People are always asking me if I’ve made it up to the lake yet and raving about how nice a place it is to go for weekend getaways. So, I was thrilled when I was invited up to a cottage on the lake at Senga Bay (an hour and a half away from Lilongwe) last weekend.
Lake Malawi is the 3rd largest lake in Africa. The Lake dominates the geography of the country, following the contours of the Great Rift Valley for a distance of 585 km, reaching a width of 100 km at points. In all, it covers over 15% of the total land area Malawi.
Source: http://www.aquaria.info/graphics/misc/malawi.jpgThe shores are lined by sheer mountain cliffs and seemingly endless sandy beaches and the lake itself contains more freshwater fish species than are found in all of North America and Europe combined. Most of the fish are endemic to the lake.
Many of the cichlid species found in the lake are very popular in the aquarium trade. I hope to go scuba diving to check them out at some point while I’m here!
Source: http://www.vagabonding.com/photos/malawi/DSC01998_lake_malawi_fish.jpgThe majority of the animal protein in the Malawian diet comes from fish, and traditionally, Lake Malawi has supplied it by the boat load. However, wild populations have become increasingly threatened by over fishing and pollution. There was a lot of fishing going on near where I was staying, and I heard a few stories which reflected just how much smaller the catches have been in recent years.
Many of the photos I took at the lake came from a walk I took on Saturday afternoon. We passed bathing men in their briefs getting very sudsy (no photos of them though!), women laying out their freshly washed clothes and linens out to dry on the sand, and many men fixing their fishing boats (which ranged from dugout canoes to 25+ ft long wooden motor boats) and tending to their fishing nets.
Photo 1: View down the beach
Photo 2: Fabric left out to dry
Photo 3: Fishing boats
Photo 4: Fishing Nets
Photo 5: Solitary fishing boat
The cottage was a nice and relaxing time. In addition to hanging out on the beach, I spent much time monkey watching (lots of monkey mums with their babies!), climbed a hilltop for a gorgeous view of the surrounding bays, and watched as some car repairs happened on the car we broke as we drove in . . .
Photo 6: Fixing the car
Photo 7: Monkey mum and baby
Photo 8: View from the hillside.It was really good to get out of the city for a little while. This upcoming weekend I will be making my return to the lake, but I'll be going to a place a few hours further north. I will be attending the Lake of Stars music festival, which features a wide array of Malawian and international acts. I haven't quite worked out how I'll get there, but I shall find a way . . . I hope!
Kim
6 comments:
yay!! i'm glad you finally went to the lake!
i was showing my dad a map of malawi last weekend, actually, and pointing out the big lake (little did we know you were there as we spoke). anyway, he was impressed. he also wants to know why you've gone all the way over there. i feel like i have ideas why you would, but he doesn't get it. any ideas on how to explain to him your motivations? i'm sure he'd love to hear from you!!!
also, great fabric everywhere!! pretty!
Hey Kim!
Wow your blog is incredible...brings back soo many fond memories..like nsima and eggs yum. Keep it up, and thanks for posting great pictures.
Sounds like you really had a tremendous village stay, and I'm fully jealous you got to experience a wedding! I'm going by what I hear, but its a key time to really experience Malawian culture. How did the roles differ between the age groups/gender/etc.??
I also couldn't figure out how Falls Estate got its name...good luck with that :P But it sounds like you'll have many great stories with your family of all women?! Oh and why is the water cut off - is that a Lilongwe Water Board action, a shortage? Guessing your family fills up jugs to make it through the morning, or how do you cope? I remember hearing the phrase, "Water is Life" many times when the water cut off :)
Mosquito's in October...does that change the perception of Malaria in the family at all? Or have you noticed any increase of cases at work?
Sorry to comment on all your posts at once (haha), but wasn't Lake Malawi stunning? Where did you go exactly?
Well, class is about to start...hope the music festival has some good tunes that you'll enjoy. Can't wait to hear more about your role in the Monitoring & Evaluation system at TLC.
Tiona na!
PS: Hows the political arena treating Malawians? I heard the budget finally passed, but Section 65 might still be up in the air?
Wayne!
Glad you’re enjoying the blog, and I’m happy to bring back fond memories of Malawi for you!
The village wedding was definitely an interesting experience, but I was probably a little too distracted by the large crowd of gawking children I had following me around everywhere to really get into it. In terms of how roles differed, it was hard for me to get a sense of what was happening most of the time due to the language barrier; my main translator was always running here and there, so I was often left to my own, only able to observe! The wedding was also massive (much larger than the typical village wedding) and there were just people everywhere all the time, it was hard to get a sense of what was really going on. Food and sweet beer was made in epic quantities, and the food prep areas were where the women could be found, sitting and socializing. The men were more actively circulating in the crowd it seems. I probably skewed the picture of what the kids usually do at weddings, because whenever I was around, they just followed me . . . The men and women had their own dances, which they performed in large groups – quite interesting to watch!
Someone gave me a very confusing explanation about how Falls Estate got its name (note for everyone who hasn’t been to Lilongwe: pretty much all areas in Lilongwe are numbered, which is how people describe where things are – “area 3,” “area 47” – Falls is one of the few places with a name), but I didn’t follow . . . The lady who tried to explain it to me was a nice woman whose place I was checking out while house hunting. On a scrap of paper she wrote down her phone number, where she lived (Falls), her name, and finally (and very importantly), her denomination (Pentecostal) – very Malawian!
From what I understand, the water cuts off just due to low pressure. The mornings before people go to work are times of high water usage, and my area just has no water pressure! We fill up buckets and basins the night before to get through the morning. The other day the water randomly cut during the early evening, I’m not sure why. When the water cuts out unexpectedly, we fill buckets from a neighbour’s well.
The Mosquitoes are definitely getting worse! Towards the end of September my family dug up their mosquito nets from storage, and applied some kind of insecticide mixture to the walls, so extra precautions are definitely being taken!
Lake Malawi is lovely! I stayed at a cottage in Senga Bay (close to the Livingstonia hotel), and was up at Chinteche for the music festival. Our EWB training next week will be taking place at the ‘WheelHouse Marina’ in Senga Bay.
It is raining out! It's not supposed to rain for another month! I haven't seen precipitation in a loooong time!
Kim
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