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Drumbeats from Africa - Week 2
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12 July : Lilongwe : MALAYSIAN HOSPITALITY IN MALAWI |
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We arrived in Lilongwe with just enough time to refuel and replenish our food and water stock. While at the refueling station, we met with one of the three Malaysian families living in Malawi. Working in Malawi with the Malaysia-Malawi Technical Cooperation Programme, Dr Mohmad Mustafa and Mohamad Abdul Manas and their families kindly invited the whole team for dinner.
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Happy Malaysians
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Half the team went to Dr Mohmad’s house and the other half went to Mohamad Manas’ house. After a great dinner, including some Malaysian desserts, the team retired for a good night's rest. We will be camping for the next 4 days and also crossing into Tanzania.
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Today we travelled another 300km north and arrived at our campsite along the shores of Lake Malawi near Ngala. We arrived relatively early so everyone made the most of it, we even had a grudge rugby match – South Africa against Malaysia. It was all good fun with the South African tanks bulldozing the Malaysian ikan bilis! I am sure we will be having more matches as the expedition goes on.
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Tanks v. Ikan Bilis
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10 July : Cape MacLear : AIDING THE CHEMBE AIDS PROJECT |
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| Leaving the comforts of our hotel in Blantyre we headed for Cape MacLear, Lake Malawi. It was a relatively easy drive except for about 60km of sandy roads. We arrived yesterday at our campsite on the shores of Lake Malawi. |
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The water is very tempting but most of the team are refraining from a cooling dip – the water looks great, it’s clear, perhaps a little to cold for Malaysians but tempting nevertheless. The real reason some of us are refraining is because of a tiny worm that lives in freshwater snails in this lake; the worms can infect humans with a disease called “bilharzia”.
There is lots to do here. The team has taken upon itself to cleanup, paint and equip a small clinic here in the village called Chembe. Almost 95% of the population here is HIV positive and the clinic is a beacon of hope for some.
Everyone helped in the effort – the mechanics got down to giving the generator a service job, and the rest cleaned, swept and gave the clinic a fresh coat of paint. While all this was going on, the expedition doctor Dr Avtar was busy sorting out the equipment and medication. The line to see the doctor was getting very long, so as soon as the examination room was ready, Dr Avtar saw his first patient.
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The Chembe AIDS Project building gets a new coat of paint while Dr Avtar sees to his patients.
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The team had the rest of the day off to explore the village and do some curio shopping. Some even managed to barter trade! Twice a week, the clinic also has a food programme for kids, where the kids are required to bring some firewood in exchange for some porridge and entertainment. Connie took this opportunity to show her skills at a science show. The organisers of the food programme says getting the kids to bring at least one stick of firewood teaches them not to beg, but rather work for their rewards.
A beautiful sunset ended a wonderful day at Cape MacLear as the team prepares to get on the move again to see more of Malawi.
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8 July : Blantyre : HELLO FROM MALAWI !
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We are currently in Malawi. After crossing the border from Mozambique, we are rewarded with a night at a very nice hotel. Time to refresh and replenish supplies. But I am getting ahead of myself here. We have been having some problems getting our pictures and stories back to Malaysia with no Internet access at the campsites. We have sorted out the problem and hopefully you will be hearing from us more regularly.
After leaving South Africa, we headed straight for Maputo where we had our first community relations programme. We went to a school just outside Maputo where we presented the school with several computers and Connie of PETRONAS gave the students a science show. The whole school came out and Connie had a tough time being heard above the voices of the excited students.
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The community relations programme was held in a Mozambique school
on the outskirts of Maputo.
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While Zul and Kumar of PETRONAS interacted with the children,
Connie enthralled the children with a science demonstration.
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We left Maputo for Bilene where we had a nice seafood barbeque by the seaside. The weather was not very cooperative but we had a good time anyway. The next day, it was another long drive to the seaside resort town of Vilankulo. We shared the campsite with many other travelers – everyone was curious about what we were doing. We are after all very visible and very noisy when we start cooking our curries and sambal tumis! I personally think they came to say hello because the aroma from our camps was getting to them.
The next day, we had another long drive, this time to a campsite called Casa Mtsika just beside a lake. We moved on to the outskirts of Tete on the 5th day of our expedition. Here we camped on a dried out river bed outside a village. We had a lot of problems with the language here in Mozambique as the locals speak mainly Portuguese. Luckily for us, one of the PAT SA members, call sign, Goose, speaks the language fluently. He spoke to the village head and we were given permission to camp and also visit the village. All evening, the villagers entertained us with the customs while we entertained them with our songs and antics. We even had a barbequed goat for dinner!! |
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The Malaysians happened to come by a Mozambican village, which took them in.
Stiven Sim donates some clothes as thanks to the village head,
and the team leaves for their next destination.
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Sadly we had to leave our new found friends, but in appreciation we gave the villagers some clothes, food and money as an impromptu charity programme. We crossed the Zambezi River and headed straight for the border. Mozambique has been great. We had a great time, the scenery is beautiful and the people friendly.
We are looking forward to Malawi, from what we can see on our first day here this is definitely the land of smiles.
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The convoy crosses the Zambezi Bridge and approaches the Malawi border.
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