Friday night was pretty fun. The girls were pretty accustomed to the bugs by then, and we stayed at the candlelit bar late since it was our last night there. The next day was an HIV/AIDS awareness event that CU was putting on for their employees which included a parade, speeches, drama performances and a football / soccer tournament. Most everything was spoken in Chichewa, but we were just there to spectate and say bye to all the guys we had worked with. Dyson was explaining to us how important awareness is for the less educated due to some near unbelievable myths. For instance, some people traditionally believe that if a woman's husband dies from AIDS that the only way she can cleanse herself is by sleeping with another man. I was thinking ....Geeze!
Whiskey drove us to Liwonde national park to spend a couple nights on safari before leaving for home. The girls were a bit uneasy as the truck bumped and swayed over the muddy dirt trail further and further from any civilization to get to a place they would be spending the night. Heavy thunder was cracking in the distance as the sun set and the bug swarms were coming out to make matters worse. I was thinking to myself, they honestly might not get out of the truck as we approached the naturalist type camp of grass roof huts and tents. For icing on the cake, the rain started to fall as we walked to the bar to check in and a spider that was just bigger than a baseball if you included it's legs scurried at lightening speed right in front of their feet. The storm came down hard and their safari tent started flooding. Literally there was 2 inches of water on the ground everywhere. We moved their stuff into a drier area and then had dinner which was actually quite nice served by the local staff under a big grass roof pavilion with candle light. So the next morning Jen again gave me a look that said it all when she said they stuck out one night and we would not be staying there again. She had spider bites up her leg too - which by the way she asked me to look at twice a day for the next 3 days in fear that it was something life threatening. So I didn't even think about responding with anything but "ok I'll arrange for us to head somewhere better right after breakfast." No worries though we worked out a great rate with what was actually a somewhat high end tourist safari camp / rustic resort and headed there by boat up the Shire river before lunch. The ride up the river was incredible, we must have seen over a hundred massive hippos, and a bunch of crocs and impalas on the riverbank. Mvuu safari camp was targeted for the crowd much more accustomed to being catered to by the looks of the other guests, but I didn't mind a hot shower and nice meals and the girls definitely deserved it. The interaction with wildlife in this Northern section of the park was unbelievable. One of the guides made clear to us upon arrival that there were no fences at the camp unlike most, and most game animals wander in and out of the premises on a regular basis. The 2 bedroom cabin we stayed in was right on the riverbank and you could hear hippos grunt all day and night that were less than 100 meters away. I set up my hammock in the front and was startled numerous times by either 2 foot long monitor lizards or warthogs hanging out literally 20 feet from me. Although there was only one option for each meal, the food was great and staff were really nice and professional. It was funny though I'm not sure who taught them English greetings and formal conversation but they would say "you're most welcome" to absolutely everything. Alecia would ask our waiter how his day was and he'd say "fine, and you're most welcome to enjoy the lunch". I'd say to our guide "may I take your picture?" and he'd reply "you're welcome". Pretty humerous. We met a few people from the US there and specifically Jill, a lady from Chagrin Falls, Ohio that had started a charity in Malawi that grew quite large over the past few years. My dad does a fair bit of work in Chagrin Falls, small world eh? We talked with her about what we were doing and she told us all about the schools she was getting built up. She understood a lot of the problems there pretty well.
The safaris the place took us on were awesome. They used refurbished old school diesel engine land rovers and got way off the beaten track. We saw elephants, impalas, water bucks, warthogs, mongooses, porcupines, baboons, crocs, hippos and antelope on both of the game drives we went on. On the one tour, we even came across a black rhinoceros which is unheard of because they are trying to repopulate the park with them and they are all kept in a fenced in area for breeding purposes. So this guy must have broke through the fence, and our guide was so cool (or unwise) that he had us all get out, turned off the engine and we quietly snuck up to within 40 meters of it to get a better look. I couldn't believe how approachable these animals were, almost everything just kept on with their business eating or whatever even as we roared up close to them in the truck. Unlike deer or anything else we commonly see in Ohio and PA, these animals just looked at you and kept on as if you were just another thing living in the park. The other weird thing was how much of the game hung out close to each other with no problems at all. Literally there would be crocs laying in the sun by the river, impalas eating grass less than 10 meters away and baboons hanging out in the trees right above. And the craziest thing is baboons eat baby impalas, and I think crocs eat baboons! Our guide explained that Malawi and specifically Liwonde park is uniquely over populated with a lot of species due to the lack of major predators, which is usually cheetah and lions. Apparently The Lion King was pretty spot on portraying that species at the top of the food chain. Another impressive thing that we focussed more on during an early morning walking safari was the termite mounds, of which some were 10 feet high and completely made by these tiny bugs. We also saw birds perched on the backs of the water bucks a couple times hopping around eating the ticks out of their fur. I had no idea that any species besides those in the ocean depended on a smaller and completely different type of animal to clean them. Our guides were hilarious and not on purpose. They would explain these outrageous mating habits in a way that had us all dying in laughter. The male impalas for instance duel each other knocking antlers together and only the strongest after defeating the others then breeds with all the females in the pack and the rest go off to live together as lonely bachelors. The guides would comment on how great it would be for the champion, and how much the other guys were just losers.
The girls did a good job packing light like I told them, even though that included bringing big purses with them everywhere we went. Then we get to this new lodge with a pool and they break out flip-flops, sun dresses, big sun glasses and bikinis. I'm like "where the heck did all that come from?" apparently these are essential items that you don't ever travel without. By the end of the trip these two were done holding ANY thoughts back that they otherwise would be embarrassed to say in front of me. Some of the highlights were a couple hours spent on our last day at the safari lodge lounging by the pool making a list of songs that they want played at the PwC Christmas party and saying how ridiculous it was that they spent a week in Africa and weren't that tan. Then they were discussing in list form who they are most excited to see when they get back, as well as different styles of glasses that they think are pretty in extreme detail, followed by one of those middle school games of "what would you rather do..." and then give two of the most outrageous situations, neither of which would ever happen. After refusing to answer they would honestly get upset with me and be like "you have to pick one you can't say neither." So at the peak of my 'entertainment' at all this Jen then asked me over dinner, "so Mike what were you most annoyed with about us on this whole trip?". I thought to myself, you're seriously joking right? Then they wanted to know what impressed me most with them and if they had exceeded my expectations. Brainwashed by PwC for life I thought. But overall they held up really well, especially considering Jen almost cracked at the wilderness camp but held back a breakdown into tears.
So this morning was our last day in Malawi. We got up early to meet Whiskey again who graciously drove through trails the whole way into the park to get us. I literally thought our encounters with the wild game couldn't have gotten any more thrilling, and then we got in his truck and started driving down the trail... The girls were telling him how great all the animals were and I asked him if he had ever seen an elephant before. He had not even though he grew up here. Literally a few seconds later he slams on the brakes after turning around a bend as two massive elephants on the dirt road less than 40 meters away were looking straight at us. The one raised it's trunk and the other shook it's head back and forth, lifted a front leg high and pounded it down and then took a few strides towards us at a much faster speed then what we had seen with the others over the past few days. Whiskey asked me what to do and I said "back up, back up, back up" thinking dude what else would you do we're about to get our truck flipped over by one of the biggest animals on the planet. Once we put a hundred meters or so between us and them we're all like "holy crap!!!" out loud and cracking up at what had just happened. Baboons were running back and forth in front of the truck as we hightailed it out of there. I never thought I would ever live out the movie Jumanji. It definitely was a nice little thrill to end our already insane trip.
During the first week I had an awesome time with Josh and Mike too and was really glad that 5 of us got to do this, because it is important to keep building steam for the cause and encourage others at the firm to get involved next year. We had made a lot of progress distributing the 2 lots of 20,000 nets and ensured that the process was being documented accordingly so that future results can be documented. We made a lot of observations of how the aid organizations operated and handled the nets that were funded by our donors, and were able to give Rob the founder of Against Malaria Foundation some great feedback on all this for future decisions around where nets will be distributed to. And lastly we got some great photos and video capturing the needs of these poor people so that we can seek out further funding with media to complement our stories and show the firm the impact this had on Malawi.
