with 5 Hummer cars and all police to protect him. What is he so afraid of? He builds big inland ports but doesn’t have the infrastructure, he sends out the Minister of Health to talk to us about reaching the MDG´s but closes down hospitals and colleges in the same time. So much has to change on this continent and first of all the leadership! It´s time to think liberal, the progress of time never stops and Africa is still stuck in the past, with old traditions and beliefs. Of course these shouldn’t be forgotten, traditions are important and hold us together but it is never healthy to close your eyes, shut your mouth and not to listen to anything else. I think Egypt is a good example; hopefully many countries will follow to finally be free, competitive and (real) democratic. I´m sure the problem with oil we´re facing and maybe even the peace between west and south, Jew and Muslim will then much easier sorted out. Think of John Lennon! Imagine!

last days with Andrea and back to daily life in Blantyre

It has been a while! It is already weeks ago that Andrea has left and I miss her still! Every now and then I find a little piece of paper with a little nice sentence on it, she hid them all around the flat and I still haven´t found them all. Our last days we spent together just flew by so quick, especially because I had to be back at work and we only had the evenings together.

I think she made the best use of her time checking out Blantyre´s stages (unfortunately the only one you can find is damaged with a broken roof since 2 years and no money to be repaired), sights and even went with a friend to a primary school a bit outside of Blantyre.

Of course we also met our Israeli friend Orr again for some drinks in Doogles and had great fun just the two of us cooking Nsima and watching movies. It were some great last days and I miss her terribly! Its unbelievable how fast 5 weeks just flew by. We traveled together to Lilongwe and saying good bye at the airport wasn´t easy as we both know it will be a while until we meet again. But she loved Malawi and maybe can come back again next winter. We even met a German midwife at the airport also going to Addis Abeba so at least she had some company.

After that I spend another day in Lilongwe with Mark and my volunteering friends based there. We had movies and Pizza, just the right recipe to make me feel better, Mark is so much fun its impossible he wont make you laugh. Sunday I made my way back to Blantyre together with Raz who was also in LL to visit his brother.

And then just after another week of preparing lectures and getting the final timetables and preparations ready, the students FINALLY arrived!! 50 of them, men and women, all of them quite motivated and interested. So finally my real job here started and I already had two lessons with them, they seem to be really nice! I started off with a few really boring topics like History of midwifery and legal/ethical issues and then an exciting one: sexuality. But they really worked with me and seemed to enjoy the lessons as much as I did. So all being nervous for nothing (as always) I actually start to really like this teaching business 
This week I will start teaching some more interesting topics: physiology of labour! I can´t wait, I love this topic! So I hope they can take over some of my enthusiasm but of course it is really a different thing looking at what you teach and then the reality of it. I think it is quite a difficult one to give them on the one hand all the information about for example pain management and one-to-one care but then on the other hand knowing in reality there is no way they can put this into practice. The question is, should I still teach them about it or just don’t waste too much time about practices they will probably never come across. I think it is still good for them to know at least what could be done, especially the midwife-client relationship and the one-to-one care! In the end no matter how busy it is and how understaffed the hospital is, still it is each of their own responsibility to give the best care they can and have a good relationship to their clients. The situation is horrendous as it is already why making it even worth by acting like a brick stone when it comes to interpersonal skills. Hope I can get this point across..
I read an article in the nuisipepala (newspaper in Chichewa haha) the other day about how the Nurses and Midwife Council of Malawi now started to close down Health Clinics and wards and even Colleges because of lack of accommodation, hygiene, equipment or low work standards. I´m not sure what to think about that! I mean in the end it is the government´s responsibility to provide all these basics but on the other hand I think it is good that the council starts putting up stricter rules for standards, work environment and education. But it is always just the tip of the iceberg which is paid attention to, the real problem for me seems to be the culture and beliefs of most of the Malawians and of course the lack of education which brings a problem in understanding the whole picture and also in developing higher standards. In the hospital I think this can only start changing when people realize that it´s not only money and working hours which make them suffer, no it´s also the patients who don’t give feedback. They never complain! So there is no conversation between patient and care giver and with that you can never develop any further. Yeah one problem leads to the next and it will for sure take a few more years for Malawi´s health and education sector to reach some goals and make some obvious difference. But raising awareness is the first step in the right direction, on any topic you want to think of. As soon as you know that there´s something wrong there is no turning back or ignoring the problem. For me that’s one of my aim, to make the students understand that they are the ones who can make a change!
But enough about problems, what else happened in these last few weeks?

Today Ash is moving in with me and Janet, yesterday was his leaving party from Ntcheu and it was a good party! Bob Marley´s birthday and dancing to reggae tunes under the stars in his garden, how much nicer can it be? I even came across a bottle of JURA whiskey, guess who I was reminded of?
But I am so jealous, these Malawians and their dancing skills, wow! No matter what song, there´s always someone having the best fun dancing with one leg up, ladies shaking their round bums and men starting the craziest moves across the dancefloor. The longer the party the wilder it gets but it always looks as they´ve never done anything else before! Its amazing!

Friday was world cancer day and Nikki, me and some of our collegues together with a lot of nurses and doctors went to a procession up the highway with one truck in the front loaded with older ladies who were singing and booty shaking to the rhythms of drums. In the end of this march of maybe 200 people and their banners, another car with speakers on the roof, playing Michael Jackson´s “heal the world” over and over again. So loud you could hear the song throughout the whole town and Limbe I´m surre! The walk ended with a few speeches and prayers from cancer survivors and of course a lot of dancing again. There´s this dancing group from the hospital, I´m telling you these ladies have rhythm! Out of any topic they make a song, teaching about cancer or how to prevent it, what the symptoms are and what the methods are which can be used to cure it. This all in a song, together with dancing and drums, I think its fantastic! The best way to raise attention. We even saw an acting group and although I couldn’t understand any it was hilarious to just listen to the melody of this language with all the “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee´s” and “iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeee´s” and “aaaaaiiiiiiiiiiii´s” I love it!
But the highlight of these last few weeks was definitely yesterday!

On my way from Blantyre to Ntcheu I accidently met a german couple in the minibus who told me that they are working in a missionary orphanage not far from Ntcheu and they invited me over to have a look and get to know their work. Of course I went, on the back of a motorbike, down the dirt track a good bit up the hill to my new german friends. It is amazing what they have started in a few years, of course there are a lot of orphans around and their aim is it to give them the possibility to go to school, maybe a training afterwards and be taken care of.

They more or less live on their own expenses, they have cows for milk and pigs for meat, maize for Nsima and vegetables all around. They even have a little health clinic and just started on a project to care for babies who´s mother had died during childbirth to give them the food they need and support the father and the rest of the family. In a country where only really rich people can afford to feed their baby with formula (what they by the way love to do just to show how rich they are) it is dramatic when the mother dies during labour. This baby will starve to death because there is no other possibility for a poor family to feed it. They cant afford formula now normal cows milk nor sugar or anything. So all they could feed would be water and maybe tea or a mix from maize flour and sugar cane if they´re lucky. I think it’s fantastic these people want to start this project! The other idea they have is to provide some sort of further education to the orphans once they´ve finished their school. In one hall which was just built a few month ago was a lot of furniture building equipment, even real machinery and proper equipment to learn how to build furniture and work with wood and iron. Amazing! I really enjoyed my visit there and will definitely come back some time. Besides all these wonderful things they do it was great to meet some more Germans and I´m sure we´ll keep in contact!

So that was pretty much all about the time since my last entry. I keep you posted.

Hanna

back on the track on the horseback

After a looooong week waiting for Andrea and Clara to come back from Mozambique and realizing that I had stressed myself for nothing coming back in time because either the midwife students have arrived yet nor Nikki needed the car back until Friday. I was so happy to finally see my travel friends again.

The last 3 weeks have been intense only together with them in the 4 square meters of the car so I felt quite lonely being in my empty flat in Blantyre, although it was good to see my friends again! We had a good dance night out the day I arrived! How to fit 8 people in a 3 door car is another story! Harry is the best!!!

But on Friday, after a 7 ½ hours journey in the back of a pick up truck together with 25 other passengers, a chicken and a guinnypick, riding over the most terrible dirt track with meter deep bumps plus rain showers (I also had to ride this one and although I was in a comfi car I had really sour muscles), Andrea and Clara arrived, as red as the earth covered with dust all over, smelly, tired but happy to finally be in Blantyre. What a journey!

Josefin, me and Andrea being reunioned with the jacobs star haha

And what a reunion! We went out for a bit dancing just to have a taste of Blantyre´s “night life” and to say good bye to our travel companion Josefin who had her last night out before she was leaving Malawi for good. Will miss her! But we had to hit the sack soon, the poor girls were just too tired..

Clarissa is getting tired...


On Saturday then finally we had a long lay in, oh yeah! With sour muscles and still a bit squirreled up we had an absolutely delicious king size breakfast with milk and eggs and even coco pops and NUTELLA!!!!!! Jummy!!! What a treat, they so deserved it and couldn’t believe their eyes with all the varieties and delicious things. Clara got her coffee, Andrea her Nutella, everyone was happy. In the late morning then we made our way to Zomba. We wanted to end this fantastic journey and holiday with something extra special so we decided to go horseback riding! Right on top of the Zomba plateau is a paradise-like horse staple with about 8 gorgeous fit and healthy horses and one fowl who´s owners are an about 50 year old couple from the UK living in Malawi for more than 40 years already. I think that is already so inspiring, they really are living the dream. A farm with horses in the middle of this beautiful nature. And Malawi gave its best with the sun coming up the minute we sat on top of the horses letting the fresh green glow in a golden light and allowing us to have a view down the plateau right through to Mulanje Mountain. So impressive! That definitely was a highlight for me so far, only the three of us in this amazing nature and our lovely horses. Mine was “ants-in-the-pants” Nick, a former race horse but now a bit older, still very fast but very alert to my instructions - thanks Nick it was a pleasure! Andrea sat on a relaxed and absolutely beautiful Frisian Zara, pitch black with wavy hair and suiting Andrea really well and Clara had a naughty cold blood who thought it was a race horse too and always wanted to be in front. Brian, our guide, and his crazy horse leading the way for two hours and we just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the silence. It was perfect! It is amazing how the plateau looks completely different now after the first two month of the rainy season. It is like the mountain has grown hair or something, meter high the grass and bushes, saturated with green over green over green, dotted by yellow, pink, purple and blue flowers and surrounded by the million songs of different birds. It is so beautiful it´s hard to describe. The earth is always dump what gives you this lovely earth and wood scent just what you need for a relaxed trip out of the city. This together with so close friends it can not get any better!

Time flew of course and soon we had to say good bye to our new friends and made our way back down to Zomba to meet up with Anna, Nick, Sandy, Trish, Mike, Joel, Ash, Janet, two other American girls and a Belgian guy for some Pizza in Domino´s. They don’t have much in Zomba but they have a good Pizza! It was a big crowd of people and it was really nice to finally meet Anna again!
We ended the night in a dance place called “G-String” but had to go to bed soon as we were all tired from the long day. As soon as I lay down it started raining, my god we were so lucky!

Next morning it was already time for us to go back to Blantyre, it was Clara´s last day so we spend most of it on the crafts market buying to much ebony carvings and chatting with the locals.

It was nice to check out how this whole business works. Basically the sellers are not the carvers of course although you see some guys carving at the side of the street but this is I think just to do the final corrections but mostly for attracting tourists to come around and buy some things. The sellers get their carvings from the villages around Blantyre, some even from places really far north. If you follow down the “Trade-Line” the real carvers only get maybe 50cent to 1€ from a carving the seller sells for 10-20€. They have to give most of the money to the guy who buys the carvings from the villages, it is not fair but still for the sellers a real good trade. So there are loads of them and all selling the same stuff. This is what you see a lot in Africa. A lot of people trying to sell the same things, I don’t know why they do that. Maybe it is just a problem with transport or it is the way it is, when my brother is doing this and it works I should do it too. Mmh..

I had a long chat with one of the sellers about that, he said if him, his cousin, his son and his brother and maybe his brother´s brother in law, the brother in law´s cousin, his son and the cousin of his brother in law´s father is selling carvings the money still stays in the family right? So they have the benefits all together. That’s both true and complicated so I don’t know if the western world just has a problem with keeping the family together or if we all are just to lazy to think that complicated. It was interesting anyway, I really enjoyed the conversation but maybe shouldn´t have. In the end the guy ask me if there was a possibility to get married sometime soon. Now I know about the business we could as well just start a family, I still don´t know if that was a joke but he looked quiet serious.

That evening we cooked some Nsima with fresh veggies from the market and had a look through all our pictures from the trip again. All the crazy movies, I´m telling you it´s hilarious and a gift to travel with actresses!

Clarissa left us the next day after waiting 1 ½ hours for the bus to fill up. So sad!!!! Now Santa Clara is gone we are terribly missing one in our group! After a bit of sightseeing we invited my two neighbors over for dinner. After all it was a bank holiday in Malawi, Chilumba´s day, celebrating the first president fighting for independence in Malawi I think, so what would be better then spending the evening with some Malawians. They told us hilarious stories about Malawian Music and other anecdotes out of their experience travelling to Europe. Couldn´t believe it can sometimes be so difficult to just travel through a country only because you are from Africa. But humor always helps so we had a very nice and funny evening with Jerome and his cousin.

These are now the last days with Andrea, my god I can´t imagine her leaving. What am I going to do without her?! I´m back at work and Andrea is reading her new play or she is going for little sightseeing tours with our new friend Orr from Israel who we met on the way back from Zomba. He was travelling in New Zealand and now in Africa for more than a year already. Of course he has a lot of crazy stories! I think this could be for ever like this, but I guess I have to slowly say good bye.. :,( We will go to Lilongwe together on Friday so you´ll hear from me again after that.

Have a good one everyone! Keep me posted what´s happening back home, I´m always curious!
Bug hugs xxx

Mosambique

Next morning in the little town Mueda, half way down to Pemba and at the Indian ocean, we got up as early as always, not only on our own will because as soon as the sun comes up the cockerels start shouting, the people start cleaning and running around and it gets so hot that it is impossible to sleep. Because time changed again it was just 6:30 a.m. when we were already sitting in the car ready to take off. But poor Harry didn’t want to start! What was wrong?! We were really worried about him because even with a push start he didn’t want to wake up. What was wrong?! Thankfully we found a guy who was able to speak English and help us to find a mechanic who arrived only 1 hour later with a car full of other guys who came with him for I don’t know which reason. Anyway the mechanic found out the battery was flat and also broken and kick started the car using his car. He told us to buy a new battery when we are in Pemba. So another point on the shopping list: get money (it is difficult to pay for rooms, breakfast, water or fuel when there is no money machine for 2 days and the only bank available in Mueda would need to apply for money which then gets send from Pemba and that would take 3 days), buy food and water, get a visa and buy a new battery.

We left Mueda at 8:30 am and reached Pemba (that’s about 300km away) at 5 pm. That’s how the travels go in Africa. First of all the problems with Harry, then we missed the turn off to Pemba because there was no sign and went 50km in the wrong direction and in the end a wrong information in our map about the street condition. The street to Pemba was supposed to be good but good in Mozambique obviously means pot holes and bumps all over the place, partially dirt track and as fast as you can go is 50kph. With all this extra ways and stop and go we ran out of petrol shortly before Pemba, even with our reserve of 10 liter in the boot we didn’t make it. Just for explanation, we haven’t seen a gas station for the last 3 days of our travel because we were driving around in the middle of nowhere to find the stupid unity bridge. So we had to find petrol somehow. In the one village we asked some women along the road who were sitting in the shadow of a tree. I pointed to the tank and asked for gazolina and the oldest lady (wearing beautiful traditional clothes, topless and her face full of wisdom, carved by the sun) showed me the well. She didn’t know what gazolina was, isn’t that beautiful?! She thought the car drinks water like everyone else.
In the next village we asked a young man who looked like he had at least a bit of knowledge about cars and we were lucky. He knew someone who sold gas so he went with his bike in front of us showing us the way to that guy. It took a little discussion to be able to pay with Euro but in the end we got 15 liter which helped us to make it to Pemba. It was a very nice village community and it didn’t took long until all the kids came to have a look and we spend some time taking pictures of them and giving them some sweets. Every time we´re going to buy some food for ourselves we started to buy little toys or sweets for the kids, it’s good to know there is a little bit you can give when they all come running at you and we don’t want to give just money.

Anyway we made it to Pemba finally. There we just went to the bank and then to our campsite, a beautiful place right at the beach, and FINALLY jumped in the Indian ocean as the sun was just gone down! The water was so warm, unbelievable! I never was so happy to see water before, we washed off the sweat and red dust and just enjoyed the lovely atmosphere in the sunset. But soon it was dark and we went back to the campsite. In the luxury of W-lan, clean hot showers and English speaking people, we were celebrating ourselves that we finally made it and this only because we have never stopped believing!!
For this evening we wanted to take off to get a nice dinner somewhere at the ocean, Mozambique’s coast is known for its delicious seafood, especially grilled prawns but oh no, Harry was sick again! Again he wouldn’t start, the battery was completely flat. But this time we had Russell, the south African campsite owner who had a look and diagnosed missing battery water and that it is easy to treat by just filling in some distilled water which we could get at the gas station next morning instead of buying a whole new battery. So we had dinner at the camp site bar instead and some chats with other travelers, nice and chilled out. We met a woman from Switzerland who had volunteered in Namibia for 2 years and is now travelling around Africa until next summer, she´s so right I just wonder how she can afford this. Anyway she told us a lot Safari stories and gave us some tips for beaches and nice places in Mozambique, but for me time is really running. 
Next morning we had a lay in till 7:30 and a nice long breakfast, then Russell suddenly appeared with some distilled water and our day was already perfect! We went to the immigration office to apply for our visa, they said it would usually take 2-3 days for it to arrive but after telling our sad story again the officers said they try their best to get it ready till 3pm. So we had 4 hours to spend and went to a beautiful beach which reminded me at nothing less than the white heaven beach in Australia! Clean white sand, turquoise water, palms, no one but us and some fishers and sun sun sun! Amazing! But it didn’t took long until the beach was full of locals who came by, sat down with us for a while trying to have a conversation in Portuguese, kids checking out what we were doing and young girls who wanted to know where we´re from and what we´re doing. It was nice but not much laying lazy in the sun. When I went for a swim I even saw how Andrea and Clara had a huge crowd of kids around them and all together were singing, jumping around and following Clara’s moves like birds, rabbits or snakes and made Andrea to dance in the middle. Because she is so tall she is always the centre of attraction and everyone loves her, it was fantastic!! What a great experience, the Mozambique people are much more opened up and chatty then the Tanzanian. Lovely people all of them of course!

When we came back to the office (full of sand and joy) we were lucky again, the visas were ready and FINALLY we had an official permission to be in this country! A reason to celebrate again so we had a nice lunch at the beach and a little shop around some local crafts and then took off a bit too late down south to the beach marked in our map as the one known for its tropical beauty. Soon the sun set and again underestimating the time it needs to travel only 300km in this country we arrived at the campsite Russell had suggested in Nacala at half past midnight that night. We managed to build up the tent in darkness, thankfully the night guard showed us a good place and the wash rooms because the campsite staff was already sleeping of course. The guard couldn’t speak any English and we didn’t know how much it would cost to stay here but anyway it didn’t matter, we were so tired and already in love with the place, beautiful, cozy little campsite with a few wooden huts and just a few meters from the beach. We could hear the waves when we were laying in our tent and went to sleep looking forward to the beach day next morning. This would have been my last day of the holiday. With the delay of crossing the border and deciding to use Saturday for my travelling-back-to-Blantyre day, we picked Friday as my “beach day” of doing nothing but laying at the beach and laying at the beach. Fantastic! But already one hour after laying in the tent it started raining and didn’t stop till we woke up again. But nothing can stop our optimism so we got up, had a breakfast and discussed the next move. Andrea and Clara decided to stay a week longer in Mozambique as they have more time of their holiday left and not much to do in Blantyre when I have to go back to work. We made the plan to travel as long as possible together and then separate where the street is splitting up into one going west to Malawi and the other east to the beach. This way it would be only a 300km distance for me to drive on my own. But unfortunately after all this eating and talking the rain still hasn’t stopped, that’s so much for my beach day! Bad luck! The only beach day and it is raining!!!!! Pepani.

So we decided to leave and drive a few km further south so the way wouldn’t be to long the next day. We made it as far as another 200km to the next bigger city, Nampula, where we went for dinner and decided to not drive at night again, last night was enough of that experience. Driving in Africa is already quite a challenge with all the people, animals and broken down vehicles on the streets, at night it is nearly like suicide because there is just no light and when cars a coming in front of you, they have either not properly working lights or their lights are so bright that you cannot see anything either way. Mozambique doesn’t have many streets, or ways you can call a street, but the few new ones they have, mostly along the coast, are pretty good streets compared to Malawi or Tanzania, with reflectors and yellow lines who guide you like on a landing strip, but that doesn’t really help a lot, if there is no other light but these reflectors and your car lights it just makes you drowsy.
So we stood here over night, we managed to find the cheapest but also worst and run down accommodation in the whole city I think, and went for our last dinner together. We found a lovely little garden restaurant with a quite European cuisine, what a treat!
And Saturday we started our last trip together and got up at 5 am to be good in time. Luckily the streets were good again, and even the bit between Alto Ligonha and Molocué which was marked in our map as road under construction was already finished and just at noon we arrived in a little town called Mocuba, a place which was described in the lonely planet as the ugliest town in Mozambique and advised to do everything to avoid spending a night here. Well yes it was pretty ugly and first thing I saw was a young man beating up a little boy like a dog, hitting him with his feet and fists, crazy! No we didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary here! I left the two backpackers at the bus station where they got a minibus pretty quick bringing them to another bus stop where they had to hop on top of a pick up to reach their destination Namacurra further south. I took off with the car on my own and as soon as I left Mocuba, although it was good to leave that place, I also left the proper street and went the 200km to the border on a dirt track with so many pot holes that I could only go 40kph. It took me not less than 5 hours, a period of going really slow because of a heavy thunderstorm and a stop because the battery got loose again. Besides the problem with the finished water it is also a problem that the battery is fixed to the car in such a provisorical way that especially on bumpy roads the whole thing is coming loose and bouncing around. Opening the hood on my own was already a problem because the spanner is broken and it needs one to pull the knob to open it and one to pull the hood in the same time. But I can get really inventive when I have to so I built a construction of bottles and made them to hold the knob pulled upwards while I could go to the hood. Of course I was not alone for long until some really friendly and helpful mozambiquean guys (I could tell I´m getting close to Malawi, so friendly people!) came to help and one hour and two lost screws who fell down because the guy was having a very shaky hand, the battery was fixed and I could continue my journey. I reached the border just 15min before closing time, lucky me and when I entered Malawi and soon saw the beautiful, impressive Mount Mulanje in front of me I knew I was home again! I was surprised myself about this emotion but it felt like coming home and already the fact that I feel this way about my new home made me feel happy. I think this way is the best way to enter Malawi, just through Mulanje, I can´t describe the beauty of this place! Every time I am absolutely stunned by the landscape with its lush green tea fields and then the mighty mountain, crystal clear air, not to hot or humid, just fresh and perfect. The sunset fulfilled the picture with turning all in a warm golden light and making the clouds weaving around the mountain top look like a bright yellow halo. So nice!
After this all together 13 hour journey today I was quite exhausted but Elleana, Kiara and Raz called so I went to meet up with them for a drink. Was good to see my friends again, they said they have missed me and we were dancing till the morning. So now I´m back in Blantyre and looking back the journey was exactly what I was expecting from an African road trip, a few bumps and stops but all in all a fantastic experience! What a trip! I have to ask Nikki about the km-reading when she left the car with me but I think we made more than 3000km all together. And Harry made it! He´s the best!
Wish Andrea and Clara a great time at the beach, we will meet next weekend for either climbing Mt Mulanje again or going horseback riding on Zomba plateau, but now I am looking forward to meet the new midwife students who have arrived last week and start my proper job as a lecturer in the college. Before that I have to clean the car, I think I remember that the color was usually blue not red-brown, get him smart for Mummy. My fridge must have been off for a few days when no one was home it is covered in fungus and the bathroom is under water again but I´m home. Hello again Blantyre!!!

leaving Tanzania is hard

We didn´t want to spend to much time in Dar es Salam as time is already running up for me to be back in Blantyre on Saturday. So we decided to spend our Sunday seeing a bit more of Dar and trying to find an internet café to check emails, update blog and some information about where to get a visa for Mosambique, when two young guys appeared who offered us to show us the way. We were a bit skeptic but didn’t want to be so closed up so we walked a while with them. Turned out that they were tour guides, it seems like every second person in Dar is a tour guide, and after checking the internet (thanks to everyone for the lovely birthday, christmas and new years wishes!) we went for some food. The two guys were still sitting outside and seem to wait for us. We said again thank you for showing us the way and took off, they followed us. After another walk of maybe 10min we said that we really don’t need them to follow us anymore. This all ended up in a big discussion. They seriously wanted $40 from us for the 4 hour tour! Ridicolous! We all got really angry, trying to explain that if they would´ve told us from the beginning that they want to earn a bit money it wouldn´t have been a problem, but because they tried to trick us they ended up with nearly nothing. They were also really angry and said they wanted more money. Unbelievable! We gave them 2000 Shilling and took off, that left a really bad taste in our mouths, you just start to think everyone is just trying to trick you and take advantage of you. But especially in the city live seems to be even harder for most of the people, so they try everything to earn a bit of money and a muzungu is the quickest way to earn money it seems. The city is busy, a lot of little and bigger markets, a lot of travelers coming from or leaving to the islands.
We tasted some sugar cane around the harbour, it´s tasting like a peace of sweet wood, you chew on it and squeeze out the sweet juice between the wooden fibres, when that’s gone you spit the rest out. Jummy! Then we did a little shopping tour to one of Dar´s biggest markets and had a little strawl around but we couldn’t really find anything useful. There were a few massai selling hand made jewelry but most of all you could find fake brands and plastic stuff, not really what we were looking for. It was just really busy and everyone tried to pull us into his stall, not being able to talk suaheli didn’t really help either. Well, after spending the last week in nature it is a bit of a shocker to be in the middle of an ants nest all in a sudden. We discussed our next move. The research in the internet and travel guides told us that we could also get a visa directly at the border to mosambique although some of the tour guides told us that it is only possible to get a visa in the embassy in Dar. But thinking of time and the stress to find another expensive hostel, YMCA was fully booked, we decided not to spend any more money and time in Dar and hit the road in the afternoon, direction: Mosambique.

So on the road again! We were in a good mood although it took us a while to leave Dar es Salam, so much traffic! We wanted to drive as far as possible towards the border until we get tired. But at 9 p.m. we were suddenly stopped by a guy on a road blockage in a little village in the middle of nowhere. The guy didn’t look anything but trustful! No uniform, no batch, we got really scared but had to stop, the road was blocked. He said we´re not allowed to go any further because it is to dangerous as the road is still in construction and there´re some gangs taking advantage of the slow moving cars and try to rob the passengers using guns and bush knifes. Ok, that was even more scary! The guy realized we were frightened also because he didn’t look anything like an official police officer so he took us to the little police station to confirm that he is a real police officer. A little chat with his colleagues and again telling our little made up story that we´re all engaged and will soon be married and are not interested to give our numbers to any of them the police guy found a little hotel for us close by. The three of us shared the room with one bed and a toilet without door. I´m sure we all dreamed of something with toilets that night despite the smell in the room, it was discusting!
We got up at 5am next morning to not loose any more time and kept on driving down south towards the border. The dirt track was really dirty! A lot of mud holes and stuck laurrys on the way, we had to use the 4WD again, and Harry (the name of the car) got really dirty! I loved it! 2 ½ hours later we couldn’t trust our eyes to see a tartan road again, no way we would´ve been able to go this road in the pitch dark so good the police guy had stopped us!
Another 4 hours later we reached Mtwara, the last bigish town before the border. From here you take another dirt track for about 30min and when you think this definitely cant be the right way to Mosambique anymore the track just ends at a little river. There are a few houses and fishers and that’s it. The border to Mosambique. From here you are supposed to take a so calles ferry, initially three wooden boats tied together with rope, some planks on top of this and on top of you’re your car. But there was no ferry and also no border police, office or anything where you can get a visa. So the border post must have been the tiny house next to the track we passed about 5km ago, a hand written post which said “Polisi checkpoint” and a road barrier (just a wooden stick), which was open and no person anywhere. That’s why we didn’t stop there, it looked like any other police checkpoint just without police men. Another pick up full of young men arrived who told us we´ve already passed the office. So we turned around and just when we left the little village a police car came storming towards us. Oh oh! They were already chasing us! The car was full of police men, they indicated us to stop the car and we all nearly feel like in a bad movie. Poor Andrea was terrified, she was the driver. The boiling police guy who climbed out the truck first came shouting at us that this is against the law and a crime to cross the border without stopping at the office. All we could say was sorry and that we didn’t see the office. He checked our passports (he didn’t ask for any driving license, I think that’s hilarious!) and gave us a real angry look saying “where is your visa?!?!” OH NO!!!! So we all went back to his office and had a nearly 2 hour discussion about that we didn’t get the visa in Dar es Salam because the embassy was closed and that we got serious information that it was possible to get a visa at the border. Unfortunately that was a totally wrong information! He said you can only get a visa at the embassy in Dar es Salam and started to write our names in a big booklet full of hundreds of names of people who were refused to cross, only for the last 3 month!! F*** !!!!
For some reason this guy turned out to be really friendly and helpful in the end, he called the other side of the border and tried his best to get a clear information but all he could tell us was that we have to go back to Dar to get a visa first. No no no!! Back the dirt track all the way back to Dar was not an option for us. So we had to think of what to do. We took a cheap hostel in Mtwara which was crab and made a plan.
Plan A: Go to the airport in Mtwara in the morning to find out about the price of a flight to Dar and back, phone the embassy to find out if it is possible to only send one of us back for arranging the visa and then cross the border a day later. Time loss: 2 days
Plan B: Go and find the mystical “unity one bridge”, another border crosspoint somewhere further west, around which myths are spun that you can get a visa there! Mmh very unsure but even if we wouldn’t get a visa to keep on going the dirt road further west until reaching the lake and take a ferry to Malawi of which we didn’t know if it is taking cars. Time loss: varies between 1 and 3 days.
Plan C: Go back to Dar by car, skip Mosambique and go back to Malawi the same way we came from. Time loss: 3 days and no Indian ocean.
Mmh! What a difficult decision. We decided to go for plan A first, got up early next morning, went to the airport and nothing worked. Flight was 170€, no answer in the embassy and so the plane left without any one of us and we changed to plan B instead. We really wanted to go to Mosambique and hope dies last right so go Harry go!! Another day on the road and after humps and bumps of miles and miles of dirt tracks out of nowhere a brand new tartan road appeared and on the horizon the 3 month old Unity one bridge, shining, new as if it was fallen out of the sky. What a strange picture, we couldn’t believe our eyes. I think so couldn’t the poor officers working on either side of the bridge, they must be so unbelievable bored working at a so fancy border crosspoint you can only reach when its dry and you have a 4WD. It just doesn’t make any sence! We were so nervous! What if we wont get a visa, what if it is way to expensive, what if we have to go all the way back again. On the Tanzanian side the officer told us no chance, we have to go back but we were stubburn and said we want to talk to the mosambiquian side first. The officer said good luck, only one time before someone was allowed to cross without a visa. That gave us hope! So we left one passport, crossed the bridge and talked to the officer on the other side. Smiling, as friendly as possible and a cold bottle of water as a present was all we could give. We told him a bit of a story, that the embassy in Dar was closed when we tried to get a visa, that we got the wrong information of being able to get the visa at the border and that we lost so much time and that I have to go back to Blantyre for my voluntary work as soon as possible as I. In these moments it is good to have some actresses around haha!
The guy was so moved by the story that he made the exception writing an official letter to his colleagues in Pemba and allowed us to cross the border under the condition that we have to go to Pemba (the way we wanted to take anyway) first thing to get a visa there. Yes yes yes!!!! We are so lucky!! We didn’t even have to pay anything for the car! I still cant believe it! We were so happy that we bought a round of coke for everyone, that also made the bored officers so happy that we left waving good bye to all of them and finally arrived in Mosambique! Aaaaaahhhh I felt like a DDR citizen in 1989!!!!
5 min down the road, still singing and screaming that we finally made it to the other side, the tartan road suddenly ended and became a even worse dirt track again. Only full 4 hours later we reached a little town called Mueda at 10 p.m. No lights, no signs, a few people and no idea where to go. We asked someone for directions in a mix of English, the Portuguese out the travel guide, some Spanish and Chichewa and he seemed to understand and gave us directions to the place we wanted tospend the night. We just couldn’t find it so we turned around and found him waving at us on the street. He said something like he could show us the way and because he was so tiny and about 16 years old we thought it is ok to take him in the car with us. After 20min driving we asked him how much longer we need to ride to find the hotel and he said only 2 hours. What?!?! That was a big misunderstanding what we still cant understand, for some reason he thought it was a good idea to use this opportunity to get a ride to the next city in the middle of the night. We turned around and found a tiny hotel in the end. Absolutely exhausted we fell in our beds. I still had to laugh about that guy who seriously wanted to show us a hotel in a city 2 hours away from where we were. But we are in Mosambique baby! FINALLY!!! I am excited what will happen in this new country, so far it already feels a bit more mediteranian, probably the touch of Portugal. And it is nice, although I cant speak any Portuguese or Spanish or anything like that, but nice to hear a European language again.
Hope we will keep on having that much luck and so much excitement as so far on our trip. 4 more days left for me till I have to be back in Blantyre..

how the new year begins

We finally made it to Dar es Salam, a busy and dirty harbor city on the indian ocean. Coming from nature it is quiet a shocker to enter this ants nest! But it is also nice to be back in civilization with running water, electrizity, shops and a lot of opportunities regarding culture, food or accommodation. Originally we wanted to spent New Years Eve here but because crossing the border to TZ was taken so long we were running a day late and only made it to Morogoro, a short trip from Mikumi. That was a real shame! Morogoro gave me the impression of a biker town. A lot of Arabic influence as well with a lot of Moslems and high unemployment rate. Like every town we saw so far in TZ it was busy, a lot of traffic and in this case a lot of motorbikes! We found our hostel better than we thought but in a neighbourhood which turned out to be a bit dodgy. We decided to make the best of being in Morogoro and not in Dar, in the end it is always exciting to be in a new city in the middle of Africa so we dressed up, put some make up on (what a feeling, didn’t do that almost two weeks) and dressed up a bit. We went to the little restaurant in the basement where we had – guess what – a power cut again! So the only food available was the one already cooked. Tasting a bit “overboiled” and “underspiced” but after eating crisps and dry bread in the morning we weren’t picky. We decided to check out the town to maybe find a party or a nice bar but that was a bit overreacted. All we found were bikers, busy streets with tipsy people and a bar with a drunken waitress. It was 10 to 12 so we decided just to have a drink here to say cheers for new years. We ordered 3 beers and 2 cokes but again that order seemed to be too much to remember for the waitress who was taking the order leaning over the table and looking with one eye to me and the other to Clara, this woman was really stoned. She came back with 2 coke and we asked her again for the 3 beers, she said ok, went to the next table and sat down. In the meantime it was already midnight and we said happy new year with our 2 cokes but around us there was happening nothing besides a little biker accident where the driver slipped driving around the corner and everyone just laughing. No celebration, no fireworks, just more drinks and more drunken people. It was really strange and we didn’t dare to move. After another reminder for the waitress we finally got the beer (brand: Kilimanjaro and Serengheti – I think that’s unique!) and were already ready to leave and go to bed.
But then a car stoped right in front of us and 2 Muzungu guys (about 18 years old) with a Tanzanian friend climbed out and we took the chance asking them whats happening here as we heard them talking German. It turned out that this area of town was not the best to walk around alone at night and that these two guys were brought up in Morogoro and that it wasn’t as bad as the impression we got so far. We were just starting to have a real nice conversation when a police officer with his mashine gun suddenly approached and told all of us in a quite strict voice that this is not the right time to enjoy ourselves and that we have to leave. The guys just took off without any discussion which made me feel really scared. Within 2 min we were almost the only people left on the street – it was about half an hour past midnight – and not even finished with our drinks. We took our bags and left nearly running back to our hostel around the corner. What a strange evening and a real messed up new years eve. We decided to just go to bed, but of course I couldn’t fall asleep very easy. I thought of my loved ones back home, mom and dad and my brothers with Christine and Nina. Together with my uncles, aunties and cousins celebrating in the snow of the Austrian alps or back in Gevelsberg, Worms, Hamburg, Celle, or Rheinland Pfalz. Nora back in Frankfurt with Tania and Nicolai having a big party I´m sure (she called me at night, so good to hear her voice thank you hun!). Simon holding the post in Marburg I guess with the rest of the gang strawling round the streets, having drinks and fun, maybe with Very also coming down from Berlin. Sandrina, Romina, Géral, Mira, Annike and Annika having a big party in Hamburg, also celebrating the home coming queens! Marlene and Alex still in Asia as far as I am up to date. Daniel probably singing all his beautiful songs in Dublin where all my other irish friends are: Charly and Phil (defenitely having a crazy party night that’s for sure), Laura, Rinda and Simpson, Miri and Bianca. My friends in England, Doro and Kristina and Amy I´m sure they all are celebrating in Newcastle in the snow. Sometimes I wish I could cut myself in several peaces and fly there, to all of them, just to give them a hug and a look in the eyes. Yes I miss you all guys!!!!! Very much!!
But I am in Africa and Andrea and Clara are with me that is so fantastic! This whole experience is! I´m curious what the next year brings or holds for me. The midwife students will arrive so I will get really busy teaching and supervising them, I am thinking of maybe focus more on the supervision bit to improve the system, maybe get a bit more control about their clinical placements so they can take the most of it. It all seems very unorganized without no structure so far. I might get to know some more locals and more friends, it is very exciting. So even I am getting a bit melancholic for New Years wanting to be at all these different places I am also very happy to be here in Tanzania, Morogoro, with my friends and living my dream of volunteering in Africa.
We left the bikers town earlier then we thought the next day after having a horrible breakfast consisting of 1 ½ slices of untoasted toast and a tiny omelette, tea without milk and no coffee for Clara. A full continental as we called it, a lovely new years morning brunch. Whatever off to Dar es Salam!!! And here we are now, in the big city of 3 mio people, with a lot of Arabic and Indian influence, former slave trading harbor, then ruled by Germans who built a big church and hospital here, then by the English who´ve improved a lot of the infrastructure and now one of the biggest cities in Tanzania. After getting a room in the YMCA we went for a little sight seeing tour in the city centre. We accidently bumped into a big wedding celebration in the St. Joseph´s cathedral for not less than 7 different brides and grooms. Some looking more happy some less, we were asking ourselves which of them married out of love and which marriages were arranged. Seven different color shemes, the first white and black, the next white and turquoise, the next white and green, then white and pink and so on. Some had a band stand playing more salsa tunes, others had drummers and singers to have more the African style with older ladies dressed in traditional clothes singing, screaming and dancing to the rhythm. It was a spectacle! Wonderful and powerful, even one muzungu groom with a very beautiful African bride, we were almost forced by the photographer to be on the wedding picture, he obviously thought all azungu present have to be related to the groom. That was good fun! In the evening we found ourselves a nice bar overlooking the harbor at night and here we had our missed new years eve with some nice wine and good talks, just a day later but still 1st of January 2011. It is good to be here and now I finally have a chance to post all my blogs and pictures so you know I think of you all!
Have a good 2011, stay good and come visit me!