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Provided By: Muslim Harji
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Travel Log - From Cairo to Cape Town
UPDATE FROM MALAWI 5 April 2006
Dear friends and family,
Yevo from Malawi! I am going to try to keep this message short because i don't want to bore anyone out of reading these emails! haha
Well we are currently in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, ostensibly the poorest country that we will visit on the Tour. Our ride from Tanzania was amazing, with breathtaking landscapes and uphill climbs that literally took your breath away. I think that Tanzania was my favorite country to be in, not only for the biking, but also because of our amazing side trip to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. Dar was so relaxing, and really helped to ease the mountains of stress that had been piling up on my head. I think that constantly seeing so much poverty and destitution had finally taken its toll on me. Our family in Dar really took wonderful care of us, and treated us like royalty. We got to visit some of my parents' old haunts from when they were younger and even got to go out to Zanzibar. Zanzibar was nothing like what i expected. I sort of imagined this exotic, luxurious place but in fact, it is really quite a poor city. The streets of Stonetown, where we stayed, were incredibly narrow, allowing only one car to squeeze by at a time. Even in this remote corner of Africa, we found Aga Khan Foundation projects up and running incredibly well. We visited a Madrassa school teachers development program, where teachers from small rural communities are trained so that they can return back to their communities and start schools. The AKF program not only teaches them about the curriculum and how to implement it properly, but also about accounting and management so that they can run the school well. It was really an impressive project and I was surprised to see it. All across the region, even as far as the remote border town of Mbeya, Tanzania, we have come across Aga Khan Health Centers and Dispensaries. The Foundation is doing really wonderful work, providing services to all segments of the population, in places that have been ignored by many other organizations and governmental bodies. I'm really proud of the work that is being done!
Malawi, however, is completely different. Before anything, I have to thank Reza Khalfan for getting us the malaria medication that we needed because there are definitely a LOT of mosquitoes and we are in some high-risk areas. Reminiscent of Ethiopia, in Malawi, there are always plenty of kids watching us, picking up our trash and anything else we discard to see if it has some value or if they can use it, and asking for money. One day, as we set up lunch, one young boy watched us make sandwiches. If anything fell on the ground, into the dirt, like a few crumbs of bread, he would run over, pick it up and stuff it in his mouth. Never before have I experienced or witnessed that kind of hunger and it made me so sad to watch him, my own sandwich turned into a lump in my throat and i couldn't swallow. It's been pretty tough.
The other thing here in Malawi is that they are having one of the continent's worst struggles with AIDS. In every, and i mean EVERY, town we pass, there are always many coffin makers. I remember reading a speech by Stephen Lewis where he said that he had encountered towns and towns full of people making coffins who were doing great business because they just couldn't keep up with the demands for coffins. People here are dying at an incredible rate and about one third (ONE THIRD) of the population here in Malawi has AIDS. Talk about a serious crisis. Besides coffin makers, the only other institutions that seem to be flourishing are the orphanages to house the children whose parents have died from the disease. I realize now that no matter what we do in the West, it will never be enough.
Not to be entirely pessimistic, Malawi has to be one of the most beautiful countries we have passed through. Our first rest day in this country was on the gorgeous Lake Malawi, with the waves and sand lapping at our toes and a hilly escarpment (that we subsequently climbed!) on the other. The chitimba beach resort had everything that we needed - places for our tents, good food and drinks, and of course, the warm water that we swam in all day. By far, that was my favorite rest day, and of course, it ended just as quickly as it had started.
Well this of course, turned out not to be as short as planned, but one last thing - we're less than a month and a half away from the end! We still have 4 countries to go and time flies by when you're having fun like this. We know, just like most of my friends at school right now, that the end is near and we're just coasting towards the finish line!!!
Take care and keep those emails coming, we love getting them!
Ayesha
“In Malawi, there are always plenty of kids watching us, picking up our trash and anything else we discard to see if it has some value or if they can use it, and asking for money. One day, as we set up lunch, one young boy watched us make sandwiches. If anything fell on the ground, into the dirt, like a few crumbs of bread, he would run over, pick it up and stuff it in his mouth. Never before have I experienced or witnessed that kind of hunger and it made me so sad to watch him, my own sandwich turned into a lump in my throat and i couldn't swallow. It's been pretty tough.”
The other thing here in Malawi is that they are having one of the continent's worst struggles with AIDS. In every, and i mean EVERY, town we pass, there are always many coffin makers. I remember reading a speech by Stephen Lewis where he said that he had encountered towns and towns full of people making coffins who were doing great business because they just couldn't keep up with the demands for coffins. People here are dying at an incredible rate and about one third (ONE THIRD) of the population here in Malawi has AIDS. Talk about a serious crisis. Besides coffin makers, the only other institutions that seem to be flourishing are the orphanages to house the children whose parents have died from the disease. I realize now that no matter what we do in the West, it will never be enough.
Not to be entirely pessimistic, Malawi has to be one of the most beautiful countries we have passed through. Our first rest day in this country was on the gorgeous Lake Malawi, with the waves and sand lapping at our toes and a hilly escarpment (that we subsequently climbed!) on the other. The chitimba beach resort had everything that we needed - places for our tents, good food and drinks, and of course, the warm water that we swam in all day. By far, that was my favorite rest day, and of course, it ended just as quickly as it had started.
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