Africa Travel 6

Crossing the Zambezi River, we headed from Zimbabwe into Zambia. Our travels through Zambia were not very eventful because we spent the majority of our time driving. However, the scenery began to change as we headed towards Malawi. The landscape grew much more green and small hills and mountains began to rise around us.

It took us two days and three nights to drive through Zambia to Malawi. We spent the majority of the time trying to get to know the new people who joined the trip as well as remember the ones who left us in Victoria Falls. We finally arrived in Malawi on the morning of the third day went to the capitol, Lilongwe, in order to re-stock on supplies. Afterwards, we headed for the beaches along Lake Malawi where we would spend the next few days heading north towards Tanzania.

Malawi is a very small country that is also one of the poorest countries in Africa. However, it is the prettiest place that we have been thus far. The lake (Lake Malawi) is a fresh water lake that runs nearly the entire length of the country and also covers almost one-third of the country's territory. The lake has clear blue water and white sand much the same as pictures of the Bahamas. However, the scenery is much more dramatic because just off from the beaches are steep mountains covered with lush jungle, palm trees and waterfalls.

We were able to spend five nights at various small beach resorts along the coast and spent the majority of that time lounging on the beach and learning how to play rugby from the Aussie boys. Although, at one of the camp sites we took the opportunity to go into a village with one of the local boys, Mike, who was probably a little younger than me.

The village consisted of a few small adobe mud houses with straw roofs. Around the huts were small farming plots where they grew mainly corn, potatoes and cassava. Also within this small group was a central hut that was the house of the local witch doctor. We got the chance to go see the witch doctor, and while the whole event seemed like a tourist trap, the people in the village really do go see this man for healing.

We walked into the witch doctor's hut and sat down in a small, dark, musty filled room. Then some of the locals walked in with their bongo drums and began to play a beat while the witch doctor seemed to sit in a trance on the floor smoking. He eventually got excited and got up and began to dance. He was wearing a blue/green gown with a sash tied around his waist and a hat with a red cross on it. He looks were reminiscent of a squire from the middle ages. As he danced he would grab each person and make them get up and dance with him and after everybody danced, then he performed his own dance, brought in a burning stick, and proceeded to eat the burning end of the stick. At that point, I thought that if he was crazy enough to eat the burning wood, then maybe he was convinced that he was a real witch doctor. The dance eventually settled down, and then he tried to sell us on his various potions for love. To me the potions looked and smelled like different types of dirt, and it may have been because the soil and agriculture are such an important part of their lives, which would have justified the belief that all good things come from the earth.

Our guide, Mike, then took us to the small town nearby where we sampled some of their local foods (goat and French fries) and then went to see the medical clinic. The clinic was actually quite nice, but one thing stuck out to me. While we were outside of a small store just down from the clinic there were some boys playing soccer. However, the ball that they were playing with was made up of condoms. This was shocking to see because nearly half the country's population is under the age of 15 due to the AIDS/HIV problems there. Apparently, the culture is not very responsive to the efforts made to curb the epidemic, and many people still hold to beliefs such as "taking a cold shower after sex, or having the witch doctor perform a special ceremony" that they will they pay for with their meager belongings such as a cow or a harvest of crops.

While Malawi has their problems both economically and medically, the people here are probably the nicest in Africa and everyone has funny names such as our guide, Michael Jordan, or other good names I found were "Happy Coconut, Sweet Banana," and "Ericsson Phone." Now we are leaving this wonderful group of people and a beautiful country to enter Tanzania and continue on first to Zanzibar, an old spice trade island off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. Till next time, cheers.