In April, Nathan and I took advantage of several national holidays by going on a two week road trip to Southern Tanzania, Northern Malawi, and a tiny portion of Zambia.  It was not an easy trip, but that’s not what we wanted.

Infamous road to the top – 1.5 hours, 15 km (9 miles)

Dar es Salaam is unlike any other city in Tanzania.  One of Nathan’s colleagues referred to it as the ‘market’ – the place you go to do business but not to live.  We are fortunate to have access here to good health services, grocery stores filled with imported goods, generators, and running water.  This makes it a bit of an alternate reality compared to the rural areas of Tanzania where about 70% of the population lives.  The purpose of this road trip was to revisit some favorite rural areas, explore new ones, and remind ourselves of the reason we moved here in the first place.

Let’s start with the good.  This part of the world is beautiful – from the Southern Highlands and Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, to Malawi’s Vipya Plateau and Lake Malawi, and to the Luangwa River in Zambia.  We covered over 2,000 miles and never got tired of a sight because our view constantly changed – dry baobab valleys, misty hills covered in tea bushes and banana, sunrises on still, crystal-clear Lake Malawi.  Large wildlife is just as amazing as you would expect, but the birds steal the show and even Nathan became more interested in birding with me during the trip.  As Tanzanian residents and Southerners, we also feel very welcomed when traveling in this region because people know we consider this our second home and like that we are friendly (I habitually smile at every person I’ve ever met in my life I think).  Everyone we met was so curious to hear about our lives in Dar, the big city they may never have the opportunity to see.

We traveled at the lowest tourist season of the year and this meant that we shared the campgrounds and lodges primarily with other residents from all three countries (expats mostly).  Some worked in tourism and conservation, some worked with Christian-based NGO’s, others worked at international schools, or managed ranches.  There is this strange, instant connection residents have and it seems like we can all talk forever about water shortages, power cuts, corrupt police, road quality, or the price of imported deodorant.  I really enjoyed meeting so many other people with similar stories and learning how and why they also live in this area.  A British lodge manager who has been in Malawi for 20+ years said he had once heard that there are three kinds of foreigners who come to Africa long-term: mercenaries, missionaries, and misfits.  He said he had been each one separately at some point, but eventually to succeed and be happy at the same time you must become a mix of all three.

This small part of our conversation leads me to now discuss the challenging portions of our road trip.  But first, enjoy some pictures!

That is not smoke on the water – it’s swarms of midges!

Relaxing in the Udzungwa Mountains after driving one of the worst roads in Tanzania

Always exciting to see a shongololo

Church in Livingstonia, Malawi – can you spot Livingstone?

Reunion with Dixon in Nkhata Bay, Malawi

That is not an ocean – it’s Lake Malawi

The exact spot Nathan proposed in 2009 – Lake Malawi

Hiking in Oregon, oops I mean Northern Malawi

Roads = huge sidewalks in Malawi

The road to Livingstonia is absolutely worth it…

Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia are all extremely poor.  Many roads are terrible.  You cannot drink any tap water.  Corruption within government is bad.  There is little food in Malawi because of the droughts this year.  Malawi is also where Nathan likely contracted Malaria.  Sometimes living in Dar with loads of modern staples, we (Nathan and I) forget that we were born into privilege simply because we were born in the US.  I have asked myself hundreds of times since traveling to places like East Africa, ‘Why me?’ and ‘What can I do to help?’.  These are loaded questions that I cannot answer.  This road trip made me think about them though almost constantly, because locals also asked us similar questions.  At the 30+ traffic cop stops and border crossings, we were asked several times for a gift (maybe a pen, tea money, my iPhone).  Going for a walk anywhere means someone will talk to you and want to know how you are going to help them (they want to go to secondary school, a family member is in the hospital, they haven’t eaten today).

It can be draining to always think about your own value in the world, especially on a trip where you also want to relax.  This is not to say we did not have an amazing time (see the safari pictures below!), but the more we travel the more we realize that the world is huge yet somehow tiny, and time is short.  What can two average people from the South do?  Are we mercenaries, missionaries, or misfits?  Perhaps we are a mix of all three, I’m not sure, but I do know that we currently love living here and each ‘helping’ in our own, small ways (including being tourists on a road trip!).

South Luangwa NP, Zambia – one of the few parks in this region allowing night drives (they only shine lights on animals for a moment)

First time seeing Rothschild’s giraffe

First time seeing a lion in a tree

First time seeing Crawshay’s zebra

First time seeing puku

First time seeing oxpeckers peck there!

Watching hippos from camp on the Luangwa River – one later came about 10 feet from our tent and sprayed poo everywhere

NERD ALERT:  Zambia is sometimes called ‘The Real Africa’ and Malawi ‘The Warm Heart of Africa.’  I have never heard of a nickname for Tanzania 😦