Mulanje Mountain

So even though I believe the North is the best place to be in Malawi, the far south is almost as nice.
:)


We travelled down (It takes three days) to site visit some friends and hike Mulanje Mountain.


The site visit was a little hectic. We Met up with Bri in Blantyre then decided to stay the night at Amy's house. Amy was away but Bri is her site mate and we had permission to stay int he house. We get to the village and trek to her house. We discover that even though we have the key, she has left the spare in the Key hole so we are locked out. Night is falling and we have no where else to go. Amy's night watchman shows up and decides he can get us in. He gets some kids to try and stick their arms in the rather large gap between the door frame and the wall. But no dice. We also feared the kids were going to get stuck. How would you explain that to a Malawian Mother? "Oh sorry, we were trying to break into our friends house and your child had skinny arms?"
So the Night Watchman takes a panga knife to the brick around Amy's door frame. As were shouting "No!" It's already done. He reached in and unlocks the door. All we can do is say "Thanks" and go inside.
Its dark, so we scramble around for candles and find one dinky stub. There is no food in the house and Bri warns us not to fall in the "Big Hole" if we go to the chim. Luckily were so exhausted we just pass out on the floor.

Day One:
The next morning we proceed to climb the mountain. Adam and I are going to Hike for three days, stay at two different huts. Adam is a 'Mountain Man' and doesn't want a porter or a guide. At last we settle for a porter who can 'double' as a guide. We bargain and get this great deal. Then when we are supposed to leave he bails out with our money and sends someone else in his place (Trying to rip off both us and this other porter). We work out the details (which include this dude getting his money from the other one.) He is this young boy who has a steady, plodding pace. He carried Adam's heavy pack and Adam carries my smaller pack. It takes us a full day to trek up the sometimes vertical side of this mountain. Its hot, were all pouring sweat and only munching on some sparse travel food we have. Our water runs out and a few times I stop on the verge of tears hating my life. We make it to the first hut just after dark. We make plain pasta (John (another PCV) has given us the keys to the cabin so we can use the cooking utensils and what not). As the fire is boiling, the watchman heats water for a bath for us and I buy to two dusty fantas that are sitting on the self (just waiting to be drank.) They are warm so I go and put them in the cold mountain creek by the hut. (Hidden of course). The bafa water is warm but not enough and the mountain air is freezing. That night we curl cup in our sleeping bags on two flimsy pads on the floor.

Day Two: This is a hike from one hut to another (So I thought.) Its still dark when we begin our hike. We chew on raw oats for breakfast. In the cool of the morning I feel great, hiking out in front of the others, taking my jacket off (Which Adam yelled at me about cause he said I would get sick from sweating in the cold.) As the sun rises, so my pace decreases. We get to the second hut alot faster than we planned. Now we are at the base of Supitwa, which is like the third highest peak in Southern Africa. Of course Adam wants to climb it NOW. So we drop our packs at the hut and proceed to the base of Supitwa, which translates to "Don't Go There.' Oh...we went there.

Supitwa is mainly a vertical climb up a rock face, you have to scale several peaks to get to Supitwa including circling around the back sides of other Peaks. After cresting and descending we relax in at the cabin. An English family had just recently vacated and a couple were our only company that night. Not that we interacted much, for the most part other parties we met stayed to themselves. Adam and I were 'roughing it' anyway. We only had one porter/guide. We brought very little food and would eat plain pasta, or dry pasta, cooked or uncooked oats and so on. We did not have a lot with us. It was nice however that at eat hut there was a guard or two and most often they stared an hearth fire for us. Helped keep up warm, let us heat up bathing water and cook food.

Day Three:
The next day we head to Bri's site after climbing down the mountain. Going down is alot easier than going up for me so alot of the time I was off bounding ahead, practically jumping down the mountain. We stop at a water fall a few kilo-meters before we reach the bottom of the mountain. Both Adam and our guide strip to their undies and go for a dip. Now I was hot and sweaty but I cooled off sufficiently just sitting there. I have never been very inclined to jump into very cold water. I don't like shocks to the system like that. Anyway, I sat and watched the bags. Of course Adam ridiculed me for not jumping in and I only regretted it a little bit. But the though of hiking the rest of the way in soggy underwear helped steal me to my choice. We drop off our guide and hitch back to Mulanje boma. From there we hitch to the road block at the Mozambique border.

Next we take a half hour bike taxi to her house. Our bikers are sweating, sometimes, standing on the pedals barely moving uphill, almost tipping over. Our huge packs are causing our butts to dig even harder into the racks we're sitting on and cause us to go super slow. Yet Adam and I's bikers are still trying to compete. I cannot be sure but I believe Mine won. Bri has a wonderful view of the plantation tea fields that the south is famous for. Rising up from their vibrant green is Mulanje mountain, shrouded in cloud cover. We enjoyed a day together than hiked back to the Road block and hitched to Blantyre. (making a brief stop in Amy's village to pick up our things).


I could say our adventure ended here...but it didn't really. Mulanje Mountain was done but Liwonde Game Count was just starting.

The Upper Resipratory Infection Nightmare

Ok so I went down to Dedza, which is about an hour and a half south of the Capital city of Malawi, Lilongwe. I was going to go down and do what is called, "The training of the trainers". Sounds fancy right? Not so much, basically this is the Pre Training of all of the In-country (Malawian) Peace Corps staff before a new group of volunteers arrived. The end of February a new group of both health and environment volunteers would arrive. It was my job to give advice to the staff of what to teach, how to teach, goals, what works, what doesn't and so on.

This trip defiantly started out on the wrong foot. First of all I live in Chitipa, the most Northern and Remote area of Malawi. It takes me three days to get to Lillongwe. (Biking to my boma, then a night in Mzuzu, then finally Lilongwe.) My boss calls me about four days before she wants me to come down.

Ok, you know, I'm not that picky so I could do it no problem, throw some stuff in a bag, go to the boma. It would be fine...if only I was at my site. I was still in my district, Chitipa, but I was site visiting a friend, Briana who lives in Misuku. I was doing mud stove building and compost making for her career week. The thing is, Misuku is far. It takes like 3-5 hours to get their depending on transport. The really only way to get in and out is by Ambulance.

But rewind. I packed to go ON A WEEK LONG TRIP TO MISUKU...Not a few WEEK trip to LILONGWE.

I had no razor, my shamppo ran out, no conditioner, no laundry or body soap, I had three shirts (One which ripped on this trip so was useless cause i had no SEWING KIT)I brought a sport and regualr bra but the sports bra ripped...I had limited underwear AND I only had a skirt (Not a good travel Skirt) and a pair of Capris... Those were basically all I had cause I had not intended to be going anywhere after a week at a firends house.

No problem right? I had 4 days right? Well we told the ambulance to wake us up and get me to take me to the boma so I could go to my hous eand repack and ge the recipts and forms I was supposed to be taking to my boss down south when I got the chance. Bri assured me the ambulance never left without her...They left without us. A midnight malaria call had the ambulance leaving around 11 pm. And they left us.

Now im starting to sweat. Because travel in Misuku is sketchy at best. I have no choice but to wait for another ambulance. The worst part, we don't find out till EVENING the next day that they left without us. We were waiting all day for the ambulance instead of trying to find another ride. Luckily the hospital coordinator felt bad so he arranged for another ambulance to pick us up that night. They were in the village over dropping off a dead body (Yes a dead body, in the back of the truck, where they also carry passengers and no, there is no sterilization...this is Africa) Yuck. Anyway, the Misuku ambulance had gotten called tot he other side of Chitipa since the driver is also a mechanic. So they "traded" drivers. I still dont have time to go to my house but maybe I will make it to Lilongwe in time to catch my connecting ride to Dedza.

Bri has decided to come with me for the weekend cause their is stuff she needs to do in the boma. Cool. I hop in the front at around 7 pm and Bri hops in the back with some other passengers. We head down the road for half an hour and find the road blocked by construction. So we have to go back half and hour. Its now 8 pm. Unfortunately the people in the back are sick. Literally. Went we get back to Misuku Center Bri hops out telling me she can't handle it. People were throwing up out the window and one man threw up into a bag that Bri gave him. After throwing up he rested the puke filled bag on her leg. Some leaked and crusty onto her jeans. Needless to say I would have had issues too.

After a few hours in the Ambulance I get to Yotham fairly late. I was so tired I just set up my things and passed out. Around 4:30 the next morning I got up to start Hitching down to Mzuzu.  I did what I tell myself every time not to do. Dont get into the first car. Needless to say I got suckered in (They always say they are leaving JUST NOW) and then I waited 2 hours. They offered me the front seat which is awesome but I eventually got so tired that I just got out and started walking. About 5 Kilometres down the road the same matola picked me up. I insisted on getting the front seat back.

When we get to Karonga there are no buses so I have to sit in a crammed minibus full of sweaty people. Finally I get to Mzuzu, then Lilongwe the next day. I go to the Training of the trainers and have a decent time. However I had horrible bouts of runny nose, coughing, sneezing, the top of my mouth/back of my throat would itch. My eyes itched and burned. I got in contact with my Peace Corps Doc, Doctor Max. He is a bubbly Malawian, and very funny. He makes you feel very comfortable coming to him with your issues. Anyway, He saw me and put me under observation. He put me on Med hold two more times diagnosing me with an upper respiratory infection. He said I would get better with rest. Unfortunatly more and more volunteers kept pouring into Mufasa's Lodge, Making rest impossible. I was embarrassed to keep asking to borrow peoples clothes or razors or shampoo or conditioner. I was sick of washing my clothes in the sink, getting crappy sleep from drunken room-mates. Finally I just decided to go home.

That trip really really sucked. To top it off when I finally got back to my site my dog was missing. Still is. I cant even think about getting another dog. Howie was just too great.

Even now, over a month later I still have those bouts. I think they are allergy and rain related. In the mountains (When I visited Adam) they were horrible. When I was at my site, it was more mild, more on and off. Im just waiting for the rains to end to end my allergy misery now.