Mount Mulanje

As I said before the first place I’ve been staying is at Mount Mulanje. The name of the place I’ve been staying at is Lukhula House.  I had previously thought that I would be working here or helping out around the place but it’s turned out to be more of a experience the culture and holiday.

One of the great things about staying here is that there are two Scottish gap year kids in addition to me.  Rachel and Owen have been teaching here in Malawi for two months and will stay in Malawi for 4 months and 6 months respectively. We get along REALLY well. They have been able to show me around give me someone to hang out. We’ve been able to become good friends as a result of it.

With them I’ve experience some of the real Malawi. We’ve gotten public transport to a local market, which consisted of a bike taxi and oversized pick-up truck. It was definitely dangerous but if I constantly think like that I won’t be able to experience and learn like I have.  With Owen I played a pick-up game of soccer with some local Malawi kids on a dirt field with no shoes. We also went cliff jumping at a waterfall up the river and swam in the lukhubula pools. It’s been nice to make friends and experience how the people here live.  I also schooled them in Monopoly twice. We also set a car on fire by mistake. But that’s a longer story for another time.

I also climbed Mount Mulanje and slept on top one night. I’ve done some tough hikes but this might be one of the hardest in recent memory. At times I had to use my hands and feet to climb up the trail. It was more or less a constant uphill climb for 6-7 miles. Once I got to the plateau on top it was really worth it. I made some friends with some Norwegians at the hut I stayed at as well. One of the most fantastic things about staying at the top is the stars. It was a pitch black night with an infinite amount of stars. The only downfall was that I couldn’t walk straight for three days.

I also ran into someone who grew up in summit and graduated from SHS in 2006. SMALL WORLD.  

Tomorrow I’ll be off to Zomba where I’ll be for a few days before I start to teach! Owen and Rachel made me really excited and nervous to teach! At first I was a little unsure if Malawi was the right place for me but I’ve realized it definitely is.

L to R (mike, rachel, owen, me)

 bike taxi

hut porch

sunset plateau

Africa. I’ve been in Africa one week and it has already changed my view of it completely. I realized I was kind of naïve on the subject of Africa.

I’m not afraid to admit I thought all of it was either a desert, like the sahara, or expanses of nothing with a few trees and animals. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I’m currently in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in Africa, and the world. I realized how big of a difference between the summit bubble I had become accustomed to again as soon as I landed in the airport. First of all the immigration is a two guys in loose-fitting suites hand-writing visas. Then the baggage claim was small and ghetto. Which didn’t work considering there were three planes that arrived around the same time. Those three planes were about 75% of the daily traffic of the airport. You walked through the open air customs line to find yourself at the entrance of the airport. The entire place is about the size of a gymnasium.

While driving to our guesthouse we noticed long lines at the gas stations. It turns out there are gas shortages, so you park in a line and wait for up to 5 days until the gas or diesel truck arrives. Or you can buy it on the black market. But you have to be careful cause sometimes the gas is cut with paraffin.  

There are also rolling black-outs. I’m currently in Zomba and every night at 5 the power goes out for about 2 hours. BUT other than that I’ve enjoyed Malawi.

After getting over my initial paranoia about mosquitoes and being mugged I learned how nice the people are. Everyone will smile and wave if you wave. People introduce themselves regardless of the situation. The culture itself is just very friendly.

While in Malawi I’ll be doing a few things. First I’ll be helping out at Likbula house, which is a retreat center in the shadow of Mount Mulanje. After that I’ll help out a the Zomba Theological College. I might do a lecture of two, which caught me totally by surprise. Then I’ll go teach at Domasi Mission School. Finally, I’ll end up in Lilongwe doing youth ministries with the surrounding villages and schools. It’s exciting to know I’ll be constantly busy.

Along the way I’ll do a few fun things like climb mount Mulanje or go on a safari. The only real hurtle is the astronomically high cost of gas. But the president of Malawi died today so maybe the new president will be able to get things back in working order!

I didn’t proof read this so sorry about the bad grammar or spelling.

-Ben

It's Time for Africa

I really suck a writing blog posts. After my trip to New Zealand it became too much of a hassle. My last post was about Thailand. After Thailand I went to Hong Kong for a month and worked as a intern/lab assistant at a marine biology lab that was part of Hong Kong University. During the weekends I would hang out with my brother and sister-in-law because they lived real close to where I did. I had a lot of fun.

That was almost 2 months ago. I got home on February 6th after more than 4 months away from home. I quickly realized that while I missed home and having my own bed-room and what not it wasn't all that great to be home without most of my friends. I had one or two around but they weren't free all that much. So February was kind of a bust.

I took a 1800 mile road trip out to Indiana and back which was a fun way to spend a week and a half! Even though I ran out of gas on the highway...

When March rolled around I had a lot more to do. I helped out a little with the high school musical and many of my friends were home from college.

But that's all old news! Whats new news is the fact that I will be flying to Africa TOMORROW! Yayyy
I'm 100% sure what  I'll be doing while I'm over there but I'm sure it will be different and exciting! I'll post again when I know for sure whats going to happen!

Thailand Part 3

Since I'm sitting in Hong Kong airport and Thailand was a month ago I'm just going to put it past me. The following pictures are at the end out the Thailand part of my gap year. I leave it up to you to create stories.

Thailand Part 2

I left off on the over-night trip to Chang Mai with the fam. Originally the train was supposed to be 13 hours long, with a departure at 7pm and arrival at 8am. We got in at 3pm, making it a 20 hour train ride. My story is fragmented, but from what I understand it’s because the original engine pulling our train caught on fire. I remember seeing the entire train staff running up to the front in a panic and feeling the train stop. That was about 3 hours into the ride. After being stopped for a good hour and seeing all the conductors chilling outside on the platform, Chris, Zach and I decided to get off and go to a local shop to get some food. The conductor assured us the train wouldn’t leave without us. However, about 15 minutes into the meal we hear and see the train pulling away. Without us. I dropped everything and ran toward the train, hoping to stop it. As soon as I got there the station operator told us that it was coming back and not to worry. It still freaked us out, and when it was coming back we hopped on, just in case it didn’t stop. When we got back to our cabin the rest of the family had no clue we were left at the station.

When we did get to Chang Mai, it was much more pleasant than Bangkok was. It was smaller, cleaner and more tourist friendly. We checked into the guesthouse and then went on an adventure. We walked around, and had dinner on the waterfront. Then we went in search of some real authentic Thailand Muay Thai boxing. We eventually found it, where we watched a few matches. We saw an American tie a Thai fighter, and an Australian WRECK a different fighter.

The next morning we got up early and got a bus to Elephant Nature Park. I was really hoping to be able to ride an elephant, but apparently that’s bad for them, and since the place we were going is a sanctuary for rescued animals that wasn’t going to happen. Bummer. But during the day we fed the elephants, washed the elephants and watched them. It doesn’t sound like a lot of fun but it was. Most of the time the elephants are so gentle and loving. The older ones can act as grandmothers, and they enjoy being petted and fed. Also trunks are amazing things. I’d seen them before but watching the up-close and personal amazed me. It’s just this one huge articulate muscle.

We stayed there for two days, before going back to Chang Mai and a different guesthouse. Problem was they didn’t have our registration. Luckily it was an American who owned it and we eventually got things sorted out. It was somewhere is this confusing transition that my camera was either stolen, or misplaced by me. That night we went to the famous Sunday night street market in Chang Mai. It was one of the most overwhelming experiences of my life. The market was HUGE. It stretched for miles packed full of people and stalls selling everything from salted strawberries (yuck) to jackets for your dog.

The next day Chris, Zach, Dad and I went mountain biking. It destroyed us. Chris convinced us to do the hardest and longest trail they had, of which the first 25% was straight uphill. We literally pushed our bikes for the first hour because it was impossible to ride up. After that is was more fun and mostly downhill. It still took 2 hours longer than it was supposed to though because we messed around too much. On multiple occasions we had huge spills. My spill was particularly spectacular. I was in first in a heated race down the mountain when I hit an edge and ate it hard. I fell sideways and rolled like they do in movies when they jump out of cars. I rolled off the road and started to roll down mountain before being stopped by a bush. Luckily aside from a few cuts I was unharmed, but I can’t say the same for my knee pads…

After a long, but fun ride we got back to the guesthouse, got Thai massages from blind people and had a nice dinner.

The next day we rented vespas, which was scary and exhilarating at the same time. It was awesome to drive a motorcycle but scary to drive on Thai roads. We drove to lake nearby and had some lunch. It was  like drinking lava. It was the spiciest, hottest meal of my life. Chris literally got light-headed because of it. After that we headed back to Chang Mai and eventually to the airport to take a flight back to Bangkok. It was a short 1 hour flight. Then we got on another over night train headed south toward Khao Sok and Phuket.