Two Days at Mvuu Camp

Two Days at Mvuu
July 8 and 9, 2009

We left early for Mvuu Camp in Liwonde National Park so that we would arrive by 10 o’clock for our short trip across the Shire River to the site. A few miles along the Mangochi road, we turned onto a narrow dusty road near a small town called Ulongwe. Though only 16 kilometers to the Shire River, the trip is arduous, winding through village after village with children running to greet the bus. We arrived and are transferred to two boats that first take us on an hour river trip to look for hippos and crocodiles. We saw the grand-daddy of them all – a huge, vicious looking one. That croc was to be the first of many in two days, from small recently hatched ones to others three meters and more. Monitor lizards were also in abundance.

We finally checked in and ate lunch. The students were ecstatic about the fresh salads. Mvuu, though rustic, is a typical well-planned safari camp. There’s a large, thatched building that serves as a restaurant, bar, and reception. The family “tents,” in which we stayed, are two rooms with bath – again beautifully rustic. The windows are screened and the sides and tops are tented with concrete raised floors. Everyone is happy with the accommodations.

We had a short time to explore. The monkeys came down to play and we saw an elephant splashing across the river. We then set off for our afternoon safari into the rhino sanctuary, where we saw kudu, hartebeast, eland, waterbuck, impala, wart hogs, and more. Here an elephant made threatening charges at the jeep, flapping his ears and stomping his feet. We saw then that there was another elephant with a baby. He saw us as a threat to this family. We left and proceeded to the river to watch the sunset. After it was good and dark, we set off on the night safari to look for creatures of the night – gennets, mongooses, night birds, impalas and waterbucks getting ready to bed down for the night.

We returned to camp to be greeted by drummers and dancers and a fire pit, blazing with welcoming warmth. Dinner was marvelously varied and appealing to us because we have had the same two or three meals every night for three weeks. A guide walked us to our tents because they want to be sure that no big animals were in the camp. The heavy cloud cover meant that the usual star gazing and amazing Milky Way sprawling across the sky were not to be on this trip.

Of course, the night was filled with hippo grunts as they come up out of the water near our tents. Early in the morning I heard one slip back into the water in front of our tent. I hadn’t heard him come by because the weather had changed and a light drizzle had set in. I’ve been to Malawi many times during the past 10 years and have never seen June and July as wet and cold. However, we all got up and out for our morning walk, where we saw lots of monkeys, impalas, waterbucks, birds, and other features that our guide explained to us, such as the mopane tree. The mopane tree comprises 25 percent of the vegetation in the game park and is critical, especially in feeding the elephants. Our guide showed us the “rope” from the mopane tree in elephant dung. Then he cut a branch, stripped off the bark and pulled loose strips that serve villagers as rope to tie thatch for roofs or bundles of wood to carry.

After breakfast we set off for our two-hour river safari. One boat load saw many elephants; my boat did not see elephants. There was much disappointment in the disparity.

At breakfast we had met Jillian Wolstein, from Ohio, who has started H.E.L.P. Malawi (health, education, love, and protection). She told us about her project nearby, a school and clinic. The villages that surround Mvuu Camp are some of the poorest in Malawi. On our way back to Zomba, we stopped at Nanthomba, a village across the Shire from Mvuu Camp, to visit the school. It’s a wondrous example of a project that has planned sustainability built in. Matt Williger, the international project director for the foundation, showed us around. The school has a vegetable garden, an orchard, and a wood lot, which will all provide produce that can be sold. There are micro industries that teach students skills but also provide money to put back into the operation – honey bees, jam making, necklaces from magazines, sewing school uniforms, etc. They have demonstration gardens – raised beds in the schoolyard – one that will produce different kinds of tea and another that shows a variety of fruits. We saw “vermin” composting in old tires, and plantings behind each classroom that will be both attractive and productive as various kind of tea that will be sold. The vision of self-help and commitment to sustainability were inspiring, and has caused the three university faculty advisors to rethink some of the ways we are “helping” our schools.

We ended the day with “wild” shopping and bargaining with vendors at Liwonde, a large vendors setup where many of the carvings are done that actually show up in Lilongwe and Zomba for sale. Students bargained hard; we boarded the bus and the bargaining continued frantically – vendors surround the bus, pushing their wares through the window. They shouted prices and we responded. The process took almost 50 minutes, until Charles pulled away for the last time (the first two times were just to make the bargaining serious). Everyone showed their finds to each other and quoted their prices. They’re satisfied with their purchases and especially happy that they’ve learned how to bargain, a skill we rarely need in the U.S., but here it’s a daily necessity.

We stopped for one last shopping opportunity at the place that makes “chief chairs.” Again, student bargain and buy, and we get to Annie’s Lodge, only to have the lights go out AGAIN. The overcast skies and electric outage means no Internet because of satellite interference and also the “resetting” of connectivity that must take place after outages.

Our days here are so few now and there is much left to do.