it's a typical situation, in these typical times...

not much to report, really... but figured i'd pass along some pictures of the couple nights i spent at majete wildlife reserve over my birthday.

majete is about a 2 hour drive from where the centre is, and is one of the most peaceful and restful places i've stepped foot in. we were the only ones in the park, which helped, but it was pretty amazing overall.

our accommodations were called chalet's, but they were basically just oversized tents that had beds and a bathroom attached to them, and they were scattered around the reserve so that you felt that you were in your own little world.... there was a guest house, which we were served our meals at, and at which you could just relax and enjoy a cold drink and a great view of one of the watering holes in the park... which were frequented by elephants.


i was pretty skeptical about the whole safari thing going into it, as i had a lot of people tell me stories of going on drives and barely seeing
anything, so my expectations were pretty low, but they were blown out of the water... we did a drive around the reserve, where we encountered zebras, warthogs (pumba!), nyala, and water bucks fairly regularly as we drove around... we also had a closer than comfortable encounter with a herd of elephants that surrounded our vehicle and kept us in park for about 15 minutes while they came to grips with whether we were a threat... and after a few mock charges we were allowed to pass. turns out that they are a little more dangerous in the wild than the jungle books pegs them as, and they don't even walk along holding each other's tales and singing marching songs. after i got over that disappointment, we went down to the shire river

which was frequented  by hippos, and we got a pretty good look at one that was hanging out near the bank [poorly pictured on the right] while a few others were just chilling in the middle of the river...

we also go to hike up to kapachilla falls [which i'm quite effectively blocking the view of in the picture on the left], which is where david livingstone hit his first big snag in his initial missionary trip into malawi, and had to turn back.

it was hard for me to work through the amount of money i was spending on my time in the wildlife reserve, as most people in the area that the centre is in are living off of around a dollar a day, and that trip would have been over half a years pay for the majority of the workers at the centre. it's such a strange world i've found myself in... how do you come to terms with something like that?

irregardless of the moral implications of my time there, it was a pretty incredible two days, and was a great way to spend my 27th birthday. thanks for the birthday wishes from those that sent them....

love.