On Tuesday, July 27th all the activities we’ve been doing – building and children—were suspended for the day while the First Team closed out our two weeks by celebrating with a safari day!

The safari is over an hour away in Liwonde National Park. We started the day very early—having to finish breakfast by 5:45am—so we could head down the bumpy roads to the Passion Center to pick up the leaders and a 30+ passenger bus. We used both the bus and one of our rented Pajero SUVs to bring everyone to the park.

The passenger bus, by the way, was pretty dirty and beat up. I dare say that if such a bus existed in the USA it would be written off, destroyed, and a new one put in its place, but not in Malawi—there it had another couple hundred thousand miles before retirement!

Once at the park we began the first of three different events of the trip—the land safari. This includes the long drive, over an hour, to the park lodge. During this drive you are traveling through the heart of the land and can encounter wild animals at any turn, but unfortunately, we rarely did. We did see some warthogs, baboons, waterbuck, and impala during the ride, but mostly we saw trees, brush, elephant dung piles, and dirt!

Once we arrived at the lodge we all sat down in the open-air lobby, relaxed a bit, and were treated to a glass of soda. We walked around the lodge area, the small gift shop and the lodge grounds while we waited for our turn on the second event—the water safari.

A park rep shared with us that the entire park is set up that the land is for the animals first, as he said, “We are in their backyard,” so we were not to disturb any wildlife that may wander onto the lodge yard. Around the yard and along the large lake there were various cottages and bungalows that people can rent for an adventurous place to stay some weekend—if you’re not afraid of crocodiles!

We ended up taking three different boats to accommodate our large safari group of Ohio and California team members and some of the Passion Center staff. Each boat had slightly different experiences, but according to the park ranger, we were all fortunate to have seen all we did during the two hour boat ride.

In the boat I rode we saw baboons, many warthogs, and many varieties of birds. Our guide said we would likely see hippos and crocs, but was unsure about elephants. In fact we saw three different groups of elephants!

We saw one group of elephants that were in the bush and had several baby elephants. The next group had seven or eight elephants, some on land and others in the water, even play fighting. Our guide brought us very close and encouraged us to be quiet and enjoy the sight! The final group of elephants was on a small hill just outside the water area. They were busy washing and drinking the water with those long trunks.

The hippos and the crocodiles were all over—sometimes in water showing just their eyes and nostrils, sometimes in shallow water, showing most of their bodies, and sometimes they were on land near the beach area. Both were intimidating since they moved quickly and were very powerful.

Our group met up with one mega-crocodile on the beach, and our guide slowly brought us up close and personal! Right when we were ready for pictures the croc jumped up and quickly brought himself into the water – scaring everyone on board! Obviously he was just shy, but another boat encountered some crocs that were not so shy, as they were caught mating! Their guide told them that that was only his second time to witness such a thing since he started working there.

We also saw illegal fisherman—risking their lives to fish in a croc, hippo, and elephant infested water—not to mention many snakes.

Finally, we all sat down in the open-air restaurant and ate a great buffet of chicken, potatoes, and vegetables—sound familiar team?!! Afterward we headed back on the same path we used to come into the park. Again, we did not see much wildlife, but some did catch a quick glimpse of an elephant in the brush.

When we arrived back at the main lodge we all went in for our dinner and began the group tradition of sharing at least one positive comment about each team member. This was an incredible opportunity to share what we saw in each other over the past two weeks of living with each other – what a great opportunity—but it did take over three hours, so we were ready for bed, preparing for our journey home.

To bring you up to date, the group known as Team 1—those who participated in the trip during the two weeks of the later half of July—headed home Wednesday morning, July 28th. The five team members staying the full trip remained for a few days of R&R, and will soon be visited by Team 2—those members visiting the first half of August.

—Joe