Elephants, Elephants Everywhere!

Our two-day safari to Liwonde National Park was beyond words! The camp was humble. Patti and I had a tent that was on a stand up in a tree, and the students slept in a dormitory that looked like a large hut. We settled our things into our sleeping spaces and quickly jumped in the jeep for an afternoon game drive. The air was crisp and the bright sun was only beginning to fade. Within minutes, we spotted twenty-six elephants in one setting! We did a second game drive the next day and saw even more -- and up close! Elephants are such majestic creatures. I could watch them all day. Several of them had little ones who were nursing, and it was just precious. They were very protective of their babies, and quickly put them all in the middle of a circle they made around the little ones. We also saw multitudes of slim and sleek impalas, furry water bucks with white ring markings on their behinds, and kudu. We also did a boat safari, where we saw hippos all along the river. They look like large pigs and sound like them too, but with deeper squeals. We saw two crocodiles and MORE elephants! In all my trips to Malawi, this was the best year yet for elephants! On the day we left, we went on a morning walk at 6am to watch the sunrise and learn about the plants, trees and insects in Malawi. We saw termite mounds taller than us, trees that have various medicinal features and colorful flowers. The entire experience was breathtaking. The last night we were there, we climbed up in a tree stand and looked up into the black night sky, which was illuminated by millions of bright, twinkling stars. We could even see the Milky Way. All this, in perfect silence, with only the night sounds of nature filling the background; hippos grunting, crickets chirping, and birds cooing. It was truly what I imagine heaven to be like and feel like. Being in the wilderness of Malawi always makes me think of the verse in Genesis, "God saw all He had made, and it was good."