This and that from Malawi - by Erja & Kaneli

Hot greetings from Domwe paradise Island on Malawi Lake. We are now half way our KAPUA adventure. Starting off from Lilongwe with dinner at the Honorary Consulate of Finland, we continued on to Lungwena for our four-day visit to the countryside charity destination, warm-heartedly hosted by the Family Federation of Finland. In those four days we were able to see what the situation in this area really is concerning for example maternity welfare and the improvements the Family Federation's project has accomplished so far. For a westerner it can still be quite shocking to see women lying on the ground of the hospital side by side, or to hear that there is only one nurse in practice taking care of everything from advising the families to giving birth and everything in between, and this for a large geographic area. The locals seem to be fine with it all, even though a lot more still needs to be done.

We had a KAPUA launch by riding the Finnish Jopo bicycles in Mangochi city area, lead by an ambulance and a policecar and filmed by Malawi TV. This is about to be published in the national Malawi newspaper as well. People gathered on both sides of the road as we passed by and cheered for us a lot. We must have been an interesting sight with our pink and orange bicycles!

Our first part of the triathlon was then to ride from Lungwena to Namalaka village some 16km on a small somewhat bumpy country road. When we arrived in Namalaka village center we were welcomed to the warm heart of Africa like never before with hundreds of kids surrounding us by singing and dancing, yelling and screaming. It is impossible to put into words, please see the video link below. This was definately the highlight of our lives for many of us for years to come. Unbelievable!

Erja was honoured and proud to make a speech on behalf of the whole KAPUA team to the village chiefs and the huge audience surrounding us, after which we saw local drama clubs presenting plays and dances related to family planning and HIV prevention.

Other unforgettable memories from these days include for example a lovely morning hike through local villages nearby Lungwena, 'almost' smoke sauna one evening in the charity destination , witnessing a one hour old baby born in the Lungwena health centre, visit to AIDS orpahanage, Reijo's army training to the kids around our hostel and some of us also trying to carry water buckets on our heads from the dwell to the sauna.

During our visit to Lungwena we used the same amount of water from the dwell as the locals would use in a month, even if it wasn't available most of the time for us. Quite shocking, isnt't it and makes you wonder about our consumption habits in general.

In general, life in Malawi is timeless. We all have been slowly learning that things do not happen timely as we are used to in the western world, but ultimately it all work. To hurry is an unknown concept here. The undersigned somehow like it a lot!

There are many beliefs that Malawian people live by. One of them relates to kuzumule, the lizard. On request, the witchdoctor makes a powder mixing Love Me tree root and a lizard's tail. Ask us later if you want to know how this miracle mixture affects you...

Another one is about the sausage tree and if you curious to know why Reijo and Hessu wanted to stay under one for a loooooong time, we can enlighten you.
After the eye opening, dusty and touching stay in Lungwena, we headed off to our second pit stop on Domwe, a magnificient paradise island that could be anywhere in the world.

We kayaked 5 km from mainland to the island a and really enjoyed the two days there, relaxing, charging our mental batteries, snorkeling, kayaking and enjoying excellent food and service. The concept of a tent has been redefined as some of the tents were more like houses. We managed to practise for Mt Mulanje by climbing to the top of Domwe island, which is some 400m uphill and quite steep we would say. The only difference to Mt. Mulanje is that this had trees and branches to hold on to, but the latter will have only rocks at the end. Well, that is then another challenge to deal with later! Anyhow, we witnessed the most beautiful sunset from the top of the island, so it was definately worth it.
We also had some visitors in form of animals: lots of lizards, civet cats, bush pigs and a huge baboon that attacked our lunch table and literally stole food right in front of our 17 pairs of eyes from a plate that Krisse was holding on her lap.

While writing this we have already moved to our new destination, Mvuu (hippo) lodge, in the Liwonde National Park. Warthogs and elephants are right outside our safari 'tent' door, and this is not a joke. We will continue writing at some point if those hippos don't eat us :-).

Many people we met especially in Lungwena area wanted to send greetings to Finnish people and our government thanking deeply for the help they have received and really hoping we will continue the good work. This reminds us that you can still support this project and donate, we have reached around 65 000 euros so far and still want to achieve more. The amount has increased every day during our trip and we hope it still will, thanks to you!

Now to sleep as we need to get up at 5 am for a morning safari.

Mutsale Bweno and Mugone Bweno!

Erja & Kaneli (= Ermeli)