Petit annonce お知らせ

来月の13日のフライトでカナダに帰ります！！やった～！14日の夜にKLMのシャトルバスでオタワに到着する予定です。みんなに会えるのがすごく楽しみ。この先3週間気が遠くなるほど忙しいけど、頑張ります。

Leaving Malawi on the 13th next month. I will be back in Ottawa at night of 14th by the KLM shuttle bus. I can't wait to see you!

Japanese style vacation

決死のラフティングを生き延びた後は、今回の旅の目玉であるビクトリアの滝の見学へ！ビクトリアの滝はザンビアとジンバブエの国境に位置しているのでどちらの国からも見られます。ナイアガラと同じですね。私たちはザンビアの国立公園から見ました。絶景でとても感激。これは残念ながら文章や写真では伝えきれないです。雨季中なので水量も多く水しぶきでびしょぬれ。滝は高さも幅も半端じゃなく、世界のseven natural wonder に数えられるだけあると思います。滝の周りが整備されてるとはいえ,自然な感じなのも良かった。見ての通り、霧の乙女号なぞはないです（笑）念のために言っておくと、ラフティングしたのはこの滝じゃないですよ。機会があればまた行きたいと思います。

翌日はサファリへ。規模の小さい野生動物保護地区で、宿泊先でツアーを組んでもらいました。遭遇した動物はエンパラと呼ばれる鹿の一種、キリン、ザンビアでここにしかいないというサイ等。象は残念ながらこの時期はなぜか隣接しているアンゴラに行っているらしく不在。（クリスマス休暇で遊びに行ってるの？？）どうしても行きたかったボツワナのチョービ国立公園のサファリに、手違いで行けなかった代わりだったので、ガッカリだったけど、これはこれで楽しめました。

リビングストーンの最終日は早起きして乗馬に行ってきました。アフリカのブッシュを馬に乗って回るのはなかなか良い気持ちでした。一緒に行った友人が初心者だったのであまりスピードが出せなかったけど、ラフティングで10年分のスリルを味わった後はそれで充分。

お昼前へルサカに向けて出発。正に日本式の休暇の楽しみ方。アクティビィティー満載で、充分に寝る時間も満足になく次から次へのスタイル。人生1回切りだし。でもさすがに滝の上のバンジージャンプだけはどんなに頼まれても絶対やりません！！

After surviving the near death experience of rafting, we went to see the very highlight of the trip, the world famous Victoria Falls!! The Vic Falls is situated between Zambia and Zimbabwe and can be seen from two countries just like the Niagara Falls. We saw from the side of Zambia’s National Park. It was spectacular, phenomenal, amazing. How can I describe it by mere words!! Even the photos wouldn’t do justice. The volume of water was high, since it was in the middle of rainy season. We got soaking wet with the mist. The height and width are not comparable to other ones that I have seen. No wonder that it is considered to be 7 Natural Wonders of the world. The setting is pretty natural and un-touched. As you can see, there is no such thing as the Maiden of Mist Boat J Just to let you know, this is not where I rafted…. I would like to go visit again if I have a chance.

The following day was Safari. It was a small-scale wildlife reserve, and the lodge organized a tour for us. Animals that we saw are impalas, giraffes, baboons, monkeys, white rhinos and warthogs. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see elephants this time. Apparently, they went to Angola. (Is it because they are on the Christmas vacation or what??) I really wanted to go to the Chobi National Park in Botswana, but it was not possible. So, this was an alternative and I enjoyed it nevertheless.

On the last day in Livingstone, we got up early to go horseback riding. It was nice to go around African outback (?) on a horse. One of my friends was a beginner and we couldn’t go faster. However, after experiencing 10 years worth of thrill during the rafting, it sufficed, I shall say.

We left for Lusaka before noon. This is really a Japanese style vacation. So many activities, got barely enough sleep every night, go-go-go style. But, what matters is you live once and want to experience all!! But, I will never ever bungee jump over the Falls!

Trip to Zambia

I realized that I haven’t written about my Zambia trip. I have already sent you some photos with the New Year greeting e-mail, but I will share some more with you.

Our travel itinerary was that we spend one night in Lusaka, and then move to Livingstone (where the Victoria Falls is situated.) We spend a few more nights in Lusaka on the way back.

We left Lilongwe very early in the morning when it was still dark. It took us more than 10 hours to get to Lusaka. When we were getting closer to Lusaka, we kept screaming with excitement. Civilization!! “Look at the three-story apartment building! Look at the decent looking mini-buses! They are all painted in a same color! Oh they have proper bus stops! Pedestrian bridges!!” The highlight was a shopping mall. They even have the Subway sandwich place!! In a large supermarket in the mall, I got overwhelmed by the number of selections. I guess I really got used to the “country life” in Lilongwe… Would I be able to adjust back to Canada once again? I wonder…

We spent a night in Lusaka, and the following day we left for Livingstone. We stayed in a nice lodge along the Zambezi River. We did a sunset boat cruise, all you can drink with a light meal. We enjoyed the scenery. Saw monkeys and hippos etc.

This is when my evil roommate talked me into doing the white water rafting in the Zambezi. I will tell you the story in person. I really thought I was going to die. Was as bad as my experience at the Great Wall in China.. I have DVD and photos and they are great!

**Just realized that I can change the setting to allow anyone to comment. So please leave some comments! 誰でもコメント残せるように設定を変えられるのを今気が付きました．．．。コメントしてもらえると嬉しいです。

ザンビア旅行

(English version will follow later…)

忙しくて年末のザンビア旅行のことを書いていないことに気が付いた。今週は急に途切れたように仕事が暇なので忘れる前に書いてみたいです。

ガイアナではあんなに頻繁に書いていたのに、しかも英語と日本語で。マラウイ生活は忙しいのとバタバタしてるのであんまり書けなかったのが残念。

年賀状メールで皆には写真を何枚か既に送ったけど、他の写真をお見せします。

ザンビア旅行はリロングェから車2台で行きました。メンバーは私とヘレン、イギリス人とベトナム人の夫婦と教育省の友達のパキスタン系イギリス人の女の子ともう一人男の子、ザンビア人の女の子（ルサカまでだけ）と総勢7人。

首都のルサカでまず1泊して、それからビクトリアの滝のあるリビングストーンで3泊、でルサカに戻ってまた3泊の旅程でした。

朝の暗いうちにリロングェを出発し、10時間以上かかってルサカに到着。ルサカに近づくにつれて私達は歓声上げっぱなし。なぜかというとすごい！文明がある！あー3階建てのアパートがある！ミニバスが全部同じ色に塗られている！（しかも窓ガラス全部ある！）ちゃんとしたバス停がある！陸橋がある！極め付きはショッピングモールを見たとき。サブウェイサンドイッチ屋さんがある！！
と正に興奮しっぱなしでした。モールの中の大きいスーパーに行った時は品数の多さに圧倒され、本屋、CD屋などが立ち並ぶ中キョロキョロとおのぼりさん状態。首都と言っても田舎のリロングェに慣れた私は本当に田舎者になってしまった気分でした。あーカナダの生活にまた順応できるか心配．．．．。 こういうカナダや日本じゃ当たり前の物がないのに半年ですっかり慣れたみたい。

ルサカに1泊し、翌日リビングストーンへ移動。宿泊先はザンベジ川のほとりのロッジでシャレー型のきれいなところでした。その日の晩は小さいボートでザンベジ川の日没クルーズお酒のみ放題の軽食付き。ジントニックで良い感じに酔っ払ってカバを見たり岸辺の猿を見たりして楽しみました。

そこでヘレンの魔の罠にかかり次の日にラフティングに行くことを承諾させられてしまったのです。

ラフティングの話は今度会った時に直接話します！中国の万里の長城ぶりのすごい経験で本当に死ぬかと思ったよ。ビデオも写真もあるのでお楽しみに！！

続く．．．

Continuous from the previous story… 前回の話の続き

This is what happened….

The morning after when I realized my backpack was stolen, some police officers came to interrogate our house staff. Helen and I went to work feeling quite anxious. When I came home late from work that day, Helen said to me “your stuff was found.” I couldn’t believe it. She told me the following story:

While we were at work, a cousin of our housekeeper happened to be visiting his daughter. The housekeeper told him about the burglary, and then his cousin went “oh I saw a guy selling a black laptop in a marker today in the village. I know he works for a security company.” They waited for Helen to come home and then brought her along to a police station. Police and the two men went to find this guy in the village and met him on his way to work (our house) for the night. He was interrogated, confessed and told where he was hiding the stolen items. It was an extremely lucky series of events for me to have my things back. Apparently the guard took it when the other one was sleeping and hid it in a tree. He was arrested and prosecuted in a court.

He was sobbing when the judge read his sentence, and I also felt like crying. Theft and particularly burglary are serious offence, and he got three years of imprisonment. There is absolutely no excuse for stealing. However, this guy gets paid so little despite how much we pay to the security company. He didn’t even know that this was a laptop, letting alone finding a good market to sell it. He has four kids and his wife is expecting another one.

I felt somehow partly responsible for this. I felt guilty that he is poor, that I have so much compared to what he has and that this severe equality exists in the society and a world that I do not have much control over. It just felt wrong, and this is one of the aspects of living here that I don’t like. It’s great that we have people working for us, but I will never get used to the idea and would rather not do this.

The other side of this incidence was that I got to experience the judicial system in Malawi. I gave a statement to the police, went to the court and almost had to testify (didn’t happen after all.) I used to do a volunteer work in Canada to accompany victims of domestic violence to a court. Now I can understand a fraction of how scary and traumatic it is to face your offender. It was extremely uncomfortable for me to see the guy.