Only a woman??

Following a tour of Tanzania and Zanzibar, I have now arrived in Malawi. As lovely as it is there is one thing I have found hard to accept while I have been in Africa.......The low status of a woman.....To quote "As a woman you as less important to a Masai than a cow."

I have always prided myself on being one of a long line of strong women, my mum rules the house and as kids she was the disciplinarian, the financial expert, the one who organises all the small things and she is given respect for it.

As a western woman I have always been treated as an equal, I am not lesser than a man, I can do anything i want, have any job I chose, have children if I chose or not.....Here your role is to have a child and look after your husband and be satifised with that. I have seen the behaviour of my tour guide having affairs with his western clients and then trying to justifiy his behaviour as ok because he is "Freelancing" despite being married but being unable to accept that a western woman can "freelance" as well if she choses.

Maybe I am finding it hard to accept another culture and only looking at it through the eyes of a western professional woman, maybe I should not be so resistant to other ideas?.......The women are so friendly and happy here.......Maybe I have no right to make judements on another culture??

Tourist Genesis....

So I although I have been enjoying my trip and have seen some amazing things..... There has been one thing that have managed to astound me over all others.........The stupid things tourists say......

Its 5am, we are all on a walking safari, the sun is rising over the Queen Elizabeth National Park and Zebra are running on the horizon......Suddenly someone spots a footprint.....A big and fat one.....We had spent all the previous day looking and photographing hippos....."Is it a hippo?" someone asks the guide..... Before he can answer, someone shouts "Is it a bear?????" Hmm, I'm pretty sure there are no bears here.....
The following day we are on a game drive and see our first giraffe.....Eating grass. Then we see Wilder beast....Eating grass. Then we finding some Zebra, we position ourselves, cameras at the ready....As we observe them unsuprisingly eating grass someone asks "What do Zeeeebra eat?" Genesis!

I decided to do a balloon safari over the Serengeti....Amazing! We watched the african sunrise and the colours spread out before us. As the the balloon flies higher and higher someone asks "Would we die if we fell from this height??"

Rwanda

So I have reached Rwanda "The land of a thousand views" and it is so right! We have been to the Genocide Memorial which was very moving.....It is strange to think everyone I meet who was alive in 1994 has experienced something so terrible and yet they still smile and are so friendly (especially to women) I have noticed some of the houses still have the red cross on the walls of their homes which indicated it was the home of a Tutsi.......Apparently it is how taboo to talk about it now but the memorial with its mass graves are now used to educate people.

We have been to see the Gorilla's today AMAZING! The best thing I have ever done! Even though I trekked for an hour and a half....I have some amazing pictures but the internet here is so slow so I can't upload them yet! boo!


Being eaten alive by the mozzies, so I went into a the pharmacy to get some cream but they only speak french here so after a misunderstanding about Malaria medication......I stuck my bare leg on his desk brandished my 30 mozzie bites on my ankle.....And the cream appeared!! Its amazing what a girl can get if she flashes a bit on leg! lol!