click click

for the people who just like photos (:

i moved 2 houses down the hill on the weekend with kathleen and kirsten(med student from cambridge). we are definitely not roughing it here in malawi. our house is complete with hot water, a living room spacious enough for P90X and a washing machine. However, the power does go out frequently, making our electric stove unusuable. kathleen and i are sharing a fairly large room and i even have a bookshelf and reading lamp :D

monday july 6 was malawi republic day (a national holiday), and the eggerts were kind enough to let us tag along their visit to liwonde national park. we took the company truck, which was made for game parks and spent the morning driving through the game reserve. upon turning a corner at 40km/h, we came within 10 feet of a GIGANTIC elephant :O oh my. it flapped it's ears(bad sign) and we slowly and safely backed away. a few minutes later, we stumbled upon a little baby elephant. mike drove up a few meters so that we could get a look at the mama elephant. being a tourist, i had half my body out the window in attempts of getting a good shot. all of a sudden, the mama elephant flapped it's ears, raised it's trunk (another bad sign), trumpeted(extremely bad sign), and started charging towards us(sign to get out of there!). mike stomped on the gas pedal as jonny yelled "go go go!" and i went flying backwards, with my feet flipping over my head. sure beats african lion safari ;p

we had a marvelous lunch at mvuu lodge, and kathleen and i took a boat safari along the river in the afternoon. we saw more species of birds than i can count, water bucks, crocs, hippos, and we were particularly lucky to find a herd of 50+ elephants. it was amazing to see animals in their natural habitat.

at times i feel like i'm cheating, that i'm not embracing a truly malawian experience. but why does development work or missions have to mean roughing it? i'm learning, and i think that's what truly matters.

new house complete with a washing machine (:

liwonde game park (:

we got trumpeted and chased by a mama elephant hence the blurry photos :O