by Christian Dalton（杜思台）
As I approached my adult years I had an opportunity to go to live and work in a third world African country, Malawi. Besides seeing true poverty on a daily basis, I also witnessed, first hand, myriads of animals in the African natural Kingdom. My time working and living there was an amazing life-changing experience.
Malawi is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It sits above Zimbabwe, east of Botswana, west of Mozambique and below Tanzania. The country is characterized by a very large lake which runs along its eastern border with Mozambique. Malawi is a small country which is extremely long and thin; therefore, it would take almost a day to travel from its southern tip to the northern end. Being situated right in the tropics means Malawi is an incredibly hot country as well as a poor one, and nobody I knew had an air conditioner. I went to Malawi because my father moved there. My father is a civil engineer and often took contracts in developing countries. In Malawi his job was to build a dam to supply the surrounding countryside with water and power. The surrounding countryside was incredibly flat and dry: typical African semi-desert, open and dusty with the occasional baobab trees. Our village, however, was a lot better for what was around us. The dam was situated on top of a mountain, and our house was on the nice cool (cooler...) slopes of the mountain. Africa is a dangerous place, and our house compound was fenced all around; furthermore, we had a staff of seven men for our family of three! This included a 24-hour security, a gardener and his father, and our in-house servants. The mountain and the slope up to it were covered in lovely, cool forest where I spent many holidays hiking. Although our village was covered with thick trees, it is still heavily populated with villagers, woodcutters and farmers, so it was not here that I witnessed African wildlife.
Near to our village, on those big dusty plains, was a National Park. This particular park happened to be the richest park in Malawi for African wildlife because of the German funded anti-poaching unit which was stationed there. Therefore, while all the other parks were being hunted out, this one was still rich in animal lives. The South African manager of the unit, an ex-military man, was a friend of my father, and my father arranged me to work a few months at the park to help and gain work experience. Life at the park was hard. We awoke before dawn and spent the day doing necessary tasks around the park: repairing fences, taking the anti-poaching soldiers out into the field or other general maintenance. Other than a lunch and rest during the hottest time of the day, we usually stayed out in the bush until past nightfall. The house didn't have power or running water, and we started a petrol generator every evening for some light during dinner time. Most evenings I didn’t even miss the TV because I fell right asleep after dinner! There was one week when we noticed a funny taste coming from the drinking water (which came from a tank and was subsequently boiled). We drank the water for a few days, and the taste and weird smell became worse and worse. After investigation by one of the staff, we found a dead lizard about the size of a small cat, which had died in the water tank. We were alive and healthy, so we did not need to worry about it once we took it out. The most enjoyable thing I did was driving the 4x4 jeep through the sandy roads in the park. Doing errands to camps at the other side of the park or taking the soldiers on their patrols or raids was a real challenge for a 4x4. After a few weeks at the park I contracted malaria. I knew exactly when I was bitten because we were in the marsh, cutting grass to feed the buffalos. Although we were doing this at sunset, I forgot to put on insect repellant. Needless to say, what followed was the absolute worst week of my life. Although I felt like I would die any minute, I didn't have a bad case and there were no complications.
Towards the end of my stay at the game park, the South African Parks Board (being the worldwide authority on animal capture and transport) was doing a huge capture and release program involving our anti-poaching unit. Animals were being shot with tranquillizer darts in other Malawian Parks with less anti-poaching protection. They were then transported by trucks to our park in which the authorities could protect them in much better ways. Assisting with this project was an incredible opportunity for me to be up close to the animals. I saw and helped release zebras, buffaloes and all different kinds of bucks. One advantage of being on the staff was that I wasn't restricted to a car. I was free to walk around on foot and witness hippos, elephants and baboons (which used to frolic in front of our house at sunset). The sunsets were also amazing in their own right. There are no words I can use to describe the feeling of watching the sunset over a backdrop of African grassland where hippos and bucks are grazing.My time in Malawi went by so quickly, but it included so many great and sometimes quite scary experiences. I have always planned to go back one day; however, as my life goes on, it looks more and more impossible, and even if I did, it would never be the same again. I learnt a great deal about myself, other people, and the natural world from my time in Malawi.
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