A long trail...

My next to last day at Grace Farm was a Sunday. They do not do the same work on Sunday as other days and so Keith (Bronwyn's husband) and I joined up with five others who work at a nearby Research base and went for a mountain bush hike. We hired a night watchman who was known to be a hiking guide. We started around 6:45 for a "morning" hike of about 5 miles. It turned into an all day 18 mile hike. I had put three granola bars in my pocket and carried my Nalgene for refreshment for Keith, Carolyn (peace corp girl) and myself. Needless to say that was not enough calories and H2O to get us 18 miles. Some of the others came better prepared as they knew how long the trip was. There was much sharing of food, for which I was enthusiastically grateful. We also ran out of water and drank from a spring. Looking back now I wonder at my courage to drink out of a spring in the African bush, risking the introduction of a mirad of protentialy infectious organisms into my body--but I stayed healthy by the grace of God. If you have ever been really, really thirsty you'll understand my throwing my normally overactive germ phobia to the winds and gladly gulping the spring water captured through the undergrowth on the ground.

Our group included one German engineer (in black/white t-shirt), one American Peace Corp Volunteer (in orange fleece), one French engineer (in peach top), one Afrikaans missionary (in kacki shirt), one African bush guide (in blue shirt), one British Engineer (not shown) and me.
Here we sit and rest on one of the intact fort walls overlooking Malawi.


Our hike took us to the top of a mountain where the ruins of an old British military base is. Malawi was occupied by
the British and they built this imposing fort on the top of this mountain to give themselves the greatest advantage against rebels. Many of the structures are still intact and fascinating to explore. It was inside one that I disturbed the large cat which made a growling noise as it suddenly leapt a wall and instantly vanished into the tall grasses.

There was a beautiful view of Malawi and even across the border into Mozambique.



Our guide showed us recently dropped elephant dung, but alas we saw only flattened grasses, broken limbs and lots and lots of the dung, none of the great animals that day. I did see a large cat, which I stirred up while exploring the ruins. My glimpse was too short to identify its species, but the others told me it was probably a leapard which are common around there. I saw hundreds of baboons. They are quite a nuisance on the Farm, stealing the crops and digging up newly planted seeds. They hire people to hang around the fields just to scare away the baboons.


Pay attention to how God is afoot in the mystery of each moment, in its mad rush or maddening plod. He is present in both. Unknown

Far out on the trail we met this man, possibly a fur trader. Our guide visited with him for a few minutes. He kept glancing at my legs and I felt very self-conscious for him and myself. I wore pants only one time while in Malawi and it was for the purpose of protecting my legs from the bush on the hike. You may remember from an earlier post that the only women who wear pants in the bush are the prostitutes. I don't believe that this man, clearly a backwoodsman, understood that my wearing pants had nothing to do with my occupation, but to do with my culture. I was grateful for the protection of that pants that day, but much more comfortable that night to get back into a skirt.