With less than 1 week left here at Open Arms, time has certainly flown by and we’ve become very settled here in our daily routine. Although over the past couple of weeks we’ve broken up this routine by sampling some of the delights that Malawi has to offer. After seeing Blantyre’s, large but basic football stadium, we thought it would be fun to see a local match. We were in luck when a guy who works at Open Arms, Jonham told us that the Malawi Flames were going to be playing the Mozambique Mamba’s. So along with Jonham and two children of Open Arms workers, we set off to see the game. There was a great vibe at the stadium, with people waving flags and blowing horns and whistles. In true African style people were dancing up and down the steps of the stadium, giving it a far different feel from watching European games. Throughout the game Malawi proved they were the far better team and the final score was 3-0 to the Flames, so all the Malawi supporters left in great spirits, although that didn’t stop there being a few arrests! Malawi’s next game is going to be against Brazil…..so at least we watched a game where Malawi had a decent chance of winning. 
Our final weekend trip whilst in Blantyre was to Liwonde National Park, known to be one of the best parks in Malawi for birds and other wildlife. Although we spent less than 24 hours there, we managed to squeeze in as much wildlife watching as we could. Not long after arriving to the rustic lodge set in the south of the National Park, we headed off for a sunset game drive. Bumping, loudly along the paths in the old and dilapidated game viewing vehicle we were surrounded by black smoke coming out of the exhaust, we hoped this wouldn’t scare the animals or birds away. With a large river running through the centre of the park we could hear lots of hippos making their grunting, laughing sounds in the distance. Although the park doesn’t have any big cats, we were surrounded by lots of different antelopes, such as waterbuck, kudu and impala. We came across a family of warthog and soon after we saw a Hornbill flying overhead, which gave me the image from the Lion King Disney film, when Pumba and Timon are singing ‘Hakuna Matata….no worries’. Our driver stopped just as the sun was setting so that we could get out and have our gin and tonics whilst watching the stunning Africa skyline slowly dissolve from an infinite number of reds into the serene darkness of night. For our dinner all the people staying in the lodge ate at a long table in the dining area which made it very sociable and cosy. Due to the fact that the lodge has no electricity lanterns were placed throughout the hallways and lounge which added to the rustic atmosphere. Also staying at the lodge were a group of 3 Belgium girls who had been teaching at Likoma Island at the north of Lake Malawi and also 5 Belgium medical students who are working at Queens Hospital in Blantyre.
Early the next morning we headed off with a guide on a canoe safari which we were first not sure about, as lots of crocodiles and hippos call the river home! Our guide assured us it would be fine as the crocs were not around because of the rains there were no riverbanks for them to sun themselves on. Both of us thought that we would feel safer actually being able to see the crocs instead of not knowing where they were. We were lucky to see quite a few families of hippos in the water pretty close which our guide said was ok to do as because they were not poached they didn’t feel threatened by humans. Needless to say if any of them did start to make their way towards the boat I think both of us would have started using our arms to start paddling. Along the riverbank we saw some amazing birds of all colours and sizes. As its very marshy there are lots of small frogs and snails which a lot of the herons and storks love eating. After getting back to the lodge after the canoe trip we had a nice hearty breakfast and then headed off back to Blantyre with the 8 Belgium people we had met at the lodge. As there were 10 of us all together we managed to get a minibus that could take us all which meant we didn’t have to stop every 5 minutes to pick up new passengers. It was a great trip although we both agreed maybe it would have been nice to spend an extra day just to relax and take in the lovely scenery.
When we first arrived at Open Arms we wanted to take the Harrogate House kids out for a treat and we came upon the idea of taking them to the local cinema in Blantyre (the only cinema in the whole of Malawi). After talking to Neville, the Director, and the head matron we decided that the kids may struggle to keep their attention for a whole film so what we decided to do was take them and some of the mothers out for pizza and ice-cream. So we all squeezed into one of the people carriers and went to the local mall where the kids got their first taste of pizza. Well who doesn’t like pizza…..so you can imagine the kids just hoovered it all up and then turned to us as if to say “so when do the next 10 pizzas arrive”. After the pizzas they each got a cup of ice-cream which they have had before an absolutely love. So all in all it was a very successful outing. Along with the outing we bought a DVD player with money kindly donated by Nat’s dad and installed it in the house and within no time the kids were laughing and pointing at Tom & Jerry getting up to their usual antics. It’s great because now they can watch educational DVD’s as well as some great animated films in the comfort of their own home.During our time here at Open Arms we have seen a few volunteers come and go. Margret from Ireland who was an external volunteer, meaning she didn’t stay in the volunteers house with us but still came to the home everyday to volunteer. We have gotten on very well with all the volunteers as I think that generally people who do this kind of thing are like minded. Margret and her husband Rob, who was teaching at a local hospital, invited us out for dinner on their last night and we had a lovely evening and have promised to take them up on their offer of visiting them in Ireland when we eventually finish off our travels. We have been very fortunate to meet some truly friendly and hospitable people on our travels.
Well that’s all our news for now before we send all of you to sleep at your keyboards. Hopefully the weather is improving for those of you in the UK and please keep us updated with your news and we’ll try to keep you updated with ours.
Love
Kim & Nat
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