Yep, the green thing is for killing flies. I mostly use it for mosquitoes. We call it a flyswatter in English, because it is used to swat flies. People love it for some reason, I get a lot of comments and questions about it from strangers. The most common being "Why do you have a flyswatter?" to which I reply "To swat flies." Newspaper is way too heavy, gets wet, falls apart, etc.

I like having a lot of pens because I always want to have a working pen on me and more importantly because they make a good gift, as silly as that sounds. Something as simple as a regular ballpoint pen can make someone who has nothing very happy. And there are a lot of people in Africa who have nothing. They are an even better gift when paired with a small notebook, especially for kids. Kids love to draw, in the places I go many lack even the most basic of school supplies.

You can really brighten someone's day with something as simple as a pen and some paper, even adults. I gave a pen and some paper to a guy who was selling carvings (that he actually made himself, for once) and he was able to make a sign for his "shop" (a spot on the sidewalk) with them. You would have thought I had given him $100 based on how grateful he was. When you have nothing, even a very little thing can mean a lot.

I see. That makes clearly sense. Building fast contact is super important in your situation.

Chop, hope you don't catch the ebola. Don't go northwest.

p4b - I was pretty sure I had malaria a couple of weeks ago but it wasn't. Not sure what it was but thinking some form of food poisoning that somehow just didn't involve expelling processed food from every possible opening. Had a moderate-high fever (100-102.2F / 37.8-39C) for about 48 hours, significant chills on and off, significant sweating, headache that ranged from mild to severe, fatigue, etc. Took some ibuprofen when the headache got bad, and went to a clinic when my self-test showed positive for p. falciparum, but theirs came back negative.

I think the plan looks something like this right now:



brown being by land, and the blue a possible flight from Nairobi to Addis Ababa. May go by ground but it's >1200km/720mi and that's a long way to go in the chicken bus on a single trip. Had considered going to south Somalia but probably not anymore. Same with south Sudan. Glad I'm not in northern Moz anymore, a bunch of people just got beheaded there a week or two ago. Djibouti and Eritrea are still on the table but we'll see what timing looks like when I get up to AA.

Took Burundi off the list because their visas are kind of a pain in the ass to get and take weeks to process.

The ferry that normally does the routes up and down Lake Malawi was out of service when I arrived, so I ended up booking passage on the replacement vessel, which is much newer and faster, but also much smaller and without the ability to sleep on deck at night:




if you're wondering why the dock goes down into the water like that, it's because the other ferry smashed into it a couple of years ago and no one has bothered to fix it. So you just take a tiny boat out from the shore instead:




that's the tiny boat in the middle.

Tiny boat taking a load of passengers out:




The ferry closer up:




I thought I was going to be the only mzungu on the boat, but out of nowhere that morning a half dozen euros showed up out of nowhere and we all took over one section of the seating area. Most were younger kids in their 20s, but there was one creepy old dude in his 50s that was the equivalent of that guy in the club who is just a little too old to be in the club, if you know what I mean. He knew I knew he was a creeper and so he instantly disliked me, I think he was afraid I was going to blow his cover lol.

Thanks for the update, glad to see the flyswatter is still making the rounds.

golddog - I'm going to come visit you (well, visit my gajillion relatives and other friends in Denver, but you are included in the latter) when I get back, looking forward to exchanging more travel notes and telling stories in person.




So for anyone wondering what the interior of the ferry was like:




that was the regular seating area.

I had decided beforehand to spring for the first class section, which was about double the price (about $30USD) iirc. That didn't stop me from having a visitor who slept under my seat:




but it did provide a little more room. Here is the row of seats ahead of mine (that's my backpack next to the window seat where I was sitting) occupied by a couple of loleuros:




not the "chilembwe first class" sign taped to the wall. The crowded area from the previous photo is ahead and to the right, for perspective. I took this one after a lot of people had gotten off at an earlier stop so that's why the seats in the upper right are no longer jam packed.

Dude who was just a little too old to be in the club decided to sit with me, I suppose to keep an eye on me so I didn't blow his cover:




he's making avocado sandwiches there. He handed them out to the euros and got pretty mad when I declined. I told him to give mine to a local girl instead, who had been hovering around near us and was eyeing each sandwich with clear hunger. He said no and gave it to one of the euro girls instead. It was loleurogirl's second one. He did this right in front of the local girl. I don't know how much English she spoke, but I had motioned toward her as well when he tried to give me mine, so I know she knew what was going on. The look in her eyes when he gave it to loleurogirl instead was heartbreaking. Not that I still vividly remember that and am now back on lifetilt just recalling it or anything like that.

I ended up pulling a candy bar out of my bag and giving it to her, and the needle flipped to the side of the dial instantly. As mentioned before, it doesn't take much to make someone happy when they have literal nothing.

The loleurogirl started to give me a speech later about how I shouldn't give food out because it encourages dependence/begging, etc. I was in no mood for that bull**** and let her have it. She shut up pretty fast. I totally get the aid dependency argument, but this was a hungry six year old little girl wearing rags who hadn't asked for anything and wasn't bothering us in any way, not some random "local artist" dude pestering us and refusing to take no for an answer, or a large scale donation to a community. There's a difference. Giving a little food to one hungry kid is not encouraging aid dependency.

There weren't many other vessels out on the lake for the most part, but there were a few here and there:





yes, that is a sail made out of a plastic garbage bag. There were a bunch of those guys.

Most of the locals got off the ferry at different points about halfway down the lake, and toward the end of the trip (about 24 hours after departure) the vessel was getting pretty empty:




that little blob just above and to the right of the shoe on the right is some hanging fish.

Because this vessel traveled at about 16kts (over double the speed of the regular ferry) we managed to arrive in about 26 hours, unfortunately in the dark:




but it was still nice to arrive. The trip had been smooth, but a couple of the euros were seasick nonstop so the area started smelling pretty bad about halfway thru. It also didn't help that the ferry "office" had said to show up at 0430 for an 0500 departure and the ferry didn't leave until almost 12 hours after that, at 16:45. Africa time.

The ferry stopped at Monkey Bay, where I had booked a room at a local lodge. The room was not great. It had Africa-fast internet, which was wonderful, but there were a bazillion bugs and despite a decent mosquito net:




there were still a ton of bugs small enough to just fly/crawl right thru it, including a bunch of ants. I was bitten by various somethings multiple times every single night.

The included vegetarian breakfasts were pretty decent:




as long as you got to your food before the ants did:




Each of those brown dots is an ant.

The view of the bay from the lodge was also pretty relaxing:




and despite not being much of a drinker, I somehow managed to drink them out of cider while there:




see the empty spot on the shelf? That was where the second to last one had been. Yeah, I took the floor model, too. Also drank that remaining Savannah still pictured, which was the last one.

One of my favorite things about the lodge was this derp:




his name was ShopRite which perhaps isn't very funny to most of you. Give it a moment. ShopRite is a large South African grocery chain which has spread to other nearby countries as well, including Malawi. That's his name because he was found in a ShopRite parking lot. So imagine if you went over to your friend's house and asked the dog's name and your friend said his name was Wal-Mart or Safeway or Aldi or something like that. Then the dog did something bad or whatever and your friend was like "No, Wal-Mart! Bad Wal-Mart!" lol

Anyway, as you can see, he was a complete derp. Like pretty much all dogs, he instantly liked me and decided that he was going to hang out with me as much as possible. I love dogs* so this was fine by me. Unfortunately, pretty much all cats and children instantly like me as well and also want to hang out with me, which is super annoying but one outta three ain't bad.

He kept me from getting away by constantly trying to sit/sleep his entire body on my foot:




and because he was more than a little high strung due to a history of abuse when he was younger, he did not enjoy when any kind of loud noise disturbed him from his safe place:




but he usually managed to recover pretty quick and just go back to sleep on my foot. They seemed to think he was pure Africanis and he's definitely got some of that in him, but he looked a little mutty to me.




*actual dogs, not little ****ing rat "dogs" that live in a goddamn purse. The dogs that eat those purse-dwelling "dogs" are my type of dog.

These updates almost have too much to respond to but keep them coming please.

My main hopes are not only that you're having the trip of a lifetime in Africa but also that when you get back to USA#1 your tales will inspire others to visit, because it's an amazing continent where ordinary people lead extraordinary lives that make our Western lives seem shallow and dull by comparison.

No, they're just poor. John 11:35, imperialism and Orientalism are alive and well.

Lol Trumplandians, who aren't allowed to lol anyone on Earth, not even North Koreans any more, what with one thing and another.

Yikes. But I am impressed you can test your own p. falciparum.

Yeah, I think Navy SEALs aren't even happy to find out they're going to Somalia or Sudan.

Although I did see some Discovery channel show on diving off the coast of southern Somalia that was supposed to be first rate.

You're a good egg, chop.

Nice write-up so far!

I'm impressed you can stay in places like Lilongwe and Mzuzu for a week at a time! In Mzuzu did you by any chance get offered by some very friendly weed dealers/local artisans to save money on your hostel by crashing at their place?

+1 on scuba diving in the lake to be very underwhelming

Did you meet many other travelers in Malawi? Almost everyone I met in Malawi was either peace corp, NGO, or volunteering in some way. It felt kind of odd.

Also, question about the creeper guy. How do you know he was a creeper guy and not just some other older hippie type traveling around? You seemed to really hate this guy!

he's making avocado sandwiches there. He handed them out to the euros and got pretty mad when I declined. I told him to give mine to a local girl instead, who had been hovering around near us and was eyeing each sandwich with clear hunger. He said no and gave it to one of the euro girls instead. It was loleurogirl's second one. He did this right in front of the local girl. I don't know how much English she spoke, but I had motioned toward her as well when he tried to give me mine, so I know she knew what was going on.

I ended up pulling a candy bar out of my bag and giving it to her, and the needle flipped to the side of the dial instantly. As mentioned before, it doesn't take much to make someone happy when they have literal nothing.

The loleurogirl started to give me a speech later about how I shouldn't give food out because it encourages dependence/begging, etc. I was in no mood for that bull**** and let her have it. She shut up pretty fast. I totally get the aid dependency argument, but this was a hungry six year old little girl wearing rags who hadn't asked for anything and wasn't bothering us in any way, not some random "local artist" dude pestering us and refusing to take no for an answer, or a large scale donation to a community. There's a difference. Giving a little food to one hungry kid is not encouraging aid dependency.


Should have asked her long she has been looking for handouts
and how has it affected her dependency.

+1, and an interesting fellow too. Keep it up, chop.

They obviously are poor, but if you ask Africans what pisses them off about the West they often cite how the worlds media neglects to mention some of the brilliant things about Africa that you really can't imagine until you've spent some time there...eg how ones senses are almost overloaded with colour, sound and smells on a continual basis that makes most of the RoW seem uniformly grey by comparison.

Poverty, disease, corruption and malevolent governments rightly take centre stage but the people, in tune with the dramatic and ever changing weather, nevertheless manage to assert themselves.

It's an extraordinary continent and chop is doing a good job of bringing a sense of that to the USA#1 crowd here who, like a shameful colleague of mine who once worked in Africa, probably thought of it as nothing more than a deprived **** hole.

Well to be fair, most Americans think everywhere outside of Western Europe, UK and Australia/NZ/Japan are ****holes. And if you just look at the photos in this thread, they would probably confirm those beliefs more than anything. You don't really get Africa until you meet the people and see the amount of unbridled happiness/optimism compared to the relative amount of poverty they live in, which is something that's difficult to convey, but very eye opening to see.

But Jal, not sure why you're singling out USA #1 when it's a very common UK/European opinion as well that Africa is just a massive ebola infested ****hole.

But anywho, kudos to chop for this thread, keep it going!

*raises hand* guilty as charged. While I don't view these countries as **** holes, some of Chops tales have made me feel like I don't necessarily want to go through the hassles.

Don't get me wrong, his liveblog is insanely inspiring and it makes me want to go to places I haven't thought of. But, some of his Africa tales have made me think: yea, I'm good.......


that said, that's just me, and I don't want to speak for all of us that are reading this and have enjoyed the living **** out of it for the past few years.

You're right and the colleague I cited is a Brit, but most of the forum and probably most of chops readers are US.

Nice point about African people.

Aaaaand that´s it, after days of reading I am at the end of the single most exciting thread on 2+2, possible on the whole internet. Amazing stuff chopstick, keep it up and I am super envious

Thanks guys, always appreciate it when people let me know they are still enjoying this thread. Also helps keep the page load times down when there are posts without a half dozen photos in them.


jalfrezi - it's been a fantastic experience so far. I'm pretty well traveled but Africa is like nothing else I've experienced.


p4b - the test kits come with different options but I decided to go with the wider spectrum versions that test for multiple malarial strains at once. The kit I recently got to replace the one I just used tests for p. falciparum, p. vivax, p. malariae, and p. ovale. Would probably cost like $140 in USA#1, I paid ~$8 for a two-kit pack imported from South Africa.


cardsharkk04 - no lodging offers in Mzuzu, but I've gotten them in other places.

There were a decent number of other travelers in Malawi. Everyone in the Mzuzu hostel except me and a couple of Koreans was a Peace Corps worker. Lots and lots of PC activity in that area and they all like to come to Mzuzu during their free time. The loleuros I was on the ferry with were travelers like me, and there were a couple of other travelers that came thru Monkey Bay while I was there. In Lilongwe there were a couple of folks on guided safaris, but that's about it.

I don't hate creeper guy, mostly felt sorry for him. But yeah he was 100% creeper, not an old hippie. Old hippies are great! My creeper radar was set off by the usual behaviors - he ignored all the guys and only talked with the women, his conversation with the women approach was 95% innuendos and failed/unreciprocated flirting, his remaining 5% was about how great he was, he'd repeatedly make awkward physical contact with the women, etc. He really threw off the vibe.

Fully agree with the optimism/happiness vs poverty observation. Would also add ingenuity in there. One attitude I've seen over and over again in most of the African countries I've been to so far is the "how can we make this work?" approach where the focus is on coming up with solutions, being willing to try things, repurposing resources, and thinking outside the box. It is inspiring and a real contrast to the fake "American ingenuity" circle jerk line that Americans pretty much universally buy into to feel good about themselves.


MuckPls - how do we convert envy to inspiration?


..



I do wonder about what to include in this thread. My goal is to inspire people to travel and to consider going places and doing things they might have hesitancy or reservations about.

At the same time, I don't want to sugarcoat the less appealing aspects and realities of these places and things. Presenting a balanced view that incorporates both the good and the bad is the aim.

This approach is also weighed against my own selfish desires to see what I want to see and do what I want to do. That affects what gets presented here because it's going to mean things are left out. For example, I'm in Dar es Salaam right now. I'm in the southern part of the city (Kariakoo/Kitsu), at the intersection of the fabric/automotive/cheaptech districts, and near the plumbing/industrial district. This is a much different place to be than in the northern part of the city up near Oyster Bay, which is full of expats and more Western/"nice" stuff.

The reason I'm in K/K instead of OB is because when I go somewhere, I generally like to avoid the tourist/expat areas in favor of the more locals-dominated areas. This is because I'm not interested in gilded tourist areas that exist solely to cater to tourists - those areas don't provide an idea of what day to day life is like for the people who are just living their lives here.

One of the effects of this decision is that a lot of the photos I share may leave an impression that some places are poorer/worse off than that are, because my focus and what I'm interested in is local people and culture, which is often in places where yes, most people are much poorer.

At the same time, I try to not to engage in poverty tourism (as I find it dehumanizing), which is a lot of the reason I didn't have many photos of the townships in South Africa, and doubt I'll have many of the slums in Nairobi when I get there.

Rambling now so I'll wrap this up here, but yes, I do think about how my photos and writeups are portraying the areas I go to and things I do. The goal is to provide a fair/realistic look at things while encouraging people to stretch their comfort zones and consider trying something different.

Not sure there's an easy/good solution, and of course my approach will absolutely always be biased by my choices and goals. I recognize those choices and goals are clearly a few standard deviations away from that of most folks, especially most USA#1ers. For USA#1ers, a lot of that difference comes from the indoctrinated mindsets about the world that are pounded into your head in from the day you are born about how USA#1 is the best country in the world, the only one that matters, Americans are better than everyone else, money is the only thing that matters in life, etc.

OK, now I'm REALLY rambling, time to shut up before I go full lolchop.

Top man, chop

Chop: I get what you are saying, and agree with it. We should all try and do as much as possible and travel as much as possible. I still do, have been to all countries in Europe, have been to Asia and a round trip to Australia and to the US for a brief visit. I would love to just pack up everything and **** off into the sunset, but kids and family and stuff like that keeps me from doing it. Not saying I would want to trade it for anything in this world as I love my kids, just saying that circumstances are different.

That being said we do plan on saving enough money and learn as much as possible and in 7-8 years sail around the world. Plan is to make it a 3-5 year trip or so. So if you are still on the road by that time and you are looking to crew a boat let us know