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!

Safari (29. – 31.12.2010)

It wasnt easy to cross the border to Tanzania! It only took us about 6 hours and took the whole day we wanted to use for driving to Iringa, the door to our first Nationalpark in the Southwest of Tanzania. The first 2 hours we spent on the Malawian side, waiting for stamps, filling in forms and chatting to the police officer who seemed to like us so much that he gave us his address and phone number in case we have any questions. The older men are the worst, for some reason they just love muzungu girls, it’s a bit creepy! We had to pay 2000MK for the car to cross the border, unfortunately the receipt forms were run out so no receipt for us. Mmh hello corruption!
But compared to the time we spent on the Tanzanian side of the border this was just a preparation. The next 4 hours we had discussions, phone calls to UK and a lot of “slime-talking” to the police officers who didn’t want us to cross the border in a car we just borrowed and didn’t own. So I had to call Nikki in England so she sent a letter via email which indicated that it is her car and she lend it to me. Annoying!!!! Of course we payed a bit of money for the car and the visas and also for an insurance to be allowed to keep on driving. The insurance business was a bit of a nightmare, the so called insurance agent couldn’t speak any English and was also not really listening to us after we found ourselves a translater. He just filled in an insurance batch for the car and was about to pin it to our car when we had to nearly scram at him “no! we first want to know what is included and how much it costs!” He got really upset about that, so was Andrea and it all ended in a big discussion between three really annoyed muzungu girls and four Tanzanian guys – one wanted to sell his insurance, the next was translating, the next wanted to change some money for us and the next our phone numbers. In the end we just took the insurance and jumped in the car to leave this horrible place! Not the very best first impression of Tanzania I have to say. But soon after the border we were stunned by the landscape. More trees and as much banana farms as you can imagine. It also seemed to be harvest time, we passed hundreds of trucks loaded with bananas. These are the bananas you will eat in a few weeks in Germany or England so think of me haha! We were driving over highland again, overlooking the lush valleys of Tanzanias south, beautiful! We only made it to Mbeya just before nightfall, but had a bit trouble to find the hostel again! In the end a local jumped in the car with us and showed us the way, that was for sure the better solution because Tanzanians are not much better in giving directions then Malawians. It was already pitch dark, also because we had a power cut again, well we´re getting used to it, when we arrived in a cute little room which reminded me a bit of a skiing hut in Austria. We were lucky to still get some food and also to meet a very friendly Tanzanian man, Masoya, 60 years old, who was even able to speak German. He studied engeneering in Dresden about 30 years ago and married a German woman. But he said he is an ideologist so he had to come back to Tanzania and work here while his son and his wife stood in Germany. He´s married again now with a Tanzanian women and has another two kids. Anyway it was really interesting to talk to him and also nice to chat in German, his German was really good! He told us a bit about Tanzanian culture and polygamy, that it is not allowed but quite normal for husband and wife to cheat on each other. He called it “eating the apple” I think that’s a great expression! We didn´t really have the same opinion about this topic but it was interesting.
Next day we made it to the city Iringa, further north, only one day late. We decided to find an accommodation early, get the car checked and stock up some food for the next day, our first SAFARI!!!!!! We had a little wonder around the cute little town with its coulerful painted busses, busy markets and very basic neighborhoods where the kids were desperate to have a picture taken of them. Trying to find the impressive mosque which Germans built in the early 20th century when Tanzania was still known as German East Africa, I couldn’t really find much what still reminded of Germany (after WW2 the British colonized TZ and were probably still so angry with the Germans that they took every German thing away). The only German thing in Iringa is the street to the town which was built and sponsored by Germans, that’s what the owner of the restaurant told us where we had some traditional Ugali (same as Nsima). He tried to find a husband for Andrea and asked every taller looking guy to stand next to her after which Andrea always smiled and refused. The Tanzanian way is still something we have to get used to. They´re much more proud and self confident then the Malawians I think. We went to bed early, again with power cut, to start our tour to Ruaha NP first thing next morning.
On sunrise we were already half way down the dirt road (we decided to take the so called village road instead of never ending road, guess why!) and greeted the day in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nature, awesome! At 9 a.m. we reached the gate of Ruaha and as soon as we were in it didn’t take long until we saw our first animals. Two giant giraffes munching away right next to the street. So beautiful and so impressive! The day went by in seconds, Ruaha´s landscape is spectacular, mountains rise high next to several rivers, nearly all of them dried out, also wide grass areas and bush land spotted with huge baobab trees. All covered with new fresh grass. We saw elephants, giraffes, antilopes, hippos, jackals, many birds and even found one young lion who was chilling out under a bush. We were stunned by this beautiful country! Shortly before dark we luckily found a quite cheap “camp site” where we were the only guests. It was more like bush camping because all we found was a house with shower and toilet and another empty hut. The rest just bushland, no fence, no nothing. We decided to sleep in the empty hut instead of building up the tent and the guy who was looking after the “campsite” was helping us with a mosquito net and some lamps. Very nice! He even took us to the next village where a young girl cooked a delicious traditional dinner for us. We were the only muzungus, again, and after a while nearly every young man who wasn’t married yet was sqeezing into the small little house to see us and ask us hundreds of questions. We made another two letter friends, told a few stories about europe and had a fabulous time! Berthus our friend from the camp told us that he was also a guide for the park so we decided to take him with us next morning.
Again we got up before sunrise to make most of the day, we had 24hour ticket for the park and because we just started at 8:30 the day before we had another 2 ½ hours for this day. Unfortunatelly we had to wait at the gate again for some paperwork to be filled in by Berthus and only had 1 ½ hours left when we finally drove through the gate. Berthus told us a lot about animal behavior, trees and birds. But time went by so fast and we had to hurry to get out in time. Bye bye Ruaha! What a beautiful place!
On the way back to Iringa we took Berthus with us for a while to drop him at the village again. On the way there we saw a lot of Massai in traditional clothes, very impressive! Berthus said he knows a Massai village we could have a look at, of course we didn’t want to miss that! Unfortunatelly we weren’t allowed to take pictures but it was impressive anyway. A little village, simple but clean and organized was found in the bushland. A Massai came to greet us, he was dressed in a knee long red material wraped around the hip and shoulder, fixed at the waiste with a leather belt. He had a bush knife on it. The spire was missing but his earlobes had huge holes in it and his face was proud with deep dark eyes. He had such a pride, wisdom, an aura of centrednes, its hard to describe. We talked for a few minutes with Berthus translating but then we left, it didn’t seem appropriate to nose around them. It was a great experience, I think the inner instinct of being a hunter gatherer wakes up when you come across such an impressive native tribe.

We talked a lot about this experience on our way back to Iringa. We just filled up our valets and food reserves and went back on the road to the little trucker town Mikumi, on the border to Mikumi NP. We survived the trip down the serpentines in the night because what we thought would only take 1 ½ hours for 100km took 3 in the end because of road blocks and bad street condition. We found a little motel and after an almost sleepless night because it was way to hot, noisy and uncomfortable we got up again at 5 a.m. to reach the NP right when the gate´s open. The highway goes right through the park so already on the way there we saw antilopes and elephants in the dawn. Mikumi NP is much more crowded with giraffes and elephants then Ruaha. This time we took a guide right from the beginning hoping that she would know where the lions or leopards are but Mary, our guide, said its all about luck. We spent the whole day driving around. This NP is also called little Serengeti and is only flat bushland with a dried out river running through it. It is surrounded by mountains which you can see on the horizon. A typical African landscapes, yellow grass and some bushes, a few baobab trees and everywhere khudus, zebras, buffalos, giraffes, elephants and gnus. Luckily we found a lion which was sleeping under a tree and to see it we had to go off road again, Mary was really afraid that she would loose her job when we get cought. She said Mufasa was already 15 years old, impressive! Later on we came down the same road again and he was still there chilling under the tree, a zebra family was crossing quite close and the first one got a real shock when she saw the lion. It was an interesting scenery. The zebra seemed not so sure if the lion is hungry or not, it went closer, ran away, turned around again just to run away again. Funny! In the end the lion got up and went away, he was obviously not really interested. I am sure he has a few lionesses who are hunting for him, or he just had a big meal. We saw a few skeletons of animals anyway..

I am so in love with Africa! The nature, the people, the animals! And it is so perfect to share all this with my friends, we really have a great time, a lot of laughing and now the new year can come! Although I am not so sure about Tanzania. It is a beautiful country that’s for sure! The landscape is breathtaking, lush and absolutely beautiful but I am not so sure yet about the people. Not many can talk English and seem to be also a bit disappointed when they realize that we don’t speak suaheli, but what shocks me the most is that the speed of work and motivation is even slower and lower than in Malawi. After leaving the park we wanted to take our bags, we left at the reception to have some more space for Mary, and leave but the key for the luggage room was with someone who seemed to already have went home. Why? I don’t know, so we went to have a coke at the little bar. There was no one but us and the lady who was serving us was more asleep then awake. We ordered three cokes and Clara asked if she could have a coffee or hot water to use her coffee powder. She said there was no hot water and over this two min conversation she forgot that we had also ordered the coke and started to rearrange the fridge in slow motion and with no motivation what so ever. After about 15min we said that we ordered three cokes a while ago, just with a sigh she went to the fridge and brought us one coke. “Thanks but we need another two” we said so she came back with another one. Asking her again for the last coke the order was complete after only 30min. It was hilarious and a little bit strange. During this time of waiting for our cokes the guy arrived with the key and we could finally take off to our New Years Eve destination Morogoro because there was no chance that we could make it to Daressalam.
A HAPPY NEW YEAR EVRYONE!!!!!

Road trip Malawi

In the end I even counted the minutes until Andreas arrival, I was so looking forward finally seeing her and then was so scared that the snow in Europe would be against us. While more than 20cm snow was falling on Germany I was sweating in the car on the way to Lilongwe together with Hazel and Nikki. Nikki took a plane Saturday afternoon off to UK and she really had a problem getting back there. I think she spent one or even two days in Addis Abeba not able to fly into Heathrow, poor thing!
I was staying with Mark in Lilongwe and we had a great time shopping, a crazy night out with Hazel and some other volunteers where we tried to have some dance competition with Malawians - of course we lost – and visiting friends. On Monday then FINALLY with only two hours behind schedule Andrea and Clara arrived in Lilongwe Kamuzu Airport looking very white and pretty tired. They had an ok journey and left Frankfurt despite the snow right on time. I was soooooo happy to see them, it is so good to be able to share a bit of this with someone so close like Andrea!
We spent two lovely days in Lilongwe, even Raz came up for a visit and brought us to the village he used to spend a lot of his childhood to meet his grandmom, auntie, uncle and cousins and pretty much the rest of the village too. We brought some presents for Christmas and the kids were thrilled, it was an interesting experience to be so close to real village life. Raz lost his mom when he was 15 and after that his dad started drinking and lost his job in the government so Raz moved to his aunt and uncle. They still lived in Lilongwe that time but spent a lot of time in the village to see the grandmom. He left all of them when he was about 18 when his dad died as well and the family couldn’t take care of him anymore. He had to stop college and moved to Blantyre trying to make a living somehow. It has been 10 years since the last time he´s been back.
It was a real good surprise, his granny didn’t know he was coming and she was so happy! We had a little tour to the fields where they grow maize and sometimes beans. It was fantastic! Raz´ uncle and cousin just came back from the field and didn’t even recognize him in the first moment, his cousin was 3 when Raz left. First of all they went to put on some nicer clothes I thought that was really sweet, then we had some Nsima and a tour through the house. They live really basic, a little hut with the kitchen in an extra hut outside, just a fireplace with some pots, then also an extra bathroom hut (don’t want to go into details here..) Raz said they were so happy to see him and also that we came along, we can come back any time we want. So friendly, open and lovely people!

That afternoon then we picked up Josefin (another German volunteer – teaching – who is coming with us for Christmas) and started our trip to the east, destination: lake shore!!! We just came as far as Nkhotakhota and found a lovely little backpacker runed by a former South African, Siegfried, about 65 years old and in Malawi since 2003. He told us a few stories about the house which was built by a Malawian who just liked to build houses without even being an architect. The house was interesting with a huge terrace and very open built, no doors, only the rooms had doors, and directly at the lake shore. A beautiful place to celebrate into my birthday! We had a nice dinner with some wine together with Siegfried. But already at 10 o´clock I was so tired that I went to sleep. Midnight on the spot suddenly three girls were waking me up again with a “cake” topped with candles and singing “happy birthday”, how lovely! It is so good to have friends around!! Of course also my family called and I had a chance to also wish Paul a happy birthday.
The next morning we all went to the beach where we were the only Muzungus and just chilled out in the sun, we actually all got a bit to much sun. For a while a Malawian guy decided to have a chat with us underneath the grass umbrella, he was maybe 30 years old. Unfortunately all he could speak was Chichewa. Without any success of course, Josie and me tried best to tell him that we don’t feel very comfortable with him sitting there staring at us. I think he tried to tell us about himself, his job, that he goes to church a lot and how well known he is in the village. After maybe 45 min of unsatisfying conversation he realized that there is no point talking to us so he took his trousers off and went swimming. We really didn’t understand what this was all about but it was funny anyway.
At 3 p.m. we left this beautiful place, slightly red, heading towards Chinteche where we found another nice hostel at the beach. And because it was my birthday – still – we took a family dorm with two rooms, toilet, a terrace and a few roommates like spiders and some chicken on the terrace. After a good dinner we went to sleep what a wonderful birthday!

Next day, Christmas, we went to Rumphi. We left the lake shore and took a wonderful way through the juicy forests in the north of Malawi towards the Nyika plateau. Here the landscape becomes more rocky and wild. The road gets much wilder too, a lot of pot holes, so slalom driving is a must. We arrived Rumphi close to night fall, and met with Ling, Diana, James, Marianna and Wilson (almost all VSO vols who I don’t see very much because they´re so far in the north) and we all had a lovely evening with Pizza, Lasagne, christmas songs and a game from each country - England, Germany and Holland. We had to take a paper box with our teeth from the ground which got smaller and smaller each go without using our hands, we had to put nails on ropes tied around our waste into bottles and also a game of panthomine, very funny!

The next morning we tried to leave early and decided not to go into the Nyika National Park and see Livingstonia and the waterfalls instead. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do both because Marianne told us that the streets we wanted to take didn’t exist anymore. So we took the M1 again further north just to find out that also the turn off to Livingstonia was closed. This was unacceptable! We didn’t drive all the way here just to neither see Niyka NP nor Livingstonia so we turned around and used a dirt track some locals told us about. It was a 2 ½ hour ride over the hills and mountains of Nyika plateau and absolutely stunning! The fresh green in combination with rich red glowing earth, real Africa! The views were breathtaking, most of the time we were on the grade of the mountain spine, left and right of us the valleys full of guava and coffee. Livingstonia lays quite high in the middle of nowhere. Overlooking the mountains with the lake at the horizon. Beautiful! I am so in love with Africa! Livingstonia is a university town, well organized, founded by David Lovingstone around 1920 as one of the first missionaries in Malawi. He first tried to found a mission at the lake shores but nearly everyone died of Malaria so he decided to move higher up and found this beautiful spot. We took a room in the stone house and hired a guide, Thomas, a local, tiny guy who showed us the waterfalls and the university. We were the only guests and as the uni was closed over the Christmas holidays and a lot of locals left to visit their families it was really quiet and relaxed. A peaceful and at night a pretty scary place, felt like in a movie, the colonial style house with the big porch, a simple kitchen, big rooms and a power cut in the evening. Only the nature sounds and us. Next morning after a nice breakfast on the porch in the morning sun we took the dirt road back to the lake. Thomas went with us and tought us some Chichewa songs for kids, good fun! In Chilumba we had to say good bye to Josie, she will take a ferry back to Monkey Bay and then a minibus to Blantyre where we will see her again when we will be back I´m sure! Thomas left us in Karonga, a few km further north we wanted to spend the night in a hostel at the beach but that one was really crab so we turned around and decided to spend the night in Karonga. We found an ok place runned by a Malawian lady and because it was already getting dark and we didn’t have anything to eat yet we asked John, one of the night guards, if he would come and have dinner with us in town. It was a bit weird but we were to scared to go alone, Karonga seems like a typical border town, not a place where you feel home, a lot of truckers, alcohol and again a power cut! John was ok with that. He was not the most talkative person in the world but he told us he hasn’t been paid for the last 3 month and is thinking of leaving the job for new years as he cant make a living like that. We wanted to invite him for food but he refused, he took a fanta orange instead. We had some nice Nsima with beef and veg. As soon as we were laying in our beds again the power came back on, now we didn’t need it anymore but at least we had a fan.
The next day we first did some culture research and went to the Karonga museum where we found a skeleton of the so called Malawisaurus. The great rift valley which stretches from the Jordan all the way down east Africa to the Malawi lake is a great source for fossils and dinosaur bones. In the museum we also found out a lot about Malawian history and culture plus had a lovely breakfast. After that we finally reached the border to Tanzania but this experience will be posted next time. I really enjoyed malawis north, it is poorer a lot of tobacco, coffee and mountains. Now I am excited to see Tanzania, some wildlife and Dar es Salam.