Visit of the lemurs
13.08.2012
Everything is going well here in Leopard Bay Malawi and in these last weeks we have seen the arrival of Philipp and now Valentina. The children are very excited to see these new faces and are following them around where ever they go.
We have also spotted some more permanent guests living in our roof at the Friendly Gecko Malawi! After Moses telling me that he had spotted some sort of creature that was about the size of our puppies, it had a really long tale and a kind of pointy nose (and it may have killed our chicken)…. running from the roof across the back yard and up our mango trees It had baffled me as to what it could be. But sure enough a few nights later I was sitting at the door to the cottage when it appeared. A beautiful big Lemur and not just one. In the few days that have passed I have seen more than a few sneaking out for the night of foraging. And no they don’t eat chickens good try Moses 🙂 Apparently they live in packs of 20-30 so they could be very interesting house guests!
At the moment we are looking for boat for the guest house. Considering we are 20 steps from the water’s edge it would be silly for us not to have one! This will be great for the volunteers and I am sure the children will get a lot of enjoyment jumping from it when it is moored out the front of Friendly Gecko. I bought one from the beach the other day but apparently it wasn’t quite up to scratch… Hopefully we will come across one soon.
The weather has been great for fishing the past few days so the village is full of fish. People have them drying on their roves, In their yard hanging of the side mirror of their cars anywhere they can fit them. It can be a little smelly if the wind picks up but the vibe is great as the people are making some money. The fisherman still use these wooden dug out boats which look fantastic but so heavy and unsteady not to mention usually have great holes that are then stuffed with plastic bags to keep the water out. Fantastic to look at but I certainly wouldn’t want to go out in one. They fish by putting a hurricane lamp in the water and then net the fish that come to feed of the insects that are attracted to the light. Very clever but not so good for the reproduction of larger fish.
With the kind donation from past volunteer BiBi Vari Galetly and Barrier Reef Linen we were able to buy some bongo drums, The first instruments for our new music program! Its very exciting to see what comes out of this as all of the children have such natural rhythm and dance. We will keep you posted soon with photos.
Zikomo Bibi Vari and Barrier Reef Linen!
Big warm greetings from the warm heart of Africa!
Erin Straford
