{"id":555,"date":"2002-11-27T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-11-27T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/2002\/11\/27\/guten-morgenby-michael-from-the-us-currently-travelling-with-his-wife-sali-in-africa\/"},"modified":"2020-01-07T06:55:05","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T06:55:05","slug":"guten-morgenby-michael-from-the-us-currently-travelling-with-his-wife-sali-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/guten-morgenby-michael-from-the-us-currently-travelling-with-his-wife-sali-in-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Guten Morgen\nby Michael from the US, currently travelling with his wife Sali, in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Its been, I believe, more than two months since I last sent an email of
\nsubstance about our trip. My eyes have been filled with so many sights and my
\nhead filled with so many thoughts that my pen hand has been frozen, like a boy
\nwho has taken too big a bite of an apple, whose jaw is stuck clenched around
\nit.<\/p>\n

Whereas the first few months of our trip can be described as nomadic and
\narduous, the last several weeks have been marked by the slowness of time and
\nseeming randomness of events. However undirected our travels initially
\nappeared, they were, in fact, pretty direct. We travelled northwards through
\nSouth Africa, straight into and through Zimbabwe, meandered around Zambia and
\nthen entered Malawi. Look on a map and you'll see that it's pretty
\nstraightforward. But everything changed once we hit Malawi. We were tired. No,
\nlet me rephrase that. We were haggard. Months of spartan, itinerant living had
\ntaken its toll. We reached beyond the breaking point days before when we got
\nstuck driving across a river purportedly infested by crocs and hippos. Forced
\nto set up camp, we spent that night alone in the bush among the animals of the
\nwild.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, we were towed out the next day. We are not, and never will be,
\nthe same. Thus, we looked upon passive little Malawi, known alternately as the
\n“Warm Heart of Africa” and “Africa Light”, as the cure to
\nour ills. We welcomed with pleasure the conveniences of Blantyre, Malawi's
\nlargest commercial city, and the soothing atmosphere of Doogles, Southern
\nAfrica's hippest backpacker lodge and Blantyre's coolest pub. Like
\nCheers, everyone knows your name and they're always glad you came. With
\ntracks of David Gray (our new favourite crooner) playing in the background and
\ngood food served all day, our frayed nerves slowly eased.<\/p>\n

The list of characters flowing in and out of Doogles runs long: there was a
\nmerry band of travellers calling themselves “Hot Rocks” in the midst
\nof a 3-year expedition circumambulating the globe in a enhanced Mad Max-style
\ntruck from England (check out their site at ;
\nthere was a British couple riding their BMW motorcycle (the ride was so smooth,
\nclaimed the husband, that his wife could read when sitting behind him) around
\nthe world, financed by rental payments received for the use of their home;
\nthere was the lycra-clad professional journeyman on a continuing mission to
\ncircle the earth by motorbike who likened himself to James Bond, carried little
\nother than albums containing clippings from travel magazines depicting his
\nlife's work, and never tired of describing his latest blaze through the
\npre-truce Congo (days after I last saw him, I caught the tail end of a Travel
\nChannel episode telling his tales); there was the lanky used car salesman born
\nand raised in Blantyre who showed up every night for beers and conversation;
\nthere was the British med student who came alone but quickly found company;
\nthere was the reunion with Maria and Oliver, a German couple with whom we
\nformed a quick and comfortable friendship days earlier in Zambia – they beat us
\nin Pictionary \ud83d\ude41 – there was a British jack-of-all-trades who rolled in to
\nDoogles with three 18-wheelers and stacks of used tires, all shipped over from
\nEngland and ready for sale to any interested buyer; there were Swiss
\ntravellers, Dutch, Irish and Israeli, French travellers, Aussie, American and
\nKiwi, just to name a few, checking in and out, dining by the pool and quaffing
\nbeers in the moonlight; and, of course, there were Souli and Servanne, two of
\nmy favourite travellers and half of our meandering quartet.<\/p>\n

Travelling is as much a skill as it is an art and Servanne ranks among the
\nbest travellers I've encountered. Always upbeat, forever a team player, she
\nhas an unquenchable thirst for the sights and sounds penetrating the world. A
\nFrenchwoman, she also speaks English, a smattering of German, Spanish, and
\nnumerous esoteric languages that she has picked up from travelling in, out,
\nthrough and around the world's most unique places. At about 5'1″
\nand 103 pounds (just a guess), she may be, pound for pound, the world's
\nstrongest traveller, and, I can assure you, the most energetic.<\/p>\n

Souli, short for Souliman, is a Lebanese-born German dentist who is the
\noldest of ten children. When we met him, he was stuck in Blantyre waiting for a
\nparcel containing a headlamp to make it through Malawi's lethargic postal
\nsystem. This guy was finishing up a nearly 14-month bicycle journey from
\nGermany to South Africa (check out his website at www.radflimmern.de<\/a>). Why, with less than two
\nmonths left on his trip, did he suddenly need the headlamp? I never could
\nunderstand it–something about needing it while he rode through the bush in
\nBotswana–but it kept him hanging around, so that was good enough for me.<\/p>\n

For me, Souli was a breath of fresh air. As a German, he proudly rooted for
\nthe plucky U.S. soccer team when the two countries faced each other in the
\nWorld Cup. Germany advanced, so he cheered wildly for the heavily outmatched
\nSouth Koreans in the semi-finals. Why root against his countrymen? Those soccer
\nstars were too cocky, he told me. Souli's soft-spoken affability combined
\nwith a limited attention span for all things outside the domain of his interest
\nleft me continuously in stitches. To dismiss someone as a nuisance while making
\nhim feel good about it is a skill the guy has mastered. I don't mean to
\nsound callous, but in Africa locals approach foreigners for various reasons.
\nThese encounters are precious to all travellers, but they also tend to be
\ndraining. Souli had a knack for pleasantly nipping those unpleasurable
\nencounters in the bud. Perhaps most of all, I was fascinated by his physically
\nchallenging and mentally gruelling trip that brought him, ever so slowly, out
\nof Europe, through the Middle East and across Africa. Along the way, he
\nre-established family ties in the country of his birthplace, found spiritual
\nrejuvenation in the kindness of strangers and dealt with uncommon frustrations
\nlike flat tires in the Sudanese desert and rocks thrown by children in certain
\nlocales.<\/p>\n

The four of us–Servanne, Sali, Souli and I–made a good team. Sali and
\nServanne enjoyed conversing in French, pondering things European and talking of
\nliterature. Souli and I shared an interest in poorly played Chess and laughter
\nat life's trifling events. After a few days together at Doogles, we set out
\non a camping trip in Malawi's Shire Valley. Uninterested at the time in
\nanything touristy, we pitched our tents in a dry riverbed on the outskirts of a
\nsimple village. We spent three days cooking, sunning, laughing and interacting
\nwith locals in what were very ordinary conditions–lots of sun, no electricity,
\na borehole providing freshwater one kilometre away, villagers with small plots
\nof land that produced a variety of vegetables, a population rapidly diminishing
\nin numbers due to the onset of AIDS.<\/p>\n

After the camping trip, we headed back to Doogles. Eventually, Servanne
\nhopped on a bus to Mozambique, Souli cycled off to Zimbabwe and Sali and I set
\nout for a hike through Malawi's Mulanje Mountains. We anticipated a 4-5 day
\ntrip where we would move from lodge to lodge each day, but the daily hikes were
\nlong and tiring and we were poorly prepared, not bringing enough food and
\nfailing to hire a porter to assist in the portage of food and supplies. After
\ntwo days, we found ourselves in a gorgeous spot and too tired to enjoy it.
\nThat's when we met James and Hannah, lovebirds soon to be wed, who kindly
\nleft us some of their food as they headed down the mountain and invited us to
\nstay with them once we returned. We decided to spend the next three nights in
\nthe same mountain hut, enjoying its tranquillity and scenic beauty, and then
\ntook a more direct route back to James' and Hannah's three days
\nlater.<\/p>\n

The next couple of weeks are a blur. All I can remember is breakfasts on
\ntheir veranda, long stretches of time spent reading, midday naps, fantastic
\nmeals, thoughtful conversations with our hosts, evening laughter and a
\nrekindled relationship with television. James and Hannah opened their home to
\nus and we just couldn't get enough. In fact, it soon dawned on us that the
\nexpatriate lifestyle (he's from the U.K., she's from British Columbia)
\nin Malawi was not half-bad. As fate would have it, the stunning home next to
\nthem had just become vacant. With four bedrooms, two solariums, a swimming
\npool, stables and beautifully landscaped grounds, this house was nestled in the
\nfoothills of mountains, bounded by a nature preserve on one side and James and
\nHannah on the other.<\/p>\n

What could we do in Malawi, we wondered. We floated our resumes around town,
\nmeeting several respected lawyers including the head of Malawi's bar
\nassociation, leaders of their nascent stock market, foreign consultants and
\nbankers, the police department's chief of criminal affairs (it's a long
\nstory) and the dean of one of the country's two law schools. After rubbing
\nshoulders with these bigwigs, we became stuck on the idea of teaching at the
\nlaw school. Encouraged by the dean to seek outside funding–he expressed
\ninterest in our services but lacked the funding to pay for them—we met
\nwith several development agencies funded by the British and U.S. governments in
\npursuit of a backer. We wrote letters, shook hands, issued pitches and
\nsubmitted proposals. Sadly, the well of funds was dry. The mighty New Yorkers
\nhad struck out.<\/p>\n

During our tireless fundraising campaign, we sought refuge in the crystal
\nclear waters of Lake Malawi on two occasions. Here, the beauty and challenges
\nof African life struck me more clearly than anywhere else on our trip. Warmed
\nby the majesty of the lake's undeveloped serenity and the unbridled decency
\nof its surrounding community, I nonetheless felt weighted down by the pressures
\nof village existence–unceasing poverty in the face of an outpouring of tourist
\nwealth; in the wake of the AIDS pandemic, too few elders caring for too many
\nchildren; the youthful desire for fun in the sun against the practical need to
\nearn and save; the inescapable fact that villagers rarely leave the at once
\ninviting and confining land on which their parents', their parents'
\nparents and their parents before them were conceived and reared, on which they
\nfounded their families and on which they expired.<\/p>\n

Smarting from the burn of rejection, our hearts began to wander back home.
\nLiz, Sali's blue-blooded high school friend, was engaged to wed Niels, a
\nGerman gentleman living in D.C., at the end of August in Virginia. Jean, my
\nformer French neighbour in New York, was engaged to wed Caireen, a feisty
\nAustralian, in the middle of September in the French Riviera. We checked our
\nbudget, realized we couldn't afford trips to these far-off places, and then
\ndecided to go anyway. We bought round-trip tickets to the States with stopovers
\nin London and connecting puddle-jumper flights to Nice, and we were off.<\/p>\n

We spent practically every moment of our time back home soaking up the love
\nand attention of our respective families, catching up on everyone's life,
\ntelling stories of our own, and fattening up on tasty home cookin'. In a
\ncertain twist of fate, Liz and Niels were married in a country French chateau
\nnestled in a small Virginia town among their closest friends and family, while
\nJean and Caireen paired themselves amidst the glitz and glamour suitable to
\nHollywood's elite. While guests at the Brinton-Kusserow merger engaged in
\nthoughtful, intimate conversations with the bride and groom and dined among a
\nchoice group of guests, attendees at the Bourlot-Shanahan extravaganza rocked
\nthe night away under the stars of Beaulieu Sur Mer.<\/p>\n

And that, my dear friends and family, is nearly all there is to tell. There
\nwas our 3-night escapade through Mozambique and our continuing education on
\nDavid Livingstone, the Scottish missionary who introduced much of Southern
\nAfrica to the European world while campaigning against slavery with every step
\n(see www.nationalgeographic.com\/features\/97\/lantern\/),
\nthere is the sociologist\/filmmaker who is tending to our car while putting the
\nfinishing touches on his documentary of Malawian street children, there was a
\nweek secluded in the Italian Alps following the French wedding (and the
\n4-train, 10-hour trip it took to get there), our inability to meet up with our
\nSlovenian friends in Venice, the long journey by rail to meet Liz and Niels in
\nKoblenz (Niels whisked his beautiful bride back to his motherland after the
\nwedding), our recent lesson on German beer and sausages and our grand
\nopportunity to sample Niels' famed plum cake (deeeelicous), but there
\nisn't time for all that. In a few days we will have a reunion with Maria
\nand Oliver and in a few weeks we'll be back in Africa steadily collecting
\nstories for the next briefing. Until then, be well.<\/p>\n

Wed in September 2001, Sali and Michael left their jobs as New York lawyers
\nsix months later and flew to Cape Town to begin a one-year travelling
\nexpedition. Without much of an itinerary, they bought a car in Cape Town and
\nhave been slowly working their way north through Africa, spending time in South
\nAfrica, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and, currently, Tanzania. Always
\neager to swap travel tips, Sali and Michael would be pleased to hear from any
\ntravel enthusiasts and can be reached via email at mrakower@hotmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/div>\n
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Its been, I believe, more than two months since I last sent an email of substance about our trip. 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