mvuu

Pronounced ummmvu not moovu, I have been the cause of much mirth among friends who have been laughing at my pronunciation. Mvuu means hippopotamus, which is Greek word for water horse. They cause the most human deaths by wild animals in Africa. They spend the day in the water because their skin is so sensitive to the sun, but only the babies can swim, the adults walk along the bottom of the river and come up for air every eight minutes. We watched them pop up for air and they make a snort as they empty the water out and unfurl their ears. At night they leave the water and graze, it is when they are moving between land and water that they are dangerous. When we stayed at Mvuu camp we heard the hippos moving about the camp and being chased back into the water by the guards. Our eldest was delighted by the slosh slosh noise the hippos make when they walk, this is the water in their tummies!

700 mkw

MKw stands for Malawi Kwacha and 700 K is about £3 depending on the rates. So what does 700 K buy you?

4 bunches of bananas

500 credits for a mobile (this lasts me a few days)

Cake and coffee at or favourite cafe (aka The Park Cafe)

5 bottles of Carlsberg Green (beer of choice in our house)

An international newspaper (weekly with change for a coffee)

3.5 litres of petrol (yes this is about the same price as the UK)

A lot of electricity

A decent chicken (for eating)

3 ½ litres of milk

36 eggs fresh from a friend’s chickens

One and half days work by one of our guards (that’s more than double the going rate)

One chitenje, the brightly decorated cloths worn by women over their clothes

 

The really frustrating thing is that the largest denomination note is 500 K and everything is paid for in cash so we have to carry enormous wads of cash. Apparently there is concern that if higher notes were introduced the kwacha would be devalued. Getting cash takes a long time. First we pay to move it from the UK into our international account, then we pay to convert the pounds into kwacha and transfer it into our kwacha account and then we draw straws to see who will go and queue for a long time in the bank to get the cash. Taking cash out involves writing a cheque, signing it three times and having it stamped many times. Fortunately the bank staff have not yet noticed that our surname is spelt wrong!

 

on

 

.... without a camera! We have just got back from an amazing couple of days at Mvuu camp with our first visitors my sister and hubbie) and before I had taken any photographs the very fancy digital camera broke!! We have a few shots taken on the video camera and when my sister returns I will pinch some of their amazing shots! The camp is very plush and all inclusive, so there is a boat trip in the morning and a drive from 3.30 until 7pm with drinks at sunset – very civilised. The first day I took our eldest on the drive and we took along a sandwich for her, the youngest stayed with Dad and had dinner at the camp. The second day we felt brave enough to take them both and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Each drive and boat trip was different from the others. We go very close to hippos, both in and out of the water, elephants, baboons, impala, kudu and lots of birds. The guides were very knowledgeable and obviously excited by what we were seeing and keen to share their enthusiasm. Once it got dark we saw different animals, well on the first evening we saw nothing but the second evening we made up for it with lots of smaller mammals. We saw elephants most trips and on our final boat ride a herd of about 30 at the river’s edge. The children enjoyed spotting the animals but maybe we saw to many because when I pointed some elephants out to our two year old she said that she had seen some already. The children were great in the jeep and the boat although it was a little hairy without any barriers or seatbelts particularly when we drove off the edge of an embankment into a stream.

 PS there are no pictures because we can’t find the cable for the video camera!!

 

This is the version with pics from my brother in law!

pims on monday afternoon

For all those of you who have just finished a hard day at the office, we have completed a very social bank holiday weekend with Pims and a bar-b-que. The bank holiday is because today is Eid, but we weren’t sure until Saturday as it depended on the moon. We had a birthday party on Saturday at our neighbours house (Malawian colleagues of the doc) followed by another Barbie. Friday night was curry out with more doctors. Yesterday we cooked curry for Sunday lunch with friends and today was a lazy morning followed by another barbie. The weather has been hot but not unbearable and it is easier planning these things when it almost certainly won’t rain!

dogs and nannys

Those of you who know me well will know that dogs are not part of my plan for a happy family life. But, we are contemplating one: it would be a great opportunity for the kids to get over their complete terror of dogs, they would be a good deterrent for intruders and there are some really cute lab puppies up for grabs.  I also said that I would not be one of those ex-pat ladies who have a nanny, especially when they take them along to look after the kids while mum drinks coffee. These ladies always wear white and manage to look immaculate whereas I am as grubby as my children. However, I am looking at childcare for our youngest so that I can get involved in some projects. Our eldest goes to pre-nursery (like pre-school) two mornings a week and the youngest could tag along with me but we have a lovely housekeeper who is quite happy to look after the children so again I may be proved wrong. I may yet wear white and stay clean.

On safari

.... without a camera! We have just got back from an amazing couple of days at Mvuu camp with our first visitors my sister and hubbie) and before I had taken any photographs the very fancy digital camera broke!! We have a few shots taken on the video camera and when my sister returns I will pinch some of their amazing shots! The camp is very plush and all inclusive, so there is a boat trip in the morning and a drive from 3.30 until 7pm with drinks at sunset – very civilised. The first day I took our eldest on the drive and we took along a sandwich for her, the youngest stayed with Dad and had dinner at the camp. The second day we felt brave enough to take them both and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Each drive and boat trip was different from the others. We go very close to hippos, both in and out of the water, elephants, baboons, impala, kudu and lots of birds. The guides were very knowledgeable and obviously excited by what we were seeing and keen to share their enthusiasm. Once it got dark we saw different animals, well on the first evening we saw nothing but the second evening we made up for it with lots of smaller mammals. We saw elephants most trips and on our final boat ride a herd of about 30 at the river’s edge. The children enjoyed spotting the animals but maybe we saw to many because when I pointed some elephants out to our two year old she said that she had seen some already. The children were great in the jeep and the boat although it was a little hairy without any barriers or seatbelts particularly when we drove off the edge of an embankment into a stream.

 PS there are no pictures because we can’t find the cable for the video camera!!

 

On foot

I was offered the chance of a childfree walking safari at 6am. Three of us set off with our guide (Henry) and an armed guard we got to look at tracks, birds, poo and insects. Henry explained that if we saw any elephants we would be walking the other way because while they are quite happy with people in jeeps they do not like us on foot. We had been examining some fresh (warm) elephant poo when we heard an elephant off to our left by the river and then we saw another two in front of us. We paused, the elephant indicated that he knew we were there and we beat a hasty retreat. Another group of walkers on safari were closer to the river and as we were backing off we saw the elephant charge towards them. These beasts might be big but they can move fast, a few warning gun shots followed and with both our guide and guard looking a bit twitchy we moved off in the other direction. This caused quite a bit of excitement when we returned to the camp with Henry announcing that we had lost a couple of tourists. For those of you ever confronted with an elephant you should back off, take cover behind a tree or termite mound, failing that a few shots should scare it otherwise the guides carried whistles that would also scare it. If we ran we had to stick with the guide or we could end up hopelessly lost.