Dispatch 1: A great send-off from Lesedi Cultural Village
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The UAM 2010 Expedition send-off from Lesedi Cultural Village on World Malaria Day is a great success. Volunteers had arrived the night before from all over South Africa, including a team from Australia.
Still in Southern Mozambique, it’s Day 3 of the expedition and the volunteers start the day with the distribution of long lasting PermaNets to all the mums at Tsoveka Village.
The Expedition takes the pot-holed scarred road to the Buzi River floodplain. Malaria is rife here and only few of the people at Dombe Village have mosquito nets.
Greetings from Malawi. Expedition members Ross and Anna Holgate are safely down the mountain. Not only did they carry a UAM banner to Mt Mulanje’s Sapitwa summit, highest point in Central Africa, but also a soccer ball and vuvuzela, so making malaria prevention history.
Greetings from Chembe Village where we are joined by 16 Nando’s volunteers from South Africa and Australia. The Chembe community day includes malaria prevention education, net distribution, a UAM football challenge and art competition – a wonderful success.
At Chinteche on Lake Malawi we give out life saving nets to the orphanage, the little school for the deaf, and the local hospital. Singing and smiles, and goodwill messages in the expedition scroll. It’s great to be back in the warm heart of Africa.
Mpulungu on the Southern tip of Lake Tanganyika – Africa’s largest and deepest lake. There’s a UAM football challenge, rap artists, a band, sound system and stage. The crowd roars in delight as a dancing clown dresses up as a pregnant mum so as to get a mosquito net.
We head for Sumbuwanga in Tanzania – it’s a rutted red road to hell. This is a real test for the convoy of Disco 4’s and it’s nearly midnight by the time we roll into the town of Sumbuwanga where we find a bed and a meal.
There’s a travel warning advising travellers not to visit Burundi. There is a concern about pre-election violence. We are warned not under any circumstances to travel after dark.
We’re into Burundi, no hassles with customs and immigration. Ross’ voice comes over the radio: “Remember to drive on the right hand side of the road, and careful, there seem to be a lot of action ahead.”
The humidity is as thick as golden syrup – with the Vestergaard team we find ourselves at the Sisters of Mother Theresa Orphanage at Kajaga, close to where the Rusizi River flows into the North of Lake Tanganyika – malaria is rife here, the situation is tough, the cries of the babies, kids that have been dumped on the side of the road or found in banana plantations.
Dispatch 14: Source of the Nile & football with the President
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Michel Mob, the PermaNet agent who is supplying the UAM Expedition with long lasting insecticide treated bednets in Burundi, gives us the exciting news – the Burundian President, Pierre Nkurunziza (who is a keen footballer), has heard of our expedition’s objective to use the energy of the World Cup to Unite Against Malaria. He will meet us at a small field in Bujumbura on the shore of Lake Tanganyika – we must be there at 4pm sharp.
After having completed our UAM work in Burundi it’s now time to head into the Rusizi Delta by boat with armed rangers, trying to spot the killer crocodile called Gustav. It’s rumoured that he has killed over a hundred people and plenty of livestock.
Rwandan customs and immigration are friendly and welcoming. No litter, Rwanda must be the cleanest country in Africa. Once a month, all Rwandans help clean up the country, even government ministers get involved.
Lesley Sutton from Land Rover and a group of UAM expedition volunteers fly into Kigali to meet us. Clean and safe, bustling Kigali is a great post-genocide success story, although once again we’re saddened by the visit to the Gisosi genocide museum where more than 250,000 victims lie buried.
We arrive at Ruhengeri in Rwanda, the start point for our trek into the Volcanoes National Park, home of the last remaining mountain gorillas in the world.
With the malaria prevention work in Rwanda now behind us, the 2010 UAM Expedition, now travelling by boat, has reached the Kasinga Channel that links Lake George to Lake Edward in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth Park.
Two days later and once again we get the news by satellite phone, this time whilst travelling by boat to the Ngamba chimpanzee island sanctuary near Entebbe on Lake Victoria. “Cut the engine!” shouts Mashozi. “Congratulations,” I hear Anna shout over the phone to Ross.
Dispatch 21 A journey to summit the Mountains of the Moon
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Part of expedition life are the colourful stories that unfold – this one, over a few Renoster Coffees around a hardwood fire in the Serengeti is told by Seven Summiter Mike Nixon who with Andre Bredenkamp and Ross Holgate have just succeeded in summiting the Rwenzori’s, famed Mountains of the Moon.
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