pants, elephants, mice, and shotguns OH MY!!!

We have spent the last 2 days in the National Park on safari. While we had no luggage we were still able to have such an amazing time! Taking this trip early in the schedule has allowed us to come together as a team and be ready to work at Mtendere once we get there.

I was so excited to see the faces of everyone when they saw what a beautiful place it was that we were going to stay at. The people working at Mvuu Camp were amazing and we all settled in and enjoyed the grunting of the hippos and the many monkeys running crazy around the camp. The first night we went on an evening safari drive through the park. We could not have ordered better weather for that drive. It was sunny and the animals were out and if enjoying all of that wasn't enough the sunset was AMAZING! We were able to stop and take a few pictures enjoy a cold drink and just sit and soak in that African sunset. Quickly it was dark and our drive continued viewing all the night animals. Although we didn't see any elephants that night we came back to the camp feeling as if we had just had the best safari ever.

The next morning brought the opportunity to go on a walking safari. In order to go you had to be up and ready at 6am...needless to say there were only 3 of us that showed up for the walk :) I could never explain in this blog what happened, but I will try to tell the story once we are home. Lets just say it involved elephants...MANY elephants...a quiet morning in the bush...and a shot gun that WAS fired! It took the 3 of us a few hours to get our hearts back beating properly.

Once everyone was awake the group enjoyed a boat safari on the river. I stayed back to take care of paperwork, but when the team returned I was told that there were elephants and hippos out in numbers wandering the banks of the river. I am so happy that everyone had the chance to see so much of Malawi's wildlife.

I packed the team up and we boarded the small boat to take us back across to our car. On the river I told the team that on the other side instead of getting in the bus we would be taking bike taxis through the countryside and then visiting a local village. The entire team was up for the adventure and as a trip leader I was beaming with pride knowing that everyone was ready and willing to do whatever was next even if it meant getting on the back of a 2 wheel bike and having a Malawian take charge of their fate. We drove in a line through the fields waving at the children in the surrounding villages and enjoying the sun on our shoulders. The village was expecting us so once we arrived we had a tour and learned about local traditions. We were able to meet the village healer and hear about the traditional forms of medicine. While we walked through the village many children approached all of us and were eager to hold our hands or be carried. There were big smiles both from the children and the team as this was the first time they had met a group of small children in Malawi. We learned that the village was plagued with malaria and that many of the children had been orphaned due to malaria and AIDS. The joy on the faces of my team as these small children climbed into their laps and watched all the singing and dancing was something I wont soon forget. This was a great introduction into what Malawi is all about. There was a lot of poverty, but at the same time more joy that many of the volunteers had ever experienced.

Our drive back to Lilongwe was about 3 and a half hours so many of us rested. We also asked a lot of questions to Isaac our driver and continued to learn as much as we could about Malawi from him.

There was a moment in the van after Isaac got off the phone that the entire van screamed with joy! We had received the call that all 14 bags HAD arrived and our missing team member had also arrived and was waiting for us at the hotel.

We got back to the hotel and were able to meet Tita and our luggage. Everyone went straight to their rooms to shower and put on CLEAN clothes. Dinner was wonderful because we all were able to share with Tita our favorite memory so far from the trip and she also shared with us the adventure she had in Ethiopia on her "lay over".

The team will have a tour of the city today and learn about the history of Malawi's government. We will also head to the local market and experience where the locals shop.

I failed to mention that on the drive to the national park we had one volunteer stop along the road to enjoy a "malawian sausage".For those of you who have not been to Malawi that means mice on a stick. Think of it as a mouse kabob. They are cooked whole over a fire and then served in stacks of 5 or 6. I don't want to give away who in the group ate the mice, but you can imagine we got MANY pictures and a great video of that experience along the side of the road.

We are all thinking of our families and friends and can't wait to share in person the experiences we have already had. Its hard to believe we are only 4 days in and we still haven't been to the orphanage yet. There is much to come and we will keep you all updated.