zikomo-Malawi, Africa: The Safari

Phillipians 4:8 whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

My favorite

One of the best things about going to Malawi is seeing all the amazing sights that are there. The nature, and how they build... everything. But the one thing our pastor wants for us is to show us the beauty of Malawi, or in this instance, Africa. So we went on a Safari to Zambia the country right next door.

This is what happened last year:

This was, to me, really fun, and a little complicated. Why? because 3 years ago we went on a Safari in Malawi, and it was a long drive south, to a beautiful place. Last year we went to a different country in Africa, so we had a different travel story to tell. The drive was shorter, but the commute was longer. We only had 28 people with us, in comparison to 60. When you go to a different country you get to go to the border, and when you go to the border you get to stand in a line....Well here..

We drove 3 hours to the border of Zambia/Malawi. All 28 of us got off the bus, but left our stuff on it. We all walked to the Malawi border building, while there we were given a small paper that we had to fill out to let them know we were leaving. We quickly realized that we did not really need to write down everything correctly on this paper -they were not reading it- so someone wrote that he was the president of Malawi, others wrote random stuff, some just scribbled, thank you kindergarten. In the end it still took us about an hour to get through. Then you walk over the Malawi/Zambia line to the Zambia building and you give an angry person your passport in a different country, they ask questions and check your temperature, and this takes another 30 minutes or so. Then for some reason you wait for a long period of time for the bus to get approved, another 2 hours. And your off, no big deal.

(I do not have a picture of what this looks like for two reasons, 1) it's boring I can look for a picture online of people standing around and waiting, and it would be equivalent, 2) We are not allowed to take pictures of the police that are around, so if for some reason we take a picture of them by accident, it can turn out bad.

This is what happened this year:

Remember we have 148 people this time. We separated into groups. On Tues/Wed the Grove high school team went to Zambia, with our high school pastors, and some of the high schoolers parents. On Wed/Thurs the rest of the Grove went to Zambia. Also, on Wed/Thurs the Mosaic team went to a different safari in Malawi, the same one I went to 2 years ago. It took about 2 hours for the high school team to get through to Zambia, we tried to be better prepared by using the advise of the high school team, but it took us just as long. This time around we needed to get visa's. (we did not need these last year). But it was quicker getting in and out of Malawi/Zambia than last year and we had more people this time around.

The lodging/bathroom:

outside of bathroom, there are 3 'sides' with a door

curved walkway into bathroom

outside shower/sink

This year we had so many people we could not all stay in the same lodge, so me and a small group went to Croc valley lodge about 5 minutes away, and the drivers went to a third lodge. I stayed at the original lodge the year prior, and it was beautiful. (For those of you who are reading this who went last year, ignore this next part). The lodge we stayed at this year was AMAZING, the tents were a thousand times better, and the ones from the original lodge are pretty great. The view was similar, but better, the food was better, and monkey's were everywhere. Last year we stayed in tents that are decent, regular, large tents, and we had really nice beds inside, but the bathroom was outside of the tent, and if you needed to leave once it got dark, you have to call a night watchman to make sure you get the bathroom safely without getting attacked by an animal, that may have wandered on to the lodge. This is a national park, we are in the animals natural habitat, and these lodges do not stop the animals from going anywhere they want, so that is why the night watchmen are for, they will bring a light to show us the way, but also are trained on what to do if say a hippo or elephant, or lion were to come and try to eat us. The bathroom is really neat it is made up of straw/bamboo, the sides/walls (a spiral shape) where there are 3 toilets and 3 showers, you can take a shower and talk to the person taking a shower on the side. When you walk into the bathroom the 'hallway' is curved, so if you were looking at it from above, it would look like a maze .

Our tent

Our beds

The tours are 4 hours in the morning and in the evening. Sometimes you see a bunch of things, sometimes very little. Either way this place is amazing. Here are some of God's creations.

We are this close

momma and her cub

I have a ton of sunsets

I can't help it

These are endangered. We saw them in 2015, they said there was almost no chance
we would see them, the drivers were so excited they got all
the trucks to get here. (African wild dogs)