Environmental curriculum

These pictures are from one of the environmental games in the World Camp curriculum.
The students split into two groups and each make a box that represents an environment. The one on the right is an environment full of trees, bushes, and other greenery. The box on the left is meant to represent a deforested environment.

The volunteers use these to show the effects of wind and water erosion.
Here is the water erosion:

Here is the wind erosion:

And here are pictures of beautiful Malawi - worth saving!
Notice how small and few the trees are...

I bought a drum - basically a goat skinned across some wood!
This is a picture from one of my many lessons from Humphreys.
He is sitting to my right. He worked as a translator for us at every
camp. He is an amazing person - we would love to find a way to
bring him here and host him for a year... more on this later.

This is one of Brett's tree pick-ups. World Camp bought approximately 200 trees for each camp. The students planted 20 at each school, and we gave each student a tree to take home to plant.
Check out the bumper sticker: Use Condom Sense

Brett and John - the house manager.

Thoughts and pictures from safari

From Brett 1/25/09:

The World Camp program offers an optional 2 day safari in Zambia. Our whole group of volunteers chose to do this and we had a great time last week. It was a nice break in the intense 6 day a week camp schedule for everyone. It took a full day to travel there and back due to very rough road conditions despite being a main artery from the closest major airport. We can upon a large muddy section that was hard to determine the depth and hazards within. After chatting with the villagers that came out to look at the spectacle, we started to narrow down the not so random incidence of this trouble spot. It seemed that the villagers use this spot in the road as a source of extortion. One of the great things that we have noticed and admired about the people we have witnessed is their crafty resourcefulness. We have seen many good examples of this in the daily lives of the people here, but this is an example of how being resourceful can go to the other extreme of gaining at the expense of others. Since, this road is the main route for “rich white travelers” going to safari, what a perfect opportunity to be crafty and resourceful. They proceeded to “help us” through the puddle, then asked for money. They helped us by walking through the puddle to show the depth and stepping over the big holes they dug in the middle. The bus we brought was “dead in the water”, no pun intended. During this rough section of road the bus had damaged the radiator to the point that replacement was the only option. Luckily we were only about 20km from our destination. We then loaded the Land Rover we brought to the gills with all the volunteers to the camp. I went back to get the remaining coordinators and gear. Long day to say the least.

From Catherine 1/25/09:

There were parts of me that felt guilty about going to safari when the work we’re doing continuously highlights the need and poverty of the vast majority we’ve seen here. But I’m really glad Brett and I decided to go. It really brought home for me the environmental message we’re teaching in the schools. For instance, the reason we have to travel to Zambia for safari is because of the devastating effects of deforestation here in Malawi. As few as 25 years ago there were forests to support animals around the villages, but now there is only one small area in the whole country that has safari type animals and the habitat to support them. As soon as we crossed the boarder from Malawi to Zambia we could see a very obvious difference in the size and amount of trees. Zambia also faces the effects of deforestation, but the country is not nearly as densely populated as Malawi.

We stayed in at a safari camp called Wilderness Camp in Mfuwe, Zambia – bordering the 3 million acre (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) South Luangwa National Park. The accommodations were modest, but greatly enjoyed by all. They had a large kitchen for us to use for group cooking and lots of PB&J sandwich making. The wildlife right outside our cabins was the highlight for me. Brett and I took our sandwiches back to our cabin to eat on our porch one day at lunch. One of the monkeys grabbed half of Brett’s sandwich right off his plate! Ok, so maybe I was tossing bits to them to get them close, but they were so cute – how could I help myself? ;)

After we drove through the park on our two safari drives, I was amazed by the diversity of the wildlife we witnessed moving and living in their natural surroundings. I was stuck by, what seems to me, the divine plan of it all. Every tree, plant, insect, reptile, rodent, bird, and animal is there for a purpose that benefits and completes the system. I find it impossible to think that this is all random or by accident. It also gave me lots of food for thought about how beautiful and natural interdependence is, and how we as Westerners often squirm at any notion other than independence. I have also pondered the role we play in this divinely designed system – how are my actions contributing in positive ways and detracting in negative ways? All in all the safari experience was incredibly peaceful for me. The questions and musings only serve to give the experience more meaning for me, which also brings me some peace from all the swirling guilty feelings that can easily take over.

This is a picture of most of our group...such a great group of people.

This picture is taken right outside of our group common area at Wilderness Camp. See the elephants in the distance - they were so close! I taught 2 yoga classes in this common area while we were there. I laughed with the volunteers about how if I teach that same class back home it just won't be the same without, "Inhale up to tall mountain, whoa, and look at the elephants."

See below for lots more pictures...

Here is that crazy little monkey that took Brett's sandwich - look at him eying Brett's plate!

We were quite shocked and intrigued by the color of this species of monkeys', ummm, as Brett says "junk"

Enjoying a beer with Jesse on our first drive. Our guide took us to a beautiful spot to enjoy the sunset. We have continued to enjoy our group - such a great group of people. It was great having Jesse here too since he was our connection to World Camp (he is one of the founders).

This is an elephant foot print that we found right in the middle of our camp. We also came across a large group of them on our way back to our cabins one night. The camp provided and required us to use escorts when walking around camp after dark.

Here is one of the many groups hippos we saw. It was early morning - 6am - he wasn't the only one yawning!

Look at this cutie pie money and her baby holding on underneath.

The elephants were amazing, but of course we LOVED the babies. We learned that the elephants often cause havoc in the villages - especially the mama elephants. They are very aggressive about protecting their babies. They knock people down with their trunks them trample them. They also destroy property and eat wood that villagers use for heating and cooking.

This is the second pride of elephants we saw on the second drive we took into the park. Our guide said it is so unusual to see two different prides on one drive. It was raining during this drive, so we almost didn't go, but our guide said the animals like to hang out by the road when it is wet. He was right - we saw tons of animals right by our truck.

These birds are in the stork family - saddle faced storks. They have a bright yellow saddle shape on their faces. This is a male - you can tell by the bright yellow iris of his eye.

Look how close the other truck in our group was to this lion - the head of the pride. Again, we could never have gotten this close if the lions hadn't just chowed down on that giraffe.

Pictures from safari

Impalas – our guide calls these fast food for lions and leopards – see those M’s on their butts? The golden arches are everywhere!

This is a hyena. Our guide said it is really unusual to see these sitting out in the rain in the morning like we did. Ina would be happy to see the beautiful speckles.


This is what was left of a giraffe that after a pride of 8 lions had their way with it for 24 hours. I have some amazing video of the lions eatting the giraffe, but the internet is too slow to load video.

Here is one of the lions going for seconds - or thirds! By the time we came accross the pride, they were in food coma - they barely blinked when our trucks drove in. We were able to get within a few feet of the lions because they were so full and lazy.

We saw tons of beautiful Zebras. We learned that all Zebras have a unique pattern of stripes. Mother Zebras have their babies on isolation and nurse them in isolation for a week so that their babies can learn their stripe pattern.

Thoughts about home stay...

Home stay in the village was amazing. As the married couple of the group, they chose us to stay with the chief and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Lomos. Within 10 minutes of arriving and introductions, the men went one way and the women the other. I sat and talked with the women about their children and duties in the village. The women were the wives of the chief’s 7 sons. I helped them sweep the dirt between their hut structures. I would never have thought about sweeping dirt, but they really work to keep their areas clean. I also helped the chief’s wife cook nsima. She had a separate hut for cooking. She starts a fire each night and then takes a burning coal to each of her son’s wives for their cooking. Stirring nsima is HARD work! And the women touch the hot pots with their bare hands. Some of the kids were looking at my hands one day at camp and said that I must not work because my hands are so soft. After seeing the kind of work these women did, the work I do seems like a breeze!

We sat in their hut while they ate their nsima with cooked pumpkin and okra leaf relish. We gave the family a 10kg bag of nsima flour some towels for bathing, t-shirts, and some granola bars for the kids. Mrs. Lomas cooks for her husband and her 3 unmarried sons. They all eat together each night. One of their sons spoke enough English for us to converse for about 2 hours. Then Mrs. Lomas insisted on heating water (yes, over a fire) for us to have to wash. We washed our faces (oh, and she also insisted on getting us each our own fresh water). Then we braved the dark walk to the toilet hut. This was a brick sided version of the hole-in-the-ground we use at camp. Using it in the dark was a totally different experience. I was practicing a lot of deep breathing and mind control (there were 3 inch long cock roaches everywhere…and I had to squat over them… you get the picture.) Then Mrs. Lomos showed us our room – this was the room in the hut where she and Mr. Lomos sleep. There was a nice grass mat on the dirt floor and tobacco and onions drying over our heads. We thought we would sleep in the main room where they ate on a grass mat, but they insisted we take their room.

This got me thinking…. How many of us would open our homes to a group of Malawians we didn’t know and then offer them our master bedroom? These people have so little materially compared to us, yet they are so generous. They live simply. They work very hard. They laugh often. They live with or near their families, They truly understand and live the idea of community. It isn’t an idea to them. It is such a part of them, that I imagine it would be hard for us to even have a discussion about it. We have such material and financial wealth compared to them, but at what cost? It makes me think of the ways we have sacrificed other (more sustain?) kinds of wealth in the process. Are their ways to have both, or is it an either or equation. This is so similar to the questions I debated after my time in Ecuador. They looked to the US with such hope and envy, yet I looked at their lifestyles (family, community, culture, tradition) with longing and a sense of how we have sacrificed that for what we have that they covet.