I have been at Kuti for a week now and have settled in nicely to life at this small (25 square Km) reserve in central Malawi. I am enjoying myself so much that I have extended my stay for another week and will just pass through Lilongwe Wildlife Centre briefly on my way to Liwonde National Park next week. LWC have plenty of volunteers and can spare me easily. Here there are three of us – Ciaran from Ireland ( I misspelt his name in the previous post – hope I’ve got it right this time) who is mostly giving English lessons to the Malawian staff, Catherine from England who is a management/leadership consultant with experience in the hotel industry and is an absolute godsend to somewhat overwhelmed new managers Annelies and Jeroen; and myself. What do I do here? I have been surveying the birds of this lovely place (work? ha!) and also a little project to fix the road signs along the trails and make new ones where neccessary.
I have been to Lake Malawi – its not far, half an hour in a taxi with Catherine and Cirian. It reminded me a bit of the Sea of Galilee at the other end of the rift valley. It’s bigger and instead of the Golan Heights you look across to Mozambique. The wind was up and there was a bit of a chop but I had a dip; I didn’t stay in too long – thoughts of Crocodiles and Bilharzia (neither serious risks at Senga Bay) drove me out and it wasn’t that nice anyway. Still I felt it was sort of a necessary ritual.
Yesterday we had a biology class from a private school in Lilongwe here for a field day (it was supposed to be a day but due to some bus problems they only got here at lunchtime). Jeroen (who is a biologist with a lot of field experience behind him – Chimpanzees in Congo, Turtles in the Caribbean etc.) and I had prepared a program for them and so, when they finally arrived, after a quick group photo the teenagers changed out of their uniforms and we set out in to the bush.
The idea was to make a transect through different habitats. I started with my little group of 10 or so at a water hole. After warning about snakes and keeping quiet so we might see some animals at the water we crept up stealthily to the “Dambo”. Happily, two Warthogs were rooting in the mud at the far end and a party of Vervet Monkeys had come down to drink. I complimented the kids on their bushcraft as they excitedly passed my binoculars around. It was an excellent start and soon they were chasing spiders and grasshoppers at the water’s edge and trying to figure out who had left the big pile of “poop”.
We walked on through the woods, checking out tracks on the sandy path and different types of vegetation. These were very smart kids and they asked good questions (though they insisted on calling me “sir”). A dead Cobra on the road was cause for much excitement just before we reached the tall grass Savannah. Here I asked them to put asided their notebooks and questionaires for a moment and go and stand in the grass for a few minutes.
To end the day, I asked each one to make a statement, beginning with the words “I see” or “I feel”. There was no hesitation, no giggling, and beautiful words came out and were listened to: ” I feel the wind” “I feel strong after walking through the bush” “I see grass that is taller than me” “I feel I belong here” ….
The kids have had fun, I think they learned something , and Jeroen and I had fun. For Jeroen especially this is a welcome break from his management work and to continue the “Biology day” we make a night walk after dinner, something Ciaran had asked about. We set off with our head-torches and walk around picking out antelope’s eyes in the bushes, a wide variety of creepy-crawlies on the ground and just a glimpse of some Gallagos (Bush-babies) in the trees. The stars of the evening are a Nightjar crouching on the ground (I have trouble with the auto-focus on my camera and only manage a photo of part of it) and some lovely Thick-toed Geckoes.
Thick-toed Gecko
Creepy-Crawly
Part of a Nightjar
The Dambo is a favorite spot of mine. When I don’t have the time for a long walk I just pop over there. There is almost always something going on. All sorts of birds come by and the lush grass and the water attract Antelopes. These pictures are from today:
Common Scimitar-bill
Bushbuck
Lizard Buzzard
Today’s main job was painting signs. Visitors can roam freely in the park. Without signs at crossroads they will easily get lost (as would I). Sunday, the assistant manager and I made a round the other day and fixed most of the signs but some had dissappeared. So today with the help of Roderick, a casual labourer , I cut up some planks and painted the missing trail names on them. While doing this , Roderick and I got talking and had an enjoyable conversation, especially as Sunday and Annelies were attending a funeral of some important personage in a neighbouring village (Sunday is also a village chief) and Jeroen had gone shopping in Selima with all the other volunteers. Roderick, it turned out, was a chief’s son, and manged to teach me some Chechewa – I have been forgetting just about everything people have taught me so far. Mbalame means bird. Funnily enough there was a professional sign writer here as well, making a beautiful Kuti logo and a map of Malawi on the wall at the new office. He came over to check me out and I had to explain I was only a “Bush sign-writer”. He was highly amused. Roderick asked how one becomes a Bush sign writer.
Roderick and the “Bush sign-writer”
The pro
The mornings are for serious birdwatching/survey. The evening is a beautiful time to just wander and bump in to things. After a cup of coffee and maybe a chat with my buddy Ketrus the cook (we were born in the same year)., I let my feet take me where they will and never know where I will end up or who I may meet.
Ketrus
Everybody who has been a while in Africa has a Puff Adder story. These are big fat snakes that lie on paths and don’t move: ambush predators. They can reach over a metre in length and weigh several kilos and a bite from them can cause serious damage. They are well camouflaged and it’s easy to step on them. I would like to see one , but – well, I hope I don’t step on one, you know. So one evening when its almost dark I’m walking back to “reception”(where we eat and where my hut is) – and there on the road is a Puff Adder! But its a baby – about 30 cm long, beautifully coloured and so still I wonder if it is alive. It is – after taking some photos I give it a nudge with a stick and it slides off in to the grass, lucky for it, as people pass this way on the way home and for sure they would not leave it be.
Most often I meet the Babboons. There is a large troop of them in the area around “reception” and they move in a similar way to me. They are quite wild and keep their distance from people but they are not really scared of us either; its nice to move along with them and I have far too many photos of them. Sometimes a Bushbuck peeks out between the trees. When I step out on to the road people stop on their way home and say something in Chechewa and I do my best to answer. I see Anya – the American Peace Corps volunteer- riding her bicycle back to Tembwe village where she stays. The shadows lengthen and now only the tops pf the biggests trees glow golden through the darkening forest. The birds fall silent, the babboons are gone and its time for me to head back.
