Flatdogs is a beautiful campsite and we pitched our tent up in the trees (they have wooden platforms) and spent our days doing laundry, sitting by the pool watching hippos in the river and doing game drives. But I'll write more about that later as we have another game drive tomorrow.
After much deliberation we decided to spend a night in a traditional village. We were a bit worried that this would be incredibly touristy, but wanted to see more of Africa than just animals. It was about a 40 minute drive away mostly over a dirt track that passed by numerous villages and crossed a couple of rivers (we saw a tractor get stuck at one of these crossings). Eventually we reached the village of Kasawa where we were greeted by the head teacher at the school.
The school has 804 students who come from approximately 250 villages in the area. The children attend school in batches as there are not enough teachers for all the children at once, so the children will attend school in the morning and then in the afternoon do sport or clean up the town or learn how to work in the fields. This is despite the fact that the school is better off than most due to the tourism project they run. The government only pays for 14 teachers, and the income from tourism pays for another 9. They also use the money to buy books, equipment and generally improve facilities. For this reason we were told everyone in the area is always very happy to see 'mzungus' as by visiting we are helping all 250 villages.
As soon as we were taken on a walk through some of the villages we realised how true this was. People were calling out to say hello and asking our guide 'Raphael' if they could meet us. We also had a line of children walking behind us who loved having their photos taken. The villages have no electricity or running water or much in the way of possessions but we were both struck by how genuinely happy everyone was. The children spent hours playing with old bike wheels, balls made out of plastic bags or just dancing away.
One of the highlights was meeting a traditional healer. She was very sick when she was a child and was told that this was because she was possessed and wanted to be a healer. After this she got better. She goes into a trance whilst reading the bible and is possessed by a spirit out of Eden, who is able to tell the person standing before her what is wrong. After this she is able to prescribe medication based on information given to her by the spirit in her dreams. It was fascinating to hear her talk, although as she had a toothache we were not able to stand before her. She did give Jason something that from the description is African viagra, whilst I was given the female version. She then proceeded to tell us that we must stay together till we die before sending us on our way.
In the evening we were treated to traditional dancing and singing. This was beautiful to watch and we were thoroughly entertained as within minutes of the drums starting a crowd had started to form. People from all the surrounding villages came running and children wore strips of chitembe fabric tied in the same manner of the dances and as the evening wore on they would emulate the dancers and join in the middle of the stage. Both Jason and I were invited to dance during the dance to celebrate a girl becoming a women (Jason wishing he could have done a different dance), but I think the children outshone us all. It was loud, bright and colourful and impossible to put into words but we couldn't keep the smiles off our faces.
Whilst we were there we attempted a few words in the local language, although every attempt was met with laughter. I attempted to cook Nshima (the local staple) although it was like trying to stir concrete after it's set. We also spoke to Orbi's mother who is blind but still cultivates her field and looks after her house. (Orbi was one of the guys who set up the project originally).
All in all this was an absolute highlight of the trip so far.
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